Looking for creative solutions for creating a 24x7 staffing model

greenspun.com : LUSENET : What keeps you up at night? : One Thread

Our business needs are changing and I need to create a 7x24 staffing model for building security. The current staffing model is not salvageable nor manageable so starting with a clean slate and work it backwards to fit the existing staff seems to be the best approach. The area that causes me the greatest difficulty is how to determine who works the weekends. Staffing a weekend only crew has not been a reliable source not to mention the difficult recruiting challenge. During the mornings we need 7 people and the afternoons and evenings will need 5. Weekends will need 4-5 on all three shifts. Any suggestions???? We are considering a combination of part time, full time and staff augmentation via a security firm.

-- Laurie Burns (laurie.burns@midata.com), October 16, 2000

Answers

Laurie I thought I could come up something. At the beginning I was wondering to myself how hard can this really be? In the end I came up with absolutely nothing apart from the obvious one-liners such ass arranging staff by seniority, where the most senior people have first dibs at choosing the shift they want, and a shift-swap option available for those who want to personally negotiate between themselves, of course letting the coordinator know of such agreements.

Then I thought about what this article says;

http://www.workforce.com/feature/00/04/13/0005281.html

and realized I am just not cut out to be in the staffing model business. Good luck with your project, at least I now appreciate what you are actually grappling with.

(Please note Mark Zorro is psuedonym I use on-line)

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), October 18, 2000.


The best way to accomplish this is to create a schedule that is based the following way: Day Shift Shift 1 Tue - Sat 7am - 4pm Shift 2 Sun - Thur 7am - 4pm Shift 3 Fri - Mon 6am - 5pm Mid Shift Shift 1 Tue - Sat 3pm - 12am Shift 2 Sun - Thur 3pm - 12am Shift 3 Fri - Mon 1pm - 12am Overnight Shift 1 Tue - Sat 11pm - 8am Shift 2 Sun - Thur 11pm- 8am Shift 3 Fri - Mon 11pm- 9am Note you will be able to get students to work the 4 day 10 hour shifts as they will be able to go to school fulltime on Tuesdays and Thursday. In addition you will need to make a rule that everyone must work a weekend day, then give your senior staff the first choice of shifts making sure to explain that each option as it benifits. Such as the fact that working the Sun - Thur night shift will result in getting a 2.5 day weekend since you will have Friday and Saturday and not have to be at work until Sunday night. Hope this helps please feel free to email me if you need additional information. I have already built several 24 hour teams for various companies and this is the structure I have used.

-- Dave Farley (davef@go2net.com), November 03, 2000.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