Why? Focusing on work patterns or schedule templates does not address the primary purpose of the schedule, namely to match the coverage with the workload. Since most police departments don’t have steady work volumes, it’s essential that the schedule reflect this. The ideal schedule will produce higher coverage when the group is busiest and less coverage when it’s not.

So how do you accomplish that? Here’s an example of how I approach the design of police schedules.

Background

A small police department contacted me for help with their schedule. They had 15 officers and wanted to adopt 10-hour fixed shifts.

Hourly Workload

My first step was to gather information on the work volume by time of day. The Chief gave me a table showing the number of incidents over the past year. I calculated the averages for each one-hour period of the day, which are shown below.

This department is busiest from 12 noon to 7 p.m. and slowest from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. Given their limited budget, I decided to only show them two different approaches:

• Approach #1: two 12-hour shifts with one 8-hour overlay shift from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. - which increases coverage on their busy period
• Approach #2: four 10-hour shifts - so the overlaps run from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. - which reduces coverage on their slow period

Daily Workload

The next step was to see if the workload varied from day to day. Here are the average number of incidents that I calculated from the Chief’s data.

The daily variations were nowhere near as large as the hourly variations, suggesting that steady coverage throughout the week would be okay. In many police departments, Friday and Saturday are often busier and therefore warrant custom-designed work patterns featuring higher coverage on those two days. That was not the case for this client.

Shift Assignments

I allocated the 15 officers to the shifts as follows:

• Approach #1 (8&12-hour shifts):
  • 12-hour day shift = 6
  • 12-hour night shift = 6
  • 8-hour overlay shift = 3
• Approach #2 (10-hour shifts):
  • First 3 shifts = 4 each
  • Last shift = 3

Schedule Details

For each approach, I created 2-3 options showing different work patterns. I’m skipping all the schedule details, like shift start/end times and work patterns, and jumping to resulting coverage, since these are only applicable to this particular situation.

Coverage

Conclusions

By starting the schedule design process with the workload (rather than desired shift lengths or popular schedule patterns), I identified two approaches that would match the coverage with the workload. After allocating the staff to the shifts, I generated a few different work patterns so the organization could evaluate the trade-offs and choose the one that most people preferred.

Had the Chief kept their existing 8-hour work pattern, the coverage would have varied between 3 and 4 people around the clock. Had he found a 10-hour work pattern using just 3 shifts, the coverage would have varied between 2 and 3 people. Would they have been happy with these? Maybe - not knowing that superior options were out there. 

By hiring me, they not only discovered different approaches, but also were given alternative patterns for each approach. They were able to show these options to the officers, so they could voice their opinions and secure a more widely acceptable solution. The organization got a more effective schedule and the officers appreciated being involved in the schedule selection process and the opportunity to choose from multiple options.

I will show one example for 1-person coverage. Here's a common pattern for rotating shifts:

This pattern requires 4 employees working an average of 42 hours a week. Now here's one example

of a fixed shift pattern with 8-hour fixed shifts:

This pattern requires 6 people (2 per shift). Every Mon, Tue, and Wed two people are scheduled to work.

That's why I showed some of them with asterisks. They aren't needed for the 1-person coverage, but they 

are needed to ensure everyone gets 40 hours of work each week.

8-hour fixed shifts don't always require more staff. When the coverage is a multiple of 3 (e.g., 3, 6, 9 etc.)

they require the same as 8-hour rotating shift schedules. For everything else, they require more staff. Not a lot, 

but always a few more.

• 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 8-hour shift schedules:

1. 8-hour fixed shift schedules

2. 8-hour rotating shift schedules

3. 8-hour shift schedules with no built-in overtime

4. 8-hour shift schedules for 24/7 coverage

5. Mixing 8-hour shifts and 12-hour shifts

If you are looking for examples of 8-hour schedules for 24/7 coverage:

1. Package of ten different 8-hour rotating shift schedules

2. Package of five different 8-hour fixed shift schedules with coverage in 3-person increments

If you have any of these conditions, you will need a custom-designed schedule:

1. Your company's hours of operation are less than 24/7

2. Your coverage varies by day of the day, e.g., 4-person coverage on weekdays and 2-person coverage on weekends

3. Your coverage is not a multiple of 3, e.g., you need 2-person coverage

Request help with a custom-designed schedule

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

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

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:

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

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.

