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NEW! ShiftPatternCentral.com

2009-10-20T15:30:00.007+01:00

Today, I can announce the unveiling of a new service from Intellicate - ShiftPatternCentral.com.
We now have a dedicated web site at ShiftPatternCentral offering hundreds of online shift patterns. Browse, purchase and download immediately shift patterns for a wide range of professional industries. We offer designs for 8-hour shift patterns, 12-hour shift patterns, 4-on 4-off, fixed, rotating, continuous or continental shift patterns. Learn more about ShiftPatternCentral...

Are you concerned about the extension in flexible working rights? You should be

2009-04-06T17:27:00.003+01:00

Well with this kind of evidence anyway. A recent post "Are you concerned about the extension in flexible working rights? Don't be. It's an opportunity to raise productivity and lower costs." goes on to highlight the benefits flexible working has for us all. It appears "It had an immediate impact on our productivity and bottom line figures - and has proved sustainable," said Moira Williamson, HR Manager for the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

On the other hand KPMG audit report of the SLAB draws attention that savings were achieved with significant reductions in staff numbers, the SLAB 2008 Annual Report records an average increase of around 64.3% in PDSO staff wages and benefits, allied to an increasing tax payer cost as the number of grants are decreasing.

For many flexible working can have benefit for both employer and employees alike, but a poor choice of candidate to advance the usual flexible working claims all the same.

Why the NHS doesn't have to try too hard

2008-12-22T20:24:00.014Z

National Health Service (UK) bosses are recruiting a layer of management to ensure doctors do not work too hard according to The Times editorial - citing the Scarborough North East Yorkshire Trust appointment of a “working time directive project manager” in 2006-7. Similarly Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust are currently advertising a similar £44k a year post.

So how does a private sector blue chip implement compliant scheduling strategies, including software and training in a busy and modern port facility, at a tenth of the cost faster than it takes the public sector to sharpen a project manager's pencil? Perhaps the £20.7 million debt write-off North East Yorkshire Trust enjoyed in return for not threatening to lay-off 600 nurses means you don't have to try too hard.

So what does a 48 hour week look like anyway?

2008-12-17T22:38:00.005Z

The defeat today for the UK 48 hour opt-out clause brings the protagonists head on about how many working hours we do. "Britain works the longest hours in Europe..." up goes the shout, others point to higher unemployment if it is allowed to go through. The strange thing is, it is all predicated on the 7 day week that went out with the brown (no pun intended) football. Michael Collins in Problems of Flexible Working..., brings things up to date and demonstrate the poblems we have defining the future with past traditions about working. For now I am happy to settle for just wanting to know what this 48 hour week looks like.

Well it looks to me working less hours and more time off can be worse than working more hours and getting better time off. It isn't the number of working hours that will pre-occupy the future workforce, but working patterns - which is not the same thing. In fact I see the day approaching where people will choose lifestyle by pattern choice not numbers. They are just so much easier to understand.

Flexible working cuts both ways.

2008-12-13T15:17:00.018Z

Our webmistress works hard pouring over her metrics and analysis to gain every edge she can with keywords, links, page density and relevance to do with workforce factors - that's our business. But nothing could prepare her for the spike of hits that has turned into a wave of web crawling that would normally get her a bonus for discovering some new SEO technique. The hits zeroed in one area and rapid fire followed ever since.

The reason turned out to be a simple one. Working patterns are getting hammered as realization dawns an age old relationship does exist between headcount and cash. Headcount is in the crosshairs. Karen Bartlett reminded her readers the existence of this relationship in her editorial "Flexible working: Blessing or curse?" Also there does seem to be a trend for phased working as an alternative to wholesale job cuts . The irony is, markets not legislation is driving flexible working. Not the flexible working many had in mind, but flexible working nonetheless. Flexible working is indeed a double-edged sword that cuts both ways.

Recession-Proof Your Company

2008-12-09T20:39:00.002Z

“...with firms predicting faster falls in volumes, values and profitability in the next quarter, we can expect to see significant job losses in the coming months.”

Ian McCafferty, CBI’s Economic Advisor

“... more than 35% [of small businesses] considering reducing employee numbers, 36% considering cutting staff working hours, 41% contemplating curbing future hiring and 39% even thinking about closing down.”

Results from FSB’s December credit crunch poll released Mon, 8th Dec 08

Often the first thing to happen in economic downturn is to cut the headcount. This more than anything should tell you a key relationship exists between business profitability and staff count. It is not difficult to swap out the appraisal and performance interview for the exit interview.

