Staffing Calculator

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Staffing Calculator

July 22nd, 2013 at 3:53 pm star

I hope you've had a chance to try out our new staffing calculator. If not, here's a link: http://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Staffing_Calculator. You can use this set of calculators for several purposes:

1. Staff size. You can see how many employees are required to achieve the basic coverage requirements. This does not factor in other considerations such as absences, maintenance, or training. But it will quickly tell you if you have enough staff.

2. Coverage. If you don't have enough staff for the required coverage, you can determine what coverage levels are possible. If you have more than enough staff, you can also determine how much coverage is possible.

3. Shift length. You can explore the staffing and coverage implications of different shift lengths. For example, suppose you want your group to adopt 10-hour shifts. You can use the calculator to determine whether they are feasible for your minimum coverage requirements. Alternatively, you can see how much coverage is possible for a given staff size.

4. Weekly hours. With 8 and 10-hour shifts, the calculators show the staffing requirements using 40 hours per week and 42 hours per week. The reason for the 42 hours is that many 24/7 schedules require this much time to avoid gaps in the coverage.

5. Schedule format. You can also see whether changing to fixed shifts is feasible for your group. Each shift length except 12s has separate calculators for fixed shifts and rotating shifts. The reason is that fixed shifts (with 8s and 10s) often require a few more staff than rotating shifts for the same shift lengths.

Posted in Staffing, Schedule Selection by Bruce Oliver

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HELDER says:

November 28th, 2016 at 8:11 am star

Hello, thank you very much for yoru website.

I would like to know if you have any template available for a 37.5 hours per week

many thanks,

helder

Mark says:

January 20th, 2017 at 1:57 pm star

This staffing model is essentually a perfect scenario 'on paper' model that does not take into account the reality of the workplace. What happens when someone gets injured and out of work for even a week? The model doesn't work. Same with sick time, vacation time, and mandatory training. There will be times when someone is on vacation, and then someone calls in sick. You just went from your four person staff to two... working 12s with no days off until someone comes back. How long do you think this will last before people quit? Staffing a 24/7 operation with this model is unviable.

Bruce Oliver says:

January 21st, 2017 at 10:21 am star

Mark has pointed out the major limitation of the calculator: the fact that it doesn't take absences into account. But how can it, when absence rates can range from 5% to 25%, and when there are multiple approaches to handling absences (part-time employees, overtime, increased coverage, or relief coverage)?

The goal of the calculator is to show the minimum number of people needed to achieve a desired coverage level when changing the primary schedule variables (shift length and format - fixed or rotating shifts). Most users want to see the impact of different schedule variables. For example, a group currently on 8-hour rotating shifts wants to see what would happen if they switched to 10-hour fixed shifts.

Absence coverage is a critical consideration in the selection of a new schedule:

If your staff size is exactly the minimum number needed for the coverage, then your only means of covering absences is OT. With 10 or 12-hour shifts, this means calling people into work on a scheduled day off, which may defeat the key advantage of the longer shifts, namely more days off.
If your staff size is more than the minimum, you'll have to decide the best way to utilize them to cover absences (we've found that the most efficient choice is often relief coverage).
If your staff size is less than the minimum, you'll have to find a different scheduling approach, e.g., rotating shifts rather than fixed shifts or 12-hour shifts rather than 10-hour shifts.

So, does this mean the staffing calculator is worthless (or "unviable" as Mark says)? Of course not! As long as you recognize that absences are not factored in, it's a valuable tool to be used when starting the search for a new shift schedule.

Greg says:

March 26th, 2018 at 9:28 pm star

Hi - this calculator looks interesting, but when I populate the fields in the orange boxes, nothing appears in the blue boxes - I've tried in chrome, firefox, and safari. Am I doing something wrong?

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