Issue Archive: May 2005

Efficient Scheduling Options for Communications Centers

When communications center managers are faced with the challenge of developing a new shift schedule for their organization, they may find themselves completely overwhelmed. After all, this is not something they do every day. Few managers have the expertise to design a shift schedule that satisfies multiple concerns, such as coverage requirements, staffing constraints, overtime restrictions, and employee preferences. They could waste days or weeks searching for examples or trying to develop possible solutions on their own. This article provides an overview of several effective scheduling solutions to help managers who face this challenge.

Coverage Requirements

Schedule design should always begin with the coverage requirements, i.e., the number of dispatchers needed at different times of the day on each day of the week. Unlike many 24/7 operations, the workload in communications centers is not evenly distributed. Call volumes, which determine the workload, tend to vary by time of day or day of the week. There is usually a period every day in which the call volumes are so high that it would be advantageous to schedule extra operators. The commonly used options for addressing these periodic increases in workload are:

• Staff for the peaks.Schedule enough operators to meet peak workload at all times. For example, schedule four operators to work every shift, even when only three are needed for most of the day. This approach will maintain service levels during the busy times, but may result in overstaffing during the less busy times.
• Ignore the peaks.Schedule enough operators to meet the minimum staffing requirements and simply ignore the peak activity periods. For example, schedule two operators to work every shift, even though three operators really could be used during the peak period. This approach will result in reduced service levels (e.g., slower response times and dropped calls) during the busy periods.
• Use overtime.Schedule enough operators to meet the minimum staffing requirements and use overtime to increase the number of operators during the peak activity periods. Operators working a shift that ends near the start of the peak period could extend their shift. Operators starting a shift around the end of the peak period could come in early. Another possibility is to bring in operators who have the day off. The problem with continued reliance on overtime is that, over the long term, there could be negative consequences such as employee burnout, morale problems, increased absenteeism, and higher employee turnover.
• Hire part-time operators.Handle the increased workload by supplementing the regular staff with part-time employees. Part-timers can be assigned to a shorter shift that matches the peak workload period. This is an effective solution in smaller departments, but it is not always easy to find qualified personnel (e.g., POST or EMD-certified) who are willing to work on a part-time basis.
• Schedule for uneven coverage.An early NENA News article recommended scheduling personnel according to the percentage of calls handled by each shift.1 Although this is certainly better than assigning the same number of personnel to each shift, it assumes the calls are spread evenly over the length of the shift. Since this is unlikely, there still can be periods of understaffing and periods of overstaffing.
• Create overlay schedules.By adopting multiple schedules that overlay one another, coverage can be increased during the periods of heavy workload. For example, one schedule may satisfy the minimal coverage requirement of three operators on every shift. By adding another single eight-hour or 12-hour shift during the busy period, additional personnel can be added to better match the workload.
• Adopt multiple shift lengths.In a standard shift schedule, each shift is the same length, e.g., eight hours long. If one of the shifts is increased to 10 or 12 hours, it will overlap the other shifts. If the timing of this overlap is matched with the busy period, additional staff will be available when they are needed the most.
• Switch to 10-hour shifts.When three 10-hour shifts are squeezed into a 24-hour day, there will be six hours of overlapping shifts (30 hours – 24 hours = 6 hours). By aligning these overlapping shifts with the periods of greatest activity, the coverage is better matched with the workload. This article will focus on the last three options—overlay schedules, multiple shift lengths, and 10-hour shifts. Once the basic concepts are explained, tactics for addressing the major issues related to these options will be discussed.

Overlay Schedules

The daily variations in call activity levels tend to follow a regular pattern. Two schedules can be used to provide efficient coverage for this workload pattern. One schedule would provide the minimum required coverage for the day (assume three operators per shift). A second schedule would provide an additional operator for the eight-hour peak workload period from 1400 to 2200. This is a perfect match with the workload. The number of operators is increased by 25 percent at the same time the workload increases by 25 percent. If the busy period is longer than eight hours, longer shifts can be used as the overlay, e.g., 10-hour or 12-hour shifts. If the busy period is shorter than eight hours, the organization could use part-time employees, multiple shift lengths or 10- hour shifts.

Multiple Shift Lengths

One way to increase the coverage for a period that is shorter than eight hours is to adopt more than one shift length. If the primary schedule consists of three eight-hour shifts per day, one of the shifts could to be increased to 10 or 12 hours in length to provide extra coverage for two to four hours per day. If the busy period is more than four hours, two shifts would have to be made longer.

10-Hour Shifts

10-hour shifts will overlap one another for six hours every day. If the overlapping shifts are aligned with the period of peak call volumes, the coverage will be matched with the workload. If the peak period runs from 1500 to 2100, the best shift start and end times are:

Day shift: 1100 to 2100

Evening shift: 1500 to 0100

Night shift: 0100 to 1100

In this schedule, the day and evening shift overlap from 1500 to 2100, which corresponds with the period of highest activity. The number of operators on duty during this six-hour period would be double the number working the rest of the day.

