Shift Pattern Design Fundamentals

Work out shift patterns that are fully optimised

Shift pattern design

There are many reasons why an organisation may need to look at shift pattern design.

It’s very common for shift patterns that have been in place for a while to no longer meet demand and / or the preferences of your shift workers.

This can lead to high costs, low productivity and a range of other performance and shift worker health and wellbeing issues.

It makes using an effective shift pattern design process to work out shift patterns a key element of your workforce strategy and planning activity.

It’s fair to say shift pattern design isn’t that straightforward, so our shift work experts have created this brief overview to help anyone tasked with being a shift pattern creator to understand the fundamentals…before they start changing shift patterns.

Shift pattern design - what is it?

Shift pattern design is the process of identifying different shift patterns that will ensure your labour supply meets your customer demand, performance targets, compliance obligations and supports shift worker health and wellbeing.

The process helps you work out shift patterns that avoid:

Undersupply: Creating capacity gaps, service issues, reliance on expensive overtime or agency labour, shift work fatigue and shift work health issues.

Oversupply: Leading to underutilisation, low productivity and waste.

Shift pattern design will ensure you work out shift patterns that deploy the contracted hours of your shift workers when they are needed most.

The shift pattern design process will also ensure you create shift work schedules that are compliant with shift work regulations (including the Working Time Regulations) and avoid shift work fatigue.

Ultimately the best shift patterns are ones that support your shift workers’ health, wellbeing and work-life balance aspirations whilst also meeting the operational and legislative requirements.

Every shift pattern creator should aim to incorporate shift work best practice and the views and preferences of shift workers as these are both important to successful shift pattern design.

Shift Patterns

Finding shift patterns that balance the needs of your organisation and shift workers can be a slow and painful process.

optashift’s Shift Pattern Design service combines data science, expert insight and collaboration to create shift patterns that are fully optimised for your performance and people.

Can you use a shift template?

There are a huge number of different shift patterns, so many shift pattern creators start off by looking for shift templates.

There’s no harm in this. Shift schedule templates you find online are an OK starting point to find common shift pattern examples and understand their core features and qualities.

A shift template can be useful platform from which to start tailoring your own different shift patterns.

However every shift work environment is unique. The best shift patterns for one organisation might not provide a good shift template for another.

Implementing someone else’s shift template be risky as it has been devised with no input from your shift workers and therefore might not be understood or well-received.

Just because the shift template was liked somewhere else doesn’t mean it will be universally popular.

Shift pattern design starts at the problem and then assesses options that are realistic and relevant.

The process helps a shift pattern creator to explore all the operational and HR processes, variables and complexities in your organisation to work out shift patterns that meets your specific needs.

Shift pattern design example

With a shift coverage template in place, a shift pattern creator can start to get creative and work out shift patterns that accurately cover your demand.

In our experience, the best approach to shift pattern design is to keep an open mind and explore options that may build on the core concepts behind well-known shift schedules like 4 on 4 off shift patterns, Continental shift patterns and Panama shift patterns.

There are limitless possibilities to create shift patterns that track changes in workforce demand and supply.

This can seem overwhelming at first but with a strategic, data-led approach a shift pattern creator can quickly narrow down the different shift pattern options and create shift work schedules that provide the optimum level of cover and flexibility.

Some shift pattern design examples include:

Create a shift pattern which reflects seasonal changes by redeploying capacity from periods where there is lower demand to times where operations are busy and you need more cover.
Design shift patterns to specifically appeal to different demographics (such as students, people with caring commitments and workers transitioning into retirement). This will broaden your potential labour pool and support your recruitment and retention strategy.
Introduce flexible mechanisms such as banked hours or standby shifts that give you different shift pattern options to cover periods where you anticipate demand may fluctuate but there isn’t a precise forecast.
Create a shift pattern that incorporates a degree of overtime and agency use but ensure it is targeted to provide maximum flexibility and return on investment.
If possible, work out shift patterns that introduce alternative team and crewing structures across the course of a year. For example moving between 5 teams and 4 teams and considering a half team structure could help you manage fluctuations in workforce demand and supply.
Scenario plan and create shift patterns that help you quickly respond to risks and anticipated change. This can be a simple as different shift patterns to cover ‘high, medium or low’ demand forecasts…or as complex as creating rapid response resourcing frameworks to manage risk during emerging issues and crises.

Shift Work Assessment

Optimising shift patterns and shift work delivers huge benefits…but complexity and competing priorities sees many organisations leave things as they are.

Our Shift Work Assessment is a streamlined process which quickly analyses all relevant operational and HR factors to give you a tailored plan for immediate improvement.

Shift pattern design should include shift worker engagement

Whilst workforce demand and supply calculations are crucial to shift pattern design, a shift pattern creator should never lose sight of the fact that real people must work the hours set out in the different shift patterns.

