Shifts vs. Jobs
Shifts are displayed on the yellow row for each employee. Jobs are scheduled within the shift times on the white rows. If there are more reservations at the same time, new rows are automatically created to display all information completely.
The CTWS distinguishes between different types of planning, such as between tasks and shifts, where the tasks are the employee's granular activities (e.g. create Chinese subtitles for a DVD) and shifts (scheduled employee-working times). The more flexibility is possible in the process e.g. flextime, freelancers, union rules, individual contracts, travel and so on, the more complex roster planning becomes. The CTWS helps here with a variety of functions to save valuable time. In addition, it helps you
- Avoid over/underutilization
- Comply with supplementary charges
- Minimize downtime and cost
- Avoid/minimize compliance risks
Duty Roster
Like all information in the system, shifts can also be used for reports (PDFs, mails, printouts). This picture shows an outline overview plan.
That is why the roster planning in CTWS is not separate from other components such as the task scheduler but is integrated with it, so that such a shift can be assigned when a task is fulfilled. A shift defines scheduled work hours and tasks are jobs that have to be completed within the planned shift. If a planned job has changed actual times, then the corresponding shift times are automatically changed for that day. In addition, other parts also interlock "hand in hand", such as availability planning, order management and employee self-service.
Shifts can easily be defined manually by clicking, then dragging and dropping. You can view the Gantt chart in hour and minute intervals, or over weeks and months in the daily view. In addition, an employee can get several shifts per day.
Conflicts
Not only normal conflicts are monitored e.g. the free-time conflict (F) displayed below, but also the individual regulations. The employee above is scheduled for 8 days in a row, this violates working time regulations (T) in the work contract, and working on Good Friday and on Sunday generates a conflict icon (FZ) to indicate the higher payment rate.
The system monitors the compliance with rules similar to those for order planning (overlapping tasks, necessary skills, etc.) but also specific to:
- Working time laws (total working hours, weekend work, etc.)
- Labor agreements (e.g. by CBA)
- Rules for supplementary payments for overtime etc.
For this, the provisos of the different rules are implemented in the system and monitored at all times for each booking to provide valid planning.
Distribution of shifts is done as for tasks, also using reports, which can be printed or emailed as PDFs or via the home studio (self-service) so every employee can stay informed.
To create a roster, you do not have to create or copy all the shifts manually; rather you can save as templates, which are rolled out over a period (e.g. a quarter) in arbitrary intervals (e.g. weekly). This is especially useful if additional information is stored on the services and therefore does not have to be entered more than once.
Recommendations
To allocate the "Early Tech" shift above, a recommendation list with suitable available employees appears.
Subsets of shifts are the so-called duty shifts. These have some special properties; with these a duty (e.g. a hotline shift or occupancy of Studio A) is defined which you can later assign to a staff member. Therefore, the request can be planned first and the allocation carried out on demand.
Roster models
Roster models can be created which assign employees to alternating shifts, automatically making employee rostering fair and compliant over the long term.
Especially if you have two or more shifts, the allocation is more complicated in terms of achieving a balanced plan for the shift workers, even with the recommended list already mentioned. To that end, there are roster models that define how an employee works in shifts over time. These shift patterns (e.g. for two weeks in the picture) can then be rolled out to employees, automatically creating a uniform, alternating and functional shift roster over a long period.
This planning can also take circumstances such as unavailable employees, public holidays or substitute employees into consideration.
