Clopening is a term used and dreaded by many employees in the retail space and other industries. The reason?
It refers to work schedules that require an employee to work an opening and closing shift within a short period, often less than 12 hours. While clopening can be convenient for businesses, it can also create burnout challenges for employees.
Why Does Clopening Happen?
Clopening can happen for many reasons, from poor scheduling management systems to employees changing or swapping shifts between themselves.
Employees may take on clopening shifts for one or a combination of the following reasons:
A need for more money
Feeling obligated to cover for other employees
Fear of losing their job for refusing to work
Additionally, some employees may feel pressured to take extra shifts to prove their dedication to their employers or earn a promotion. However, clopening can negatively affect an employee's health and job performance, leading to burnout, fatigue, and decreased productivity.
Therefore, employers must understand how clopening can happen and how it affects your team and employee productivity.
5 Employee Burnout Signs
Some common signs of employee burnout from clopening include:
Feeling constantly exhausted
Lacking motivation
No enthusiasm for work
Increased irritability or moodiness
Struggling to maintain a work-life balance
Other potential indicators may include increased absenteeism or lateness, decreased employee productivity, and feeling overwhelmed or stressed.
How to Reduce Clopening in Your Scheduling
Here are some tips to help employers reduce clopening and create a healthier work environment for their employees:
Create a rotating schedule
Instead of having the same employees work closing shifts followed by opening shifts, rotate the schedule so everyone has an equal chance to work different shifts. This should include weekend rotation shifts, too, so the same employees don't feel stuck working consecutive weekends.
Hire additional staff
Having more staff available can help reduce the need for clopening shifts.
Offer split shifts
Consider offering split shifts so that employees can have a break between shifts.
Be understanding
If an employee requests to avoid clopening shifts, try to accommodate their wishes as much as possible.
Of course, it's not always easy for employers to implement these changes unless their current schedule management process can identify and avoid back-to-back close and open shift assignments.
Stop Clopening with vIDix Scheduler
With vIDix Scheduler, you can easily ensure your employees are not scheduled for clopening shifts.
How It Works
Using vIDix Scheduler, you can set hour restrictions so employees' schedules do not exceed daily maximums and have a set minimum time between ending and starting shifts.
It also removes the worry that you may be scheduling an employee back-to -back or that employees are swapping shifts without your approval. Instead, this advanced schedule management solution lets you stay in control and ensure employees follow the new process.
vIDix Scheduler also empowers employees to define when they can and cannot work. The result?
Your employees are engaged, well-rested, and more productive!
Ready to get started?
Contact sales@bankoe.com today to learn more about vIDix Scheduler and how to implement it in your organization. You can also call us at 800-969-9633 for questions and more information.