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Are your rosters aligned to your workload demands?

Perhaps you should take another look.

Are your rosters and work hours arrangements still aligned with the workload and service delivery demands of your organisation?

Or better yet, do you truly understand what your workload profile or demands look like?

The increased usage of flexible work arrangements and rostering longer shifts (for more days off), combined with workload requirements that have shifted over time may mean that your staffed hours and workload demand profiles may no longer be aligned.

This was the problem we recently had to solve for a demand driven, essential service organisation who were having difficulty responding to community requests during peak periods and weekends.

The initial phase of the project quantified all of the drivers and demands that determined when staff were required across each hour of the day and week.  There were large amounts of data points identifying when, where and for how long a vast array of workload demand incidents typically occurred.  An additional “buffer” was also created to account for the training and incidental workload that was not recorded but was estimated from experience on the job.

The combination produced a workload and service demand profile for where staff would normally be required.

Then we identified where the staff had actually been working each week (both rostered ordinary hours and the additional overtime) and overlayed that with the workload demand.  That’s where things got interesting.

The data above illustrates:

  • High allocation of staff to Mon-Fri dayshift leaving gaps in coverage over the PM, nightshift and weekend hours.  Some of this imbalance was created by the flexible work and part time arrangements in place that did not align with operational requirements.
  • The high and expensive overtime usage (red bars) to help cover the gaps, with staff in the PM and weekend hours regularly reporting fatigue and feeling burnt out from the workload they were trying to cover.
  • Absenteeism had also increased, especially on these already undermanned shifts and employee turnover was on the rise.
  • The staffing peaks at 14:00 and 22:00/23:00 and due to longer shifts being used and creating extra employees at times that may not align with workload peaks.
  • The heat maps also reflect the same impact by showing that staff were being rostered at times that did not reflect the workload need.

This imbalance between staff allocations and workload requirements not only had an effect on the essential service employees, but also impacted community safety as insufficient resources were available to respond during peak periods.

Developing optimised rosters should consider the whole picture – from health and safety considerations, operational requirements and employee preferences, to market disruptors and new technologies.

By using these 5 key considerations, Orkest was able to work with the organisation and its employees to create work arrangement solutions that better aligned the rostered hours with the workload

The role of the workplace has changed and will continue to evolve. As we move towards more flexible working models whilst navigating economic pressures, meeting the whole of business demands has never been more challenging.

Contact the Orkest Consulting team to explore how alternate roster and work hours arrangements can find the balance between what’s good for people, for business and your future – all at the same time

Orkest is an expert workforce planning and design consultancy, specialising in roster optimisation. 

Drawing on two decades of advisory across Australia and the Asia Pacific, we’re helping organisations solve their most crucial workforce challenges by finding balanced solutions that are good for business and good for people.

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