Management

What is management? The origin of management is to train, horses in particular where manage comes from the Latin Manus meaning hand. Yet today management has a very different connotation.

If you manage something, then you exert control over it. To manage a system or operation is to control it. So when we talk about managing holidays, absence etc. we mean that you control it.

If you want to manage holidays, then you need to understand them. When do people want a holiday and why. Once you know and understand the function of holidays, you can meet those needs. There are two effective ways of managing holidays. One is called Holidays Included and the other is a Holiday Management Plan. The holiday management plan exerts control over how holidays are requested and booked. Therefore, minimizing the effect of holidays to the operation. A Holidays Included option takes away all of the problems of holiday, while ensuring that both the workers and the operational needs are met.

Controlling absence is a little more difficult. A company has complete control over when and how holidays are taken. Yet they have no control over when and how people will become ill. So a different approach is needed. Again you need to understand how and when absences occur. Then you can predict what will happen in the future. You then need to put in a proactive absence management plan. This means that you anticipate what will happen and have a procedure in place for all eventualities.

Yet as a manager you still need to train your people to follow your procedures. So the best managers are ones that still incorporate training into their management.

At C-Desk Technology we understand how holidays and absences occur because we have spent years studying people. Learning how and why people take holidays, so that we can help them achieve better quality time off. We have analyzed absence data, so that we can predict how and when absence will occur and then developed strategies to cover them.

If you are finding that holidays and absences are taking up too much of your management time, then contact us to find out how to manage your operation better. Call us on +44 (0) 1636 816466 or email on alec@visualrota.co.uk. We have training courses, books and consultancy packages to meet your requirements and budget.

What to do with 31 weeks off a year!

On a holidays included shift pattern you can look forward to up to 31 weeks of holiday every year. This is on a standard full time contract. So if you are working 12-hour shifts on 37-42 hour working week, then you could turn your 5.6 weeks into 10-31 weeks off every year.


What a holidays included shift pattern does is take your rest days and combine them with your holidays to give you the best possible time off. That means regular time off in blocks of 7-12 days. Then during the summer the breaks are extended to give you 17-21 days off. Then you can have a nice two week break in the summer every year.


There are lots of holidays included shift patterns available. They can meet any workload, working contracts, SLAs, etc. The most popular are the 232, 554, 3on and 4on. The 232 and 554 work around the week. The 3on and 4on do not work around a week, instead they are based on ensuring that you only work two or three shifts with a break.

So what can you do with 31 weeks off? Strangely enough when people have experienced a holidays included shift pattern, one complaint is about reducing the number of weeks off because people find it too much. 31 weeks is a lot of time off. So here are a few ideas about what to do with it.

Relax with the family!

Set sail and see the world!

Take up a new hobby!

Work on the garden!

Soak up some culture!

If you would like to fine out more about holidays included shift patterns, please contact us on alec@visualrota.co.uk or phone us on 01636 816466

Performance Criteria

When evaluating any change in operations there are five key performance indicators to measure how well your new operation is working. These are;

• Quality
• Speed
• Dependability
• Flexibility
• Cost

So once you implement a new way of working you can evaluate its performance against these criteria.

A new way of working that is very popular is Holidays Included Shift Patterns. Once people are on a Holidays Included Shift Pattern they never want to come off it. But from a business perspective how would a Holidays Included Shift Pattern improve performance? If we look at each of the criteria in turn, we can evaluate how an operation will work under the old and the new way of working.

The quality of the operation will normally improve. This is because when creating a Holidays Included Shift Pattern the first step is to assess what would the ideal make-up of a shift be? Then you set up the Holidays Included Shift Pattern so that on every shift you have the best collection of skills possible. This means that on every shift you would have the “ideal” team working. So having the “ideal” team on every shift compared to a random assortment of people will inevitably produce a better quality product. How much the quality improves will depend on how the present operation is running.

