Building Rotation Shift Patterns

“Aren’t these an old fashioned way of designing shift patterns?” “People don’t want these anymore, as they don’t offer enough flexibility?” “We used to do them, we are trying to move away from these.”

For almost 25-years The Forum have been showcasing pioneering new approaches for working patterns in the world of call & contact centres. We first published the flexibility toolkit in 2011 and have been refining this over the past 23-years. There has been a step-change in attitudes towards working patterns since the Covid-19 Pandemic, with many organisations embracing new ways of working. Admittedly, whilst others have “feared” new ways and returned to tried-and-tested approaches.

At a recent networking event, we discussed the 5 different working pattern categories along with 16 different shift templates starting with rotational patterns. 95% of organisations all used versions of rotational patterns, with some only using this type of shift template. 1 organisation said they are moving away from rotations and towards fixed patterns. The devil is in the detail, though rotations are still very much commonplace the range of options to flex and stretch these varied. Fixed start and end times, to a variety to flexi-time where the employee decides in advance, or even on the day all provide preference based options. Fixed days-off, to changing days-off to automated shift-swaps to manually administrated swaps. We then briefly spoke about how breaks and lunches are allocated, with more organisations taking a “freedom-breaks” approach giving the employee empowerment to go when every they want (often with a few conditions, e.g. not in the first or last 30-minutes of a shift).

Bad practice for rotational patterns includes:

• Late notice of shift rotation (2-weeks or less). Unless you have an uncertain volatile customer demand, you are more likely to be covering for bad planning. Let you people have good notice (4-weeks+) of days in, with much longer notice of days off (next 6-months+).
• Full rotation not being worked. Too many changes and adjustments, means that employees don’t get the opportunity to work the full length of the rotation and work their equal share of pre-determined shifts.
• Fixed breaks and lunches. Taking a “system says” approach to optimising breaks and lunches is not good enough anymore, this will just drive bad adherence behaviours. Provide autonomy, track behaviours and manage repeat offenders (just don’t obsess with the occasional issues).
• Limit shift changes. Automated shift swaps are the way forward, however sometimes the rules need to be broken and manual swaps, which may not 100% like-for-like need to happen. Again, track behaviours and patterns of swaps, as there may be a better solution.

It was good to see the once “unfair for everyone” approach to shifts being modernised, to meet the needs of today. A shift template which can provide consistent coverage of staff hours, whilst providing certainty of days-in and out of the office. Crucially, the more successful rotational patterns had added personalisation, like days-off, start and end time choices, break and lunch autonomy and shift -swap automation. These worked in tandem with “other” shift templates, like fixed-trade-off patterns (where the template majors on one aspect, e.g. late shifts or weekends), part-time patterns (which work key, or core hours) and specific lifestyle patterns.

Best practice I love to see:

1. Flexi-time. When the employee has the autonomy to choose their start and end time. Yes, there are rules/principles, however this can be hugely effective when combined with time-banking, so employees can stretch their working days and take back for time off.
2. Freedom breaks. Go for a break when ever you want. Yes, there are rules/principles to help guide the employee, however we should be able to trust our people to take appropriate breaks during the day at a time suitable for them.
3. Fixed-days off. Sight of future days-off, allowing the employee to plan for that weekend away, a family gathering, or whatever. To have a 6-month, or longer view of days off, can really help people make plans and make the most of their personal time.

The next virtual networking group, Tuesday, 12th September, will focus on annual leave allocation to understand how holidays can be guaranteed for employees. If you are interested in joining message, or comment below and we will send you the invitation. If you’re about to start a shift-review why not take a look at our learning boxset, or our 6-month Assisted Learning Pathway, (see our website for more details: https://theforum.social/learning-academy).