Things to consider when creating a schedule

Section VII: Considerations for Creating a Schedule

Creating a functional schedule for a business requires careful consideration of several factors that must align perfectly. The dispatcher or business manager should strive to optimize the workforce to maximize productivity. Here are some things to consider when creating a schedule:

1. Macro Environment

a. Holidays/Seasonality: During holidays, the demand for work may increase (e.g., F&B business, hospitality) or decrease (e.g., moving, transportation). Create schedules that correlate with demand.

Examples: A hotel in a busy vacation destination will need to hire and deploy more personnel to cope with the mass of visitors. In low season, the same hotel may need to let employees go due to low or no work.

b. Special Events: Local events can impact work, resulting in higher or lower traffic.

Example: When a marathon takes place in a city, access is affected, and the traffic from outside the city does not exist. This will create low/slow business.

2. Employees

a. Skills, Experience Level & “Type” of Employee: Is the employee capable of performing the job? Do they have the relevant training? Are they qualified for the job? Is the employee new on the job? Are they full-time or part-time?

b. Commitment: A promise to give employees X shifts per week or a specific job. Other internal “laws” (e.g., evening shift doesn’t do morning after shift, etc.).

c. Labor Laws:

Employee Age: Not all ages can work at all times (e.g., young ages cannot work nights).

Overtime: Overtime regulation.

Adjacent Days: Working consecutive shifts is not always possible or legal (e.g., working a night shift and then a morning shift).

Weekends: Regulations might prevent working on all weekends (weekend after weekend).

d. Fairness: Make sure that the employee is not placed in all the less desired shifts time after time (e.g., weekends, holidays, etc.) “fairness table.”

f. Holidays: Minimize harm to work-life balance.

g. Availability: Hiring students might cause scheduling restrictions (e.g., exam periods, low availability to work, etc.).

3. Work Unions + Regulation

a. Work Unions: Work unions might place work restrictions and rules that will limit work hours, conditions, location, etc.

b. Professional Unions: Professional unions might force the employer to place specific employees in specific shifts or jobs.

Predictive Rules and Regulations

Predictive scheduling laws aim to provide employees with a degree of certainty around their work schedules. They typically do this by giving employees the right to ask for flexibility with their hours and to refuse shift-change requests. They also place a range of obligations on employers.

These include requiring employers to give employees advance notice of their schedule estimates. They can also restrict an employer’s ability to change schedules. Under many of these laws, employers must also pay employees a penalty for working shifts as a result of late employer-led changes. For example, in Oregon, employers must pay a worker an extra hour of wages if they reschedule a shift.

4. Company

a. Costs: Placing employees in costly shifts (e.g., holidays, overtime).

b. Company Events: When an event outside the workplace takes place, maximize the number of employees participating in a company event, minimize the number of employees on shift.

5. Clients

a. Request: A client that likes a specific service provider