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

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

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

WIth fixed shifts, you can adopt a schedule that has fixed days of work or rotating days of work. A fixed-fixed schedule means you work the same days every week on the same shift. A fixed-rotating schedule means you always work the same shift, but the days change from week-to-week, usually following a set pattern.

Employees like the predictability of a fixed-fixed schedule. It's easy to plan the rest of your life around it. Surveys of shiftworkers found that predictability is the most important schedule feature, higher than weekends off, coverage for vacations, ability to get overtime, maximum time off, and others. You can read more about this here:  Schedule Predictability.

Fixed day schedules are frequently used in police departments and companies that operate less than 24/7, especially those that have a lot of part-time employees. With police, the officers bid on both the shift and the set of days worked. This is usually done once a year. They do this to reward seniority, since the most senior officers get the "best" schedules.

I've run into a number of medical facilities that create a new schedule every week. The most senior people have a fixed set of days they work. The scheduler then contacts everyone else to fill in the gaps. This is the absolute worst way to schedule. Not only is it a lot of work for the scheduler, but the junior employees never know when they will be working until just before the week begins.

With companies using part-time employees, fixed days makes it easier to find and schedule the part-time workers. They can work around their school schedules or other part-time jobs. They are often forced to build the entire schedule around the availability of a few key, part-time people.

The biggest problem with schedules using fixed days of work is that the employees are not treated the equally. Some people get both the shift they prefer AND every weekend off. Others (usually the newest, least-senior folks) get the worst shift and have to work every weekend. Double ouch! You can read more about this here:  Fairness.

Most of the schedules I design feature rotating days of work. The schedule follows a multi-week pattern. If you look at the 24/7 schedules examples that I sell (Schedule Examples), you'll find various options with 8 or 12-hour shifts that follow a pattern that lasts anywhere from 2 weeks to 20 weeks. When I custom design schedules, I usually match the length of the pattern to the number of employees on a shift. For example, if there are 5 people on a shift, I would create a 5-week pattern.

With rotating days of work, every employee on a shift is treated exactly the same. For example, with 5 people on an 8-hour shift, all 5 will get the same number of weekends off (maybe 1 or 2 weekends off every 5 weeks). They are all working the same pattern. It's just that they are in different weeks of that 5-week pattern. You are still rewarding seniority by allowing the most senior employees to bid on the shift they prefer. To me, this is best for everyone.

These companies don't realize that it's possible to adopt a schedule with both 8 and 12-hour shifts. You simply create a 12-hour pattern that covers 24/7 and provides the coverage needed on the shift with the lowest workload (usually the night shift). Then you overlay that with one or two 8-hour shifts during the busier times of the day.

Here's an example. Suppose you need 4 people working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 2 people at all other times. You would adopt a 12-hour schedule that produces 2-person coverage on both shifts and overlay that with a single 8-hour day shift that produces 2-person coverage. The combination produces the exact coverage needed: 4 people from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 2 people from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Here's another example. You need 4 people from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 2 people the rest of the day. You would use a 12-hour schedule with 2-person coverage on both shifts. Then you would overlay that with two 8-hour shifts, each with 2-person coverage. That would give you 4-person coverage during the entire busy period.

Employees don't really like 8-hour schedules. They don't get many days off, they have to work a lot of consecutive shifts, and most importantly they don't get many weekends off. Why not give some of the employees a better schedule using 12-hour shifts. Not everyone will like the 12s, so they can stay on one of the overlay shifts. This seems like a perfect solution. You're not making everyone switch to 12s, and you're offering an option to improve work-life balance for those willing to change.

Why don't you give us call to see how this might work for your organization? We can show you a few different options with all 8-hour shifts as well as a few options with both 8 and 12-hour shifts. Click on this link and fill out the form to get started:  Request Quote

I started by showing the Chief what the current schedule looked like on a spreadsheet. It's a 6-week pattern with 6 teams working an average of 56 hours a week. The only way to get rid of the overtime is to add more staff. Shall I repeat that? The ONLY WAY to get rid of the overtime is by hiring more staff. Not changing the shift length. Not changing the work pattern. MORE EMPLOYEES is the only way.

With his coverage requirements (4 people at all times), the current schedule required 12 employees. By increasing the staff to 16, they could lower the average hours worked to 42 hours/week. It didn't matter whether they used 8-hour, 12-hour, or 24-hour shifts. All three approaches (with the exception of 8-hour fixed shifts, which would require 18 people) would need 16 employees averaging 42 hours a week.

