Questions & Answers

Q: Looking for software to build a rotation for shift workers on a 12 hour rotation, days and nights. Would like to be able to assign the FTE (ie 1.0 =28 shifts in eight weeks, 0.8 fte is 22 shifts) complement for each individual knowing 5 per shift day/night do you have such software?

A: Shift Scheduler Continuous Excel applies the same parameters to all staff and attempts to distribute the work load evenly across staff. It does not have the capacity to assign individual workloads and unfortunately I cannot recommend anything that may suit.

Question and Answer Item 542 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

Q: I am looking for a scheduler that would be suitable for nursing staff. In our case the shifts are (1) 07:30-15:30, (2) 13:30-21:30 and (3)21:00-08:00. There is a 0.5 hour handover time for the 1st and 3rd shift and a 2 hour overlap on the 2nd shift. Is there any way I can do this with your normal scheduler that I have just downloaded? This seems to be a common need in many hospital and hospice wards where continuous cover of nursing staff is required. Any help would be most welcome.

A: Yes, you can have overlapping shifts by simply setting the shift start time and duration. By default these roll on from the previous shift however you can overwrite them (yellow cells). The main requirement is that the shifts are arranged in chronological order.

Question and Answer Item 59 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

Q: I love the software, I would like to understand is it possible to have more than one department? I am looking at the staffing levels of Small to Medium sized hotels, so would need to create rotas for 2 bars, 2 kitchens, cleaning team and GA. Can this software be altered to achieve this with ease

A: Thanks for the feedback. If the departments are completely separate (ie the same staff do not work in both departments) then you can simply run 2 separate shift schedules ie save the file with a different name and have a separate file for each department. Alternatively you can setup separate shifts for each department within the same scheduler ie treat each department as a different shift even of it is the same time as other departments. With this method any staff maybe allocated to any shift (department).

Question and Answer Item 60 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

Q: When I 'Show Details' for each staff member, there appeared to be some weird dates in the 'Next Initiation' column, about 12 month into the future and various flags were set. I tried using a Clear Roster, but that didn't do anything. I then tried Clear Next. This seemed to clear all cells in that column and I was able to create a new roster. Did I miss something or have I uncovered an undocumented feature?

A: When Next Roster is clicked it sets values in the hidden Next Initiation column (displayed with Show Details). This rolls existing details over into a new shift period allowing you to build rolling shifts while remembering what has happened in the past. As you found Clear Next will reset these values. Details on this are included under Next Roster in the Help file.

Question and Answer Item 61 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

Q: I am conducting a feasibility/requirements study into moving into a 24/7 operation. Have looked at this Scheduling spreadsheet. Brilliant ! One thing that would make things a lot easier would be the ability to edit the shift names, rather than use ddd-Day, or ddd-Late. When there are two late shifts in a day, it can become a little confusing. Any plans to address this in a future version?

A: Thanks for the feedback. On the shift names they are generic and at this stage redefining them is not on our development to do list. They were intended only as indicator labels and the shift is actually defined by its times. We do undertake specific development works for clients on a fee for service bases so if this feature was requirement it could be added.

Question and Answer Item 62 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

<< < Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>