Back to Basics

It is not the numbers of staff but how they are coordinated that makes a difference. This principle is the same for whatever size of business. Without a system of planning for staff coordination, throwing more numbers in is as bad as throwing more numbers out – often worse. Nothing is more frustrating than for business managers and fewer staff to see hard won business being lost as headcount cuts are repeated to get costs under control.The first thing to do is to get a system that enables staff coordination to be planned as far ahead as possible, at least 6 months and a year or more is better still. Staff cuts may be unavoidable but a swift balance to the business can be re-established and maintained by managing these basics:

Know when staff are working
Monitor staff working hours
Know the cost before deploying staff, not after
Introduce flexible working patterns
Plan training days don’t cancel
Manage don’t just record sickness
Schedule leave and record not the other way round
Innovate working strategies don’t guess
Focus on team management
Communicate well defined content

We all know failing to plan is planning to fail. A workforce is a good asset which generates a lot of information, so forget manual paper and pencil or spreadsheets to provide a rough guide who and when turns up for work.

On the other hand it is not necessary to trigger a corporate budget to get your system in place. With our help and expertise you can have more say over the factors that impact the business most.

Enabling Business Managers to Automate Staff Scheduling for Improving Business Profitability

2008-07-29T15:58:00.002+01:00

We have recently published a white paper, “Enabling Business Managers to Automate Staff Scheduling for Improving Business Profitability.” The white paper describes how business goals are achieved when business managers are provided with the technology to deliver a staff scheduling strategy. It describes how costs can be controlled and harmony in the workplace maintained.

“Staff scheduling is not an IT or HR problem, it is a business manager’s problem“, said Tim Mills, COO and co-founder of Intellicate. He went on to say, “There is a need therefore for a company to ensure business managers have access to the technology that enable them to adopt a structured approach to staff scheduling and workforce deployment. Intellicate recognize that business managers need to deliver variable staff schedules over long time ranges and Schedule24 provides the workflow for adopting such a structured approach.“

Topics covered in the white paper include:

How to overcome barriers to good staff scheduling
Requirements for a Scheduling Solution
Deliver flexible working and safeguard profitability
Plan and maintain well-defined team schedules
Explore innovative ways of working with your staff
Deliver 30% increase in 24/7 staff levels from existing employees

If you would like to download a copy of the white paper, click here.

Intellicate Releases White Paper on Enabling Business Managers to Automate Staff Scheduling for Improving Business Profitability

2008-06-26T14:29:00.006+01:00

From Intellicate's white paper...

To compete in a global economy many businesses are operating 24/7 or extending the working day to deliver more products and services. At the same time staff desire more flexible working. Scheduling staff to meet business requirements has become a complex task. Staff scheduling is not an IT or HR problem, it is a business manager’s problem. Furthermore, business managers who undertake this process manually will spend considerable time to deliver good schedules. This white paper describes how business goals are achieved when business managers are provided with the tools to deliver staff scheduling strategy. It describes how costs can be controlled and harmony in the workplace maintained.

White paper contents:

Introduction – Business and Staff Scheduling
Staff Scheduling Workflow Is Important
Enabling the Business Manager – Requirements for a Solution
The Schedule24 Solution
Using Schedule24 Software
Where is Schedule24 Software Useful?
Case Studies

Find out more download the full white paper

About Intellicate
Intellicate Ltd is a privately held company based in London, United Kingdom. A leading provider of workforce management solutions, its Schedule24 technology has defined best practice in staff scheduling solutions since 2000. Intellicate has customers across all industry sectors in 15 countries.

Intellicate Online Resources Offers Schedule24 Users Hundreds of Free Shift Pattern Templates

2008-05-28T11:55:00.005+01:00

Intellicate, the developer of Schedule24, has made life a whole lot easier for both employers and employees to understand the impact and benefits flexible working has for both business and work life balance. Hundreds of specialized shift patterns drawn from experts and industry practice are available as free downloads for Schedule24 Professional users from Intellicate's web site.

New Shift Patterns on Intellicate’s web site help to remove guesswork and provide alternative ways of appraising the benefits and impact for a wide range of staff scheduling strategies. Intellicate’s Shift Patterns are especially valuable for operational and business managers who simply don't have budget for workforce consulting services.

Schedule24 customers have access to an extensive library of widely used shift patterns which can be modified or combined to automate and scale the production of staff schedules. Intellicate understands the need for flexible working where companies operate in a competitive and global economy. The cross-over of shift patterns between industries is high, and knowing about alternatives enables businesses to introduce patterns of working that have already been proven elsewhere.

Shift Patterns are one of the most requested features on Intellicate’s web site, and shift patterns in the Resources section were gathered based on customer feedback. Users can request additional shift patterns in the Suggestion/Feedback area of the Resources section, and Intellicate will continue to add new shift patterns to the site.