The speed of the operation will normally improve as well. Under a Holidays Excluded Shift Pattern, there will inevitably be shifts where key personnel are missing. When this happens the production must either stop or be reduced to cope with the skills loss. This may be only intermittent or may occur on nearly every shift. However, on a Holidays Included Shift Pattern if a skill is needed on a shift then the skill will be there. So over the year you would see an increase in the operation's speed.

The dependability of the operation relies on many different factors. One of which could be ensuring that an engineer is on every shift, or a Tech Services person. This will depend greatly on the operation itself. Most Holidays Included Shift Patterns are set up for key skills like Tech Services and engineers to ensure that they are always available in case of a break down. So a Holidays Included Shift Pattern could help improve the dependability of the operation. What’s more if you are looking at it from the dependability on delivering products to a given deadline then a Holidays Included Shift Pattern will definitely help you plan your workload better. What’s more the ability to know in advance what skills and personnel you have on every shift, means that you can plan your work better. So where as before you could estimate when products would be completed, on a Holidays Included Shift Pattern you can predict when products will be completed.

Flexibility is more about the products you are making, and whether you are on Holidays Included Shift Pattern or Holidays Excluded Shift Pattern, your flexibility remains firmly in your own hands. So whether you can switch between products is based on how you have set up operations. What you can do on Holidays Included Shift Patterns is plan your work. Then if things change such as product A is no longer in demand, you can work out how much of Products B and C you can make to meet their sales target.

What happens to your costs on a Holidays Included Shift Pattern is very interesting! Normally a Holidays Included Shift Pattern is a cheaper operation than Holidays Excluded Shift Patterns. This is because you can now plan your operation better so can forecast supplies etc. So your overall costs can reduce due to lack of wastage and taking advantage of bulk orders. Then there is overtime. On a Holidays Included Shift Pattern overtime is minimized. In many cases it is completely eradicated. But the advantage is that you can budget for it. On Holidays Excluded Shift Pattern, your overtime expenditure is something you find out about at the end of the year. On Holidays Included Shift Pattern you can estimate it in advance. So you can get a realistic estimate of your costs up front for the whole year.

Polar Plot showing improvement in performance criteria

If you would like to know how a Holidays Included Shift Pattern is great for your employees too then click here.

If you would like to operate a Holidays IncludedShift Pattern then our e-book is available from Amazon or contact C-Desk Technology on alec@visualrota.co.uk or (+44) 01636 816466 

Christmas Rota

There’s just 10 Fridays to go before Christmas!

The Snow Queen's table photographed at
Waddesdon Manor

So have you given any thought to whom will be on your Christmas Rota?

Working at Christmas is a necessary requirement for many organisations but it needs special management, which is why we often recommend that companies employ a special Christmas Rota.
Christmas is a time for families to get together and add cheer to the long winter months. So everyone wants to have some time off during the holiday season. You can’t give everyone the same time off unless you close up your business with a shutdown. But how do you say no to that holiday request? Who do you say yes to and how do you justify your answers?

Being a manager is not easy. You have to have patience, be seen to be fair, make the hard choices and stick by them as well as doing the job you are paid to do. You can never be liked by everyone and people’s opinion of you will be swayed by your next decision depending on if it is in their favour or against them.

So don’t let personal feelings cloud your judgment. Make up a set of rules which cover nearly every eventuality you can think of. Make sure everyone is aware of what you will and will not allow and stick to it. That way you will not always be liked but everyone will always say you dealt fairly with them.

When it comes to allowing holidays it is even more important to judge everyone the same and not let personal bias effect your judgment. So you set up rules like first come first served. Plan ahead how many of each skill you will allow off at any time or how you will cover missing skills. Set up the rules before any holiday requests are made. If you need help setting up your rules then read our book Holiday Management available from Amazon UK and from US Amazon

A Christmas Rota is a great way of organising your employees. This means that you can control who works Christmas and who doesn't. So in order to be fair you set it up for two years at a time (sometimes we do it for as many as 10 years), therefore if a person worked Christmas last year, they will not have to work it this year etc. Also if they work Christmas then they get New Year off and vice versa. This is often contentious, and therefore you need a fair and equitable system.

