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.  

In the last few weeks, a number of people have contacted me for help with their schedules. What's unusual is that many of them didn't have a scheduling preference. They said they were open to 8-hour, 10-hour or 12-hour shifts. Most of them wanted fixed shifts.   I started by telling them that fixed shifts often require a few more employees than rotating shifts. This is true with both 8-hour and 10-hour shifts. This can be critical when the group is already staffed at a minimum or understaffed. They could still use fixed shifts, but they would either have to hire more staff or adopt a schedule with a lot of overtime in it.   Next, I went into the problems with 10-hour shifts. I know, everybody loves 10s. But 10s are really inefficient when you're trying to cover a 24-hour day. You need three shifts, which means you're really working 30 hours a day instead of 24 hours. This 25% increase in hours per day requires a 25% increase in staff or a 25% reduction in the amount of coverage. Few organizations can handle this.   That leaves 8-hour shifts and 12-hour shifts. And if the coverage is not the same at all times, a 12-hour shift schedule may not be a good fit. What is needed is a combination of 8s and 12s, for example 8 people on the 12s and 4 people on the 8s. Although the 12-hour shifts might improve the efficiency (i.e. require fewer people), the 8-hour fixed shifts are highly inefficient for low levels of coverage like one person. For example, 1-person coverage requires 2 people and there would be 3 days a week in which both of them are scheduled to work.   I believe that the people who contacted me with no schedule preferences did so to find a scheduling solution to their current situation. What they didn't realize was that they had a staffing problem, not a scheduling problem.   Yes, they might find some schedule changes that are a little more efficient, but not to the extent they hoped to find. And some of those changes might result in schedules that are not very employee-friendly (e.g., 8-hour rotating shifts).      

The most efficient shift length (one that requires the fewest staff) depends the nature of the hourly coverage requirements, i.e. whether the coverage needs are constant or vary on a regular basis throughout the day. It doesn't matter if the group operates 24/7 or something less than that. Here's a flow chart of the steps involved:         24/7 Operations If the coverage requirements are steady throughout the day, then the best choice is either 8-hour or 12-hour shifts. That's because these shift lengths don't overlap during the 24-hour day. Other shift lengths (9, 10, or 11 hours) would overlap. This not only doubles the coverage during the overlap(s), but it also increases the staffing requirements. Three 9-hour shifts require 12.5% more staff, three 10-hour shifts require 25% more staff, and three 11-hour shifts require 37.5% more staff.   If the coverage requirements vary fairly regularly by time of day, the organization can either use: Fixed shifts with different staffing levels on each shift that match the coverage requirements, e.g., 4 people on day shift, 3 people on evening shift, and 2 people on night shift.   Overlapping shifts, e.g., 9 or 10-hour shifts. By changing the shift start and end times, the daily overlaps can be consolidated and matched to the busy period.   An overlay shift that boosts the coverage for the length of that additional shift, e.g., a 6-hour shift from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Less than 24/7 Operations If the coverage requirements are steady, the best choice would be a shift length that matches the hours of operation - up to a maximum of 12 hours. For example, if the company is open for 11 hours a day, the most efficient choice would be an 11-hour shift, since this would require the smallest number of employees and would avoid any overlapping shifts. If the daily hours exceed 12 hours, then 2 shifts are needed each day. For example, a company that is open 14 hours a day could have two 7-hour shifts or one 8-hour shift and one 6-hour shift.   If the coverage requirements vary by time of day, the organization can either use: Fixed shifts with different staffing levels on each shift that match the coverage requirements, e.g., 2 people on the first shift and 4 people on the second shift.   Overlapping shifts. For example, if the late afternoon is busiest, a company could use a 12-hour day shift and an 8-hour evening shift that overlaps from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.   An overlay shift that boosts the coverage for the length of that additional shift, e.g., a 4-hour shift from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Summary If you want to maximize employee utilization, your shift length should be based on the whether the workload and associated coverage requirements remain steady throughout the day or vary on a fairly regular basis. Steady workloads should have shifts that don't overlap for more than the length of a meal break. Variable workloads can be addressed in several different ways.   Many people choose the shift length for other reasons. For example, they choose 10-hour shifts, hoping to get an extra day off each week, or they choose 12-hour shifts, hoping to get more weekends off. They don't realize that this may increase the headcount requirements, not match the coverage with the workload, or utilize the staff ineffectively.  

