Roster Planning Methods

Why does PDC Plan support multiple roster planning methods?

Workforce planning is rarely a single discipline. It balances operational stability, flexibility, and individual needs. Therefore, there is no single “right” way to plan.

In practice, planning must meet several often competing requirements. Some organisations rely on stable, recurring shift patterns. These fixed rotations ensure continuity, support teamwork, and maintain compliance with working time rules over time. At the same time, they reduce planning effort.

However, many organisations also face increasing demand for employee influence. Staff want input on shifts and time off. In addition, staffing levels often depend on production or service demand, which requires continuous adjustments.

Planning must also ensure that the right competencies are available at the right time. This ensures correct task execution. Furthermore, organisations must distribute shifts fairly, including weekends, nights, and public holidays. All of this must comply with collective agreements, working time rules, and financial limits.

PDC Plan handles this complexity. The system supports multiple planning models because organisations and situations require different approaches.

For example, some organisations focus on stability and reuse of plans. Others use demand-driven planning with dynamic staffing levels. In many cases, they combine both approaches. Therefore, PDC Plan offers multiple planning methods that planners can use individually or together. This enables efficient, flexible, and fair workforce planning.

Which planning method fits your business?

PDC Plan supports all six, on their own or combined.

Basic Roster Planning

Fixed shift patterns and base plans for steady, predictable operations.

Complex Roster Planning

Where demand, qualifications, costs and compliance all have to resolve at once.

Demand-based Planning

Staffing levels follow production or service demand, hour by hour.

Function Planning

Roster by role and responsibility rather than by named employee.

Self / Project Planning

Employees plan their own time and tasks inside the rules you set.

Dispatch Planning

Same-day task allocation when the plan meets reality.

Automatic Planning

Complex rosters solved automatically.

Basic Roster Planning and Employee-Driven Planning

For organisations with straightforward planning needs, a basic roster approach provides a structured and efficient way to allocate shifts and communicate schedules.

In this model, shifts cover operational demand. Planners create rosters that define when and where employees work. They also define which tasks each shift includes.

PDC Plan supports this process. It considers qualifications and availability. In addition, it enables fair and transparent rotation patterns. This helps distribute less attractive shifts, such as nights and weekends, more evenly across employees. Planners can assign tasks in advance or dispatch them on the day when needed.

Alongside basic roster planning, many organisations also use employee-driven planning, also called wish-based planning.

In this model, employees submit preferences for shifts and time off. Planners then build the roster based on these inputs instead of fixed rotations or predefined base plans.

The planner balances employee preferences with operational needs. The planner also ensures sufficient coverage at all times. Finally, teams handle remaining gaps or less attractive shifts collaboratively, for example through group dialogue or shared responsibility.

Complex Roster Planning Models

Complex planning is driven primarily by business demand. The goal is to match the right number of resources with the required qualifications at the right time.

This approach is common in environments with fluctuating or unpredictable demand. It also applies where organisations must manage multiple working time rules. In addition, planners must handle both assigned and unassigned resources.

Planning often involves expensive or highly specialised staff. Therefore, errors can create significant operational or financial consequences.

Furthermore, strict requirements for quality, compliance, and safety increase the need for precision. They also require a high level of detail throughout the planning process.

PDC Plan supports this level of complexity. The system lets organisations model demand based on their specific operations and service delivery.

In addition, it calculates resource needs and related costs before staff assignment. This gives planners a strong foundation for informed decisions and efficient resource use.

As a result, PDC delivers a robust and flexible platform for complex planning scenarios. It supports organisations where accuracy, transparency, and control matter most.

Demand Based Roster Planning

Demand-based roster planning starts with the organisation’s production or service demand. It then aligns this demand with:

available, qualified employees
compliance with working time regulations and legal requirements
employee preferences for shifts and activities

In this way, staffing levels and competencies reflect actual demand. At the same time, the approach balances operational needs with employee considerations.

