This is the 5th in a series of posts regarding scheduling considerations that affect employee alertness and fatigue.

In this post, we're going to take a brief look at the impact of the schedule format, i.e. fixed vs. rotating shifts. This is an important scheduling decision all organizations must make. Should the employees only work a single shift or should they periodically rotate through all the shifts?

You can read the pros and cons from the employee and management perspectives elsewhere on my website (http://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Fixed_Shifts). As you can see, this is a pretty complex decision. For the single issue of alertness, however, the answer is simple: Fixed shifts are the best, period. There is substantial research showing that rotating shifts have higher health risks and lower overall alertness than fixed shifts.

I would never base the decision on fixed vs. rotating shifts (what I commonly call the schedule format) on alertness alone. But since this series of blog posts is focused on fatigue in the workplace, skipping this scheduling variable would be inexcusable.