Main Street businesses face three major challenges when it comes to scheduling their employees: Coverage, i.e. matching the number of people at work with a workload that varies by time of day and day of the week. Staffing, i.e. figuring out the best mix of full-time and part-time employees.   Weekends, i.e. alternating the weekend work, so that employees don't have to work every weekend (unless they want to, of course). Managers don't have time to devote much attention to these challenges. They're too busy running the business and handling all the daily problems. They don't realize they're: (1) spending more than necessary for staffing, (2) irritating customers with slow response times, and (3) frustrating employees who want more weekends off.   Let's take a closer look at each of these challenges. Variable Workloads The primary purpose of the employee work schedule is to align the coverage with the workload. In other words, to match the number of people at work with the volume of work at that particular time. During busy periods, more employees should be scheduled to work; when it's slow; fewer people should be scheduled. Some businesses can control the workload by making appointments with customers (e.g., doctors, dentists, and vets). Most businesses can't do that. They have workloads that vary by time of day and/or by day of the week, often in a fairly predictable manner. For many companies, late afternoons and early evenings (when their customers get off work) are busy times. For others, it's the weekends. The ideal schedule will reflect these changes in demand. Few businesses keep data on customer volumes on an hourly basis, so they have to rely on more subjective feelings about the workload over broad periods of time. Here's an example. A local hardware store thinks the busy times are first thing in the morning (contractors), evenings, and weekends. They created a table showing the coverage requirements throughout the week as shown below: Time Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue 8a - 9a 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 9a - 3p 2 2 2 6 6 2 2 3p - 7p 4 4 4 4 4 4 4   Any business with a variable workload should put together a coverage table like this one. This table then becomes the target for the schedule. You can read more about the steps to create an effective work schedule for a variable workload here:  https://www.shift-schedule-design.com/81.html. Staffing Small businesses often employ both full-time and part-time employees. Full-time employees will want benefits like paid holidays, vacations, sick time, health insurance, and maybe 401Ks. They also want 40 hours of pay every week, which can be difficult to achieve if the shifts are shorter than 8 hours. Part-time employees are less expensive and sometimes more flexible. They are open to working short shifts and odd shifts throughout the week. However, finding and maintaining good, dependable part-time workers can be a tough, time-consuming job. Many years ago, I owned an independent video store. We had 3 full-time people and a number of part-time people who were mostly students. The full-time employees worked a fairly permanent schedule, usually an 8-hour shift (9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.). The part-time people did the closing shift (4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) and most of the weekend work. We scheduled them around their availability due to class schedules and other commitments. We overlapped the shifts in the evening because that was the busiest time of day. Friday and Saturday were the busiest days of the week, so we would schedule the most staff to work on those days, especially during the evenings. Many part-time employees can only work weekends or certain days of the week because they are students or it's their second job. If these part-time employees are highly valued and/or hard to replace, the business must plan around their availability. This can make the schedule design for the full-time employees much more difficult. Weekends Most businesses schedule their full-time employees to a single shift on the same 5 days every week. If the business is open on weekends, some of the employees may have to work every weekend as shown below: Emp Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Hours A d8 d8 d8 d8 d8 - - 40 B - - d8 d8 d8 d8 d8 40 C d8 d8 - - - d8 d8 32   In this example, Employee A works Wed-Sun every week, Employee B works every Fri-Tue, and Employee C works every Mon-Thu. Employees A and B work every weekend, while Employee C gets every weekend off. Most full-time employees want to avoid or minimize the number of weekend days they have to work. When a business is open one or more weekend days, they should consider schedules that provide occasional weekends off. This is done by creating a schedule with rotating days of work. Let's revise the schedule above to rotate the days of work and the weekends off.   Emp/Week Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Hours A / Week 1 d8 d8 d8 d8 d8 - - 40 B / Week 2 - - d8 d8 d8 d8 d8 40 C / Week 3 d8 d8 - - - d8 d8 32   This is a 3-week schedule. Employee A begins the schedule in Week 1, Employee B begins in Week 2, and Employee C begins in Week 3. After finishing the initial week, they all rotate to the next week of the schedule. Emp. A moves to Week 2, Emp. B moves to Week 3, and Emp. C moves to Week 1. With this pattern, all 3 employees get a 3-day weekend off once every 3 weeks. Unlike the previous schedule with fixed days of work, they would share equally in the number of weekends worked (and the number of weekends off).   