To access and download no-cost shift patterns, visit http://www.intellicate.com/designs/designs.php

Worklife Balance Checkmate in Two Moves

2008-04-30T21:01:00.010+01:00

The nurses at Carstairs high-security state hospital threatening strike action in a dispute over shifts are not alone. Similar disputes are not confined to healthcare. Over the past eighteen months a growing number of concerns have been voiced in journalism and manufacturing. In fact just about anywhere you care to look. Employers are seeking greater productivity and services and employees improved motivation, work life balance which lead to the same goals.

So what really is the problem? Well we have been hearing about the long working hour’s culture for so long we have missed what is really important. It is not about how many hours are worked but when they are worked that is the burning issue. Just like chess, too much focus on one piece on the board exposes you to checkmate.

Changes in shift patterns per se can have enormous impact but rarely on cost and staff headcounts. The nurses at the high-security state hospital work a pattern of four days working followed by two days off. They are being asked to change to a working pattern of six shorter working days followed by two days off. There is also evidence shift pattern changes have little impact on accidents and sickness in the workplace.

Shift patterns are often counter intuitive. Staff working significantly more hours can work less days and have more days off than the same number of staff working significantly less hours. Staff headcounts and salaried costs remain the same for both. The two “chess pieces” are shift duration and the Day-off- Day-on ratio.

So what does this mean? Well for the unwary, whether an employer or employee, it will prove costly. What appears attractive for the employee i.e. working fewer hours for the same pay can be costly in terms for the number of days off they get. Conversely what appears attractive for employers i.e. staff working more hours for the same pay can be costly in terms of fewer days staff are available. That is the real battleground, the rest is just commentary.

A scalple of insight by Mark Barrowcliffe - The Times about flexible working is a must alternative read, if for no other reason than to see the release of comment from the self-fulfilled. Generally comment about work life balance and statements such as “just give me the deadline and I’ll do the job” are quite useless. Amicable agreement is only possible when employer and employee both think in either hours or days. Where they don’t the “chess game” takes over and the rules are to win. The opening gambit is formed over the “interview” table when one is thinking in terms of days while the other is thinking in terms of hours. Here the seeds of conflict are sown.

Staff scheduling is not something that thrives well in ambiguity. In my experience, apart from loose reference to shiftwork, it is rare for HR to make staff scheduling requirements form part of terms and conditions.

Workforce Optimization - Delusions of Control

2008-04-20T14:30:00.022+01:00

Not long ago I was an observer of a somewhat heated debate about how technology would usher in a new order of workforce optimization (WFO) that would reduce costs and maintain service levels. The kind of popular thinking that gets dragged into our consciousness by editorial comment (Squeezing the human assets by Penelope Ody Financial Times Jan 2006). The debate was actually generated during a post portem of a multi-million pound project consigned to the 'bin' (public money of course who else's) after revealing what would normally be the 'blindingly obvious' to any manager living in the here and now. Things like scheduling staff assignments when staff were not working, or the managing unbelievingly complex EEC Working Time directive - which actually aren't.

It won't be the first time that technology is used to shroud good basic outcomes by complex must do it all solutions that rarely see the light of day. For example, designing a system so that high performing staff are given shifts that match their preferences more often than less valued employees. This is not a technical problem it is an ethical one which needs resolving if it is not to result in systemized discrimination - you can't get more systemized than a computer so managers, beware what you ask for.

Hillel J Einhorn spent a lifetime researching how we make judgements. He discovered "In complex situations, we may rely too heavily on planning and forecasting and underestimate the importance of random factors in the environment. That reliance can also lead to delusions of control".

Staff scheduling software is good but when used to judge employee (human) value without defined criterion it is about as random as it gets. A defined criterion will of course help employees (and everyone else for that matter) to judge you. On balance it should work but somehow I don't think so.

Some Things to Think About When Looking for a Staff Scheduling System

2008-04-18T10:19:00.007+01:00

A staff scheduling system that boasts to do everything will prove not to be the case, and may be over-engineered to deliver an outcome that can be delivered at much less cost. A better approach may be to give managers the tools and workflow necessary to promote good scheduling practice and let them get on with it – after all they will know better than most what the business needs.

With the right software providing the workflow, a good understanding of scheduling soon follows. Staff numbers and how they are distributed over time is the basis of all that is required for producing good schedules. A few good rules consistently applied will usually outperform a more complex system with many rules that tries to capture more.

