Page 10 - NSAA 2017 Fall Journal

Human Resources

EMPLOYEE SCHEDULING SOFTWARE

STREAMLINES AN EVER-CHANGING TASK

Managers and employees use technology for adequate staffing coverage

BY COLIN BANE

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WHILE MANY IN THE SKI industry have turned to 21 century smaller departments, a handwritten schedule drafted up
solutions for everything from season pass products to on a whiteboard. We were quickly finding we needed
on-mountain mobile apps, some managers are still running something more workable.”
with decidedly old-school and incredibly inefficient systems When Jenn Brandt, the resort’s lift operations manager,
for critical aspects of running the business, like planning and asked Troskey to have a look at When I Work—an employee
sharing staff schedules. scheduling software package that offers an online scheduler,
If your team is still building employee scheduling in an mobile apps, and a team messaging system—Troskey encour-
Excel spreadsheet or even by hand, it’s probably time to mod- aged her to try the free version of the software. It was an
ernize your system. New software is radically simplifying what immediate success, and the department promptly switched
used to be a complex, pains- over to a paid version of the
taking process for scheduling software that offered even
multiple employees to ensure “THE ABILITY TO MAKE ON-THE-FLY more scheduling efficiency
adequate coverage for ski area CHANGES TO A STAFFING SCHEDULE IS and flexibility.
operations. Here, we take a The online scheduling
look at two versions of them NOT AS SIMPLE AS LEANING OUT THE tools allow Brandt to quickly
that are making a big differ- MANAGER’S DOOR AND YELLING, ‘HEY, ensure that all lift opera-
ence at ski areas. WHO CAN WORK TOMORROW?’” tions positions are adequately
staffed by appropriately cer-
ith as many as 1,100 tified employees, while eas-
W employees on hand MATT TROSKEY, ily accommodating her
during the winter season, MT. HOOD MEADOWS. employees’ preferred sched-
Matt Troskey, vice presi- ules and time-off requests.
dent of administration at Mt. The mobile apps mean staff
Hood Meadows, Ore., is a big schedules are immediately
fan of employee scheduling software. accessible to employees from their personal devices, and the
“We have 140 lift operators, we’re open seven days a team messaging system empowers them to line up their own
week and five nights a week, and we’re staffed by a mix shift swaps with other employees.
of full-timers, part-timers, and seasonal employees— “This has given us a huge amount of flexibility to
all with varying levels of certification and licensure to help employees sort out that work-life balance for them-
operate different equipment at the ski area. So, the ability selves,” Troskey said. “When I think of the kinds of tasks
to really build or make on-the-fly changes to a staffing I want to see our managers focusing on—like training and
schedule is not as simple as leaning out the manager’s door developing their people, as opposed to managing people’s
and yelling, ‘Hey, who can work tomorrow?’” Troskey time and dealing with the never-ending schedule changes
said. “Until very recently, the status quo here was an people want—I know this has become a tremendous
Excel spreadsheet pinned to a bulletin board or, in some resource for us.”

8 | NSAA JOURNAL | FALL 2017