What the city folks should have asked was:

1. Would adding 4 more employees cost less than the current approach (12 employees at 56 hours/week vs. 16 employees at 42 hours/week)?
   
   
2. And, if it is, is it worth disrupting the workforce and causing numerous personnel issues?

Overtime is really a substitute for staffing. In 24/7 operations, a little overtime can save a bundle. In this city's case, the answer is not so clear. However, the belief that changing to a different shift length would eliminate the overtime is not accurate. The only way to lower the overtime would be to hire more staff. 

• Picking 10-hour or 12-hour shifts when the workload varies in 8-hour increments.
• Using a schedule with constant coverage when their workload varies from shift-to-shift.
• Selecting a schedule pattern (e.g., 4-on-2-off) that requires 6 people per shift, when they have something else.
• Picking a schedule that requires 18 people when other options only require 16.
• Adopting a schedule that is great for day shift, but terrible for night shift.

I'm sure there are plenty of other possibilities, but you get the idea. Many people forget that the primary purpose of the schedule is to match the coverage with the workload. To achieve that goal, you need to start with the number of people needed at different times of the day throughout the week. In many cases, this will limit which shift lengths are feasible. You can read more about that here (Shift Length Selection (shift-schedule-design.com). 

Once you have the shift length(s) established, you need to find or create a pattern that will produce the desired coverage with minimal resources and with maximum weekends off. There is no way that an internet search will ever help with that. 

What do most people do? They find a schedule or create one that they think looks good, adopt it, and live with a mediocre solution, never aware that other approaches or work patterns would have been far superior. They avoid hiring a scheduling expert to save a few hundred dollars and end up costing the organization more than that every week because they got a solution for free. 

Wouldn't it be better to have someone with scheduing expertise go over your situation, show you alternative approaches (e.g., 8-hour fixed shifts vs. combined 8 and 12-hour fixed shifts), and lay out a few different work patterns for each approach? Since the options would all be in the same format, they would be easy to compare and evaluate. You could show them to your workers and let them debate the pros and cons of each option. This is way scheduling should be done.

Click on this link and fill out the form to get started today: (Request a quote for custom schedule design (shift-schedule-design.com)

I told him that he didn't need to hire more staff'; he needed a different schedule. 8-hour fixed shift schedules are not very efficient, especially in small groups like his. In his case, they would provide 1-person coverage 4 days a week and 2-person coverage 3 days a week. To ensure every other weekend was off, the double coverage was scheduled for weekdays only. Since most absences occurred on the weekends (when they only had 1-person coverage), they were forced to use overtime to avoid gaps in the coverage.

When choosing the best scheduling approach, he and his officers would have to make a tradeoff between shift length and format (fixed vs. rotating shifts) when selecting a new schedule. If having fixed shifts was most important schedule feature, they should adopt a 12-hour fixed shift schedule. If having 8-hour shifts was most important, they should adopt an 8-hour rotating shift schedule. Either approach would free up capacity to cover absences without excessive overtime. Flexible relief time could then be built right into the schedule.

With the12-hour fixed shifts, 3 officers would be assigned to each shift. Each shift would have a 3-week schedule in which one week was devoted to relief coverage and the other two weeks were devoted to the required coverage. They would have to work an average of 42 hours a week. Yes, overtime would be required, but a total of 12 hours per week for the entire group is all they would need. 

With the 8-hour rotating shifts, the 6 officers would work a 6-week schedule in which two weeks were devoted to relief coverage and 4 weeks were devoted to the required coverage. They would also average 42 hours a week.

The Chief said he'd have to think about it. He was hesitant to do this because the city was opposed to having employees work more than 40 hours a week and the officers were opposed to changing schedules. I never heard from him again. I suppose he's still incurring overtime every time someone is absent, having poor coverage, or maybe still searching for ideas on how to fix this. Or maybe he hired another officer. So he is either spending $60K a year for a 7th officer (wages + benefits) or $80K on overtime. What would you do?

Unfortunately, this can be in direct conflict with the common employer goal of maximizing employee utilization. For work schedules, this means achieving maximum coverage for the lowest possible cost. In 24/7 operations, “lowest cost” often requires keeping the headcount as low as possible and adopting a schedule that averages 42 hours a week (Why Eliminating Overtime in 24/7 Schedules Can Be Costly).

