How to build good schedules?

You can find the following steps useful when creating or evaluating schedules.

1. Confirm the needs of people we support and the number of budgeted hours per fortnight.
   
2. Establish shift start and finish times based on requirements of our service users.
   
3. Identify the number of staff required based on the shift structure.
   
4. Start by scheduling your main staff into weekend shifts first (Friday and Sunday sleepovers).
   
5. Apply the standard scheduling rules for each position:
   
   

• Maximum number of hours per shift: 10 hours (not including a sleepover)
• Maximum number of sleepovers per staff in a fortnight: 6 sleepovers (staff shouldn’t be required to sleepover on the night preceding days off)
• Ensure that the senior positions work alternate weekends and have alternate weekends off
• It can be helpful to split the non weekend days off so staff are not working too many days in a row before getting a break
• Share shift types as equally as possible amongst all staff on the schedule (i.e. don’t schedule all 7-9am double staffing shifts to 1 or 2 positions only).
• Include staff meetings in the schedule. The number of hours allocated for a staff meeting: 1- 2 hours per fortnight (check with your manager)

Related topics
What is a typical schedule shift structure?
How do I know how many staff I require on a schedule?
What can I do if there is a vacancy on a schedule?
What is a schedule rule violation?

Contact us
If you can't find the answer to your question please email: shared.services@idea.org.nz.