Summary Many Main Street businesses are now open more than 8 hours a day and more than 5 days a week. This can make it difficult to create a work schedule for the employees. The three biggest scheduling challenges are: (1) matching the coverage with a workload that varies throughout the day and the week, (2) juggling the mix of full-time and part-time employees, and (3) alternating the weekend work so it is more fairly distributed. We showed how creating a coverage table becomes the basis for the schedule. This will help you decide the best mix of shift lengths and the number of people to put on each shift. You want to have the right number of people at work to handle the volume of work expected for that particular time period. You don't want to have a bunch of employees standing around with nothing to do either. The staffing mix depends on the quality and availability of full-time and part-time employees. If good part-time employees are easy to find, the schedule design can start with the full-time people. Part-time people would be used to fill the gaps in the coverage, to work shifts shorter than 8 hours, and/or to cover a lot of the weekend shifts. If you can only find a few, key part-time workers, you may be forced to design the schedule around their availability. Full-time employees prefer to have weekend days off. You may not be able to give them every weekend off, but you can alternate the weekend work. This requires a schedule with rotating days of work. Although employees tend to prefer fixed days of work (so their days off are predictable), you'll have to explain the need for rotating days of work so that everyone is treated equally in terms of weekends off. We've written several articles about schedules for companies that operate on a less than 24/7 basis. You might want to check these out. https://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Blog?m8:post=work-schedules-for-businesses-open-more-than-8-hours-day-or-5-days-week https://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Blog?m8:post=employee-work-schedules-for-retail-and-service-businesses https://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Blog?m8:post=schedules-in-the-hospitality-industry  https://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Blog?m8:post=restaurant-work-schedules https://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Blog?m8:post=car-dealership-schedules If you would like to get our help with the design of a schedule, please fill out this form:   Request a Quote          

I just finished designing a set of shift schedules for a senior living facility. They needed 1 person working for 8 hours (day shift) and 2 people working for the next 8 hours (afternoon shift) throughout the week.   This amount of coverage requires at least 4 employees working an average of 42 hours a week. But, in this case, the manager wanted his employees to have every other weekend off.   To achieve that much time-off in a 24/7 operation, I would normally recommend 12-hour shifts. But this facility only needed coverage for 16 hours a day, so 12-hour shifts would not be a good fit. The only other solution would be to increase the staff size.   I decided to show the manager schedules for 4, 5, and 6 employees. This way I was able to show how the different staffing levels affected his goal of having every other weekend off. If he wanted to hire more staff over time, he had schedules for each level of staffing.   For each staff size, I created 2 patterns: one with lots of consecutive days worked (7 or 8) and one with few consecutive days worked. All of them had the same number of weekends off, but fhe former had longer breaks and longer weekends off (3 and 4 days). This way the employees could compare the two to decide which one they preferred.   Custom-designed schedules illustrate different approaches for reaching your goals. They can help with staffing decisions and with obtaining employee buy-in for a new schedule. Seeing actual examples of the different approaches supports making superior workforce decisions.  

One of the most popular pages on my website contains a discussion of the pros and cons of 12-hour shifts. Here's a link to that page if you haven't seen it:  www.shift-schedule-design.com/12-Hour_Shifts. This article will address a different aspect of 12-hour shifts, namely how the longer shifts fit with different 24/7 workload distributions. Constant Workloads When the volume of work is steady throughout the day, the best shift length is either 8-hours or 12-hours. That's because they divide evenly into a 24-hour day. With 8-hour shifts, there would be three shifts with the same coverage on each shift. With 12-hour shifts, there would be two shifts with the same coverage. Other shift lengths, e.g., 9-hour or 10-hour shifts, do not divide evenly into 24 hours. This means they will have overlapping shifts, with double coverage during the overlaps. 9-hour shifts will have 3 hours in which the shifts overlap. 