Thus, when it comes to choosing the best work schedule, management and the workers have different goals. Employees focus on the time off. Managers focus on minimizing headcount and cost. So, how do you strike a balance between these opposing points of view?

If you start from the employee perspective, you could end up with something that the employer just can’t afford. A good example is a company that works 24/7 and has a relatively steady workload. The employees want to change from 8-hour shifts to 10-hour shifts. This would require the company to hire 25% more staff (10 hour shifts). For most companies, this is clearly infeasible.

But, if you ignore what the employees want, you risk having high turnover, increased absences, and reduced productivity. As Mike Michalko recently commented on my website, “Too little emphasis on the employee leads to turnover and the high costs associated with onboarding and training. This is aggravated with needed positions in a highly competitive job market. If an employer doesn't address employee satisfaction, they'll end up training someone else's workforce.”

So, where do you start? I think it’s important to reflect on the reason you have a schedule in the first place. Most people think of the schedule as an on-off work pattern for a specific shift length, for example, a 5-on-3-off pattern for 8-hour shifts or a 2-3-2 pattern for 12-hour shifts. While it's true that the shift length and work pattern are essential components of the schedule, they don’t explain why the schedule is needed. 

 
The real purpose of the schedule is to ensure proper coverage:  the right number of people with the right skills at the right time and place. If the coverage isn’t adequate or matched to regular variations in the workload, the group won’t be able to provide the amount or quality of product/service expected by its customers. The schedule ensures that the organization effectively fulfills its purpose of satisfying the needs of its customers.

Therefore, the top priority for the schedule must be to maintain a level of coverage that matches customer demand. In most cases, more than one approach (usually different shift lengths) is possible. I’ve previously discussed how the hours of operation and the workload variability dictate the best choice of shift length(s):  (Shift Length Selection).

As an example, consider a company that operates 24/7 and needs 2 people working at all times. They first have to decide whether to use fixed shifts and rotating shifts. As a general rule, employees prefer fixed shifts whereas employers prefer rotating shifts (Fixed shifts vs. rotating shifts). In this example, we’ll assume they choose fixed shifts. Next, they have a choice between 8-hour shifts or 12-hour shifts. The 8-hour fixed shifts will require 9 employees working an average of 37.3 hours a week, whereas the 12-hour fixed shifts will require 8 employees averaging 42 hours a week. They decide to narrow the search to these two approaches.

For each approach, several different work patterns are possible. These patterns will vary in terms of the number of consecutive days of work and the nature of the days off. In general, the longer the blocks of work days, the longer the blocks of days off and the longer the weekends off.

Once the alternative patterns are developed, the company should involve the employees who will be working the schedule (Strategic Schedulers Enjoy Remarkable Success). The workers must choose between longer days of work more time off. They also must choose between longer blocks of work days and longer blocks of days off. The majority will decide how important work-life balance is and what sacrifices they are willing to make to achieve it.

To summarize, these are the recommended steps in changing employee work schedules:

1.       Establish the organization’s coverage requirements by time of day and by day of the week. Do you need the same number of people all day long? Maybe there is less work during the nighttime. Do you need the same number of people throughout the week? Maybe there is less work during the weekends. Here’s an example for a company that works 24/7:

2.       Identify different approaches (usually two different shift lengths) that will efficiently achieve the organization’s coverage requirements. The hours of operation and regular workload variations will play a key role in this step. Approaches that are highly inefficient will not be considered, e.g., unnecessary double coverage or excessive staffing requirements.

3.       Find alternative work patterns for each approach. Alternatives will vary the number of consecutive days of work, which will affect the amount and the nature of the time off.

4.       Involve employees in the review of all the options and final selection of the schedule. This gives them the opportunity to decide whether the improved time off is worth the (a) longer days of work, (b) more consecutive days of work, and/or (c) the average weekly hours of work.

Although work-life balance is not the starting point when changing work schedules, it is addressed by identifying different approaches/patterns that satisfy the coverage requirements, and then allowing employees to review, discuss, and vote on their preferred option. Shift Schedule Design can help you find the best approaches and associated work patterns. Please click on the link below to get started:

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·         8-Hour Rotating Shifts (shift-schedule-design.com)

·         8-Hour Fixed Shift Schedules (shift-schedule-design.com)

The problem is that few companies have enough resources to make the change to 10-hour shifts. If you are simply replacing your three 8-hour shifts with three 10-hour shifts, your coverage will be reduced by 25%. For example, if your current 8-hour schedule produces 4-person coverage, a new 10-hour schedule would reduce that to 3-person coverage. 

