Is your business open more than 8 hours a day or more than 5 days a week? If so, do you have a set schedule for your employees, or are you creating a new schedule every week based on individual employee availability and preferences? A set schedule will benefit both you and your employees. You won't have to spend so much time creating new schedules. You won't have to struggle with being short-handed because you couldn't fill a time slot (i.e. a shift). Employees will appreciate knowing far in advance when they have to work and, more importantly, when they will be off. Employees like getting occasional weekends off (as opposed to having to work every Saturday, for example). Unlike 24/7 schedules, free examples of schedules for your type of business are hard to find because there are too many possibilities:  Different hours of operation. Different coverage requirements. Different number of employees. Different mix of full-time and part-time employees. Different pay weeks. What do schedules for less than 24/7 coverage look like? Well, that depends on all of the above variables. Here are 2 simple examples:   Example #1. Open 10 hours a day all week. Need at least 2-person coverage at all times. Busiest day is Monday. 4 full-time staff. Pay week begins on Thursday.   Crew / Week   Thu      Fri     Sat      Sun      Mon     Tue    Wed   Hours A / Week 1      -            -     D10      D10        D10       -     D10      40 B / Week 2    D10      D10       -         -      D10      D10       -      40   Each crew (A and B) has 2 employees working a 10-hour day shift (D10). Crew A begins the schedule in Week 1; Crew B begins in Week 2. After finishing the initial week, they rotate to the next week of the schedule. Crew A rotates to Week 2, while Crew B rotates to Week 1. They continue this 2-week pattern indefinitely. Note that Monday is the only day of the week with two D10s underneath it. That means both crews are scheduled to work on this busiest day of the week. Note that the schedule begins on Thu. Had we started with a different day, the 2-day break in Week 2 might not have fallen on the weekend (Sat & Sun).   Example #2. Open 14 hours a day (7 a.m. to 9 p.m.) on Mon-Sat. Need at least 1-person coverage at all times. Need 2-person coverage from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 2 full-time staff and 2 part-time staff. Pay week begins on Saturday.   Emp. / Week      Sat      Sun      Mon      Tue      Wed      Thu        Fri   Hours A / Week 1        -        -      D12      D12         -        -      D12        36 B / Week 2      D12        -         -        -       D12      D12        -        36                   C       a5        -        -        -         -        a5        a5        15                   D        -        -        a5        a5         a5         -         -        15   The two full-time employees (A & B) work a 2-week schedule on a 12-hour day shift (D12) that runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Employee A begins in Week 1, while Employee B begins in Week 2 of the schedule. After finishing the initial week, they rotate the the next week. Employee A rotates to Week 2 and Employee B rotates to Week 1. The two part-time employees (C & D) do not rotate. They work the same 3 days each week. C works a 5-hour afternoon shift (a5) from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thu, Fri, and Sat. D works the same shift Mon, Tue, and Wed. The 5-hour shift overlaps the 12-hour shift from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. giving the company the 2-person coverage they are looking for.   We could keep going, but unless you happen to have the same combination of hours, coverage requirements, staff size/composition, and pay week, additional examples aren't going to be much help. So what's the best approach for creating a schedule? You can contact us for help (Request Quote) or you can follow the steps that we do (Employee Work Schedules).  

This is the third blog in a series of five about the most common causes of schedule unpredictability and their associated solutions. Today's blog addresses the impact of an incorrect schedule. Any time you have to change employees' schedules regularly for any reason other than absence coverage, your current schedule isn't working effectively. For example, if your current schedule is Monday through Friday, and you're constantly working employees on the weekend, you probably need a new 6-day or 7-day schedule. Yes, employees enjoy the extra overtime from the weekend work. But they hate not knowing until the last minute whether they have to work it or not. It's difficult to plan your time off if the weekend work is unpredictable. Another section of my website addresses the expansion from a 5-day operation to a 7-day operation. You can read it here. If your coverage does not consistently match your workload, it's probably time to start looking for a new schedule. The best solution is to plot your actual workload over the course of a week by hour of the day. You'll want to develop a schedule that matches that shape by changing the shift start times, using longer shifts, part-time employees, or the strategic use of overtime. I've written more extensively about variable workloads here.    

