Almost every week I'm contacted by police officers, sheriff's deputies, and patrolmen about 10-hour shifts. They believe that 10-hour shifts would benefit themselves and their fellow officers. I believe there are two reasons they think 10s would be an improvement over their current 8-hour schedule. I will take a closer look at each of these in an attempt to sort out the reality from the myth.
  

Time Off 

In 24/7 operations, typical schedules using 8, 10 or 12-hour shifts provide the following number of days and weekends off:
  

Shift Length        Days Off Per Year             Max. Weekends Off

   8-hour                           91                                       25%

 10-hour                          146                                      40%       

 12-hour                          182                                      50%

It is clear that 10-hour shifts offer more days off and more weekends off than 8s, but not as many as 12s. I believe that 10s are the most popular shift length because they offer more time off than 8s and they are seen as more tolerable than 12s. If the only objective was to maximize time off, 12-hour shifts would be the clear winner.

The key point that is often overlooked is absence coverage. With 8-hour shifts, absences are covered either by holding someone over from the previous shift or by splitting the vacant shift into two 4-hour components that can be covered by the preceding and following shifts. With 10-hour and 12-hour shifts, absences must be covered by calling someone in from a scheduled day off. Many law enforcement agenices have built additional coverage into their schedules to compensate for their high absence rates. But what happens if that extra coverage isn't available? Since 10-hour shifts will reduce the available coverage by at least 25%, there won't be any extra capacity to cover absences. So, instead of getting the expected 3 days off every week, the officers might only get 1 or 2 days off.

On/Off Work Patterns

The common perception of 10-hour work patterns is 4 days of work followed by 3 days off. In 24/7 operations, however, this pattern only works if you use 6 crews and fixed days of work. This requires a lot more staff, a backwards rotation, and fixed days of work. You can read more about this approach and its shortcomings here:  http://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Blog?m8:post=problems-with-free-schedule-examples 

The best 10-hour schedule for 24/7 operations uses 7 crews per shift or 21 total crews. There is no built-in overtime with this schedule. It also has the most attractive work pattern (4 or 5 consecutive days of work followed by 3 or 4-day breaks). The pattern can easily be adapted for use with either fixed or rotating shifts.

If you don't have 7 officers or a multiple of 7 (14, 21, 28, etc.) per shift, your 10-hour schedule will have shorter blocks of work (two to four days) and shorter breaks (one to three days). Many officers are disappointed when they see these patterns because there are so many one and two-day breaks. These patterns are especially unattractive to anyone who is expecting to consistently get 3 consecutive days off by changing to 10-hour shifts.

Organization and Supervision 

Many 8-hour and 12-hour schedules use 4 squads. Squad members work the same shift(s) and the same days of the week. 10-hour shift schedules for small organizations (less than 50 people), rarely use squads. Some days, Officer A might be working with officers C and E. On other days, he or she might be working with officers B and D, or maybe with officers G and J.

With 8 or 12-hour shift schedules, each squad usually has a sergeant or corporal who acts as the team leader/supervisor. With 10-hour shifts, in order to ensure that a supervisor is always on duty, it's necessary to put them on their own, separate schedule. This means the officers will not always be working with the same supervisor after changing to a 10-hour shift schedule.  

Conclusions 

10-hour shifts provide more time off than 8-hour shifts, but not as much as 12-hour shifts. The extra days off may not be realized since some of them will probably be used to cover absences. Although the schedule will provide 3 days off for most weeks, they won't always occur on consecutive days. 10-hour shifts also will change the way the group is organized and supervised. Although 10-hour shifts are clearly more attractive than 8-hour shifts, they may not live up to the high expectations that many police officers have of them. I think the shift length debate among officers should not be 8s vs. 10s, but 10s vs. 12s.

Please check out my other 10-hour blog posts, especially 10-hour shifts and Police Management. Go to the search box and type in 10 hour shifts. You really need to educate yourself about this before making a choice you might regret.