The advantages of a Christmas Rota, are:

• You can equalise everyone's hours,
• You can equalise everyone's shifts,
• You can equalise everyone's nights,
• You can have better control of holidays,
• Better cross team communication,
• Opportunity to equalise payments,
• Opportunity to swap teams,
• Equalise skills, and provide an equal level of service over the holiday period.

How will Wimbledon effect your operation?

Whenever there is a popular sporting event, people want to watch it. And seeing it later is just not the same. People like to support their favourites or just watch in appreciation of a game well played. Do you have sporting calendar? Then you will you know when these events will affect your staff; the world cup, rugby league, test matches, local derbys, X factor finals, Olympics, local matches, county shows, the Open, etc.

This inevitably leads to more people wanting time off so they can watch the game live. Especially when we are enjoying some rarely seen nice weather. So everyone wants a holiday at the same time. You can’t give everyone the same time off unless you close up your business with a shutdown. But how do you say no to that holiday request? Who do you say yes to and how do you justify your answers?

Being a manager is not easy. You have to have patience, be seen to be fair, make the hard choices and stick by them as well as doing the job you are paid to do. You can never be liked by everyone and people’s opinion of you will be swayed by your next decision depending on if it is in their favour or against them.

So don’t let personal feelings cloud your judgment. Make up a set of rules which cover nearly every eventuality you can think of. Make sure everyone is aware of what you will and will not allow and stick to it. That way you will not always be liked but everyone will always say you dealt fairly with them.

When it comes to allowing holidays it is even more important to judge everyone the same and not let personal bias effect your judgment. So you set up rules like first come first served. Plan ahead how many of each skill you will allow off at any time or how you will cover missing skills. Set up the rules before any holiday requests are made. If you need help setting up your rules then read our book Holiday Management available from Amazon UK and from US Amazon

So if you think that Wimbledon will cause a lot of holiday requests, think about how you are going to deal with them. And if all else fails, can you have a TV on in the break room or book your holiday now and let your deputy deal with it?

How to get your 2-Weeks off work!

Are you having a problem trying to book your holiday with your manager? We all look forward to that two week break, where we can go off with the family or friends. No more cares or worries. It’s just about enjoying yourself and may be if you are lucky getting a bit of sun too.

However you not only have to find that ideal holiday, you also have to get that time off from work. So how do you do it? What are you going to say that is going to get you that time off you want? Will begging work? What about playing the family card? After all it’s not your fault that the school only lets you take your kids away then? Do you find a flunky to take on your workload while you are away?

You deserve that two week break. What’s more you are entitled to it. So go out there and get it!

What you need is a way to ensure that you can have the time off you want, when you want it. What you need is a holiday management plan! You need a procedure that allows you to book the time off you want. You don’t want to have to sell your soul every time to want a holiday. The company should make it easy for you. The company should tell you how to have the time off you want.

A Holiday Management Plan is there for everyone. It is there to help you book the time off you want. After all nobody likes having to go on bended knee every time you want some time off. It shouldn’t be up to you to manage your own absence. You shouldn’t have to find someone else to do your work while you are away or prove that you are not needed that week. I holiday is a right not a luxury.

Basically a Holiday Management Plan states who can be off when. It says how many can book a holiday and when they can book that holiday. And if you abide by the rules then you can have that two week break of your choice because your manager can’t say no to you. It is unconditional. You have met the terms so you are off.

Tell you manager about our e-book Holiday Management today or post them a link to our blog http://shiftscheduling.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/annual-leave-management.html or video on holiday management tips https://youtu.be/TtvzaUuIpjc

Shift Scheduling Software Wishlist

When it comes to what do we want out of software we all have our own wish lists. And we all have those things about our current software we would like to change. Like why doesn't it make it easy to print out, why can't it do this automatically etc. When we are running and working on a shift pattern it is important to have a fair and easy system to run.
Here are some common requests when running a shift pattern:

