“Viewpoint” is a new series of opinion posts from WorkSync that spotlight our take on the big ideas affecting today’s workforce and businesses.

Schedulers are the unsung heroes of so many American businesses. They work behind the scenes to keep organizations running, employees happy, and customers satisfied — but their jobs are far from easy.

Between building out calendars, assigning shifts, ensuring proper coverage, tracking overtime, and handling last-minute problems, the daily life of a scheduler can often resemble a chaotic game of catch-up. Because when it comes to the shift-based workplace, demands are always changing, as are workers’ availability and preferences, and the only thing you can truly count on is that the unexpected will happen.

This is why employers need to take a moment to think about what their scheduling managers may be dealing with. Simply letting schedulers fend for themselves day after day is a great recipe for frustration, burnout, and even turnover. So what can business leaders do to give those brave souls in charge of scheduling a helping hand?

Above all, they can provide them with the tools they need to succeed. And one of the most essential of these tools is a workforce management system with a dynamic, flexible scheduling component. Indeed, this technology can be a true game changer.

Intuitive software that helps automate the scheduling process saves managers an enormous amount of time and trouble. Instead of building a shift calendar from scratch again and again, now they can quickly replicate a template from one period to the next. And a user-friendly platform with instant notifications and alerts means that supervisors have a lot less information to keep straight on top of all their other responsibilities.

But the most important advantages of a digital solution are communication and collaboration. With real-time messaging among managers and employees, those inevitable last-minute changes no longer send schedulers into a panic. If a team member becomes unavailable and a shift needs to be covered on short notice, the software can quickly help find the right replacement — or even empower employees to swap shifts themselves. Then all the manager has left to do is approve the trade.

The benefits don’t stop there, but the point is clear: When we pause to put ourselves in our schedulers’ shoes, we realize just how many moving pieces they have to juggle and just how challenging their roles can be. So let’s step up to help them do their jobs to the best of their ability — and, of course, enhance our businesses in the process.

Let’s give them a technology-driven scheduling solution that works.

WorkSync offers leading workforce management solutions for your organization. Learn more and request a demo today at workSync.com.