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.

Proactive Absence Management

Absence costs money! In 2013 the UK alone lost 131 million work days due to sickness (UK Office of National Statistics). CBI in 2013 estimated the cost of absence in the UK to be £14bl. Now most companies’ approach to absence is to cover it at overtime, or having extra staff on shift to cover for an absence. Some companies even ignore the problem in the hope that if they don't manage it, it will go away. This is the most expensive option because what you don't control has a habit of running wild. 

Having extra staff on shift is not only expensive but also reduces productivity and leaves shift managers continually firefighting. When we have reviewed company’s productivity against the number on shift we have found that if there are too many people for the work then less work gets done. 

"Too many cooks spoil the broth!"

This is because no manager likes to see a worker standing around doing nothing. Plus no one likes to stand around doing nothing, it’s demoralizing, tiring and everyone who is working will hate you for it. So the manager will reorganize the work to suit the number of people there. This takes time and is not as efficient as if you always have the correct number available. 
Furthermore most companies never estimate the number who will be absent off shift correctly. They only use averages which are misleading, leaving most companies correctly staffed on only about one third of shifts (by using averages). On about two thirds of shifts they are either wasting money or losing money. So we created an approach which ensures that an operation always has the correct number of staff and only the correct number of staff on shift every shift.
Proactive Absence Management is about tackling absence head on. Most companies have no absence strategy, and those that do invariably use discipline and overtime to minimize the effect. This is both expensive and negative. Therefore our approach is to first of all estimate absence. So we look at historical data. The simplest statistic is Absence rate. Then using Dr Angela Moore’s statistical model (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S583GA0/) we can predict not only how much absence will occur but predict how many will be off each shift. 

E.g. if you have a 2.5% Absence Rate and 10 people using a shift pattern which scheduled them to work on 260 days/shifts per year you would expect to see; On 202 days you would expect no one to be absent. On 52 days per year you would expect one person to be absent and on six days per year you would expect two people to be off. Hence you can plan your absence procedures on a maximum of two people being off because it is highly unlikely that three people would be absent on the same day. So we set up the shift pattern to give two people on-call or two cover shifts each day to cover for absence. 

Ideally we would suggest using a holidays included shift pattern to maximize efficiency and minimize disruption to the operation. Then suggest that Banked Hours is used to provide the absence cover at basic rate not overtime rates. Obviously if you can cover the absence at basic rate this is cheaper than overtime, so there is a year on year significant cost saving. 
The result of this is that absence is covered in house at basic rate to minimize cost and ensure that the best people are there to maximize productivity. The procedures are created up front so that shift managers are not left firefighting day in day out. The shift workers never have to worry that they will be under or over staffed on shift, and this minimizes stress. The shift workers also have a shift pattern that gives them a good work/life balance. Oh and as a bonus if the Banked Hours system is operated correctly some companies can see a significant fall in their absence rate.
If you would like us to help you be proactive towards absence please contact us via email: alec@oranalysts.com or call for more information 0044 (0) 1636 816466

I'm having a Bad, Bad Day

When you do a round robin at the last minute, trying to get somebody to come in and cover for an absent colleague, it ruins everybody's' day!
It ruins your day! I mean, who wants to call up people on their day off and ask them for a favour. It makes you look unprofessional and disorganised. It gives people leverage to use against you. "I was there for you last week when you needed someone at the last minute. So now I need Next Saturday off!"
It ruins the day of everybody you call too! They are off work, the last thing they want to think about or be reminded of is work, and you are calling them on their day off! There is the guilt of not being able to work the shift. What does that mean? Will it affect their pay, will it affect any promotion? How do you see them now because they turned you down? They were at home, happy. Now they are a wreck, angry at you for disturbing them yet afraid of the consequences!
And then there is the person who is willing to work on their day off at short notice. They thought they had a day off, now they are working. What does that mean for them, are they the saviour of the team, they stood up and did the work when nobody else would? Or are they the person who is taking all the overtime?
So you bit the bullet and covered this absence. Well done! What about next time? Who do you call? What is the order? Do you call the person who did it last time first because they are more likely to do it again? Does this open you up to bias and bullying allegations? Is this a fair system?
However sometimes you will fail. There will be no one willing to cover that Saturday Night shift. So what then. Does that mean that you have to go in and cover it. Or will the rest of the shift be forced to take up the slack. You will be working with one less person, so everyone will be over worked and stressed. But also you will fail to meet your deadlines and have falling profits.

This is not the Answer!

A round robin is an emergency measure. It is not a day to day tool to cover for absences. Emergency measures are expensive, they are to cover that 100 year flood, they are not there to be used every day. And if you are covering absence with a round robin, it will be an everyday event. Then what does that say to your shift workers? It says their time is not their own! It says that I can and will call you up every day, no day is a day off!

Positive Absence Cover

There is an alternative! You can have a fair, unbiased system that gives you peace of mind and your employees privacy. You employ an Absence Cover Arrangement. You can't stop people being ill, it is as investable as taxes. So a good manager plans for it.
The first step is to understand the scale of the problem. Your absence rate will tell you how often you will need to cover an absence and from this you can calculate how much you should budget for. My book Understanding Your Absence Rate available from Amazon will tell you how to convert your absence rate into the expected number off shift.
The second step is to have a cover arrangement for every contingency. So what do you do if one person is off? What do you do if two people are off etc.
The third step is your budget. There is no point in creating an absence cover arrangement if half way through the year you run out of money. So what is achievable and what is not? How much will it cost you to go short? When can you go short and when do you need a replacement?
The fourth step is to understand the tools at your disposal. The Round Robin is one. But not the best and definitely not for everyday use. So you can use cover shifts, extra staff on each shift, Banked Hours overtime, TOIL, flexible shifts and even combinations of these.
The fifth step is implementation. If you did all of your planning correctly then you will be covered for every contingency. But you don't want to be called at four in the morning because someone called in sick, you need to delegate. You need to have a system that will allow your staff to report in sick, then the procedure is followed so that the correct person comes in to cover.
The sixth step is recording and monitoring. Once you have your system in place, you then just need to monitor what happens and record the absences, and cover arrangements. To help you do this our software VisualrotaX will record all absences and allow you to keep track of everyone's hours, cover shifts and Banked Hours.


You can also view our video Proactive Absence Management Tips https://youtu.be/-9q3sLkcgxs


We are currently working on a new e-book Positive Absence Management, due to be released later this year. This e-book will tell you what tools are available for you to use to cover your absences. Then it will take you through step by step how to implement them. However if you need help before then please email us or call us on +44 1636 816466