10-hour shifts will have 6 hours in which the shifts overlap. Overlaps can be achieved with 8 or 12-hour shifts simply by including an unpaid meal break in each shift. These other shift lengths (9s or 10s) are not an efficient choice for organizations with a constant workload distribution. In addition to the producing double coverage for part of the day, they also require a larger staff because the organization has essentially extended the hours of operation to 27 or 30 hours a day. 9-hour shifts require 12.5% more personnel and 10-hour shifts require 25% more personnel than 8-hour or 12-hour shifts. Now that we've shown the best choice for a constant workload is 8 or 12-hour shifts, let's take a quick look at the staffing requirements. Here is a simple example. If you need 2-person coverage around-the-clock, you will need 336 hours of coverage per week (2 people * 24 hours/day * 7 days/week = 336 hours/week). If you divide this by 40 hours per week, you get 8.4 employees. If you divide this by 42 hours per week, you get 8 employees. 42 hours/week is commonly used in 24/7 schedules because it allows the use of 4 crews in the schedule. The only exception to this is 8-hour fixed shifts. With these, each shift's staffing requirements must be calculated separately. In the example with 2-person coverage on each shift, this will require 3 people on each shift working an average of 37.3 hours a week (2 people * 8 hours/day * 7 days/week = 112 hours/week / 3 employees = 37.3 hours/week). The total staffing with fixed 8s would be 9 employees. With the exception of 8-hour fixed shifts, 8s and 12s for steady coverage require the same number of employees working the same average hours per week. Since both shift lengths cost the same, this generally means that the choice between 8s and 12s can be left up to employees. When employees are asked if they want 8s or 12s, most will say 8s. However, when they are shown examples of schedules with both shift lengths, most will say 12s.   Variable Workloads Many smaller establishments do not have constant workloads. They are often slower at night and on the weekends. For example, on Monday-Friday, they may need 4-person coverage from 0700 to 2300 and 2-person coverage from 2300 to 0700. On Saturday and Sunday, they only need 2-person coverage all day. When the workload is lighter on weekends, this can be accommodated with either 8-hour or 12-hour shifts. When the workload is lighter at certain times of the day, this can be more difficult to match with 12-hour shifts. That's because most groups find their busy hours correspond more closely with one or two 8-hour shifts, i.e. for 8 or 16 hours a day. Let's look at examples of each of these. Example #1. In this example, the organization needs 4-person coverage for 8 hours and 2-person coverage for 16 hours a day. This requires 11.2 employees working an average of 40 hours a week with 8-hour rotating shifts (12 people with 8-hour fixed shifts). If you use one 12-hour shift with 4-person coverage and one with 2-person coverage, you have 4-person coverage for 4 hours longer than necessary. It also would require 12 employees working an average of 42 hours a week. The best way to accommodate 12-hour shifts in this scenario is to use 12-hour shifts for the 2-person coverage around-the-clock and an 8-hour overlay shift that matches the busy period. This would require 11 employees. You could either combine the two shift lengths into a single schedule or make a separate schedule for each shift length. 8 people on 12s --> 2-person coverage for 24/7 3 people on 8s --> 2-person coverage for 8/7 Example #2. In this example, the organization needs 4-person coverage for 16 hours and 2-person coverage for 8 hours a day. This requires 14 employees working an average of 40 hours a week with 8-hour rotating shifts. (15 people with 8-hour fixed shifts). If you use one 12-hour shift with 4-person coverage and one with 2-person coverage, you have 4-person coverage for 4 hours less than necessary. If this is unacceptable, you would have to have 4-person coverage on both shifts. This would require at least 16 employees working an average of 42 hours a week. The best way to accommodate 12-hour shifts in this scenario is to use 12-hour shifts for the 2-person coverage around-the-clock and two 8-hour overlay shifts that match the busy period. This would require 14 employees. You could either combine the two shift lengths into a single schedule or make a separate schedule for each shift length. 8 people on 12s --> 2-person coverage for 24/7 6 people on 8s --> 2-person coverage for 16/7 Conclusions There are lots of other possibilities when it comes to variable workloads. If you want to include 12-hour shifts in the schedule, you can follow the generic approach desribed in this article: If the workload varies by day of the week, use two 12-hour shifts with a modified work pattern. Popular 12-hour patterns such as Pittman, Panama, DuPont, 3-on-3-off, etc. have the same coverage throughout the week. Therefore these patterns must be modified to match the daily variations. This is best handled by someone who is experienced in schedule design. They can ensure that the schedule: (1) matches the daily coverage variations, (2) averages close to 40 hours a week, and (3) maximizes weekends off for employees.   If the workload varies by hour of the day, you can use two 12-hour shifts for the base coverage. Then you will use one or more additional shifts that match the length of the busy period. I discussed 8-hour and 16-hour busy periods above. Your busy period might require something other than one or two 8-hour shifts. For example, if your busy period is longer than 18 hours, you might use an 8-hour and a 10-hour overlay shift. In some cases, you may want these shifts to overlap so that the coverage is increased further during the hours of overlap.

