Zambion offers user-friendly, feature packed web-based roster software that is easy to use and fully integrated with all key areas such as timesheets, leave management, HRM and of course payroll. Using drag-and-drop or your keyboard, rosters can be quickly built and modified. Zambion rosters have an easy look and feel so moving from Excel based rosters to Zambion is a quick and easy journey. What’s more, one of the key benefits of Zambion Rosters is its real-time rule validation, which means any of your roster rules which have been violated (for example staff working more than their maximum hours) will instantly be displayed. Further benefits such as being able to apply roster blackouts during busy periods and the ability to add roster counters are just some of the reasons why Zambion Rosters continue to be one of the most widely used tools.
ROSTER SOFTWARE FEATURES AT A GLANCE
ZAMBION ROSTERS
If you are currently using Microsoft Excel as your roster software tool then you will find Zambion Rosters easy to use as it has a similar look and feel. Furthermore Zambion Rosters improve the user experience by utilising technologies such as Drag / Drop and SmartDrag for quick roster creation and management. Our customers love Zambion Rosters because it is fast, has multiple weeks viewable on a single page, can be colour coded, viewed via their mobile phones, easily exported to Microsoft Excel and much more. Leave is clearly marked and public holidays are highlighted and named.
ROSTER COSTING
In conjunction with Zambion’s Advanced Employee Entitlement engine, rosters are able to be costed in “real-time”. When budget information is entered, variance percentages can then compare roster costs with budget information. This allows managers to build rosters to a certain percentage of budget and if combined with our “smart” roster software tools such as skill and demand based rostering, Zambion can automatically build the most cost effective roster whilst still maintaining appropriate skill levels. Combining these with actual payroll costs management means that detailed reports that compare budgets against rosters against actual payroll costs can be produced. This is one of the key advantages of having an integrated People Management Solution.
ROSTERS AND LEAVE MANAGEMENT
All leave is clearly marked on the roster and is colour coded appropriately. Once leave is approved the roster is locked and cannot be changed unless the leave is cancelled via the Leave Cancellation Process. Additionally, booked leave is taken into account when "smart" roster software tools such as staff finder, skill based, or demand based rostering are used. Whatsmore, when leave is approved the staff member's existing shift can be freed up and re-assigned so shifts are always accounted for and covered.
STAFF FINDER
When building rosters a key focus for most Roster Administrators is to fill the shift with staff who have the appropriate skill set. In this situation, Zambion has an excellent Staff Finder Tool. Open shifts (i.e. shifts that are not currently assigned to a staff member) are gathered and displayed in this tool. Next, the Roster Administrator simply enters the number of staff to offer the shift. Zambion then returns a list of staff that have the desired skill set, the cost of that person to do the shift (optional), along with their mobile phone numbers. A SMS Text Message is then sent to the selected staff offering them the shift. Staff then reply with either Y or N to accept or decline the shift respectively. If more than one person accepts the same shift, Zambion will automatically assign the shift to the first person who responded yes and will notify the unsuccessful people that the shift has already been filled. Once the shift has been accepted the roster is then automatically updated with the staff member’s details. It is that simple! Zambion can also be configured to make shift offerings visible on the “Staff Kiosk” (if of course that staff member has the appropriate skills). This method then allows staff to "self roster" reducing the time and cost of Roster Administrators organising staff.
BASE ROSTERS
Base Rosters are normally a simple pattern that is applied automatically and continually repeats over a rolling 52 week period or until a user specified date is reached. This forms a “base” where the Roster Administrator can then tune the roster by placing the staff member of leave, applying shift-swap, or changing shift times. This is an effective way to quickly set up and manage shifts for staff.
ROSTERING SHIFT SWAPS
From time to time staff may request their shifts to be swapped with their work colleagues. Depending on your company’s policy, Zambion can easily facilitate this using two methods. Firstly, staff, via their Employee Kiosk, can use the Shift Swap bulletin board to request shift changes. Then other staff using the Shift Swap bulletin board can then agree to the swap. Once both staff members have “agreed” to the swap, managers have the final approval to either approve or deny the swap. Staff are informed of the change via email or via the Communicating Roster Changes facility if enabled. Zambion will visibly mark the shifts in the roster along with verbose comments of when the shift was swapped, who the shift was swapped with, the original shift information and who approved the swap.
ROSTER SHIFT PATTERNS
Zambion has a powerful Shift Pattern Planner tool that allows roster administrators to create anything from simple patterns through to complex overlaid patterns. Zambion offers two types of shift pattern methods; Horizontal and Vertical, which can be easily combined if required. Simple 4 on 4 off, 6 on 3 off, or 5 on 2 off and so on roster patterns can be easily built and applied. Furthermore, Zambion has the intelligence to apply shift patterns around booked leave to maintain the rosters integrity.
ROSTERS AND TIMESHEETS
A common option with customers who do not use time clocks is to default timesheets to use the rostered times. This means that only exceptions that differ from the roster need to be entered into the timesheet. If time clocks are used then Zambion will display a variance column if staff work over or under their rostered hours so you can easily see at a glance what variances have occurred. Furthermore, reports such as Roster vs Time Sheet can be used to spot exceptions.
ROSTER SECURITY
In addition to using industry standard Secure Full Strength SSL encryption, unpublished rosters, budgets and roster costings can only be seen and accessed by roster administrators and management staff. You also have the option of limiting staff so they can see their roster only, or they can be permitted to view the whole department’s roster as well if required. Booked leave and approved timesheet related rosters are locked and cannot be modified unless the leave is cancelled or the timesheet reviewed. Rosters that are in closed payroll periods are marked as read-only and cannot be modified at all.
COMMUNICATING ROSTER CHANGES
Zambion offers three methods for automatically communicating roster changes to staff; SMS, Email, and the Zambion App. This is an optional feature that can be easily turned on or off if required. Roster communication is automatic in Zambion which means that changes to published rosters will be communicated to staff showing their new roster, including what was changed, compared to their existing roster. Note: There are additional charges for using the SMS roster communication facility whereas Email, and the Zambion App are free.
ROSTER REPORTING
As Zambion is an integrated solution, numerous reports can be produced that combine the various areas of Zambion such as Timesheets, Payroll Software, HRM, and of course Rostering. Reports that are commonly used by our customers include Roster vs Actual, Roster vs Budget, Attendance reports, Roster Costing and so on. Additionally, these reports can be collated by cost centre, department, branch, region, country or company.
SKILL BASED ROSTERING
Skilled Base Rostering is an automated way of populating a roster based on the skill level and availability of the staff against the roles required. In short, each staff member is ranked by the various skills as defined by your roster administrator (i.e. supervisor skills, first aid qualifications and so on). Then using the staff finder tool, Zambion matches the staff skill sets against the roster requirements, taking into account staff availability (i.e. staff on booked leave are ignored) and other factors to automatically build the roster. If desired, Roster Administrators can then manually tune the roster before publishing it.
Additional functionality available to Roster Administors include:
