A schedule, often called a rota or a roster, is a list of
employees, and associated information e.g. location, department, working times, responsibilities for a given time period e.g. week, month or sports season.
A
schedule is necessary for the day-to-day operation of many businesses e.g.
retail store,
manufacturing facility and some
offices. The process of creating a schedule is called scheduling. An effective workplace schedule balances the needs of stakeholders such as
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...
, employees and
customers.
A ''daily'' schedule is usually ordered
chronologically, which means the first employees working that day are listed at the top, followed by the employee who comes in next, etc. A ''weekly'' or ''monthly'' schedule is usually ordered
alphabetically, employees being listed on the left hand side of a grid, with the days of the week on the top of the grid. In
shift work, a schedule usually employs a recurring
shift plan.
A schedule is most often created by a
manager. In larger operations, a
human resources manager or scheduling specialist may be solely dedicated to creating and maintaining the schedule. A schedule by this definition is sometimes referred to as
workflow.
Software is often used to enable organizations to better manage staff scheduling. Organizations commonly use
spreadsheet software or
employee scheduling software to create and manage shifts, assignments, and employee preferences. For large organisations employee scheduling can be complex, and optimising this is framed as the
nurse scheduling problem in
operations Research
Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...
.
[Math.ed]
"Nurse scheduling problem"
/ref> Advanced employee scheduling software also provides ways to connect with the staff, ask for their preferences and communicate the schedule to them.
On-call scheduling
An oncall shift, or on-call scheduling, is a practice that requires employees to be available to be called onto last-minute shifts without pre-scheduling.
Self-scheduling
Flexible self-scheduling is a practice used when a manager defines scheduling needs based on demand, but allows employees to select, trade, and fill shifts themselves. Allowing schedules to be created faster, with less effort, and gives hourly employees more control over their work life.
See also
* Field service management
* Gantt chart
* Split shift
References
Employment
Business process management
Time management
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