White Papers
Making Annualised Hours work for the UK - Part 1: Exploring a 'new' way of working
We explore the fundamentals of Annualised Hours including how the framework can address issues around productivity, flexibility and employee wellbeing
We’ll help you unlock the full potential of your workforces' contracted hours by changing shift patterns and using specialist workforce management software to plan, manage and monitor shift work and rostering.
Over three decades we’ve developed a unique blend of shift planning expertise and workforce management software that allows you to:
Use this page to explore our Lean Employee Resourcing® (Lean-ER®) approach, which will help you fully optimise your approach to shift planning, rostering and workforce management.
Many organisations operate legacy shift patterns, rosters and rotas that are not designed around the needs of the organisation or its employees.
‘Traditional’ approaches to shift work and rostering often see employees work fixed eight-hour shifts regardless of how busy or quiet it is.
This imbalance in labour supply and demand typically causes a wide range of working time issues including:
A demand-led approach to shift planning, rostering and workforce management is central to shift work optimisation.
Our WORK Suite® technology and industrial insight allows us to conduct detailed demand planning so you can accurately calculate resourcing needs over any given period.
These forecasts are used within the software to design shift patterns, rosters and rotas which ensure the workforce is always aligned to the workload.
This allows you to:
To release the full potential of employees’ contracted hours, we help organisations adopt an Annualised Hours approach to shift planning and rostering.
Agreeing the hours an employee works over a year, rather than on a weekly basis, provides the opportunity to create truly responsive shift patterns and new approaches to shift work.
This unlocks a step-change in productivity & efficiency whilst increasing fairness & flexibility for the workforce.
Key to shift work optimisation is engaging employees in shift planning, rostering and workforce management processes.
Changing shift patterns can be a sensitive area of employee relations, but it can also unlock new approaches to shift work that deliver significant ongoing benefits for your organisation and its workforce.
Engaging and collaborating with employees in the shift planning, rostering and workforce management processes will help:
Our approach can create a broad range of shift pattern options, making shift work more adaptable
and responsive to shift worker needs.
Embedding engagement within the shift work optimisation process can also serve to improve employee relations and help create a workforce that embraces and contributes to change.
Shift work optimisation requires an approach to shift planning, rostering and workforce management that responds to
change.
Your shift work requirements may be affected by a host of influences, from economic, social & demographic issues to pressures created by regulation, competition & new technology.
How your shift patterns, rosters and rotas adapt to these factors is key to harnessing the full productivity and efficiency gains created by Demand-Led Rostering and Annualised Hours.
To ensure shift work remains agile and responsive to changing demand, we will help you embed a shift planning and workforce management approach that:
Non-specialist shift planning and workforce management software is often overwrought, complex, inadequate or error-prone when it comes to managing shift work and shift patterns.
The level of shift planning, rostering, employee scheduling and workforce management required to maintain optimised shift work cannot be delivered by spreadsheet-based systems or Time & Attendance software.
By creating an effective, streamlined approach to shift planning and workforce management, we will help ensure your labour supply & demand remains aligned…no matter what changes your organisation faces.
Our proven approach to shift planning, rostering and workforce management is effective in a wide range of industries which employ shift workers.
The impact on productivity & efficiency of shift work optimisation is immediate - delivering significant ROI on our WORKSuite® software & specialist services.
Maintaining optimised shift patterns and rostering over the long-term delivers broad & substantial value across a number of areas.
The data-driven nature of our Lean-ER® approach to shift work optimisation enables us to demonstrate the quantitative & qualitative benefits of using our shift planning & workforce management software and services.
White Papers
We explore the fundamentals of Annualised Hours including how the framework can address issues around productivity, flexibility and employee wellbeing
White Papers
We explore the questions Brexit poses around workforce productivity, flexibility and compliance
Case Studies
One of the UK's largest food manufacturers saved £1m by designing seasonal shift patterns that better met demand...reducing use of overtime and temporary labour
White Papers
We look at how organisations can improve their productivity through changes to Working Time
Secure a free, hour-long session with our experts to discuss your shift work challenges and potential solutions