Demand-based planning is a key capability in PDC Plan. It also forms a central part of our support for complex, activity-based planning.

As a result, organisations can move beyond traditional roster planning. They adopt a more dynamic, demand-driven approach where resources are allocated based on real needs instead of fixed structures.

This approach is especially relevant in industries that require accuracy, responsiveness, and operational reliability.

Ambulance Services

Providing emergency response services requires continuous 24/7 coverage with the correct mix of competencies, such as paramedics, EMTs, and specialised clinicians, as well as vehicles and supporting resources. Planning must ensure that all shifts are covered without gaps, while also considering preferences for working in consistent teams and longer shifts (e.g. 12- or 24-hour shifts). In this environment, missed coverage is not an option, and planners require a high level of visibility and control to ensure readiness at all times.

Ferry Companies

Workforce planning in ferry operations is complex due to fixed timetables, multiple daily departures, and strict regulatory requirements. As critical transport providers, ferry companies must ensure reliable service while balancing operational efficiency and cost control. Planning becomes even more dynamic when staffing demand fluctuates based on passenger volumes, requiring flexible allocation of qualified crew to maintain both safety and service levels.

Public Organisations

Many public sector services, such as hospitals, prisons, and other institutional environments, operate continuously and require 24/7 staffing. This is reflected not only in the planning of shifts, but also in the underlying salary calculations, where factors such as night work, weekends, and public holidays must be taken into account. At the same time, demand is often driven by external factors, such as the number of patients, residents, or inmates, and how they place pressure on the system.

Planning may be based on predefined schedules or automated processes, but demand profiles play a central role in ensuring that staffing levels match actual needs. As demand changes, for example due to patient flow or movement of inmates, the organisation must ensure that resources with the right qualifications are available in the right locations.

This creates a need for strong visibility and control in the planning process. PDC Plan supports this by providing a clear overview of resource coverage and highlighting any gaps where shifts are not staffed with appropriately qualified personnel, enabling planners to respond proactively and maintain operational quality and safety.

Automated Roster Planning

Automated planning supports organisations with high complexity. These environments must balance many employees, shifts, and qualification requirements at the same time.

To do this, the approach uses advanced algorithms and mathematical optimisation. It generates schedules based on multiple factors. These include employee preferences, qualifications, working time rules, contracted hours, and cost. The goal is to identify the most optimal plan across these often competing factors.

Automated planning is especially relevant in continuous operations with many different roles. In these settings, manual planning takes too much time and becomes difficult to manage.

At the same time, the system supports a fair and transparent distribution of shifts. This includes both popular and less attractive shifts. It also ensures compliance with regulations and contractual obligations.

As a result, organisations automate large parts of the planning process. They gain higher efficiency, better fairness, and improved use of resources. Planners still review, adjust, and finalise the plan based on local needs.

Prisons, Hospitals

In both prison and hospital environments, demand and staffing requirements can vary significantly and require a high degree of flexibility in planning.

In prisons, staffing needs may fluctuate depending on the number and type of inmates, such as increased security requirements for high-risk individuals or unexpected events that demand additional personnel. Automatic planning enables resources to be allocated dynamically in response to these changes, ensuring that the required level of security and supervision is always maintained.

In hospitals, employees such as nurses can express preferences for specific shifts, roles, or tasks within the planning period. Automatic planning methods incorporate these preferences alongside operational requirements, qualifications, and regulatory constraints to generate balanced schedules. Fairness parameters defined by the organisation ensure an equitable distribution of both desirable and less desirable shifts.

This approach supports both operational efficiency and employee satisfaction, while maintaining compliance and ensuring that critical functions are consistently staffed.

Function-Based Roster Planning

Some organisations plan operations by function and responsibility rather than by individual employee. This approach is especially relevant in environments where employees take on multiple or changing roles. It also applies where working hours vary.

In these cases, planners need a clear overview of which functions require coverage at any time. This ensures that all responsibilities receive the right competencies.

