When you manage people, communication and paperwork are inevitable. Whether it’s scheduling, payroll, task management, or training, there are plenty of documents and conversations to keep track of.

Even if your team is small, you can't avoid people management, especially if you’re solely responsible for everyone.

That’s where Connecteam comes in handy. Thanks to its extensive suite of tools, you can get on top of paperwork, communicate day-to-day items to your staff, and prevent costly payroll errors—all in one place and without a background in HR.

Read on if you'd like to learn more about its top features.

Connecteam’s Time-Saving Features

Overall, you’re going to save ample time by having all your employee management tools in one software rather than jumping back and forth between dozens of apps.

When using Connecteam’s Operations hub, you no longer need to switch between excel, project management tools, emails, texts, paper documents, and anywhere else you find yourself sifting for details.

In addition to covering your software needs, you can also say goodbye to printed and handwritten timesheets—and the need to chase people for them.

In fact, Connecteam’s streamlined communication and workplace tools make items like scheduling, time logging, and task assignments crystal clear for everyone, meaning much less back-and-forth for all.

Here’s a quick walkthrough of the main features in Connecteam’s Operations hub that make overseeing and taking care of your team a breeze.

1. Employee Scheduling

Creating an employee schedule in Connecteam is as simple as entering details into a form. Alongside the name, date, start, and finish time fields, you can:

  • Assign multiple users to the same shift
  • Allow users to assign themselves to unclaimed shifts
  • Make shifts into reusable templates
  • Repeat recurring shifts

Once you hit Publish, Connecteam sends a notification to employees you've assigned, and they can check the details right in the app. You’ll no longer need to print or email schedules out, nor will anyone misplace vital information.

Screenshot of a scheduling tool in HR software

What's more, the Job scheduling tool offers several features to prevent conflicts:

  • Shift approval gives your team members the chance to approve or decline items on their schedule
  • Marking unavailability allows employees to let you know which dates and times they can't work
  • Setting limitations puts restrictions in place to prevent over-and-under scheduling shifts

To prevent the need to edit your schedule once you publish it, you can use the Job scheduling tools combined with Connecteam’s time request feature. Each time an employee submits a time request, you'll find it under Pending Requests in the Time Clock interface.

2. Quick Task Management

In addition to creating a detailed schedule, you can assign Shift tasks to each time block so your employees can tackle schedule-specific assignments.

If you want to reach out to clarify these, or someone gets stuck, the Shift activity tab offers a chat window between you and the employees you've assigned to the shift.

Connecteam also offers a Quick Tasks tool to eliminate you having to text or email assignments to individuals. Set a task up once, assign the relevant employees, and everyone is automatically in the loop. Getting started is easy, and here you can get detailed with dates, times, descriptions, and subtasks for extra context.

Essentially, you'll have all the time-saving benefits of a dedicated project management tool at your fingertips.

Screenshot of a task creation form in HR software

Like the Shift activity tab in the scheduler, you can also communicate with employees directly through the Comments tab if there are any questions or follow-ups.

Having the comments tool directly in the task means no more searching for previous communications in other apps. With the Quick Tasks tool, you and your employees can quickly find or refer to all messages related to a task in its respective place.

3. Employee Time Clock

When it comes time to punch in, your employees can use the app on their mobile device or Connecteam’s Kiosk app if your team is stationary. All they need to do is tap Start shift.

Screenshot of settings within a time clock tool in HR software

On the backend, Connecteam gives you a real-time overview of everyone’s logs under the Today tab within the Time Clock tool.

Here, you can communicate with people on your team, and if they travel from job to job, you can see where they are on the map to ensure they’re on schedule and everything’s running smoothly.

Connecteam also lets you use virtual perimeters or geofencing to ensure your employees are within a specific location when they do check-in. Say goodbye to buddy punching and time theft once and for all.

There are many ways of customizing your time clock to suit your workplace, including your payroll cycle, overtime qualifications, breaks, jobs, and other items that things more convenient for you and your team.

Additionally, you can ask that the software generate lists of employees who exceed overtime, were absent, or didn’t clock their time.

As everyone logs their time, the software also uses the information to generate timesheets.

4. Online Timesheets

Within the Timesheets tab, you can review, edit, and follow up on employee time records. Here, you can also see time requests, check in on absences, and view job insights.

Screenshot of a timesheet in HR software

As you click into individual timesheets, Connecteam notifies you of any conflicts such as overlapping shifts and edit requests if an employee knows they made a mistake when tracking their time.

It also gives a simple overview of their tracking so you can correct or highlight and ask about discrepancies. Once it’s ready for payroll, you can export totals, timesheets, or shift reports. Connecteam automatically integrates with QuickBooks and Gusto, making payroll a breeze with just the click of a button.

5. Digital Forms and Checklists

The Forms tool in Connecteam’s Operations hub makes paperwork accessible to those that need to find and use it. It also eliminates the need to print or email forms—which means they won’t get lost somewhere along the way.

As you create forms and checklists in Connecteam, you can assign them to Smart Groups—automatic clusters of users with the same job, location, starting date, or anything else you can think of—or individuals. If the request is time-sensitive, send a notification once you publish it, or add it to the form library silently if not.

The Forms feature makes onboarding a breeze. Plus, your staff will always have the forms they need on hand, which means less red tape around safety concerns and making requests. It's as simple as creating a Google Form if you've ever made one, but better because it's right where you need it.

Screenshot of a form creation tool in HR software

Additionally, you can get creative with the Forms tool to automate and standardize processes. For example, you can outline workflows using checklists or build simple ways to submit E-signatures and GPS timestamps for documentation.

6. All of the Communication Hub Features in Connecteam

Essentially, Connecteam can replace multiple software and processes in your business with the features already mentioned in this article. However, you can take it a step further by utilizing its Communication hub.

The Chat tool, in particular, allows you to create multiple channels from company-wide to departmental groups and even one-on-ones. While you can send comments and messages directly in shifts, tasks, and timesheets, this gives you a space for general discussions and planning.

This way, you won’t have to switch between a messenger like Slack or sift through your phone to find texts from employees.

With the Updates tool, you can also send out news and announcements with plenty of custom design elements to add personality to your messages.

This feature is helpful if you don’t have staff email addresses for all your employees or if they decide to update their personal emails. You can also track engagement to see how many people read it.

Screenshot of an email tool within HR software

What's more, the Directory helps your staff find and reach out to each other. Staff will no longer need to use their personal phone numbers or email addresses to collaborate on work projects if they don’t want to.

You can also hide certain people if they prefer not to chat and create restrictions on who can talk with who.

Ultimately, Connecteam's Communication tools help everyone keep business and personal separate and your company running smoothly.

Save Yourself Time and Stress With Connecteam

Connecteam is a one-stop tool for managing your company’s top resource—its people.

It saves you time by putting all your tasks in one place and reducing the number of back-and-forth communications with your employees. Plus, your staff also benefits from streamlined communication and clarity around scheduling and tasks.

If you find you’re constantly searching for information, jumping between multiple software, and going back and forth in communication, it may be the solution you need. Why not sign up for Connecteam's free 14-day trial and start by giving one of the listed features a try?