• I want it to record sickness
• I want to know what my sickness rate is (easily)
• I want to know how much sickness everyone has taken
• I want to know when I am short staffed
• I want it to record holidays
• I want to know how much holiday everyone has taken
• I want to know how much holiday everyone has left
• I want to know how much holiday I have to fit in till the end of the year
• I want to know what my holiday resource is
• I want to know when my holiday resource will run out
• I want to know when I am over staffed
• I want it to record everyone's hours
• I want to know how much training everyone has taken
• I want to know what I'm doing at Christmas
• I want my two weeks off during the summer
• I want to know how much I am going to be paid
• I want to know how much the operation will cost the company
• I want to know if there is enough people for the work
• I want to know how much overtime everyone is entitled to
• I want to record overtime
• I want to know how many weekend everyone will be working
• I want to know how many nights everyone is working
• I want to know that nights are scheduled fairly
• I want to know that weekends are scheduled fairly
• I want an equal opportunity for overtime
• I want to include cover shifts
• I want to divide the cover shifts fairly
• I want to be able to swap shifts
• I want to commute with my friends
• I want to go on holiday with my wife
• I want to know my shifts in advance
• I want to know when I can deny or approve a holiday request
• I want to know when I can deny or approve overtime
• I want to know when I can deny or approve authorised absence
• I want to know when I can deny or approve training
• I want to know when I can deny or approve shift swaps
• I want to know if I can take on additional work
• I want to know when I can fit it additional work
• I want to know if I can met my deadlines
• I want to know if I can met my SLAs
• I want to know when I can preform maintenance
• I want to "sweat the assets"
• I want to monitor my KPIs
• I want to use Banked Hours
• I want monitor Banked Hours
• I want to carryover holiday
• I want to be able to contact people about working shifts/overtime
• I want to be able to generate reports for the board (easily)
• I want to use Annualised Hours
• I want to use shutdowns
• I want to know how much holiday a shutdown will cover
• I want to be able to introduce a new starter
• I want to be able to accommodate a leaver
• I want to be able to schedule maternity leave
• I want to be able to do what-if analysis
• I want to be able to produce graphs of KPIs
• I want to know how sickness was taken last year
• I want to know if my holiday management worked
• I want to be able to compare years
• I want graphs on holidays taken
• I want to met the working time directive
• I want to know who is on a break
• I want to know who is available to cover shifts
• I want to know how many consecutive shifts people are working
• I want warnings for potential problems
• I want people to be able to see their shifts
• I want to be able to print out easily
• I want to be able to use the software easily
• I want to be able to include agency staff
• I want to include ad-hoc work
• I want to include additional working hours
• I want to see who is on-call
• I want to see who is down to work today
• I want top be able to tell the shift manager who is in
• I want to make sure I do not exceed anyone's hours
• I want to know what is their start and finish times
• I want to included golden days
• I want to monitor floating days
• I want to be able to book holidays in
• I want to monitor holiday quotas
• I want an audit trail of every change
• I want to be able to do an annual reconciliation
• I want to recode Bank Holidays
• I want to share out the Bank Holidays fairly
• I want to make sure I always have the correct skill mix
• I want to be able to observe as many shifts as possible
• I want to include team meeting
• I want to have a monthly meeting
• I want to employ people with different contracts on the same rota
• I want to be able to employ short term and temporary staff
• I want to be able to set it up for a year in minutes
• I want to be able to run a 2-shift system
• I want to be able to run a 3-shift system
• I want to use 12-hour shifts
• I want to be able to use 8-hour shifts
• I want to use different length shifts
• I want to vary the number on shift
• I want a different number working at weekends to during the week
• I want a different rota during vacation periods
• I want a different rota during term time
• I want to calculate my shift allowance
• I want a migration plan
• I want a call-out system
• I want to use TOIL
• I want my staffing levels to match my workload
• I want to match up people to work together
• I want people to work in teams
• I want people to move teams regularly
• I want people to be able to change depart/group/location easily
• I want to be able to monitor medical conditions
• I want to schedule the annual health check
• I want to be able to reintroduce people slowly after a long time illness
• I want to be able to have training after every long break
• I want to be able to roster people across continents to create one global shift pattern
• I want my rota to run itself

These are not in any particular order and everyone has their own priorities.
Our software VisualrotaX does most of these and can be adapted to do the rest if required to find out more go to our website

Annual Leave Management

Trying to look after all of your employees leave or holidays can be overwhelming. There is very little literature and information out there about how to manage holidays so everyone just does the best they can, or how they have seen others do it in the past. Most cope but find it very difficult and others just cope with the fall out for a week or two when everyone wants their holidays together.