Function-based planning differs from traditional shift planning. Traditional planning focuses on assigning shifts to employees. In contrast, function-based planning starts with the task or function. Planners then allocate resources to ensure full coverage.

As a result, this approach increases flexibility and transparency in complex environments. It also supports rapid adjustments of roles and responsibilities. This helps maintain operational quality.

Hospitals

PDC has developed a specialised tool, FunctionPlan, designed specifically for function-based planning in hospital environments.

FunctionPlan is particularly suited for planning medical staff, such as doctors, but can also be applied to other professional groups within hospitals. The primary focus is to ensure that all required functions within a department are adequately covered, while maintaining full compliance with working time regulations and contracted hours.

The planning process is carried out in a browser-based interface that closely mirrors traditional paper-based planning methods previously used by clinicians. This creates a high degree of familiarity for experienced planners, making the transition to digital planning intuitive and efficient.

By combining structured function coverage with regulatory compliance and a user-friendly interface, FunctionPlan supports accurate, transparent, and sustainable planning in complex hospital environments.

Self-Planning / Project-Based Roster Planning

Self-planning, also called project-based planning, shifts responsibility for the work plan partly or fully to employees.

In this model, planners define part of the plan. They assign core tasks, projects, or a percentage of working hours. Employees then manage the remaining time themselves.

Planners assign tasks to qualified employees. After that, employees plan and register their remaining working time within the planning period, often using tools such as MyPlan.

This model gives employees flexibility and ownership. They can organize their time, location, and activities in a way that supports task completion. At the same time, the organisation ensures that overall objectives and resource needs are met.

Self-planning is especially relevant in knowledge-based and team-oriented environments. In these settings, work is less structured, and outcomes matter more than fixed schedules.

News Media and Project-Based Teams

In news media and similar project-driven environments, planning often revolves around tasks and deadlines rather than predefined shifts. For example, an editor may assign a team of journalists to cover a specific event within a given timeframe, without dictating exactly how the work should be carried out.

Within this framework, employees plan their own activities based on the needs of the task—such as conducting interviews, researching, writing, and fact checking. This flexibility enables teams to adapt their efforts dynamically, ensuring both efficiency and high-quality output.

Daily Dispatch in Roster Planning

Daily Dispatch manages short-term and on-the-day scheduling. It ensures that planned resources match actual tasks.

In most cases, organisations already schedule employees in advance using broader planning methods.

As the operation day approaches, the Dispatch module assigns specific tasks to employees. It allocates tasks to individuals or teams. It also handles last-minute changes such as sickness or shift swaps. As a result, all activities stay covered.

The system supports efficient coordination. It allows planners to assign tasks in bulk, for example to entire teams. It also provides a clear overview of all ongoing activities. At the same time, PDC Plan’s rule engine checks compliance with working time rules, qualifications, and contracts.

Dispatch gives real-time visibility into tasks and resource allocation. Therefore, planners can respond quickly to delays, disruptions, and changes in demand. This helps maintain operational flow and reduce costly delays.

Tasks move through different status levels. Dispatchers use these statuses to track progress and ensure timely execution. The system also sends alerts when tasks delay or risk delay. This enables proactive reallocation and ensures critical activities finish as planned.

Healthcare and Airports

In healthcare environments, specialists such as surgeons and anesthetists are typically scheduled for shifts in advance, but the exact tasks and procedures they will perform are not always known ahead of time. Dispatching enables these highly specialised resources to be allocated dynamically to specific tasks, patients, and locations on the day, ensuring that capacity is aligned with actual demand.

In airport operations, turnaround processes are highly time-critical and involve multiple coordinated tasks, such as cleaning, baggage handling, and refueling, all within a very limited timeframe. Dispatch provides real-time visibility and control, allowing planners to respond to delays, changes in flight schedules, and other operational disruptions. By continuously adjusting resource allocation, dispatch helps maintain efficiency and minimize the impact of costly delays.