Having described the three basic approaches to variable workloads of communications centers, let’s examine the most significant issues raised by these scheduling options: (1) unusual start and end times and (2) increased staffing and overtime.

Unusual Shift Starting and Ending Times

Many communications centers set the shift starting and ending times to make them convenient for employees, or make the start times similar to those used with eight-hour shifts. If managers want to take advantage of overlapping shifts, these traditional start and end times may have to change. That is the only way to ensure that the number of operators is matched with the workload. Anything else will be an inefficient use of personnel, since coverage will be increased when it is not needed.

Three steps are recommended to address this issue. First, prepare a solid justification for the change. A historical analysis of the call volumes should support the need for additional operators at certain times of the day. Second, try to develop more than one schedule alternative. Third, involve the operators in the selection process. Managers should never underestimate the turmoil that new shift start and end times will generate among the staff (see Involving Employees sidebar).

Increased Staffing or Overtime

Many communications centers are staffed with just enough employees to meet the minimum required coverage. This was called ignore the peaks earlier in the article. If the organization decides it wants to improve coverage during the busy workload periods, it may be necessary to hire more employees. If that isn’t possible, they may have to adopt a schedule with overtime built into it. If an organization is opposed to using overtime, its staffing levels may have to increase. On the other hand, if an organization’s staffing levels are frozen, it may have to accept more overtime. There will always be a tradeoff between staffing levels and the amount of overtime.

To illustrate the tradeoff between staffing and overtime, examples of several communications center schedules will be compared with a typical eight-hour schedule that provides coverage of one employee around-the-clock. This is a four-week, rotating schedule. When the schedule first starts, each operator is assigned to a specific week in the cycle. For example, Operator A is assigned to start in week one and Operator B is assigned to start in week two, etc. At the end of each week, the operators rotate down to the next week in the cycle. When an operator completes the fourth week, he or she rotates up to week one. This schedule requires four operators and has one week (week two) with eight hours of built-in overtime.

To make this schedule work for a communications center with a four-hour peak workload period that runs from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day, the day shift could be increased to 12 hours. Note that there is overtime in every week of this schedule, especially in week three. For most organizations, this amount of overtime is unacceptable. But it can be eliminated by hiring an additional operator.

This schedule only has one week with overtime. It also has two afternoon shifts every Friday. This occurs because an extra afternoon shift was added to week five to increase the hours to 40 and to avoid scheduling a single, isolated work day (Saturday).. This schedule has one week (week three) with 10 hours of built-in overtime. It has more overtime than the previous schedule because there are six overlapping hours every day rather than four. Yet the average overtime from this schedule is only two hours per week for each employee.

Effective Scheduling

Three effective options for tackling the variable workloads found in many communications centers are overlay schedules, multiple shift lengths, and 10-hour shifts. Overlay schedules are best for addressing extended busy periods of eight hours or more. 10-hour shift schedules are best for busy periods of exactly six hours. Multiple shift lengths are best for busy periods of two to four hours.

These three scheduling alternatives produce a couple of unique issues. One is the unusual start and end times for the shifts. Another is the increased staffing and overtime. Managers should be aware of these issues before launching a schedule change. This may involve some extra effort, but the advantage of being able to match the number of operators with the workload is certainly worth it.

Bruce Oliver is a consultant with Shiftwork Solutions LLC (San Rafael, CA) and the founder of Shift Schedule Design (Novato, CA). He has more than 25 years of business management and consulting experience in a number of different industries, including three years with the City of Los Angeles. He has been involved with Shiftwork operations consulting for the past five years. He can be reached at (415) 472-3688 or via e-mail at bruce@shift-work.com. His Web sites are www.shift-work.com and www.shift-schedule-design.com.

References

1. Weaver, Bill “Communications Center Staffing: When is Enough, Enough?” NENA News, Winter 1999.

Involving Employees

Kern County’s (CA) Emergency Communications Center (ECC) was suffering from high levels of overtime, absences, and workers compensation claims. Concluding that these problems were caused by the current shift schedule, ECC manager Walt Moulton says, “We assembled a team that consisted of supervisors and shop stewards to look at other scheduling possibilities. When the team exhausted all ideas, they enlisted the help of scheduling expert Bruce Oliver to identify three alternatives. The proposed schedules were submitted to the dispatchers for a vote. This is where we made a critical error, because they rejected all of the proposed changes. The turmoil it caused is still settling.”

Two changes would have made this process more effective. The first step should have been to secure agreement on the root problem. Employee meetings could be used to gain concurrence that the current schedule isn’t working. Otherwise, employees will resist any schedule changes. The second step should have been to direct attention towards finding the best solution rather than voting on whether or not to make the change. Questionnaires can be used to identify individual preferences or to obtain feedback on alternative approaches. Survey results can be discussed in group meetings as a means of narrowing the choices and building consensus around the final selection. Identifying individual employee preferences is an important step in this process.