When organizations expand from working 5 days a week to 7 days a week, there will always be someone who suggests hiring a weekend crew. The current employees don't want to work weekends, so why not bring in someone else to do it? That would make the existing workforce happy. Besides, there are plenty of people who would do anything to get a job, even if it means working every weekend. It's a way to get their foot in the door. So everyone wins, right?

Unfortunately, no! There is a big loser, and it's the organization itself. Here are the things we typically hear about weekend crews that have been in place for a year or more:

• The weekend crew has a high turnover since the employees are continuously leaving for jobs with better hours (especially on the night shift).
• The weekend crew has high absenteeism. The weekend job is typically their second job. When they go on vacation from their "main" job, they simply call in sick for their weekend job.
• The weekend crew is out of touch with the rest of the plant.
• The weekend crew personnel move to the weekday crews as soon as there is an opening, which keeps the weekend crew staffed with the newest and least-skilled employees.
• The weekend crew typically performs at about 60% of the rate expected of weekday employees.
• If the weekend crew is also given weekday shifts (to bring them closer to 40 hours/week), the plant becomes overstaffed on the extra days they are scheduled to work.
• The weekend crew often gets a full benefits package. This means a 50% burden rate on the weekday employees equates to a 60-85% burden rate on the weekend crew's hours.

But it gets worse. The weekend crew will continue to under-perform unless the company over-pays. Some companies, in an attempt to improve retention and performance of the weekend crews, may pay 40 hours for 24 hours of work. This can raise the hourly cost of the weekend work to as much as double that of a weekday crew when the cost of benefits is factored in.

Once this becomes apparent (usually within the first 18 months) it's too late. Changing to a true 24/7 schedule will seem like a take-away and the workforce will fight it - tooth and nail. So before you jump at this tempting solution, please read this post one more time.