Why is that? Let’s look at a simple example with rotating shift schedules. Here’s a popular 8-hour pattern called the Continental.

8-Hour Shifts

Key:

D8 = 8-hour day shift

A8 = 8-hour afternoon shift

N8 = 8-hour night shift

This is a 4-week, rotating schedule operated by 4 crews. When the schedule first starts, the crews are assigned to specific weeks in the cycle. Crew A is assigned to start in Week 1, Crew B is assigned to start in Week 2, and so on. At the end of each week, the crews rotate down to the next week in the cycle. Crew A moves to Week 2, Crew B moves to Week 3, etc. When a crew completes the 4th week, they rotate up to Week 1. 

Yes, this is a terrible schedule to work. You work 7 shifts in a row and you have to change shifts every 2-3 days. Worst of all, you only get one weekend off every 4 weeks. 

You'll notice that there is a D8, A8, and N8 under each of the days of the week. This means one crew is scheduled to work each shift, all week long. Maybe not the same crew, but there will always be one crew scheduled for each shift. If the total staff is 16 people, each crew would have 4 employees. That means there would be 4 people at work at all times on a 24/7 basis.

Now let's see what happens if you change to a 10-hour rotating shift schedule.

10-hour Shifts

Changing to 10-hour shifts requires creating a 5^th crew and it doesn’t get rid of the overtime in the schedule. There are better patterns than this one that would give you 2 weekends off every 5 weeks. I can show you options that do this, but not for free.

Since the staff size (16) hasn't changed, four of the crews will only have 3 people and one will have 4 people. This means the coverage will now be only 3 instead of the 4 you had with the 8-hour shifts.

The positives of the 10-hour schedule for employees are that you get more days off (3 days a week for 4 out of 5 weeks) and more weekends off (up to 2 weekends off every 5 weeks). Negatives are the smaller breaks and the change in absence coverage.

With 10-hour shifts, you can't hold people over to cover an absence like you did with 8s. Absences have to be covered by calling people into work who are scheduled to be off. As an employee, you could end up working 5 or more shifts a week depending on the absence rate and whether you had any extra capacity before making this change.

The key question of course is whether it’s worth switching to 10-hour shifts. Increasing the average hours of work by 25% or hiring 25% more employees is hard to justify. Reducing the coverage by 25% is not a good choice either. Would the employees benefit that much? Maybe, maybe not. I find it pretty hard to justify.  

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve written plenty of articles about how to use the 6 hours a day that 10-hour shifts overlap to match the coverage to a variable workload. 10-hour shifts do have a place, if you can afford it. It’s been my experience that few smaller organizations (less than 50 employees) can do it.

Here is another article about 10-hour shifts with links to several of the other articles I've written on this topic: 10-hour Shifts.

In this article, we will look at the two key features of 8-hour rotating shift schedules: (1) consecutive days of work, and (2) speed of rotation.

Consecutive Days of Work

As a general rule, the more consecutive days of work, the longer the breaks (days off) and the more frequent the weekends off. Unfortunately, when you increase the days of work, sleep debt accumulates. Choosing from different work patterns thus involves a tradeoff between increased fatigue and more attractive time off.

The Continental shift schedule, one of the earliest and most popular patterns, required working 7 shifts in a row before getting 2 or 3 days off. This schedule had one full weekend off every 4 weeks.

Many employees found that working 7 consecutive shifts was too much, so they insisted on working fewer days in a row. A pattern with 6 consecutive shifts (the Metropolitan Plan) only offered one weekend off every 8 weeks. A pattern with 5 consecutive shifts only offered one weekend off every 10 weeks, and those occurred back-to-back, so that employees would have to go 18 weeks without a weekend off. Ouch!

Here's a table that compares 4 most common patterns:

Speed of Rotation

Some employees prefer to rotate quickly from shift-to-shift. That way, they don’t have to work a bunch of night shifts all at once. The Continental is a good example of a fast rotation. Here’s what that pattern looks like:

Key:

D8 = 8-hour day shift

A8 = 8-hour afternoon shift

N8 = 8-hour night shift

This is a 4-week, rotating schedule operated by four crews. When the schedule first starts, the crews are assigned to specific weeks in the cycle. For example, Crew A is assigned to start in Week 1 and Crew B is assigned to start in Week 2, and so on. At the end of each week, the crews rotate down to the next week in the cycle. Crew A moves to Week 2, Crew B moves to Week 3, etc. When a crew completes the 4^th week, they rotate up to Week 1.

