Understanding your people—their strengths, preferences, and energy—makes all the difference when building schedules that work. The goal isn’t just coverage; it’s putting people where they can thrive.

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The Challenge

Scheduling in a fast-paced environment means finding the right balance between efficiency and engagement.
You want the right people in the right roles at the right times—but you also want to keep things varied enough to prevent burnout.

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The Approach

When I first started, I kept it simple.
I pinned a sheet on the whiteboard and asked each associate to put their name in one of four boxes:

• Picking
• Dispensing
• Half & Half
• Don’t Care

I made it clear these were preferences, not guarantees, but it gave me a quick visual snapshot of where people naturally performed best—and what they enjoyed.

People tend to work better when they enjoy what they’re doing.

From there, I built a simple Excel tool to help design the backroom board and manage coverage.
It accounted for:

• Lunches and peak hours
• Forecasted picking demand
• Scheduled clock-ins and clock-outs

This let me match people’s tasks to the forecast in real time, and even schedule lunches so coverage stayed consistent through busy periods.

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Takeaways