Shift pattern generator - shift | Plan
The ultimate shift pattern software to help you design better shift patterns
A uniquely powerful shift pattern generator that supports optimisation, engagement & wellbeing
Improve operational efficiency
Increase labour productivity
Support shift worker health and wellbeing
Our experience
A shift pattern generator like no other
Shift pattern design isn’t easy, so having the right knowledge and tools for the job is vital.
Most software focuses on improving tactical day-to-day rostering and shift scheduling.
shift | Plan on the other hand is a strategic shift pattern generator that unlocks transformative benefits for your performance and people.
This optashift tool enables the rapid creation, comparison and refinement of bespoke shift pattern options that balance labour demand, costs, compliance and shift‑worker preferences.
Unlike generic shift pattern software, shift | Plan also has capabilities to handle complexities such as operational constraints, fairness, shift work fatigue risk and shift worker engagement and co-design.
Want to know more about our shift pattern generator?
Request a guided demo of the optashift shift pattern generator software and one of our shift work experts will show you how it helps you create tailored, optimised shift patterns.
How our shift pattern generator delivers benefits
Many organisations miss the opportunity to transform performance and working conditions by sticking with legacy or standard shift patterns.
In our experience most lack the specialist insight and software needed to identify shift patterns that align with their specific demand profile, operating environment and employee preferences.
The optashift shift pattern generator shift | Plan overcomes this challenge and enables you to design and implement optimised shift patterns that unlock a wide range of measurable benefits.
Improve operational efficiency
Effective shift pattern design can help you significantly reduce unnecessary overtime, over-capacity and running costs whilst protecting permanent roles and supporting up-skilling.
You can also use shift | Plan to create shift patterns that ensure agency and bank staff are only deployed when they are really needed…reducing 3rd party costs, maximising ROI and creating scope for more diverse permanent roles.
Our shift pattern generator could help you achieve a total reduction in labour costs of 10% or more.
The capabilities of our shift pattern generator can also help improve your efficiency levels by aligning working time more closely to specific operational factors to increase asset utilisation and create wider supply chain efficiencies.
This can reduce labour waste by as much as 45% in some cases.
Increase labour productivity
Productivity is intrinsically linked to how effective your shift patterns are at aligning labour supply to demand.
Effective shift pattern design will ensure you avoid underutilisation and maximise capacity from contracted hours. This in turn supports job security and creation.
In some environments our shift pattern generator can help generate a 60%+ improvement in productivity.
Shift patterns that don’t reflect a workforce’s needs and preferences are often closely linked to high sickness absence and low morale…both impacting productivity.
Some organisations have used the optashift shift pattern generator to help deliver a 55% reduction in sickness absence.
Support shift worker health and wellbeing
The science behind shift worker health and job satisfaction is embedded in the shift | Plan shift pattern generator.
From fatigue risk calculations…to optimal rotations and rest periods, optashift’s shift pattern software will support your shift workers’ wellbeing while optimising performance and maintaining compliance.
The interactive visual elements of our shift pattern generator also enable you to meaningfully engage trade unions and shift workers to co-design solutions.
Creating shift patterns that balance operational requirements with the diverse needs and preferences of your shift workers can support job satisfaction, skills development, health, wellbeing and work-life balance.
Looking to create shift patterns that improve efficiency, increase productivity and support shift worker wellbeing?
Request a guided demo of shift | Plan – the optashift shift pattern generator.
Shift pattern generator features
The optashift shift | Plan shift pattern generator has a wide range of features that support shift work assessment, optimisation and continuous improvement.
Workforce demand and capacity modelling
Design dynamic shift patterns that flex with demand across any period (hourly, daily, seasonally, or annually) to eliminate capacity gaps, overworking and unnecessary overtime.
Our shift pattern generator can ingest and configure your labour demand data to model headcount, optimal shift systems and coverage.
Rules engine
Quickly identify and shortlist shift patterns that are efficient, safe, compliant and reflect your operational and workforce realities.
The shift | Plan shift pattern generator has a highly configurable rules engine that can integrate a wide range of constraints and variables specific to your organisation.
This includes labour laws, industry regulations, shift work fatigue risk best practice, contracts, HR policies, cost models, local agreements and employee preferences so you can deliver choice and support recruitment and retention.
