Scheduling Basics
The goal of employee scheduling is to put the right employees on the right jobs at the right times to meet your business demands. Regardless of the industry, the employee scheduling process consists of four essentially universal phases:
- Determining workload and coverage requirements, including special skills or certifications
- Designing a scheduling framework to meet demands
- Building employee work schedules from the framework
- Publishing, monitoring and adjusting work schedules as required
Doing these tasks by hand is very time consuming and difficult due to workload fluctuations, frequent special requests from employees, last minute changes, and high employee turnover. In addition, the schedule often needs to be changed when scheduled employees call in sick or are unavailable to work. Without the right tools in place, you will expend a great deal of time on these tasks — time better spent on more critical, revenue-generating activities.
Employee Scheduling: 12-Hour Shift Schedules Pros & Cons
Work schedules based on 12-hour shifts are gaining popularity because for the same number of hours worked each year, there are more days off. Twelve-hour shifts can be used in 24/7 businesses as well as in operations running fewer than 7 days a week. They have been successfull and well received by employees in some businesses, but have failed in others. As with all business decisions, there are several pros and cons that should be considered.
Employee Scheduling: Four Day Work Schedules Pros & Cons
Converting from a regular five day work schedule to a four day compressed workweek schedule requires serious considerations. Under a compressed workweek work schedule, employees work approximately 40 hours in less than five days. The most common compressed work schedule is the 10-hour, four days per week schedule. Another arrangement is called 5-4/9. In this arrangement, employees work one week of five nine-hour days followed by one week of four nine-hour days.
It’s important to recognize the pros and the cons of a four day work week and whether or not it would effectively maximize your business potential.
