Most 24/7 schedules use shift lengths that divide evenly into 24 hours, such as 8, 12 or 24-hour shifts. 10-hour shifts are rarely used because you are really covering 30 hours a day (three 10-hour shifts) which requires at least 25% more staff than the other shift lengths.

12-hour and 24-hour shift schedules normally use 3 or 4 crews. The 4-crew schedules require working an average of 42 hours a week, whereas the 3-crew schedules require working an average of 56 hours a week. The 3-crew schedules are primarily used by fire departments and remote mining facilities or offshore drilling rigs.

Most 8-hour rotating shift schedules use 4 crews and average 42 hours a week. Most 8-hour fixed shift schedules use 9 crews (3 per shift) or 12 crews (4 per shift). The 9-crew schedules average 37.3 hours a week. They can be bumped up to 40 hours, but this creates extra coverage on one day every week. The 12-crew schedules average 42 hours a week. It's possible to create an 8-hour schedule with 40 hours every week, but this requires additional staff and creates extra (unnecessary) coverage several days a week.

Other websites often show examples of popular 24/7 work patterns, e.g., Continental, Pitman, DuPont, 6-on-3-off, 4-on-2-off, etc. You get the impression that these schedule templates are good for any group that works around-the-clock. All you need to do is choose the option you like best. Unfortunately, this is highly misleading if you want to have an effective schedule. Here are the reasons why:

• Coverage. Many organizations don’t need the same number of people working at all times. Yet the free templates found on the Internet produce constant coverage.
  
  
• Staffing. If your staff size doesn’t match the number of crews in the schedule, this will result in uneven coverage. Although a template looks attractive, it might require more employees than other, more efficient patterns.
  
  
• Pay Week. Each template works best for a certain overtime / pay week, e.g., Sunday to Saturday. Some schedules can be modified, but some can't. This can result unbalanced work week hours and a loss of weekends off for employees.
  

So, if popular work patterns aren't always the best 24/7 shift schedule, what should you do? Here are the steps we follow:

• Start with the workload and coverage requirements. How many people do you need at work on each shift? Does this stay the same all week? This is the starting point for all schedule design efforts. 
   
• Do you have enough staff? Overtime often may need to be built into the schedule to avoid additional hiring. If there is more staff than necessary, we'll show you different ways to utilize them.
  
  
• We then evaluate your schedule preferences to see if they're feasible. If the resources are adequate, we start the actual shift schedule design. We always try to show you multiple approaches as well as multiple patterns for each approach. The goal is to satisfy your specifications and explore possibilities you may not have considered.

Don't be fooled by free schedule templates. Yeah, they're cheap and look appealing, but they're not necessarily going to make the best use of your staff. And they may not give them as many weekends off as other approaches. Please check with us first. You and your employees will be glad you did.

 

Here are links to articles I've written about 10-hour shift schedules:

 

1. 10-hour shifts

 

2. 10-hour shifts for 24/7 coverage

3. 10-hour shifts in 24/7 operations (staffing and templates)

4. 10-hour shifts in 24/7 operations

5. 10-hour shift schedules for police management

6. 10-hour shift schedules for police officers

7. 10-hour shifts vs. 12-hour shifts

 

8. Four 10-hour shifts for 24/7 coverage

Do you have enough staff to adopt 10s? Here's a calculator that will quickly tell you how many people are needed:

 

1. Staffing Calculator

 

 

Unlike 8-hour and 12-hour shifts, we don't sell packages of schedule examples for 10-hour shifts. That's because they have to be custom designed for each situation. Please contact us to see how we can help:

 

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I just got an email from someone searching for a 10-hour rotating shift schedule for a company that worked 18/7. He needed 2-person coverage on the day shift and 1-person coverage on the evening shift. I gave him a quote of $150 for two different options. His reply was: "I’m sorry Bruce, I'm not paying $150 for the schedules. Is there anywhere you can point me to find something similar online. Had a hard time finding anything until I came across your ad."

