There are always two different perspectives when it comes to shift schedules. One is that of the employees who have to work the schedule. The other is that of management who represent the organization and its business requirements. Most people seem to only think about themselves, and ignore the other side's point of view. If you want to change your group's schedule, it is important to be familiar with both perspectives.

Employee Perspective
Employees tend to focus on time off. They want to maximize time off, especially the weekends. This explains the popularity of longer shifts, like 10-hour and 12-hour shifts. Having more time off from work allows them to have a life outside of work, i.e. the ability to balance their lives at work with their lives away from work (work-life balance).

Employees also are concerned with fairness. They understand that seniority may be used to assign employees to the different shifts. But they are intolerant of favoritism and unequal treatment when it comes to things like overtime distribution, vacation time off, or the days people are scheduled to work.

Employees prefer schedules that are consistent. If they are constantly being called in from a day off, they will resent this. If they don't know until the last minute whether they have to work on the weekend, morale will suffer. Employees want a predictable schedule so they know they can count on their scheduled days off. That way they can make plans for things outside of work.

What employees don't recognize is that a new schedule using longer shifts must produce some benefits for the organization too. If they want a new schedule, it's not enough to simply talk about how they will benefit. That's not adequate justification for management. Instead, they need to identify how the new schedule will help the organization. Let's take a look at the things management is concerned with.

Management Perspective
Managers tend to focus on three things: coverage, cost, and supervision. Let's look at each of these in more detail.

Ideally the coverage is closely matched to the workload. If the work volumes are constant throughout the day (as in an assembly line), the coverage should be the same on all shifts. Employees seeking 10-hour shifts fail to recognize that the shifts overlap for 6 hours a day, which would double the coverage during those hours. With a steady workload, it is wasteful to have all that extra coverage for 6 hours every day.

On the other hand, if the workload varies by time of day, as it often does in law enforcement and communication centers/dispatch units, the extra coverage might be beneficial. This may require some clever scheduling tricks such as two separate schedules that start 6 hours apart or a 4-shift schedule. If the workload has three distinct levels (e.g., moderate during daylight hours, heavy during evening hours, and light during nighttime hours), neither 10-hour or 12-hour shifts would be a good fit. The top priority is to achieve the best possible match of coverage with the workload.

A related factor is the organization's absence rate. If the employees are given generous amounts of paid time off, the organization has three alternatives to maintain adequate coverage: (1) use overtime to cover any absences, (2) build relief time into the schedule itself, or (3) boost the coverage on each shift . This is such a big topic, I'll save it for another post.

The second concern of management is cost. There are two major components: (1) staff size, and (2) average hours of work. Many public organizations believe that any hours over 40 are evil and must be avoided because of the overtime premiums. This is another big topic that I will save for a future post. So let's talk about staff size. 

Most 12-hour schedules require the same number or fewer employees than 8-hour schedules. Most 10-hour schedules require 25% more personnel than 8-hour shifts. Most fixed shift schedules require a few more personnel than rotating shift schedules. These are broad generalizations, so don't take them as gospel. It's usually best to discuss your requirements with a professional before making a schedule change.

The third management concern is supervision. Changing to a new schedule may require a different crew configuration. If you had a 4-crew schedule with 8-hour rotating shifts, you might neeed 12 crews with 8-hour fixed shifts. Or you might need 21 crews with a 10-hour shift schedule. Or you might end up with a schedule that has no crews. How do you handle the supervisory situation in these cases?

Every situation is unique, so it's difficult to lay out a set of rules or conclusions. The point is that a schedule change will affect employees differently than it will affect management. If you are a shiftworker seeking a new schedule, you will have to figure out how the change will benefit the organization. If you are manager seeking a new schedule, you will have to determine how the change will benefit the employees. With large organizations, the use of a neutral facilitator is often the best approach. With smaller organizations, the use of a professional schedule designer may be all that is needed.