In isolation it is very easy to create a shift pattern that is 100% optimised but that upsets your shift workers and could lead to employee relations issues and industrial action.

The best shift patterns emerge when shift pattern design involves shift workers and Trade Unions who work with the shift pattern creator to work out shift patterns that will best suit the workforce.

optashift call this part of the process ‘shift pattern co-design’.

It involves meaningful engagement, communication and collaboration so that shift workers have a direct influence throughout the shift pattern design process.

Shift workers can help set the parameters used in shift pattern design by expressing their preferences for elements such as start times, rotations, rest days and holidays.

Working out shift patterns in conjunction with shift workers provides valuable insight and helps achieve a consensus.

Shared ownership makes the process of changing shift patterns easier and dramatically increases satisfaction levels when they are implemented.

Make a shift calendar for shift workers

Once you have your custom shift pattern templates, the next phase of shift pattern design is to start to make a shift calendar that applies the new shift pattern, or shift patterns across the year.

A calendar for shift workers should give them certainty around when they are at work, on holiday and when they might be most likely to be on call or needed to work overtime.

The shift calendar template should also integrate effectively with your rostering and workforce management system (WFM) to provide visibility and control over the day-to-day management of the shift patterns.

This includes identifying and assigning individuals to specific shifts within the shift calendar and executing rostering and workforce management tasks such as shift swaps, holiday management and absence management.

In many cases it’s worth reviewing the capabilities of your workforce management (WFM) software as part of the shift pattern design process.

It might be that it needs additional configuration work to effectively support your different shift patterns.

Shift Work Health

The effects of shift work on physical and mental health are clear…so responsible employers need to provide shift workers with tailored support across sleep, nutrition, exercise and social issues.

optashift will help you deliver a programme that blends strategic, operational, practical and technical solutions that are designed in collaboration with your workforce.

Shift pattern generator - fact or fiction?

Speaking of workforce management (WFM) software…the internet is awash with software tools claiming to include a shift pattern generator to speed up the process of working out shift patterns.

It’s important a shift pattern creator doesn’t confuse them with the process of shift pattern design.

In our experience a shift pattern generator is more suited to short term and day-to-day rostering and workforce management (WFM) tasks rather than the strategic shift planning focus of shift pattern design.

A shift pattern generator will typically create shift patterns based on very basic variables and simple logic.

Most are not able to factor in considerations such as demand, operational processes, interdependencies, shift work policy and shift worker health and wellbeing.

Also some workforce management (WFM) systems state that they help create shift patterns when all they really do is create a shift calendar that reflects your current ways of working.

For example many T&A systems simply replicate a simple 4 on 4 off shift pattern with the ‘automaton’ simply meaning it transfers the shift pattern into a shift calendar for you.

By contrast shift pattern design is about the fundamentals of strategic shift planning.

It focuses on longer range planning to ensure shift patterns manage variation in demand and shift worker availability to provide exactly the right level of labour resource across the year.

Effective shift planning has a fundamental and dramatic impact on improving productivity, cutting unnecessary costs, ensuring your shift working practices are compliant and supporting employee health and well-being.

Can you create a shift planner in excel?

Often a shift pattern creator will look to create a shift planner in excel due to the fact it is a widely available and highly capable way of organising data.

It is possible to create a shift pattern calculator in excel that is used to create shift pattens…and build spreadsheets to support shift work management tasks too.

Creating a shift pattern calculator in excel can be an effective way of undertaking shift pattern design in relatively simple shift work environments.

Built well a shift pattern calculator in excel can be an effective tool to help you model shift pattern options, keep track of hours, compare shift patterns and check them against demand.

The power of this solution is only really limited by the shift pattern creator’s knowledge and experience of shift patterns and the intricacies of shift work.

A well-built shift pattern calculator in excel can allow for shift work regulations compliance checking, cover analysis and the production of a shift work calendar.

A good shift planner in excel is also capable of managing rotating shifts that incorporate a broader range of variables including shift lengths, skills mix, supply chain, processes and targets etc.

It requires knowledge and effort to ensure excel spreadsheets incorporate these factors, provide visibility over aspects such as compliance and fairness and can be accessed, understood and used by anyone other than the person who created the shift planner in excel!

Help with shift pattern design

This has been the briefest of overviews of what is a deep topic.

optashift has been delivering shift pattern design for nearly 40 years and will continue sharing much more insight and resources around shift pattern design.

If you are a shift pattern creator and need some help to work out shift patterns for your organisation, then it’s worth contacting one of our shift work experts.

We use a proven approach to shift pattern design that combines data and collaboration to create optimised shift patterns that balance organisational requirements with shift worker preferences.