Employees and management see shift schedules from entirely different perspectives. When employees discuss their ideal shift schedule, they talk about things like shift length, work patterns, and shift start/end times. That's because these features are related to their primary concern:  time off. Shift length affects the number of scheduled days off and percentage of weekends off. Work patterns influence the length and frequency of the breaks. Shift start/end times determine when they get to go home. When managers of shiftwork operations discuss the organization's shift schedule, they are primarily concerned about the coverage requirements, staffing levels, absence rates, and overtime. That's because these features affect their main concern: the organization's resources. Coverage requirements define the amount of resources needed (total work hours per week). Staffing is the primary resource available to the organization. Absence rates determine the staff's availability and the amount of overtime needed. Overtime is seen by some as an unnecessary cost and by others as a strategic tool to boost the weekly work hours and/or cover absences. Employees rarely consider the impact of their preferences on the organization's resources. Go to any employee forum and read the posts related to work schedules. You'll read about a group that adopted 10-hour shifts and how all the employees love them. Or how another group thinks a 6-on-3-off pattern would be better than the 5-on-2-off pattern they work now - because of the 3 consecutive days off. You also might find requests for a copy of someone else's schedule. No one ever mentions coverage requirements, the impact on absence coverage, or how many employees these choices would require. It's all about days off, weekends off, or not having to work too many days in a row. So how can managers accommodate both the needs of the organization and the preferences of the employees? The only way to satisfy both sides is to start with what's feasible for the organization, and then seek out options that will satisfy employees. If you start with what employees want, you might get inconsistent or insufficient coverage, coverage that's not matched with the workload or staff size, or schedules that consume more resources than available. Notice that I'm only indicating where to begin the search for a new schedule. Starting with what is feasible may narrow the scheduling possibilities or preclude certain approaches, but it doesn't mean the employees will have terrible schedules. And it doesn't mean they won't have any choices. What it does is join the management team with the workers in finding a solution that is best for both the organization and the employees.

This is the 5th and last post regarding unpredictable shift schedules and how they impact employee morale. This post will address unpredictable product demand. This is one of the hardest issues to correct. Not knowing your production needs from day to day can sometimes cause idle time and overtime within the same week. The best solution is to graph your production levels on a weekly basis over a couple of years. What appears to be unpredictable will often have a seasonal pattern. Schedule vacations or major maintenance during slow periods and limit vacations during busy times. If production really is unpredictable, you can practice planned overtime periods where one or two crews are designated for overtime coverage, if needed, during a specified period of time. This allows the other crews to know their time off is really going to be off, until it's their turn for overtime duty. Don't let an unpredictable schedule affect your employee morale. Using the solutions I've discussed in the last five blogs will give you a happier workforce.

Everyone seems to have a different opinion as to what constitutes a good shift schedule. For many people, the judgment is based solely on whether the schedule satisfies a single concern or preference, such as:  (1) the desired shift length, (2) more weekends off, (3) a specific on-off work pattern, (4) no built-in overtime, or (5) coverage that meets or exceeds the minimum requirements. The problem with such a narrow focus is that it often requires sacrifices in other areas of the business. These tend to be ignored or never acknowledged, as illustrated by the following examples: Employees want management to adopt a 10-hour shift schedule because it will give them another day off each week. They don't realize that the organization would have to either increase the staff by 25% or reduce the coverage by 25%. The organization also would have to add one more supervisor, and the supervisors no longer would be working with the same crew at all times. In addition, the facility isn't large enough to accommodate the double coverage that would occur during the 6 hours a day that the shifts overlap. The city council insists on a 24/7 schedule with no built-in overtime as a way to reduce expenses in the police department. They don't realize that this will require a larger staff. If the cost of the additional officers and their benefits is disregarded, the council members will think they made a wise financial decision. In reality, they increased the department's overall expenses as a result of the increased headcount. Ideally, the search for a new schedule should consider the interests of all of the schedule's stakeholders (management, the union and employees). Establishing formal selection criteria to evaluate alternative schedules will force the organization to do this. It also will encourage them to set priorities and weigh the consequences. We recommend using the following criteria to ensure a comprehensive approach to the schedule selection process:  (1) effectiveness, (2) efficiency, (3) sleep, and (4) employee satisfaction. The next few blog posts will cover these four criteria and will show how they can be used to evaluate different scheduling options.