You can't believe how many people search for the terms "12-hour shift schedule examples" or "24/7 shift schedule examples." They apparently assume that any attractive schedule example will work. They also believe that they can "sell" their co-workers or upper management on this new schedule.

These are dangerous assumptions. In groups of less than 50 employees, work patterns you find searching the Internet won't necessarily be the best choice. That's because they are designed for 24/7 coverage using 4 crews. They also may have different overtime weeks. And pushing a single scheduling option is rarely going to gain widespread support or buy-in.

When I design schedules, creating the work pattern is the very LAST STEP in the process. I start by asking how the workload varies by hour of the day and by day of the week. Most organizations don't track this, but they can tell you the coverage requirements at different times of the day. Usually this is expressed in 8-hour blocks because the organization was using 8-hour shifts and they know the coverage needed on each shift. In many cases, this approximates but doesn't accurately match the work volumes.

Many smaller organizations have either a heavier or a lighter workload on weekends. Police departments and dispatch units are often busiest on Friday and Saturday, especially in the evenings or when the bars close. Other industries often have less work on the weekends and can reduce the coverage to just one or two people all day Saturday and Sunday.

Once you know the coverage requirements, you can determine whether the available resources are adequate. The resources are the staff size, absence rate, and average hours of work each week. I use a staffing calculator similar to the one on my website. You can access it here: http://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Staffing_Calculator.

Then I decide which shift lengths would best match the coverage requirements. In most cases, this is either 8-hour or 12-hour shifts. 10-hour shifts are only considered if the workload increases for 6, 12 or 16 hours a day. That's because the 10-hour shifts overlap for that many hours, depending on how you use them. For most 24/7 organizations, 10-hour shifts just have too many limitations.

The next step is to look at the preferred schedule format, i.e. fixed or rotating shifts. Although employees tend to prefer fixed shifts, they present several challenges for management. With 8-hour shifts, using fixed shifts also may require a few more employees.

The final step is to develop different work patterns. Sometimes, popular patterns such as the Panama, Pittman, DuPont, 4-on-2-off, 6-on-3-off, etc. can be used. Sometimes these patterns can be tweaked to fit the organization's overtime week. Sometimes a pattern must be created from scratch. The key point is that you should never start with a pattern. It will not ensure the most effective or efficient use of your staff. It can cause over-staffing. It can cause unnecessary overtime or sacrifice the maximum possible number of weekends off. It should always be the last step in the design process.

During this final step, other considerations may come into play. For example, the group may be able to build relief coverage or training time into the schedule. They may have a bargained requirements for no less than 2 consecutive days off. Or they may want a slow shift rotation. These often require custom-designed patterns.

One last point. I always encourage clients to choose from multiple options. This allows you to compare the pros and cons, and make the necessary tradeoffs. I also recommend that clients use a strategic schedule selection process, as described here: http://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Schedule_Selection_Process. This will lead to superior choices that are supported by a majority of the employees who must work the schedule plus managers who oversee the operation.

Most shift length comparisons look at 8-hour shifts vs.12-hour shifts. They also focus on the advantages or disadvantages from the employee perspective. This post will address 10-hour shifts vs. 12-hour shifts from a management perspective.

10-Hour Shifts

The primary advantage of 10-hour shifts (and only justifiable reason for considering them) is that they enable organizations to match their coverage with a variable workload. They are able to do this because the shifts overlap one another for 6 hours a day. There are three workload patterns that can be accommodated with 10s:

1. The workload is higher for a single 6-hour period every day.

2. The workload is higher for 12 hours every day.

3. The workload is higher for 16 hours every day.

Many police and dispatch centers have workload patterns like these, which is why you will find 10-hour shifts used so often in these organizations. Companies with steady workloads should never adopt 10-hour shifts. For them, the overlapping shifts are a waste of manpower.