The following are some items to keep in mind when thinking about how to go about defining workforce scheduling strategy:

You need to be able to at least calculate staff by head count, job title or a combination of both, if this can include working hours and financial cost totals for the staff/job title numbers that is probably more than enough for monitoring the cost of your scheduling strategy.
You need to be able to see how your staff are distributed over a timescale at least by headcount numbers. If you can zoom timescale information and compare distribution between sub-groups e.g. job title and/or teams this would add a further dimension how you think about your scheduling goals.
Workflow is essential for a structured and disciplined scheduling strategy. If flexibility means doing what you do differently every time you do it then get rid of it. A principled workflow will support a structured approach that will save both time and money in the long run.
If working and scheduling rules can be designed to automate and scale up scheduling this will be a real time saver and remove repetitive scheduling tasks. If this can be carried out without programming skills this will be a huge cost advantage in project time and consulting fees. More importantly it means it can be used by anyone with basic computer skills.
Communicating scheduling information is as important as doing it in the first place. Publishing schedules to the web mean universal access from anywhere in the organization and email means it will get communicated more directly and faster than traditional paper systems.
Finally scheduling activity generates a large amount of information about the function of the business. Make sure you can generate management reports that can help think about future scheduling strategy. If you can export the data in formats that can be used in other software applications that would be another bonus.

A good staff scheduling system will enable the conscientious manager to get involved, think further and act faster for both the benefit of the Business and the Team.

How Does Employee Scheduling Software Help?

2008-04-15T21:35:00.006+01:00

There are many definitions of scheduling but we are talking about people, not fixed machine schedules, processes, or shipping containers on a dockside.

As far as people go things are much more dynamic and complicated. There are three main types:

Personal or time scheduling when someone schedules their own tasks to organize themselves e.g. using Microsoft Outlook.
Task or process scheduling is when someone schedules tasks to meet the constraints of a project or job, especially if there is a particular order things have to happen i.e. Microsoft Project.
Staff scheduling is when you identify, coordinate and deploy available staff to meet a business requirement.

Staff scheduling can be considered strategic in the sense it controls the ability of a business operation or unit to function. On the other hand personal and task scheduling organize how people go about their job but are dependent on staff availability being coordinated in the first place.

The more time invested in learning and using software to enhance management skills the greater the benefits and rewards.

Scheduling is complex but that doesn't mean it requires an expert. Employee scheduling software can be compared with accounting software. There is a level we can all operate, i.e. adding numbers to get a total or defining three shifts to cover 24 hours.

Then there is another level where we perhaps not only add numbers but apply tax calculations as percentages in our accounting software. Similarly with our scheduling software we create rotating schedules for 24/7 working making sure they all get a fair-share of days-off and weekend working.

As the manager becomes more experienced the software can be set up to monitor and track income and expenditure to display cash flows, sales forecasts and exercise credit control as a matter of routine business.

Conversely with staff scheduling software the more experienced can design scheduling strategy for different working arrangements across groups of people, scale and automate the scheduling, monitor and track assignments and unavailability as well as generating management information about the profitability of the scheduling strategy and the well-being of the workforce.

Good Question!

2007-12-07T19:59:00.003Z

I was reminded the other day how easy it is to forget the importance of management skills in the workplace, especially in light of all the software around claiming to totally transform and propel our business light years ahead of the competition. A question posed by Leeanna in her blog presenting sound advice was: "Will Call Center Management Software Improve Your Business?" and it occured to me this question is paraphrased a thousand times a day by business managers along the lines of "...does software improve business?" Well one should think so.

In the main software will always bring some benefit because it will introduce a system, and any system means a more structured approach how we go about things. Thinking that software will transform business into profitability and generate happy staff and happy customers is misplaced. It is management skill that does that. Granted software should help them do it better and usually faster but that is as far as it goes. Even with the aid of a computer system, absent management skills will always fail the business.

For example, flexible working - even the Queen gave it a mention in her speech to Parliament - has driven workforce scheduling to the top of Government and Corporate agendas. The familiar mantra associated with ERP, CRM, HCRM, and Call Centre Software to transform a business into overnight success now surges ahead of workforce scheduling software in much the same way. And the experience will be the same. Rapidly diminishing returns with expensive and sophisticated systems that are consistently out performed.

Let us be clear, even good software applications will not improve or save the business if management skills are absent. Worse still, where software is used to mask the absence or replace the management skill you will get a disaster - however many feature boxes you have managed to tick. And you need to know the difference if you want to avoid automating a mess.

Workforce scheduling software should augment or boost management skills not replace them - anymore than spreadsheet software can replace the financial skills of competent accountants.

The point of all this? In my experience good managers with no technology will always beat poor managers with good technology, and good managers with good technology will beat them all.