Why, when labour costs are so important to the finances of an organisation, is the
production of staff schedules or rosters often left to a junior member of staff?
Rostering cost-effectively and efficiently is not easy.
It is also an enormous responsibility on the person 'chosen' for the task. They
are, in effect, controlling the working lives of their peers and, without the benefit
of management information, working with an unlimited labour budget.
Armed with basic spreadsheet skills and a few handwritten notes and holiday requests
on 'backs-of-envelopes', the intrepid scheduler begins their 'chore'.
The resulting rosters may work - each shift filled by one person - but probably
they are neither efficient nor effective.
Why? Because the choices made as to who fills each shift is limited by the knowledge
and capabilities of the scheduler. In addition, the choices made between rostering
one member of staff over another may be biased by personality rather than skill
required.
The result? Most organisations waste hundreds or even thousands of pounds per month
on inappropriate staffing allocation.
The problem, then, is how to combine effective staff management with efficient staff
scheduling in order to generate maximum cost savings and maintain consistent results.
The solution
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