When it comes to keeping your employees happy and retaining them, flexible and predictable scheduling is quickly becoming a must for businesses, especially those that thrive on shift-based work. Consider the voluntary turnover rate among shift workers, which has reached 80% in the UK and the US, with an average turnover rate of 60% for part-time employees.
With today’s competitive labor market, your biggest retention driver is scheduling—making it more predictable and flexible isn’t a "nice-to-have" perk anymore, it’s essential.
When 42% of shift workers would leave companies without the option of flexible scheduling, and 53% of workers feel stressed over unpredictable schedules, your business needs to stay ahead of the curve with employee demands by giving them more control over how and when they work.
Let's look at how predictable, flexible scheduling can help you increase employee satisfaction and boost employee engagement in the workplace.
The real cost of employee turnover (and why flexible scheduling is a must)
Turnover happens fast, especially if you’re unprepared for changes in employee demand. It can also be costly to replace those employees:
The average cost of replacing hourly shift workers can be 16% of their annual salary.
Replacing restaurant workers can cost businesses upwards of $5,864 per front-line employee.
For healthcare workers, organizations can face costs up to $50,000 per worker.
Costs are even higher for industry-specific turnover. For example, Deputy analyzed over 271,000 workers and found turnover rates of 54% in retail, 51% in hospitality, and 43% in healthcare.
Flexible scheduling can improve employee satisfaction, but that’s not the only upside; when scheduling is more predictable and reliable, it can also help reduce turnover.
Mercy Urgent Care wanted to solve that exact challenge — reduce employee turnover, give their staff more flexibility, and free up their team from spending hours manually handling scheduling changes. With Deputy’s scheduling software, Mercy Urgent Care cut turnover by 50% while reducing monthly scheduling admin time by 75%. With flexible scheduling, organizations like Mercy Urgent Care see the impact of flexible shift management through the benefits of workplace culture and its impact on employee satisfaction.
Meeting your employees’ demands today to retain them tomorrow
The link between flexible scheduling and employee retention is clear: 40% of employees would take a pay cut for more control over their schedule.
Making your employees’ working lives more predictable by giving them the option to manage their schedules, or swap shifts when they need to, could just be the key to retaining them. You’re not just fostering happier employees, but developing effective strategies for employee retention.
85% of hourly workers say work schedules impact their job satisfaction.
73% say schedules affect their relationship with their manager.
53% feel stressed when they can't influence their schedule.
The good news is that a few proactive scheduling changes can help you meet these demands and retain happy employees.
5 ways you can transform your scheduling
Let’s walk through 5 ways you can make flexible scheduling a key advantage for your business.
1) Give your employees more predictability
If you’re drowning in constant shift changes or posting shifts at the last minute, your employees are feeling the strain, too. Like we mentioned earlier, many shift workers feel stressed when they don’t have control over their schedule, and creating a more predictable scheduling environment can help reduce that stress, while cutting down on time waste and frustration for everyone.
2) Make it easy for employees to swap shifts
Deputy's shift swapping feature lets your team trade shifts with just a few clicks. This allows employees to pick up extra shifts if they need to or cover one another’s shifts when things come up. Your team gets peace of mind that shifts are covered, while Deputy helps you navigate complex labor laws.
3) Let AI do the heavy lifting
Not knowing how your team’s needs change makes it difficult to schedule shifts at all.
Deputy's auto-scheduling feature uses AI to automatically create schedules that balance your business's needs with your employees’ preferences. By analyzing sales patterns, labor costs, and employee availability, auto-scheduling builds schedules that work for everyone. Given that 40% of shift workers would take pay cuts for more control over their schedule, intelligent scheduling will help you quickly pivot.
4) Master break planning and compliance
Missing breaks or overstaffing to cover them can quickly put you at risk of non-compliance (not to mention, some pretty serious fines) and also negatively impacts employee satisfaction and retention.
Deputy's break planning features help ensure your employees all get proper breaks while maintaining coverage and staying on top of labor laws. Messy break planning isn’t just a compliance concern, but can do more harm when trying to find ways to improve employee retention in the workplace.
5) Use data to make more informed scheduling decisions
When you know what’s happening in your business, you can better schedule your teams based on demand, labor changes, and more. It’s why businesses use Deputy's analytics features to get real-time insights into labor costs and productivity patterns. For example, if you have insights into which shifts consistently run over budget, or which employees are frequently swapping or dropping shifts, you can spot patterns that lead to employee dissatisfaction or turnover.
When 85% of hourly workers feel scheduling impacts their job satisfaction, having data to back up your scheduling decisions is critical.
How flexible scheduling benefits your whole business
Giving employees more control over their schedules has a ripple effect throughout your entire business.
Your company culture improves
When employees feel they have more control over their schedules, you’re nurturing a positive company culture that’s built on trust. 73% of hourly workers feel schedules affect their relationship with their manager, while more flexibility and control over scheduling can lead to 33% higher employee engagement rates.
Recruitment costs drop
It’s no secret that hiring, training, and retaining new employees can be costly. When 79% of workers feel their schedules impact how long they stay with an employer, flexible scheduling becomes a must. Meeting the demands of your employees today means you can save on hiring replacement talent and juggling lengthy recruitment processes tomorrow.
Your bottom line improves
Research shows that stores with more tenured, experienced, skilled customer-facing employees generate more revenue—better customer experiences, for example, can drive up to 10-15% more revenue. When your teams aren't constantly training new hires, covering extra shifts, and have control over predictable schedules, it makes a tangible difference across your business.
Getting on track with more flexible scheduling
It’s never too late to start putting strategies in place to boost employee retention by meeting the demands your teams have for more flexible scheduling. And to do that, you’ll need to start with a few key steps.
Look at your current scheduling and ask teams about their preferences
Implement high-impact changes (like shift swapping if you're handling last-minute coverage manually)
Scale what works across your business
Use data to help you determine which changes have the most impact
Say goodbye to turnover with flexible scheduling
Over 385,000 workplaces use Deputy's workforce management platform to help solve their scheduling challenges and keep their best people.
With Deputy, you give your team the scheduling flexibility they crave while keeping control of your business. It's not just about scheduling — it's about building a workplace and culture your employees stick by.
Try Deputy for free to see how flexible scheduling boosts employee retention, reduces turnover costs, and helps you build a happier workforce.
