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Scheduling Assistance
Free feasibility analysis.
Do you have enough
employees to meet your coverage requirements? Can you switch to
fixed shifts or 12-hour shifts? What changes would enable your
employees to get more weekends off?
Get answers to all of your scheduling questions now!
Schedule
examples. We offer a large
assortment of the most popular 24/7 schedules in use today: 8-hour
fixed shifts, 8-hour rotating shifts, 12-hour fixed shifts, 12-hour rotating shifts,
and 8&12-hour rotating shifts. These packages are the quickest and easiest
way for you to see the full range of possible schedules.
10-hour shift schedules.
With today's fuel prices, everybody wants to adopt 10-hour shifts to
reduce the number of commuting trips. Unfortunately, 10-hour shifts
are not well suited for most 24/7 operations. They have six major
limitations you should be aware of.
Customized schedule design. If you don't need
24/7 coverage or your coverage is different on certain shifts or
days of the week, you will need a custom-designed
schedule. Professional assistance can
save you time and money.
It can also provide the most efficient schedule for your situation (coverage, staffing, employee preferences, etc.).
Scheduling Considerations
General considerations. There are
four points to keep in mind when searching for a new work schedule: (1)
your group is unique, (2) schedule changes may require tradeoffs, (3)
five factors are involved in any schedule change,
and (4) implementation is the most difficult step.
Efficient coverage. The first step in schedule design
is to determine how to achieve the desired coverage as efficiently as
possible.
Two pieces of information are needed to do this: (1) the number of
employees needed at different times of the day throughout
the week, and (2) the number of personnel available to work the
schedule and the hours they are able to work each week.
Shift length.
If you are thinking about changing the length of your shifts, there
are five things you should be aware of: (1) scheduled days off, (2) weekends off, (3) staffing requirements, (4) distribution of the workload,
and (5) health and safety issues.
Fixed vs. rotating shifts. There are four things you should consider
before making the decision to adopt fixed (permanent or steady)
shifts or rotating shifts: (1) employee
preferences, (2) health concerns, (3) business
needs, and (4) staffing requirements.
Staffing calculator. Use this
tool to calculate the number of employees you'll need to achieve your
desired level of coverage. Want to see how many people you
would need if you changed shift length? Want to see if your
employees would have to work overtime to meet a different set of
coverage requirements? This is the place to go.
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Shift Schedule Articles
Schedule change process. The Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) published a white paper on the steps to follow when
changing an organization's work schedule. If you think designing a
new schedule
is tough, wait until you try to implement the change.
Anyone who has done it will tell you that gaining support and buy-in
from the people who will be working the new schedule is the most
difficult task. The change process must be thoroughly planned and managed to have a
successful outcome.
Is your shift schedule
depriving employees of their sleep? Published in a recent
issue of Occupational Health & Safety, this article examines three major shift
schedule attributes that affect employee sleep: (1) shift length,
(2) fixed vs. rotating shifts, and (3) shift start times.
Shiftworker schedule preferences. Published on the
Industry Week web site, this article discusses what the typical
shiftworker wants from his or her work schedule. Results are based
on surveys of over 20,000 shiftworkers.
Other Information
Additional support. Larger organizations often need more than a new
schedule. They may need: (1)
a cost analysis to justify the schedule change, (2) a business
analysis to verify the coverage requirements, (3) someone to
determine the preferences of the workforce and help them reach a
consensus, (4) a change process that ensures widespread support from
corporate management, supervisors, support functions, affected
workers, and union representatives, (5) revision of the pay,
vacation, and holiday policies, and (6) help with implementation of the new schedule. We recommend
Shiftwork Solutions at www.shift-work.com.
They specialize in this type of support, and they have more
experience than anyone else in this line of business.
Scheduling software. We don't
sell software, and we don't use it to design schedules. That's
because most software programs are intended to manage
an existing schedule rather than to design a new one.
However, if you're just looking for a simple program to ensure sufficient coverage
for vacations and other absences, check out VSS Pro at
www.abs-usa.com.
About
us. Shift
Schedule Design began in June 2004. The company's founder, Bruce
Oliver, has over 25 years of business management
experience, including eight years with a
leading shift work
consultant. He has written articles for Industry Week,
Occupational Health & Safety, Plant Engineering, SHRM,
Law & Order, Emergency Number Professional Magazine, and
Public Safety Communications/APCO Bulletin. He started this service to help
small organizations with their work scheduling issues.
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