Staff Scheduling and Staff Rosters Projects for Businesses
Changing to new Shift Patterns
If your Company is thinking about changing to new Shift patterns. We describe the processes involved to do this.
If you have any questions, please call us.
Since 1994, C-Desk Technology has used Visual Rota to solve Staffing Resource problems. Visual Rota is a unique computer programme designed specifically to produce analysis data, in addition to producing staff schedules and rosters. Using Visual Rota has enabled us to give advice, guidance and practical help on staffing problems to a wide variety of businesses , in many parts of the world. This consultancy is available via the Internet around the world. Many companies use this service without us ever having to meet in person. When we look at staffing resource problems, we look at your current staffing position and use our knowledge and expertise to find you solutions involving extra time, money, less effort and overall benefits to your business.
Initial discussions are always free.
High quality management is essential in the current competitive business world. But it is hard for a small or medium size business to spare the time for proper analysis and planned development of staff resources. Every large organisation would benefit by regularly using this analysis to implement change.
Some typical staff resource problem requests have been prepared to help answer the type of questions that our clients ask.
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'We need to find the cost of using staff in accordance with the Authorities and our internal employment contracts'
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'We are in the process of implementing 12 hour shifts. Would like suggestions of the easiest way to start this'
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'I am looking for a shift plan to cover 24hrs 7days a week with 15 drivers working max. 5 days 2 days off 5 nights or less thank you any help would be grateful.'
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'We are a call centre with 120 staff and would like a staffing pattern that reflects our work load.'
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'We need to know if annual hours are a better method of organising our 3000 staff in some 40 locations'
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'I need a program for a Hospital Laboratory. It is a 7 day a week, 24 hours a day, with shorter staffing on weekends and holidays. I need to accommodate for full time, part time and relief employees with differing work abilities in different areas of the laboratory with random days off and vacations.'
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'We are a small rural hospital and nursing home. I have about 80 employees on two nursing units that I am responsible for doing scheduling.'
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'New Zealand nurses are paid penal rates for afternoon and night shifts, as well as weekends. Can your product allow these rates to be set for all shifts? '
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These examples are just a few of the problems we get asked to solve, they all revolve around Effectiveness, Efficiency and Cost. We determine the best staffing structure to achieve your goals, whether it is to provide a service or to manufacture goods, we will tell you how to solve your problems.
Initially, our consultancy is essentially an advisory service where we provide the data and advice which will enable you to make alecrmed judgements. We are outside your company, so we can make an independent assessment of the situation and advise you frankly and clearly, providing a detached and analysed viewpoint.
We have experience with many different types of staffing resource problems in many companies, which enables us to provide solutions based on actual cases. We can feed you with ideas and help to implement the end results.
We will need to find out what your current staffing position is, we will need to find out your problems. We use your data to do this. We will analyse your current staffing position using your data and our computer programs. This analysis will show up the problems and, very often, the solutions as well. We will discuss this analysis, very often in detail, with yourselves. Then we can determine how you can move forward to where you want to be. We will provide the evidence to convince management and work force alike that change is necessary if your organisation is to survive and prosper into the next century.
The graph above is a typical example and shows the variation in staffing levels required to deal with the variation in workload during the day. We try to match the staffing as exactly as possible, subject to certain considerations such as minimum staffing levels. In this instance the minimum staffing is 2 staff on duty overnight. The maximum number of staff on duty at any one time is 21, between 10am and 3pm. We use 8 hour shifts to produce this matching profile. Based on the assumptions of, staff work 5x8hr shifts/week, staff have 20 days holiday/year and an average sickness period of 5days/year, we will require 47 staff working 10 different shifts to match the pattern. It is equally possible to find staffing numbers for any workload pattern and staff working agreements and contracts.
Should the workload vary from day to day, and from one season to the next, i.e. Sunday is less busy, Summer is busier, then this would alter the calculations and produce new shift patterns for Sundays and Summertime and different staffing numbers.
If the staff are a mixture of part-time and full-time, the calculations would produce another staffing total based on X part time staff and Y full time staff.
If students are hired at peak holiday periods, their shift pattern can be determined well in advance of recruitment.
Having the ability to dynamically match the workload very closely and change staffing along with varying conditions will produce very large savings in staffing costs compared with traditional methods of staffing.