Holidays are about more than time off work. Holidays are about; that much anticipated two weeks on the beach, that chance to see your little girl shine in the school play or the opportunity to party at your friend’s wedding. So how do you say no?

Few managers ever say “no” to a holiday request. Most say yes, and make a note of the request. Then when that person is away, they have to firefight to keep everything going. If this sounds familiar, than you will be relieved to know that there is another way.

So here are a few tips to help you manage your holiday requests:

1. Quantify the Problem: Add up how much holiday everyone in your team, department or group is entitled to. Then see how much time there is in the year.
2. Know your Workload: How many people do you need in each day as a minimum. Are there any days when you don’t need anyone e.g. Bank Holidays. Do you have any especially busy weeks when no one can have a holiday?
3. Prioritise Summer Holidays: Everyone likes a summer holiday. So how are you going to ensure that everyone can have that all important two week break? Plan it in advance and don’t just wait till the last minute.
4. Plan for Christmas: Most people save up their holidays till the end of the year partly to get Christmas off and partly because it’s an insurance policy just in case something comes up at the last minute. So what will happen at Christmas? Can everyone be off? Can no one be off?
5. Make the most of your Shutdowns: Shutdowns are a great way to use up everyone’s holiday. Many companies shutdown for Bank Holidays, at Christmas or for a week or two during the summer.
6. Have an Annual Leave Policy: You need a fair and simple set of rules to ensure that everyone can have the holiday of their choice.
7. Monitor and Record Holiday Bookings: You need a way of recording all your holiday requests and then assessing if you can allow or decline a holiday request. For offices we have designed the Yearly Planner, a simple and cheap solution that allows you to record holiday requests and also tells you how much holiday they have left and who else is off that day. For shift workers we have VisualrotaX, which records all holiday requests, highlights if you are short on shift and can even tell you when you are low on holiday resource.
8. Create Reports and Printouts: Sharing employee holiday schedules with the team is an easy and effective way to avoid clashes. This empowers your employees to take responsibility for avoiding holiday issues and minimises the number of requests you have to deny. This is why the Professional Yearly Planners have easy monthly printouts to help your team plan their holiday requests. VisualrotaX has individual calendars so that they know what holidays they have taken and how many they have left till the end of the year. They both also come with graph sheets which display how holidays have been booked over the year. This way you can see at a glance if and when your holiday policy failed during the year. You can also compare each year’s graphs and see how you have improved.
9. Create a Holiday Calendar: It is not enough to just set up the rules for booking holidays, you need to ensure that it is fair and not open to abuse. If your rules state that it is on a first come first served basis, what is to stop an employee block booking the last two weeks off in July for the nest 10 years? A Holiday Calendar is there so that the employees and managers, know what is expected of them and when during the year. Then everyone can take the holiday that they are entitled to with the minimum of disruption. It is a list of dates and actions which say when the holiday book will be open for requests and when it will close. When the manger will be processing requests and when they will confirm holiday dates. It is also a great way of focusing people’s minds and ensuring that you will only have to process requests during a few weeks of the year instead of potentially having a new request every day, including when you are on holiday.
10. Know your Holiday Resource: You don’t have to go short, there are ways of covering for holidays. These can include; overtime, extra staff, borrowing from another department, temporary staff, agency staff, cover shifts etc. You can assess and estimate your holiday resource based on your budget and the holiday entitlement you have to cover.

If you would like to know more about managing your holidays then why not get our e-book Holiday Management available now from Amazon. You can also view our video on Holiday Tips on YouTube.