How To Choose the Best Training Scheduling Systems

Whether you are a Training Director a major chemical manufacturing company, or a Regulatory Affairs Manager at railroad company, the ability to schedule training is often a necessary and critical component in the success of any organization.  Whether it is focused on scheduling personnel, classrooms, devices or all of the above, the correct scheduling software can simplify your workload and create efficiencies for your company.  A good scheduling tool can replace all of those manual processes that create heavy workloads for your employees and eliminate the mistakes that are often part of the scheduling process.  The question becomes – how to evaluate and choose the best scheduling system for my company?

Fit For a Purpose

The first item to evaluate is, “does the software have the functionality to handle my specific needs?” Most scheduling systems are basic in nature and do not allow the user to define multiple scheduling criteria. A good scheduling system should include the ability to schedule a multitude of courses, devices, instructors and trainees (employees). This might include the ability to schedule trainees with specific instructors or the ability to define devices and classrooms according to exact company requirements, as well as define the parameters around the training devices such as the maximum amount of trainees in a specific room or what good is a scheduling system, if I cannot include all of my basic requirements.

Automation For Efficiency

Another question to ask is, “does this system have enough automated features that is actually decreases workload and makes me more efficient?”  Finding a scheduling system that can deliver automatic notifications when schedule changes are made is a great example. Can I quickly move schedule blocks for devices and trainees with ease? Does the system have ability to block out unavailable times to both personnel and devices such as classrooms?

Training Reports and Analytics

How about reporting and feedback?  An ideal scheduling system is one that can provide the user with multiple ways to report information contained in the schedule such as individual and instructor schedules as well as device schedules.  Another great reporting feature is the ability to measure utilization.  Instructor utilization can be very important to measure in terms of maximizing resources. Perhaps the company is growing and needs additional facilities or maybe the company under utilizing the existing availability.

Flexible Views and Filtering

Finally, a great scheduling system should have the ability to be filtered by the user and provide flexibility in how information viewed and accessed.  Some employees should have limited, read-only access while full administrators have full access to create and modify within the schedule.  Viewing criteria should be adjustable including amount of days in the display, the ability to look at specific courses, devices and trainees as well as an easy to read schedule that provides schedule information with limited interaction such as color coding and hovering ability.

Begin the process by determining your specific needs within your company and finding a solution that addresses those specific requirements. Having the right scheduling system for your organization can greatly enhance efficiency and provide your staff with time-saving tools to do their jobs more productively.