For companies that want a slower rotation, they could simply devote each block of days to a single shift, as shown below:

Key:

D8 = 8-hour day shift

A8 = 8-hour afternoon shift

N8 = 8-hour night shift

With this adjustment, the rotation is slowed to once a week. The other two patterns (6 days and 5 days) also rotate shifts on a weekly basis. This is still too fast for many people, but a slower rotation can be difficult to achieve.

One approach is to increase the number of crews from 4 to either 9 or 12. It’s not as efficient (i.e., it requires a slightly larger staff), but it will slow the shift rotation to once every 3 or 4 weeks.

The ultimate approach is to adopt a fixed shift pattern and then re-allocate the employees to different shifts periodically, such as every 6 or 12 months. This also may require a few additional employees since 8-hour fixed shift schedules are not as efficient as 8-hour rotating shift schedules.

Summary

8-hour rotating shift schedules have two key features: consecutive days of work and speed of rotation. 

The most attractive schedules for employees in terms of time off require them to work 7 shifts in a row. Unfortunately, this is really tough on sleep. That’s why some employees would rather work fewer consecutive shifts, even though they get fewer weekends off.

Some employees prefer a fast shift rotation so they only work 2 or 3 night shifts in a row. Most employees, however, prefer a much slower rotation. This can be achieved by increasing the number of crews or by adopting a fixed shift schedule and having employees change shifts every 6 or 12 months.

As a general rule, employees prefer fixed shifts while employers prefer rotating shifts (Fixed shifts vs. rotating shifts). Because of this, many companies migrated to 8-hour fixed shifts or longer shift lengths (usually 12-hour shifts). Fixed shifts eliminated the need to change shifts, which helped to reduce fatigue and improve predictability (Schedule Consistency & Predictability). Longer shifts resulted in more days off and more weekends off, which also helped reduce fatigue (12 Hour Shifts).

When these companies first started covering 24/7, they may have adopted a work pattern that was popular for their line of business or the managers had some experience with. The schedule may have worked fine initially, but as the company grew and added more employees, management didn’t update the schedule. They may not have realized that the pattern only works properly for a specific coverage level.

Let’s take a closer look at two popular 8-hour work patterns to understand why they only work under certain conditions. We will only show one shift (the 8-hour day shift = d8) since the pattern will be the same for all 3 shifts. Each crew should have the same number of people, so that the coverage is consistent from day-to-day.

The way this pattern works is there are 6 crews for each shift, labeled A, B, C, D, E and F. Each crew begins the schedule in the week they are shown. Crew A begins on Week 1, Crew B begins on Week 2, Crew C begins on Week 3, and so on. After finishing that initial week, they rotate to the next week of the schedule. Crew A moves to Week 2, Crew B moves to Week 3, and Crew F moves to Week 1. They continue this rotation until after Week 6, in which they rotate back up to Week 1.

If you start at the top, you’ll see that you would work 4 days (Thu-Sun) and have the next two days off (Mon-Tue). Then you would work 4 more days (Wed-Sat) and have the next two days off (Sun-Mon). This pattern of working 4 days in a row and then taking the next 2 days off continues indefinitely.

You’ll see that there are four d8s shown under each day of the week. This means that 4 crews are always scheduled to work. If you need 4-person coverage, you would simply have one person in each of the 6 crews. If you need 8-person coverage, you would have two people in each of the crews.

But what if you need 3-person coverage or 5-person coverage or something else that isn’t a multiple of 4? That’s where this pattern stops working correctly. Yes, people use it for the wrong coverage levels or with the wrong number of crews and wonder why the coverage isn’t consistent. It only works properly for coverage that is a multiple of 4 people. And it only works if you use 6 crews on each shift.

Employees like this pattern because they only have to work 4 consecutive days and they always get 2 days off. They don’t like that they only get one full weekend off every 6 weeks. In addition, there are 2 weeks in which they only get 32 hours of pay. You could add more days to make 40 hours, but that would disrupt the 4-on-2-off pattern.

