Modern working time management starts here
Use our checklist to assess your current processes–and unlock potential in flexibility, transparency, and employee engagement.
Can your employees request shifts or vacation flexibly—from anywhere, at any time? Do they have real-time access to their time accounts? Are approvals fast, seamless, and mobile-ready? These are the hallmarks of a modern time management strategy. Our practical checklist helps you evaluate where you stand—and where your organization can gain efficiency, agility, and employee satisfaction.
How actively do you involve your employees in working time management?
Modern working environments are undergoing a fundamental shift across all industries. Employees are crucial success factors. Digitalization, Industry 4.0, and dynamic market conditions make fast and flexible planning processes indispensable. At the same time, rising demands for better work-life balance and record-high absenteeism across Germany underline the urgent need to integrate employees into time management processes.
Top-down planning and rigid working time models are increasingly incompatible with volatile markets. Modern and dynamic industries require an agile, motivated workforce. Involving employees in working time design and taking their preferences into account plays a central role. A professional workforce management solution supports effective implementation.
The growing shortage of skilled workers and fluctuating workloads make it essential to manage employees flexibly and across departments. At the same time, attractive working time models and a balanced work-life setup are key to sustainable workforce engagement.
The consequences of poor employee integration
Cumbersome HR processes
Managing employee data is complex and time-consuming. HR departments often lack the capacity to focus on value-creating activities because they’re tied up in administration. If processes like vacation requests or overtime tracking are still handled via paper forms, Excel spreadsheets, or outdated software, HR cannot position itself as an efficient business partner. Strategic workforce development suffers. There’s a need to relieve HR by automating routine tasks—and to create transparency around time data.
Decline in work-life balance
If employees are expected to be flexible, they need flexible working conditions in return. Top-down planning without employee participation often has the opposite effect. A system that doesn’t allow for preferred shift schedules or digital shift swapping contradicts today’s demand for flexibility. As a result, work-life balance becomes hard to maintain. The outcome: lower employee satisfaction, declining employer appeal, and rising turnover risk.
Increase in sickness rates
The modern workplace is becoming more dynamic, and the pressure on employees continues to grow. Working hours are getting longer, recovery periods shorter. When employees are unable to influence their schedules, sickness rates increase over time. In 2017 alone, 668 million working days were lost in Germany due to illness—resulting in €136 billion in lost gross value added. Employees with no control over their work schedules are less productive and less resilient.
Reduced fairness and transparency
Those responsible for planning must align vacation and shift requests fairly and transparently. Planning fairness, clarity, and the ability to balance work and family life are essential—but cannot be achieved through simple spreadsheets. Subjective decisions increase. Personal factors like school holidays, childcare, or frequent weekend shifts further complicate planning. Manual processes also raise the risk that the same employees are repeatedly assigned to unpopular shifts. Over time, this damages morale, decreases motivation, and reduces job satisfaction.
What to focus on when integrating employees
How much potential is there in your company for better employee involvement in working time management? Use these questions to assess whether there’s room for improvement.
1. Transparency and self-service for employees
Do employees have real-time access to their working time accounts?
Can vacation requests be submitted anytime, from anywhere, via a digital tool?
Can employees specify multiple vacation preference options?
Can employees submit shift preferences?
Do employees have mobile access to time-related information via an app?
2. Digital processes and workflow support
Are approvals processed via electronic workflows?
Can managers approve or reject requests with a single click in a tool?
Are approved vacations automatically transferred into the time management system?
Are shift preferences submitted electronically?
Are all preferences and approved vacations visible in the planning tool?
Are employees and managers notified of pending tasks through the system?
3. Shift swapping and flexibility
Is there a digital platform for employees to swap shifts?
Does the system automatically check compliance with legal, collective, and company rules during swaps?
Are required qualifications automatically verified when shifts are swapped?
Are swapped shifts automatically updated in both the planning system and time records?
In the event of an absence, are shift offers made available via app or online tool?
1 Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA):https://www.baua.de/DE/Themen/Arbeitswelt-und-Arbeitsschutz-im-Wandel/Arbeitsweltberichterstattung/Kosten-der-AU/Kosten-der-Arbeitsunfaehigkeit_node.html