A majority of the organizations that cover 24/7 use 8-hour fixed shifts. That would be fine if it weren't for the fact that employees hate the schedules. The universal complaint is that they don't get enough days or weekends off. They simply want a better work-life balance.   The employees think 10-hour shifts would be a good choice, but the increased staffing requirements prevent most organizations from adopting them. Most employees don't want 12-hour shifts, though when they see actual examples of 12-hour schedules, they often change their minds. But let's focus this article on 8-hour shifts.   There are a lot of different patterns with 8-hour fixed shifts. Unlike 12-hour schedules that normally use 4 crews, 8-hour schedules can use anywhere from 6 to 27 crews. The number depends on the coverage levels, as shown in the table below:   Coverage Staffing Total Average* Weekends Possible  Pattern Pattern Pattern Per Shift Per Shift Staff Hours/Week Off (max)** Patterns #1 #2 #3                   1 2 6 37.3 1/2 2 Max. 7 days Max. 4 days                     2 3 9 37.3 1/3 3 Max. 8 days Max. 7 days Max. 4 days                   3 4 12 42 1/4 5 Max. 7 days 6-on-2-off Max. 5 days 3 5 15 33.6 2/5 2 Max. 7 days Max. 5 days                     4 6 18 37.3 1/3 3 Max. 7-8 days Max. 5 days 4-on-2-off                   5 7 21 40 2/7 2 Max. 7 days Max. 5 days   5 8 24 35 3/8 1 5-on-3-off                       6 8 24 42 1/4 5 Max. 7-8 days 6-on-2-off Max. 5 days 6 9 27 37.3 3/9 1 Max. 7 days 6-on-3-off                     * Average Hours/Week often can be increased to 40 by requiring occasional extra coverage   ** Max. Weekends Off can only be achieved with certain patterns         Are you thoroughly confused? Sorry. There's a lot of information in this chart. Let me try to explain using 5-person coverage as an example. There are 2 rows with 5-person coverage. On the first row, 7 people are required if they work an average of 40 hours a week. On the second line, 8 people are required, but they only have to work an average of 35 hours a week.  Why would you adopt a schedule that only averages 35 hours a week? People do it all the time. Not because they want fewer hours. They chose a popular work pattern without realizing that it averages less than 40 hours. In this case, the pattern is 5 days of work followed by 3 days off, aka 5-on-3-off.   Continuing with the example, you'll next see the maximum weekends off. The maximum with 7 people per shift is 2 weekends off every 7 weeks whereas the max. with 8 people per shift is 3 weekends off every 8 weeks. After that is a tally of the number of possible schedules along with descriptions of those schedules. Max. 7 days means the schedule requires working 7 consecutive days at some point. In general, the more days worked, the more weekends off.   A significant portion of my clients contact me because they have adopted a popular 8-hour work pattern, and they're tired of the employee complaints and never having enough or consistent coverage. I try to show them both alternative approaches (i.e. different shift lengths) and other 8-hour options. This way they can compare the coverage, average hours of work, weekends off, and so on. This chart illustrates the possibilities for 8-hour fixed shifts only.   Are you ready to explore other work patterns or alternative scheduling approaches? Contact us today:   Contact Us  

When creating a work schedule for your employees, I recommend the following steps:   1. Coverage. The primary purpose of the schedule is to match the coverage with the workload, so this should always be your first step. If you start by searching for schedules with a desired shift length or a popular work pattern, you won't get an effective schedule. Your schedule needs to be designed around the number of people you need working during different times of the day on each day of the week that you're open. You can read more here:  Variable Workloads   2. Shift length. How many hours a day are you trying to cover? If it's less than 12 hours, you should use that as the shift length. If it's more than 12 hours, you'll need two or more shifts. Shifts less than 8 hours long will require part-time employees. If you are covering 24 hours a day, you might be able to use 8, 10 or 12-hour shifts. This guide will help:  Shift Length Selection   3. Format. If you have more than one shift per day, you'll have to decide if you want employees to always work the same hours (i.e. the same shift), or if you want them to work different hours from time-to-time, i.e. rotating shifts. Most full-time employees will prefer to work the same hours (i.e. fixed shifts). On the other hand, you may want them to gain experience both opening and closing, or working during both the busy and slower periods. Read about the pros and cons of each approach here:  Fixed vs. Rotating Shifts.htm   4. Staffing. Determine how many people it takes to produce the desired coverage. Do you need to hire more staff or increase the overtime? Here's a tool to help:  Staffing Calculator   5. Work Pattern. Develop alternative work patterns. Most shift lengths have a number of popular patterns for 24/7 coverage. Will any of those work? You may need to modify them or create new ones from scratch. It's critical to match the schedule to the organization's pay week to avoid unnecessary overtime and to ensure maximum weekends off for employees.   6. Alternatives. When I design schedules, I often look for alternative approaches using different shift lengths or combinations of shift lengths. For example, in 24/7 operations with an uneven workload, you might be able to use 8-hour shifts, combined 8 and 12-hour shifts, or sometimes even 10-hour shifts. For each approach, I then try to come up with a few different work patterns. Every option has different pros and cons, so having alternatives to compare will help you find the best schedule.   Need expert assistance? We've helped over a thousand companies from all over the world, in every industry imaginable. Contact us today:  Contact Us