 

I'm sure this happens all the time. This guy was brave enough to say what all the others were probably thinking: "Why pay, when you can find schedules online for free." They just don't see the value in paying for professional scheduling assistance. They think they can either figure it out themselves or find schedule examples on the internet.

 

While it's possible to find schedules on the internet, rarely are they matched to the staff size, coverage requirements, scheduling approach, or pay week. That means the schedules won't work properly and the users will have to live with sub-standard results. Worst of all, they'll never realize that they could've had something far better.

 

So how do I communicate the value of professional scheduling help? I can't compare my recommended schedules with whatever they came up with. If people are willing to live with a schedule that doesn't produce the right coverage or doesn't provide something attractive for the workers, how can I convince them that spending $150 or $300 would have avoided these problems. 

 

I've been charging the same prices for over 20 years now. And my clients tell me they love what they got. They especially like the fact that they got multiple options and approaches to compare them and weigh the pros and cons. If you want to see the best possible schedule with more than one pattern, and you're willing to pay a small fee, please contact me. Here's a link to a form that has all the questions I'll need answered.

 

CONTACT US

 

 

 

Your group needs a new work schedule for the employees. So where do you start? Most people go to the internet and search for free schedule examples. Why not? There must be tons of schedule templates to choose from, right? Let's take a look.

 

You search for "free schedule templates." You get page after page of websites that sell scheduling software or offer blank forms and formatted spreadsheets. Some feature common work patterns for 8, 10 or 12-hour shifts. The question is: will any of these schedules work for you?

 

The best work schedules must be designed around specific staff sizes and pay weeks. If you don't have the same parameters as the free template, you could end up with coverage that is inadequate or inconsistent from day-to-day, unnecessary overtime, and fewer weekends off.

 

Yes, you can make some of these schedule templates to work for you. It could be as simple as changing the days of the week to match your pay week. In some cases, you might have to tweak the work pattern to make it work properly. And sometimes, nothing will help. For example, how do you use a pattern intended for 4 crews when you have 11 employees or how do you use a 12-hour shift schedule when your coverage varies in 8-hour increments or you need different coverage on the weekends? 

 

Wouldn't it be better to find schedules matched to your unique circumstances? We think so. That's why we custom-design schedules around your requirements and preferences. We also show you alternative approaches/options so you can compare them and let your employees debate the pros and cons of each one.

 

Don't pick a template just because some other company is using it or a few employees recommended it. It might be free, but it could cost you a bundle (though you'd never realize it). Get started today with schedules designed by an expert. Schedules that are matched to your situation. Schedules that make optimal use of your staff and offer maximum weekends off. Click on the link below:

  

CONTACT US

 

[Please note that a similar version of this appeared in Industry Week. It was written by Bruce Oliver and Dan Capshaw]

 

If you ask a group of shiftworkers to describe their ideal shift schedule, you'll probably hear statements like these:

• “Monday through Friday with 8-hour day shifts.”
• “Monday through Thursday with 10-hour day shifts.”
• “Thursdays only -- so I can pick up my check.”
• “I’ll just stay home, and you can mail me the check!”

These statements illustrate how much value shiftworkers place on their time-off. In fact, if compensation is unaffected, time-off is the shift worker’s primary consideration when comparing alternative shift schedules. Having adequate time-off 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.

 

There are four types of time-off that employees consider when evaluating a shift schedule:

• Weekends off
• Total days off
• Daily time off
• Consecutive days off

We will examine the schedule attributes that drive these four different types of time-off, supplementing this discussion with statistics from our surveys of over 20,000 shiftworkers working 24/7 schedules.

 

 

Weekends Off

 

Of the four types of time off, the number of weekends off is the usually the most important. The desire to increase the number of weekends off is a common reason for adopting longer shifts. The graph below shows the maximum number of full weekends off (Saturday and Sunday together) per year that are possible with 8-hour and 12-hour shifts (13 versus 26 weekends off).

