Microsoft has announced the general availability of its StaffHub application for Office 365. The service give staff workers tools to manage workloads and their daily schedules. Along with schedule management, StaffHub also brings information sharing and integration with other applications and resources.
The company says there are over 500 million frontline staff in the world. Through hotels, retail stores, manufacturing, and restaurants, these employees are usually unconnected and without a computer or office. StaffHub is an app to give them the ability to connect and share information for the workday.
Microsoft explains that “far too often, these workers rely on manual processes and outdated tools—cumbersome creation and printing of paper schedules, bulletin boards crammed with notes and a flurry of phone calls and text messages to cover shifts. Microsoft StaffHub is here to help.”
One of the key features of the app is its ability to create in-depth schedules. Managers can create shift schedules and share them with a team. Microsoft says this has been a convoluted process in the past, but now it is easier. Employers can also update the schedules once they have been created.
Microsoft StaffHub makes it easy for managers to create, update and edit shift schedules for their team, streamlining what has been a labor-intensive process. For employees, the schedules allow them to see all shift information in one place. In this interface, they can swap shifts with colleagues within the mobile app.
Via the home screen of the app, users can see an overview of their upcoming shits and see who they will work with. The app also helps to resolve scheduling conflicts. Any requests to change the schedule goes straight to the manager and any decision can be sent back via the app.
Sharing through StaffHub
Aside from managing and sharing across schedules, the app also gives managers the ability share work information. For example, employers can send videos and news, documents, and messages. Support and integration with other apps is also important in StaffHub.
“We’re pleased to announce that StaffHub will support connections to Kronos, a leading provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions,” Microsoft points out, discussing on of the integrations. “Initially, this integration will enable managers to import individual and team schedule information from Kronos’s Workforce Central platform directly into Microsoft StaffHub.”