The primary disadvantage of 10-hour shifts is that they require more staff than 8s or 12s since they require the employees to work 30 hours a day (three 10-hour shifts) instead of the usual 24 hours. As a result, the organization would have to employ 25% more people with 10s than with 8s or 12s. Other problems with 10-hour shifts are covered in more detail here: http://www.shift-schedule-design.com/10-Hour_Shifts.

12-Hour Shifts

The key advantage of 12-hour shifts is that they will produce maximum coverage from a given set of workers. Sometimes organizations can use this "extra" output to cover absences without resorting to mandatory hold-overs or call-ins:

1. They can produce coverage that exceeds the minimum requirements.

2. They can build relief coverage into the schedule.

The biggest downside of 12s is that they require overtime in the schedule. Half the work weeks are 36 hours (three 12-hour shifts) and half are 48 hours (four 12-hour shifts). There are ways to eliminate or minimize this, but they are rarely worth the effort, e.g., see http://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Blog?m8:post=12-hour-shift-schedules-with-no-overtime.

Alternative Scenarios
If the organization has a variable workload, 10-hour shifts might be the best choice. The three situations in which 10s work best were listed above.

If the organization has a steady workload, 12-hour shifts are the obvious choice. 10-hour shifts would be too wasteful since they would require more staff than 12-hour shifts. For example, if the organization needs 4-person coverage on a 24/7 basis, this would require 21 employees with 10-hour shifts and only 16 employees with 12-hour shifts. That's 31.25% more personnel.

Everyone wants to find free examples of shift schedules, especially with 10-hour shifts. The problem is you can't trust what you get. Here's one I found today. I won't say where I found it, because I don't want to embarass anyone. I'm merely showing it to you to illustrate a point about the risks of adopting a schedule example or template you found on the Internet.

When I first saw this schedule I thought, "Wow, they figured out a way to make a 10-hour shift schedule using a 4-on-3-off pattern. That's awesome!" But then I started looking closer at how it worked. Here are the things you'd have to live with:

1. Rotating shifts. Sometimes rotating shifts are necessary for various business reasons. I'm not saying rotating shifts are bad, but these rotate backwards from nights to evenings to days. That's bad.

2. Fixed days. This schedule has fixed days of work for each team. Some teams have to work every weekend while others have every weekend off. That's just not fair. All employees should be treated equally when it comes to the days of work.

3. Overlapping day. One day a week, all six teams are scheduled to work. That's not an efficient way to use your personnel. And will the organization using the schedule have adequate capacity for that many employees working at the same time? How about when the shifts overlap for 6 hours that day? This will increase the coverage by 4 times. So if the normal coverage is 3 people, you would have 12 people at work for that six hour period. Not only is it wasteful, but I doubt that many places could accommodate that.

4. Staffing requirements. With rotating 10-hour shifts, you could achieve the same coverage with 5 teams working an average of 42 hours a week. Let's say the teams were comprised of 3 people each. The 6-team schedule shown above would require 18 employees working 40 hours a week or 720 hours a week. A 5-team schedule would require 15 employees working 42 hours a week or 630 hours a week. When you account for the overtime in the 5-team schedule, the total hours of pay would be 645 hours / week. Even with low average wages of $8/hour, the free schedule example would cost $600 a week more than the other schedule.

So you tell me, is this free schedule example really worth it? I know it's hard to believe, but there are organizations that will implement this schedule. And they'll brag about how great their new 10-hour schedule is. They haven't a clue what they're missing. I hope you aren't seduced by the lure of free schedule templates like this one.

Here's my last 10-hour shift schedule post for awhile. This is another forum comment at 911Dispatch:

"I have 9 Full Time (1 position open for total of 10) Dispatcher's and I'm trying my hardest to get us converted to 10 hour shifts. I would prefer 12 hours shifts but management is against it still at this time. I only have 3 working consoles so I would need no more than 3 on at a time and I have 3 supervisor's to account for. Any examples or ideas are VERY WELCOME!! You can email me or respond on here. My email is xxxxx! Thanks in advance!"