 

Of course, the actual number of full weekends off depends on more than just shift length. Other factors include the number of consecutive days worked, the pattern of on-off work days, the amount of overtime, and the day the pay week begins. But, as a general rule, longer shifts will enable workers to get more full weekends off.

 

A key consideration with weekends off is predictability. Most shift workers (82% in the survey database) are willing to work their fair share of weekends. They simply want sufficient advance notice and no last-minute changes. This allows them to make plans for the weekend and not have to worry about getting an unexpected weekend assignment.

 

 

Total Days Off

 

Many shift workers also favor schedules that offer more total days off overall. As shown in the chart below, 12-hour shifts provide twice as many days off each year (compared to 8-hour shifts) for the same number of hours worked each week (182 days off versus 91 days off). 

The substantial increase in days off is one of the reasons three-quarters of all shift workers prefer to work longer shifts. This is shown in the chart below:

 

 

 

Daily Time-Off

 

The third type of time-off is the number of hours off on the days of work. As seen in figure above, a quarter of the shift workers prefer shorter work days even though they would have to work more days a week. Shiftworkers who are older, have childcare concerns, are going to school, have second jobs, or participate in other non-work activities on workdays often prefer 8-hour or 8&12-hour shift schedules so they can have more “free” time each day.

 

 

Consecutive Days Off

 

The fourth type of time-off is the number of consecutive days off in the schedule. In the figure below, you can see that most shift workers prefer to work several days and then take a long break, i.e. get more consecutive days off. In general, there are two ways to get more consecutive days off. One way is to work 12-hour shifts. The other is to work longer stretches of days in a row.

 

With 8-hour shifts, a schedule that is based on working 7 shifts in-a-row can offer up to one 4-day break every month. With 12-hour shifts, a schedule that is based on working 3 and 4 shifts in-a-row can offer up to a 7 or 8-day break every month.

 

 

Discussion

 

It is clear that shift workers place a high value on their time-off. This is what enables them to reach a balance between work and their personal lives. What is not clear, however, is which type of time-off the schedule should emphasize. Should the schedule have 12-hour shifts to provide more weekends off and more total days off? Should the schedule mix 8-hour and 12-hour shifts to satisfy both those who want more weekends off and those who want more time off each day of work? Should it have longer stretches of days worked in a row to provide more consecutive days off?

 

While recognizing that each work site will have its own unique set of preferences, our surveys offer some additional insight into this dilemma. With each of our clients, we show the workers several different schedule options that satisfy the client’s business coverage requirements. By educating employees about the various possibilities, we enable them to make more informed choices from the schedule alternatives.

 

The options we show employees typically include one or more 8-hour, 10-hour (infrequently because they are not a good match with most 24/7 operations), 8&12-hour, and 12-hour schedules. Although the schedules for each shift length may differ from site to site, the results indicate a much stronger preference for schedules that incorporate 12-hour shifts.

 

 

Summary

 

When managers face the possibility of changing shift schedules, it is beneficial to be familiar with the schedule features that offer employees the best opportunities for work/life balance. This doesn’t replace the need to survey the workforce to determine their unique schedule preferences, but it does provide insights that will be valuable during the change process.

 

Although 75% of the shift workers would rather work longer shifts in order to get more days off, this does not always mean that 12-hour shifts are best. Some workers place a greater value on the hours off each day instead of the number of days off each week. Other schedule features such as the number of consecutive days of work are equally important in helping some individuals realize the type of time-off they prefer. Despite these qualifications, 12-hour shifts are clearly a favorite, gaining the highest ratings at nearly every organization we’ve worked with.

When employees say that want better “work-life balance,” they are really expressing a desire for more time off from work. They want a work schedule that offers more days off, especially weekends off. This usually requires changing to 10 or 12-hour shifts. Even though this means longer work days, many employees feel the extra time off is worth it.

