| Article written by Thomas Aagaard, Head of Business Development at PDC. Feel free to contact me on tel +45 3636 0000 for a chat about options. Or, write at pdc@pdc.com for more information. |  |
As the ways of being employed become more diverse and individually adapted, it also becomes more and more necessary to be able to plan working hours with different points of departure and meet different needs.
Traditionally, shift schedules are drawn up so that they fit the working hours the individual employee is paid for in their contract. This is fine in many organizations – but there are others where everyday life is more changeable and requires greater flexibility in shift planning.
Complex shift planning
The trend is towards increasing economic focus, precise personnel demand, wishes for increasing employee influence and special requirements in connection with the execution of the work:
- There are no more employees on duty than necessary – and at the same time the work is carried out safely if there are fewer people on duty than planned
- The employees must have the necessary skills to carry out the shift
- The employees increasingly want influence over their working hours
- Customers/citizens and others demand flexibility in relation to when the work is carried out
- Staff require independent planning of their own time on assigned tasks and subsequent registration of working time on the right task
Employees with different conditions
Large organizations with many employees often have several different employment types. An example is the Directorate of Correctional Services (DCS), where most of the staff are officers who work according to guidelines set out in arrests and prisons. Another group of “civilians” – social workers, psychologists, doctors, nurses etc. work according to other guidelines and then there is the administration which works according to some third guidelines.
This means that when DCS wants one system to handle all planning and registration, it requires a flexible approach to planning and registration.
Employee involvement in shift planning
Employee influence can be expressed in several ways. The prison officers can submit requests for time off and working hours. For others, it is an influence on the planning of their own tasks for the coming period as well as assurance of correct registration – whether you work 8-16 or want to leave early and do/time register your work from home later in the day.
Dynamic planning and flexibility in employee involvement are important parameters in a dynamic everyday life where a working day is no longer 8-16 or a fixed 37 hours per week – but can look in many ways.
All this is possible with PDC’s StaffPlan.