1. Justification. A variable workload is the only way to justify a change to 10-hour shifts to management. There is no mention of a variable workload here; just a desire to get 10-hour shifts. If you want 10-hour shifts, you have to find a way to justify the change to management. The only viable argument is that it will help us to better match our coverage with the workload.

2. Coverage. Coverage requirements are the starting point for all schedule design. All this person mentions is the maximum coverage, not the minimum. With 10 employees and a little bit of built-in overtime, this group could have 2-person coverage for 18 hours a day and 4-person coverage (when the shifts overlap) for 6 hours a day.

3. Physical capacity limitations. But wait! They can't have more than 3 people working at the same time. Now they're up a creek. When 4 people show up for 6 hours every day of the week, they'll have one person doing nothing. That's a waste. I'm not sure about the 3 supervisors. Are they in addition to the 10 dispatchers? They could have up to 6 people working during the 6 hours of overlapping shifts, but only have 3 consoles. This would be a mess.

4. Supervision. Should I repeat all the problems that 10-hour shifts create for supervision? Like crewless schedules and the need for at least 5 supervisors?

5. Schedule format. This person never mentioned whether they had fixed shifts or rotating shifts. If they changed to 10-hour shifts, this might make a difference. To achieve 2-person coverage with 10-hour rotating shifts takes 10 people working an average of 42 hours a week. To achieve 2-person coverage with 10-hour fixed shifts takes 12 people working only 40 hours a week. This is one additional area they might have to make a sacrifice just to get 10-hour shifts.

Here's another comment I read at the 911Dispatch forum from someone who wants to adopt 10-hour shifts:

"Our center has been looking into getting away from our 8 hour shifts. Most everyone here wants either 8's or 10's, 12's are out of the question for now anyways. We have 12 full time dispatchers, 3 being leads. Has anyone found a way to work a ten hour schedule with that number of people? Most of the research I've done says it is not able to be done."

I'm going to break my comments down into a couple of categories:

1. Workload. Is there ever a mention of a variable workload? No. So why are they considering 10-hour shifts? 10-hour shifts are only appropriate for organizations whose workload varies throughout the day. I suspect that the desire to adopt 10-hour shifts is merely employee preferences to get more days off and more weekends off. Unfortunately, this is insufficient justification. 10-hour shifts require some major sacrifices, so you'll need a lot more than just employee preferences to support the change. Sorry to be so blunt about it, but there are several limitations to 10-hour shifts that employees fail to recognize. Some of them will be discussed below.

2. Coverage/staffing. To provide 3-person coverage on a 24/7 basis using 10-hour shifts would require 15 employees working an average of 42 hours a week. This organization only has 12 employees. They could have 3-person coverage on one shift and 2-person coverage on the other two shifts. If they tweaked the start/end times on the shifts, they could make the overlapping shifts cover another 6 hours of the day. The end result would be 4-person coverage for 6 hours, 3-person coverage for 10 hours, and 2-person coverage for 8 hours.

3. Crews. Most 10-hour shift schedules don't use crews. They are what I refer to as "crewless" schedules. For this group, I would create a 12-week schedule. Each employee would be initially assigned to one of the 12 weeks. When they finished the first week, they would rotate to the next week of the schedule. They would continue doing this until the finished the entire schedule, at which time they would go back to the first week of the schedule.

4. Leads. There are 3 leads. If they are working 10-hour shifts and are needed at all times, the organization would need 2 more leads. Even then, they would have to work 42 hours a week on average. And they wouldn't always be working with the same set of employees. This will make it much more difficult to supervise.

5. Overtime. Sometimes people think that changing to 10-hour shifts will allow them to have a schedule with no overtime built into it. Unfortunately, that only occurs with certain levels of coverage. The most efficient 10-hour schedule will have multiples of 7 people on each shift which will produce multiples of 4-person coverage. For the 3-person coverage this organization needs, overtime would be needed to ensure consistent coverage. As with their current 8-hour schedule, they would average 42 hours per week if they had 15 employees.