Here's another pattern:

This pattern uses 9 crews on a 9-week pattern. It works the same way as the previous schedule. The crews begin the schedule in the week they are shown next to: Crew A begins in Week 1, Crew B begins in Week 2, and so on. After finishing that initial week, they rotate to the next week of the schedule. After completing Week 9, they rotate up to Week 1 and start the pattern over again.

You’ll see that there are six d8s listed under each day of the week. This means that 6 crews are always scheduled to work. If you need 6-person coverage, you would simply have one person in each of the 9 crews. If you need 12-person coverage, you would have two people in each of the crews.

Using this pattern with anything other than 9 crews throws everything off. Likewise, trying to achieve any coverage level that isn’t evenly divisible by 6 won’t consistently produce the coverage you want.

Recommended Approach

So, if these popular 8-hour patterns only work for a limited number of situations, how are you supposed to pick a schedule? You should always begin with the desired coverage level. In this article, I will discuss 3 coverage levels:

• 1-person
• 2-person and multiples of 2 people such as 4, 6, 8, etc.
• 3-person and multiples of 3 people such as 6, 9, 12, etc.

I won’t address odd coverage levels (such as 5, 7 or 11) as these would require a custom-designed schedule, often without any crews.

I will show one pattern for each level of coverage, even though there are many others that are superior. Sorry, you have to pay for the good stuff. The patterns shown here simply illustrate the point that schedule selection should never begin with a preferred pattern. Instead, coverage levels should always be the starting point for schedule creation. Coverage levels dictate the number of crews or employees needed for each shift. Once that has been established, you can compare different work patterns using that number of crews/employees.

With 2 crews working 40 hours a week, there will always be 3 days a week with double coverage on each shift. In the pattern above, this occurs every Friday, Monday and Tuesday. If you eliminate the extra coverage, employees would only average 28 hours a week. Full-time employees won’t tolerate this, which is why it’s not shown.

This inefficiency is why 8-hour fixed shifts are rarely used when you need 1-person coverage. Other approaches such as 8-hour rotating shifts or any type of 12-hour shift schedule would only require 4 people, though they do make employees work an average of 42 hours a week.

Employees like this sort of schedule because they get every other weekend off. But it requires a lot more employees than other approaches, so few organizations can afford to adopt it. If you have unlimited resources and can tolerate the double coverage three days a week, go for it! Better yet, why not adopt a 12-hour fixed shift schedule that requires 33% fewer employees and gives them almost twice as many days off.

Unlike the pattern for 1-person coverage, this is more efficient because it only has 1 day of extra coverage every week. In the above example, there are 3 d8’s every Tuesday. This schedule can be used coverage that is any multiple of 2 people such as 4, 6, 8, 10, etc.

The pattern shown here is not very good for employees, however, since they would never get a full weekend off. Don’t be discouraged. There are other patterns that provide one full weekend off every 3 weeks, some that are up to 4 days long. Like I said, you have to pay to see the good ones.

You could drop the Tuesday shift in either Week 1 or Week 2 of the above pattern, but then the employees would only get 32 hours that week. Over a 3-week period, they would average 37.3 hours/week, the same as the 4-on-2-off and 6-on-3-off patterns shown earlier. In some cases, depending on the pay week, dropping the unnecessary coverage might extend the weekend off so that employees wouldn’t mind getting fewer hours of work/pay.

8-hour fixed shift schedules for 3-person coverage (or multiples of 3) are the most efficient of all, since there is no unnecessary extra coverage. They do require a small amount of overtime, however.

For employees, the above pattern wouldn’t be very attractive since they would never get a full weekend off. There are other patterns using 4 crews per shift that provide weekends off. A pattern that is based on working 5 shifts in a row will provide 5 weekends off each year. A pattern based on working 6 shifts in a row will provide 6 weekends off each year. A pattern based on working 7 shifts in a row will provide 13 weekends off each year.

For work-life balance, many employees will say that working 7 consecutive days to get 1 weekend off every 4 weeks isn’t worth it. But the prospect of only getting 5 or 6 weekends of a year is even worse. That is exactly why so many companies have switched to 12-hour shifts. They found that both the company and the workers benefitted from the longer shifts. Yes, workers hated working for 12 hours, but they accepted the long hours to get twice as many days off and up to half the weekends off (12 Hour Shifts | Shift Schedule Design (shift-schedule-design.com)).