Creating Effective Work Schedules: Tips and Tools for Project Managers (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Today, we're talking about how to create a work schedule. Well, the truth is we use work schedules all the time, whether they're informal or formal. I have a schedule for my work. I know that I go to work Monday through Friday at specific hours of the day. If you think about the restaurant business, that's how they schedule their workers. Different utilities schedule their workers through shifts. So let's take a look at what a work schedule is composed of. So work schedule provides the days of the week, the time of the day that each person, whether they're an employee or contractor, is scheduled to work on a job. And in our case, it could be a project. So sometimes it's called a roster. So it has all the people listed and when they're due to work. It also can be associated with a shift, a season, a time period, or again, a project. So let's look at what one looks like. So here's what a project schedule can look like. And again, when we're creating one, we highly recommend using a template. That way, number one, it's easier, it's quicker, but it also helps to keep things consistent. So this is a weekly work schedule. So it's for the purpose of my project team. And I have the time period for a week. I'm tracking my team members' time for a week. So from April 10th to the 14th, and that's Monday through Friday. So if we look here, we have all the team members, Monday through Friday. And so it shows that Ann is scheduled Monday through Friday from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. And then Bob is scheduled Monday through Friday, 4 a.m. to 12 p.m. Kamar is scheduled from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. And then Mary is scheduled Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. So in this case, there are shifts and this ensures that I have all shifts covered and I know who's working when. But a challenge is today is some people still use paper or Excel to create and track their work schedule. But the problem is that the workers or your team can't access, easily access or access it at all to see what their schedules are. So a tip is to use an online software tool. It helps to make it easier for your team to access so that they can see their work schedule, see if there are any changes made, and it's also easier for you to update and share with your team members. So this is more about a work schedule, and if you need a tool that can help you with your work schedule, then sign up for our software now at ProjectManager.com.