In theory, it’s quite simple to sit down with an Excel spreadsheet and plan rotas a couple of weeks in advance. You’ll no doubt hit some stumbling blocks with annual leave and sickness thrown in the mix, but for a week or two – you should be just fine. However, over time, this manual effort will leave your staff feeling less engaged and could result in them leaving your healthcare organisation.
In this post we’ll detail the challenges of manual rota planning and how a technology solution can help you better engage staff and boost retention.
Fairness
With the best will in the world fairness is hard to achieve with manual planning. Round the clock shift-based services will feature a fair-few ‘bad shifts’. Nights, weekends, bank holidays – you know the ones. So, it’s important to distribute these fairly.
With automated flexible rota production, with fairness built into its core, of course a worker might still get some of those ‘bad shifts’, but only their fair share. For a worker, knowing this will go a long way to building trust and helping you retain their talent in a competitive marketplace.
Predictability
Shift work is unpredictable, or too predictable when planned manually. But some staff don’t want to work on rigid shift patterns, neither do they don’t want to be told their ad-hoc patterns a week before.
So, what’s the answer? Software which allows for these flexible patterns to be automated in seconds and communicated in advance. This will not only save rota planners hours of administration time, but will give staff a greater work-life balance and feeling they have much more input and engagement.
Read more about the RotaMaster allocation wizard.
Control
Managers and staff can enjoy much greater control over working patterns. Ultimately, leaving you with a fully staffed rota and staff with more choice.
RotaMaster technology is packed with smart features that do the heavy lifting for managers who just want things to run smoothly. Our software is built to accommodate all manner of rules including working time directive, non-working days, skill requirements, consecutive shifts and more. Staff are able to log their own availability, book shifts directly, swap shifts, manage their annual leave and confirm rotas week-by-week, just in case anything changes – but ultimately all of this is controlled by managers, leaving everyone feeling more empowered and engaged.
Confidence
You’ll notice a trend here, but it’s worth reiterating that workforce management software often boasts the same benefits for staff as it does managers, leading to the building of better teams.
A robust system that is both organised and well managed boosts confidence for staff that they are in control, it’s reliable and that it’s fair. In turn, managers being afforded the tools to do their jobs effectively (and not just a Microsoft office license) helps them feel valued, having been trusted with task appropriate tools.
Communication
It’s good to talk. Whether that’s face to face, an email or an SMS between teams and managers. Technology gives teams greater visibility over who they are working with and when, whilst messaging from management is simple and can be targeted to avoid white noise – all this boost’s engagement and trust between both teams.
Conclusion
Rota planning is just one aspect of workforce management and whilst manual operations may seem familiar, and the way things have been done for years. There is a better way.
Many managers who operate using manual systems end up being admins for far too long. Giving them the tools to automate these tasks affords them more time to run their teams, build company culture and boost team performance.
Technology allows our teams to enjoy fairness, predictability, control, confidence and connection. It’s a win-win for everyone.
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