Shift pattern option modelling
You can explore shift pattern options side-by-side to compare shift coverage, cost, fatigue risk and fairness to create a clear shortlist of optimised patterns and the insight needed to identify and evidence best fit.
Our shift pattern generator generates viable options, stress tested for performance, compliance and wellbeing.
Shift pattern calendar tool
Create team and personalised annual shift calendars, complete with policy, holiday, swap, and cover guidance to help maintain shift pattern integrity over time.
The shift | Plan shift pattern generator creates exportable pattern files that ensure a clean handover to your rostering systems, saving time and simplifying the implementation process.
Interactive shift pattern design interface
Use the shift pattern generator’s real-time visual interface to support co-design sessions with Trade Union representatives and your shift workers.
optashift shift pattern consultants will help you transparently build and iterate shift pattern options in a live workshop environment, provide side‑by‑side comparisons and demonstrate the impact of choices to arrive at balanced and well-understood solutions.
Scenario planning
Explore and stress test new operating models, shift pattern options and model contingency patterns that support your strategic planning and risk management.
Our shift pattern generator can help you evaluate alternative team structures, operating windows and resourcing models in support of operational flexibility, responsiveness and resilience.
Balance engine
Balance operational requirements with the needs of your shift workers to create shift patterns that protect wellbeing while maintaining operational coverage.
The optashift shift pattern generator shift | Plan makes equity visible by analysing and fairly distributing nights, weekends, bank holidays, long breaks and other features across your shift workers.
A shift pattern generator designed by experts
optashift is home to the largest collective of shift pattern consultants in the UK who are central to the development and activation of our shift pattern generator.
Our experts have nearly 200 years’ combined experience creating shift patterns for diverse organisations as well as developing market-leading shift pattern software, rostering tools and workforce management systems.
This experience and knowledge underpins our shift pattern generator, making it a powerful tool for supporting shift pattern optimisation.
The shift | Plan shift pattern generator is a key component in our best practice ACE Framework.
This unified, data-led and collaborative methodology delivers assessment, transformation and continuous improvement across all aspects of shift work, including shift patterns, shift work management and shift worker health and wellbeing support.
Analyse
Harness data to appraise your shift patterns and identify opportunities for optimisation
Create
Generate shift patterns that unlock wide ranging benefits for your performance and people
Engage
Engage and collaborate with your shift workers to co-design optimal, balanced solutions
Shift work optimisation software tools
Most rostering, scheduling, and workforce management software focuses on the tactical day-to-day management of working time…so won’t help you truly optimise shift patterns and shift work.
Achieving this requires tools built specifically to meet the nuance and complexity of diverse shift work environments…and expertise that blends operational understanding with shift worker engagement and health and wellbeing support.
That’s why optashift created a proprietary suite of shift work optimisation software tools that are a key part of our technology-enabled services.
Our solution delivers enhanced visibility, efficiency, and assurance without the headaches caused by long-term software contracts, system integrations, complex configurations or ongoing user support.
The tools are embedded in our service, so there are no extra licences, rentals, or subscription costs…just powerful tools, knowledge and expertise that enable shift work optimisation.
You can find out more about our technology tools here.
View
Shift work data analytics tools that quickly surface insights and enable granular measurement, monitoring and reporting across all domains
Plan
Unique software that can quickly generate bespoke shift patterns and supports interactive employee engagement and co-design
Hub
An accessible two-way platform provides a customisable communications and engagement channel tailored to your shift workers
Want to know more about our shift work optimisation technology?
Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with a shift work expert to see how our technology-enabled services could help you.
Shift pattern consultants with experience
We fully appreciate the complexity, sensitivity and time commitment involved in creating shift patterns.
The shift pattern consultants at optashift are some of the most experienced and widely respected professional service providers in the UK.
We work in partnership with customers, providing agile support that reflects your precise needs…whilst focusing on delivering measurable impact and forging productive stakeholder relationships.
Our experience
Want to speak to an expert about our shift pattern generator?
Request a guided demo of the optashift shift pattern generator shift | Plan and one of our shift work experts will show you how it helps you create tailored, optimised shift patterns.
FAQ
Q: What is a shift pattern generator?
A: A shift pattern generator is a specialised tool that designs and optimises shift patterns to support operational requirements and shift worker needs.