In my last post, I recommended using the following criteria to ensure a comprehensive approach to the schedule selection process:  (1) effectiveness, (2) efficiency, (3) sleep, and (4) employee satisfaction. This post will cover the first criterion - effectiveness. Effectiveness indicates how well a schedule satisfies the business needs. For most organizations, the primary concern is adequate coverage. Secondary issues include absence coverage, training time, cleaning and maintenance time, shift changes, equipment start-ups and shut-downs, and others. The following questions should help in the evaluation of schedule effectiveness: Do the coverage requirements match the workload by hour of the day? By day of the week? Does the coverage meet or exceed the minimum requirements? Is the coverage consistent? How well are the organization's other business issues addressed? Let's look at an example. A police department needs at least 2 officers working at all times. The department also has two busy periods each day in which it needs 4 officers on duty: (1) evenings from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and (2) from Midnight to 4 a.m. when the bars close. It also wants the 4 sergeants to work with the same crews at all times, and it wants rotating shifts. Here are three options they are considering:   Option #1:  8-hour rotating shifts. This option uses 12 officers working an average of 42 hours a week to provide 3-person coverage on a 24/7 basis. This steady coverage does not address the two busy periods, so it falls short on this important consideration. The schedule uses 4 crews which would allow the sergeants to work with the same officers at all times. Option #2:  10-hour rotating shifts. This option uses 15 officers working an average of 42 hours a week on two separate 10-hour schedules. Each schedule would align its overlapping shifts with one of the busy periods. This will provide 3-person coverage around the clock, plus 4 and 5-person coverage during the two busy periods. Unfortunately, these schedules do not use crews, so the sergeants would not be working with the same officers at all times. Option #3: 12-hour rotating shifts. This option uses 12 officers working an average of 42 hours a week. The shifts would start at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. to match the two busy periods. Coverage on the night shift would be 4 people. Coverage on the day shift would be 2 people. The schedule uses 6 crews. This means two crews would not have a sergeant.              

In my last 4 posts, I recommended evaluating potential schedules by using the following criteria:  (1) effectiveness, (2) efficiency, (3) sleep, and (4) employee satisfaction. This post will cover the fourth and final criterion - employee satisfaction.   Employee schedule preferences are largely driven by demographics (age, gender, parents with young children, single parents, students, etc.) and past experiences with different schedules. The best way to determine their preferences is to show them a broad set of approaches, such as: (a) higher staffing levels vs. built-in overtime, (b) different shift lengths, (c) fixed vs. rotating shifts, (d) fixed vs. rotating days of work, (e) relief coverage vs. more coverage, and (f) others. Once you have zeroed in on the “best” overall approach, you may want to drill down into specific options, i.e. examples of different on-off work patterns associated with the preferred approach.   Larger organizations can do this in a multi-step process. They can begin with a survey of the employees that identifies their lifestyle patterns and general preferences for different aspects of the schedule such as start times, overtime, rotating vs. fixed shifts, longer shifts vs. fewer days off, longer breaks vs. fewer consecutive work days, and so on. The next step would be to show them examples of different options that meet the business requirements and let them vote on the options they like best.   If you start out by asking employees if they want to change to a 12-hour shift schedule, most will say, "No way! I'm not working that many hours." But when they are questioned about the various tradeoffs required and then shown actual examples of what that means, they are better prepared to make a choice that satisfies most of the needs. In my next post, I will show you how to combine all four criteria into a single evaluation survey.        

I hope you've had a chance to try out our new staffing calculator. If not, here's a link:  http://www.shift-schedule-design.com/Staffing_Calculator. You can use this set of calculators for several purposes:   1. Staff size. You can see how many employees are required to achieve the basic coverage requirements. This does not factor in other considerations such as absences, maintenance, or training. But it will quickly tell you if you have enough staff.   2. Coverage. If you don't have enough staff for the required coverage, you can determine what coverage levels are possible. If you have more than enough staff, you can also determine how much coverage is possible.   3. Shift length. You can explore the staffing and coverage implications of different shift lengths. For example, suppose you want your group to adopt 10-hour shifts. You can use the calculator to determine whether they are feasible for your minimum coverage requirements. Alternatively, you can see how much coverage is possible for a given staff size.   4. Weekly hours. With 8 and 10-hour shifts, the calculators show the staffing requirements using 40 hours per week and 42 hours per week. The reason for the 42 hours is that many 24/7 schedules require this much time to avoid gaps in the coverage.   5. Schedule format. You can also see whether changing to fixed shifts is feasible for your group. Each shift length except 12s has separate calculators for fixed shifts and rotating shifts. The reason is that fixed shifts (with 8s and 10s) often require a few more staff than rotating shifts for the same shift lengths.  

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.