We showed employees examples of 24/7 schedules using different shift lengths and asked them to rate the different shift lengths. Here are the results:

Ratings definitions:

 

     5 = I like it a lot

     4 = It has potential to be good

     3 = Neutral or not sure

     2 = It doesn't look promising

     1 = I don't like it

 

Are you surprised? If you simply asked your employees whether they wanted 8-hour or 12-hour shifts, you'd probably hear 80% saying they'd prefer 8-hour shifts. But if they saw the actual schedules, 12-hour schedules would likely come out on top. So please don't fall into this trap of thinking your group doesn't want 12-hour shifts. You have to show them actual schedule examples so they can make a truly informed decision.

 

The same goes for 10-hour shifts. Not only are the 10-hour schedules less attractive than the 12s, but you run into a bunch of problems. I've written many, many articles about this. Please do a search on this website for 10-hour shifts if you want to read a few of them.

 

In addition to more days off, employees also tend to prefer longer breaks between work days. Here are more results from our surveys of shiftworkers in 24/7 operations:

 

The demand for schedules that will improve work like balance makes it critical that you show your employees examples of both 12-hour and 8-hour schedules with more consecutive work days. This way, they can see and better judge whether the increased time off is worth the longer shifts OR the need to work more days in a row. Let us show you a few examples of each to make it easy for you to accomplish this. Get started here:

 

Contact Us

 

 

 

 

In surveys of more than 20K shiftworkers, we asked them about their shift length preferences for 24/7 coverage. We did it in a way to avoid directly mentioning specific shift lengths as shown in the graph below:

We found that asking specific shift lengths did not give reliable answers since it was based on perceptions rather than actual schedules. When we showed the shiftworkers actual schedule examples using different shift lengths, here is how they responded:

Ratings definitions:

     5 = I like it a lot

     4 = It has potential to be good

     3 = neutral or not sure

     2 = It doesn't look promising

     1 = I don't like it

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

 

 

When covering 24/7 with 10-hour shifts, most people think it takes three shifts since you would simply be replacing the three 8-hour shifts. The problem with three 10-hour shifts is that you are really covering 30/7 which can increase the staffing requirements by 25% or more.

 

For example, suppose you need 2-person coverage on every shift. With 8-hour fixed shifts, this would require 9 employees (3 per shift). With 10-hour fixed shifts, it would take 12 employees (4 on each shift). This is a 33% increase in the staffing, making it unaffordable for most organizations.

 

This is not the case for all situations, however. Let's say you needed 2 people on the day and afternoon shifts and only 1 person on the night shift. WIth 8-hour fixed shifts, this would require 8 employees. With three 10-hour fixed shifts, this would require 10 employees. But if you used FOUR 10-hour shifts, it would only require 8 employees. Here's one way to match that.

 

Assign 2 people to each of the following four 10-hour shifts.

 

 

This would produce 2-person coverage from 6 am to 10 pm and 1-person coverage from 10 pm to 6 am. With 2 people on each shift, there would be one day every week in which both people are scheduled to work (since everyone is working 4 shifts or 40 hours per week). This would give you 4-person coverage from 6a to 10p and 2-person coverage from 10p to 6a on that one day every week. You could use this extra coverage for group meetings, training or other purposes.

 

This approach only works if the coverage for 16 hours a day is double the coverage for the remaining 8 hours. So it would work if you needed 2-person/1-person, 4-person/2-person, 6-person/3-person, 8-person/4-person and so on.

 

If you want to get really complicated, you could boost the coverage on one shift. This would give you extra coverage for that 10-hour period. For instance, you could assign 4 people to the afternoon shift. This would give you 2-person coverage from 6a to 12p, 3-person coverage from 12p to 10p, and 1-person coverage from 10p to 6a.

 

Obviously, this can get really complicated. If you are dead-set on adopting 10-hour shifts, why not contact us for help. Get started by filling out this form:

 

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