We create optimised shift operations to the exact needs of each of your departments.

A 55 minute video all about setting up a Holiday Management Plan. Holidays are the bane of all Manager’s lives. There are so many of them and so little time to fit them in. And everyone wants the same time off! This video is about managing the holidays so that the effects of holidays on the business are minimised. Full of practical information and examples.

Your Shift allowance will often be your biggest expense after the wages bill. Bigger than your materials, energy supply, pensions, and everything else you pay for. So do you know why you even need one? Or how much you should pay? Should the shift allowance be different for different groups or shifts? This course is 13 videos telling you all about why you have a shift allowance. It tells you the most common methods used to calculate new shift allowances for new shift operations. If you are changing your operation, you should apply the right shift allowance to make it fair to your employees and your organisation

A series of books covering the most common problems encountered in shift operations. How do know how many people to employ? What causes fatigue that you can change? Which are the most popular shift patterns? How you can predict absences so they don’t affect the operation

We have set up the most popular shifts patterns, ready to use in Excel. Examples range from ‘Office Hours’, to 5-day operations, to 7-day operations. We have all heard of the 12-hour ‘continental Shifts’ aka ‘4on-4off’, but did you know that there are 6 versions? And, it is not the most popular 12-hour shift pattern, instead more workers select the ‘232’ option where they work 2 or 3 shifts and have 2 or 3 days off.

We all need to set up a Migration Plan to move workers to a new operation. Everyone will be working differently to before, but will have made arrangements, such as holidays and medical appointments, not to mention buying tickets to events, based on the old way of working. So you need to know how to move people seamlessly from one way of working to the new way. We cover the process in a 5 videos taking about 45 minutes. More:==>

Banked Hours, sometimes known as ‘Reserved Hours’ is a powerful tool for managing unexpected events such as sickness, elective surgery, authorised leave (bereavement, etc),force majuere events, ad- hoc and peak workloads. Also it acts a contingency of hours for unforeseen events. It is a method of flexible working at little cost, and sometimes at zero cost, to the organisation. The staff contract to work extra hours only when they are needed thus guaranteeing your continuity of service. This guide shows you how to set it up and run it effectively. Approx 3 hours of videos spread over 37 lessons.

Workloads are hardly ever simple but are often made to fit into established preconceptions. Most workloads vary with time and they need constant attention to keep them optimised: 1. There are annual variations where the workload goes up and down on a seasonal basis. 2. There are weekly variations where weekdays and weekends have different workloads. 3. There are daily variations where the work changes over the 24-hours. 4. There are unpredictable workloads that vary randomly. 5. There are the one-off workloads that occur during the day, or for a day, or a week. We create shift operations that match these exacting requirements. Creating a perfect shift operation is never going to be a simple task. There are 12 steps in the process and these are: 1. We create the perfect shift pattern that works for you. 2. We analyse your workload so that the operation does what it is supposed to do 3. We set up a Holiday Management Plan so staff holidays are no longer a problem 4. We show you how we do it all so you can do it yourself in future 5. We show you how to run the shift pattern 6. We analyse and organise cover for absences 7. We make sure you can include training so you are future proofed 8. We set up the plans for a reward structure that works for everyone, the company and the staff 9. We organise the negotiations between you and the unions and staff 10. We set up the migration plan to move staff onto the new operation. 11. We set up new terms of employment 12. We can set up the right shift allowances for any shift operation

If you would like to discuss your operation and find out how we can help, please contact us.

T:(+44) 01636 816466 alec@visualrota.co.uk angelamoore@visualrota.co.uk

C-Desk Technology

Every shift operation has to be built to stingent criteria of: purpose, internal and legal employment rules, costs and create a work/life balance. However very few operations remain static year on year. Whether it is a Production facility, security, health, control room, utilities or university, things will change. There will be new skills, new equipment, new and different work and products. How we live and work has changed a great deal in the last few years because of the pandemic. The next jolt may be AI and robots. We continually evolve and adapt, and your shift operation needs to too. We aim to maximise the lifespan of your new operation by designing features that can change as your needs change. We can repurpose an existing, but inefficient, operation into an exciting new operation that brings many benefits to you and your employees. A ‘4-day week’ (see below). How to give your employees12 weeks of time off, see our selection of holiday included shift patterns. Need to re-assess any shift premiums for the next operation, choose your method. Need to mitigate the effects of holidays and absences, read our book. Would you like to read a few books on setting up efficient, self-suffient, nice shift operations, see our range of books. Trying to fit a new operation into an old way of working is never easy, so we design Migration Plans. How can we help you? Drawing on our cross-sector experience, we work with you to analyse your requirements and create the most efficient and sustainably resilient solution.

We are based in the UK, specialising is shift scheduling, but our clients are worldwide. Our consultants work with public, private and nonprofit organizations across all industries and regions. We help our clients build teams, assess workloads and create operations that can meet today’s challenges and anticipate the digital, economic and political trends that are reshaping the global business environment. From helping boards with their structure, culture and effectiveness to identifying, to assessing and defining the best response and determining the optimal staffing levels required. Our consultants bring their decades of expertise to help clients address their most complex staffing issues. We exist to improve the way the world works. We immerse ourselves into your business so we can share know-how and solve problems. Our experience and understanding of your business brings a fresh perspective to the operation and will often be a catalyst for change by providing strategic advice, coaching, training and solutions

Who uses shifts? Industry Automation & Robotics, Lean & Continuous Improvement, Supply Chain & Logistics, Pharma, Printing, Quality & Safety, Packaging, Control Rooms, Police & Security, Utilities, Power, Water, Phone, Tourism & Hospitality, Hospitals & Universities, Government agencies.

We design bespoke shift operations since T&C’s are rarely identical and the workload always has one-off features. Some ‘one-offs’ have really been ‘one-offs’. As a UK example. We were asked to design a 365 day operation for 150 employees that ran for exactly one calendar year, January 1st to December 31st. The catch was that no one could take a holiday between January 1st and December 31st. The employees would be hired before January 1st to train them and the operation would stop dead on December 31st and the employees would be released. However the Working Time Directive (WTD) stated that all employees were entitled to the minimum amount of holiday each year. Hence the problem. The solution was to use the Working Time Directive rules to resolve this conundrum. One of the rules is that the employer can set the dates of the holidays. Another of the WTD rules is that the employer can set the year start dates. We set the working year as two separate years, one that ran up to Jun 30th and one that started July 1st. All the pro-rata holidays that would have accrued in the first year had to be taken before December 31st in the previous calendar year. All the accrued holidays in the second year had to be taken after January 1st in the following calendar year. It was very successful.

Consultants Dr Angela Moore & Alec Jezewski