What is employee scheduling?

Employee scheduling is the act of plotting employee work hours on a calendar to optimize coverage, maximize efficiency, prioritize employee well-being, and ensure compliance with labor laws.

How to do scheduling for employees?

To create schedules, cross reference each employee’s availability, current workload, and any specific preferences they’ve indicated. Since this is a lot of information to compile, the best way to schedule employees is to use employee scheduling tools. The best employee scheduling software allows you to plot schedules on a calendar, approve shift swaps and timesheets (https://hubstaff.com/employee-timesheet-software) , plan for PTO, and assess other general staffing needs from one concise location.

What are scheduling tools?

Scheduling tools are software applications that allow users to optimize the employee scheduling process by creating schedules, managing time-off requests, approving timesheets, and tracking attendance. These tools reduce manual work while optimizing productivity.

Is there an app that creates a schedule for you?

Yes. Tools like Hubstaff create recurring shift schedules based on insights into previous employee activity. To map out long-term schedules, you can create weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly recurring shifts. Some tools even leverage predictive scheduling techniques through AI to create optimal schedules.

Can employee scheduling software work for field-based or health care teams?

Yes. Hubstaff’s scheduling features enable you to standardize shift policies, generate compliant attendance alerts, and stay audit-ready across multiple worksites, locations, and departments.

Employee scheduling software for shift work across industries

Simplify employee scheduling with time and attendance data in Hubstaff. Create shifts, track attendance, and manage time off from one connected dashboard.

G2 Leader Summer 2026

No credit card required

Time tracking

Connect scheduled shifts with hours worked

Have users track time with the click of a button on the desktop, web, mobile, or tablet version of Hubstaff. Compare schedules with hours worked, attendance, and earnings from one dashboard to make better-informed scheduling decisions.

Hubstaff time tracking dashboard with weekly activity percentages, hours worked, and per-project time breakdowns

Productivity monitoring

Use productivity insights to plan coverage

Look beyond raw hours to understand how time is spent across teams. Review activity levels, app and URL usage, meeting time, unusual activity, and industry benchmarks to identify workload patterns and improve shift coverage. Use productivity monitoring to make more consistent shift-coverage decisions across multiple locations and time zones.

Hubstaff dashboard showing employee activity levels, hours worked, recent screenshots, daily limits, and weekly productivity metrics.

Scheduling

Create recurring schedules across teams

Use Hubstaff’s calendar-based scheduling to create and optimize shifts, then apply predictive scheduling techniques to set weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly recurring schedules. Coordinate field teams across multiple worksites or standardize on-call coverage across health care facilities.

Attendance

Respond to attendance changes sooner

Use Hubstaff’s attendance tracking features to manage leave, time off, and holidays. Receive alerts for late, missed, or abandoned shifts, adjust coverage in real time, and create attendance reports that support predictive scheduling and fair workweek compliance across locations.

Hubstaff shift attendance report showing employee status, scheduled shifts, start times, hours worked, and late arrivals.

Reporting

Turn workforce data into better schedules

Use 20+ reports to review hours worked, budgets, earnings, attendance, and productivity trends. Control labor costs, improve forecasting, and export reports for stakeholders. Use workforce analytics to compare staffing and coverage patterns across teams, departments, and locations..

Hubstaff payments report showing total team payments, daily payment trends, and per-member payment history

How Hubstaff’s employee scheduling software works

Built for complex organizations

Healthcare

Health care organizations can track time, optimize schedules and improve coverage for providers with Hubstaff. With a platform that is built for secure, regulated environments and HIPAA-compliant, you can operate with confidence.

Logistics & Transportation

With focused scheduling, can manage labor costs and workloads across dispatch operations, warehouses, distribution centers, and back-office teams. Hubstaff helps logistics and transportation teams efficiently track work hours on the move.

Field Services

Hubstaff offers mobile-first time tracking, GPS, and job scheduling to ensure your field-based teams can log time tracking data on the go. Accurately track worker time across shifts and use Hubstaff’s workforce analytics to optimize ongoing operations.

Zendesk

Track time spent on your assigned Zendesk tickets with Hubstaff.

See integration >

PayPal

Send payments to your team instantly and securely using Hubstaff’s seamless integration with PayPal.

See integration >

Asana

Track time to Asana projects and tasks for better project planning.

See integration >

QuickBooks

Export tracked time from Hubstaff to QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop.

See integration >

Deel

Easily streamline your global payroll by connecting Hubstaff with Deel for seamless contractor payments.

See integration >

Salesforce

Track time spent on your assigned Salesforce tasks after integrating with Hubstaff.

See integration >

Learn more about employee scheduling

Work schedule types

Check out our guide for different schedules you can implement today.

Explore work schedules

Predictive scheduling

Check out our guide to predictive scheduling for tips, tricks, and examples.

Explore predictive scheduling

Employee scheduling techniques

Explore our best employee scheduling techniques and tips.

Discover scheduling techniques

Scheduling issues

Discover some common scheduling issues and how to overcome them with the right tools and strategies.

See common scheduling issues

Flex work schedule

Learn more about flex schedules and explore the pros and cons in our guide.

Learn more about flex schedules

Dupont shift schedule

Try our detailed guide to master the Dupont method and streamline employee scheduling.

Try the Dupont schedule

cost savings by eliminating wasted tasks

10% - 25%
Project savings

25%
Cost reduction from bad hires

We work in a lot of different industries, so I can’t always know what’s a 45-minute task and what’s a four-hour task. With tools like Hubstaff, you can tell. You then decide if a whole project should’ve taken 16 hours or if someone is just not the right fit.Solomon ThimothyOneIMS President

faster project completion

Bookkeeping reduced from
1 week to 1-2 days

Over 100% ROI
By improving productivity and visibility

My people need to document their work so that I can have visibility into what they did during the day. Using Hubstaff reduces the meeting time I needed and gives me clarity into what was done and what wasn’t.Brian DordevicDirector of Strategic Planning

reduction in check-in meeting time

10% - 25%
Increase in activity level

100% confidence
In running a remote operation

Without Hubstaff, I wouldn’t be confident in running a remote business. We used the platform from the first day we opened the office in India, so I knew it would give me the insights and confidence to commit to remote working.Ross CrawfordManaging Director

4.6 out of 5 stars from 1,500 reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars from 1,500 reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars from 1,300 reviews

Frequently asked questions

Your questions, answered

To create schedules, cross reference each employee’s availability, current workload, and any specific preferences they’ve indicated. Since this is a lot of information to compile, the best way to schedule employees is to use employee scheduling tools.
The best employee scheduling software allows you to plot schedules on a calendar, approve shift swaps and timesheets, plan for PTO, and assess other general staffing needs from one concise location.

Try Hubstaff free for 14 days—no credit card required. Managing a larger or multi-location workforce? Book a personalized demo.

Try Hubstaff now

Book a demo

Employee scheduling software for shift work across industries

A breakdown of employee scheduling features

Connect scheduled shifts with hours worked