When managers decide to change their group's work schedule, they often begin by searching the internet for: (1) schedules using a specific shift length such as 10 or 12-hour shifts, or (2) popular work patterns such as 4-on-2-off or the Pitman. Unfortunately, doing this will rarely result in the best choice for their unique situation. Here are a few examples of the pitfalls:

• Picking 10-hour or 12-hour shifts when the workload varies in 8-hour increments.
• Using a schedule with constant coverage when their workload varies from shift-to-shift.
• Selecting a schedule pattern (e.g., 4-on-2-off) that requires 6 people per shift, when they have something else.
• Picking a schedule that requires 18 people when other options only require 16.
• Adopting a schedule that is great for day shift, but terrible for night shift.

I'm sure there are plenty of other possibilities, but you get the idea. Many people forget that the primary purpose of the schedule is to match the coverage with the workload. To achieve that goal, you need to start with the number of people needed at different times of the day throughout the week. In many cases, this will limit which shift lengths are feasible. You can read more about that here (Shift Length Selection (shift-schedule-design.com). 

Once you have the shift length(s) established, you need to find or create a pattern that will produce the desired coverage with minimal resources and with maximum weekends off. There is no way that an internet search will ever help with that. 

What do most people do? They find a schedule or create one that they think looks good, adopt it, and live with a mediocre solution, never aware that other approaches or work patterns would have been far superior. They avoid hiring a scheduling expert to save a few hundred dollars and end up costing the organization more than that every week because they got a solution for free. 

Wouldn't it be better to have someone with scheduing expertise go over your situation, show you alternative approaches (e.g., 8-hour fixed shifts vs. combined 8 and 12-hour fixed shifts), and lay out a few different work patterns for each approach? Since the options would all be in the same format, they would be easy to compare and evaluate. You could show them to your workers and let them debate the pros and cons of each option. This is way scheduling should be done.

Click on this link and fill out the form to get started today: (Request a quote for custom schedule design (shift-schedule-design.com)