It can help you manage a wide range of variables and complexities to create strategic shift patterns that balance labour demand, compliance, cost and employee wellbeing.
Q: How is shift | Plan different from standard rostering or scheduling software?
A: Most rostering and scheduling software provides tactical tools focused on managing day-to-day allocation of staff to shifts.
The shift | Plan shift pattern generator is more strategic, creating optimised shift patterns from the ground up.
It will enable you to handle complex constraints, models demand variations and incorporates aspects such fatigue risk and fairness to improve your efficiency, productivity and support for shift worker health and wellbeing.
Q: Who can benefit from using the shift | Plan? shift pattern generator
A: Any organisation that has shift workers and shift patterns where there is any form of shift working beyond the traditional 0900-1700 Monday to Friday window.
This includes weekends, evenings, 24 hour working (24 5 and 24 7) and shift rotations.
Our shift pattern generator delivers particularly powerful outcomes in industries such as manufacturing, emergency services, utilities, contact centres, healthcare, ports and airports, data centres, field service and local authorities.
If you need to reduce labour costs, improve productivity or support employee wellbeing, optashift’s shift | Plan shift pattern generator can help.
Q: Does it integrate with my existing rostering or HR systems?
A: Our shift pattern generator produces exportable data and shift patterns that can be easily imported into most rostering, shift scheduling, workforce management and HR systems.
There are no complex integrations and our experts can help you optimise your policies, systems and processes to support the new shift patterns.
Q: How does the shift pattern generator support employee and Trade Union engagement?
A: The shift | Plan shift pattern generator’s interactive design interface supports co-design sessions, enabling transparent discussions with your employees and Trade Union representatives.
They can get ‘hands on’ with the design, making suggestions and tweaks that can be actioned and analysed in real time.
This degree of transparency and control builds trust, secures buy-in and ensures the co-designed solutions reflect your employees’ needs and preferences.
Q: How does the shift pattern generator support compliance and safety?
A: Our shift pattern generator’s built-in constraint engine ensures all shift pattern options align to fatigue risk, shift worker health and wellbeing best practice, external legislation (like Working Time Regulations), operational processes, internal policies (like safe staffing levels, lone worker etc) and local agreements.
Every shift pattern can be stress-tested for compliance, fairness and wellbeing before implementation.
Performance data can then be fed into our shift | View analytics tool to support governance, evaluation and continuous improvement.
Q: Can I model different scenarios and operating models?
A: Yes. The scenario planning feature in the shift | Plan shift pattern generator allows you to test alternative shift systems, cover models, demand levels, operating windows, and contingency plans.
You can stress-test patterns against demand peaks, sickness spikes, policy changes and one-off events before implementation.
It also allows you to build a bank of pattern options that could be introduced in response to identified risks or opportunities in support of your wider workforce strategy and planning activity.
Q: How does the shift pattern generator improve fairness and work-life balance?
A: The shift pattern generator makes fairness and equity visible by analysing the distribution of nights, weekends, long breaks and can be customised to measure any other feature.
It ensures you can quickly balance shift patterns to generate a fair allocation of features.
Q: Do I need a software licence or subscription?
A: No. The use of shift | Plan is included within our service offering.
There are no additional licences, rentals, or subscription costs, just a powerful shift pattern generator embedded in our wider optimisation support.
Q: Can’t I just create a shift pattern in Excel?
A: For simple, static operations Excel can be used to calculate shift patterns.
However it struggles once you factor in a huge range of variables, interdependencies and confounders like contractual hours alignment, changing demand, abstractions, skills, operating processes, HR policies, shift worker preferences and fatigue/sleep science and breaks.
Our shift pattern generator exists to handle that complexity quickly and accurately.
It has best practice at its core providing assurance that shift patterns you are designing are optimised and compliant.
Q: How do I get started?
A: You can request a guided demo using the form below.
One of our shift pattern consultants will walk you through the shift pattern generator, show you how it works, discuss how it can deliver benefits to your organisation and answer any questions.
Book a demo of the shift | Plan shift pattern generator
Sometimes it’s better to see it with your own eyes.
We offer an informal 30-minute demo with a shift pattern design expert at optashift who has decades of experience creating shift patterns.
The consultant will show you how the shift pattern generator works and provide use case examples relevant to your organisation.
Use this form to book a demo of the shift | Plan shift pattern generator