24/7 work schedules needed

BarbG

Here's a question I've never seen posed on the 'forum'..........hope someone can help. Our mfg. company is considering going to a 24/7 operation. My Operations Manager is looking for examples of how other companies 'arrange' their 24-hr. schedules. He would like to see examples of 24/7 using a '12 hour day' and examples using an '8 hour day', encompassing 2 or 3 shifts. Do you all use 'swing' shifts? Whaaaah????????

DeidreFR5

When I worked in health care, we worked 7a-3p, 3p-11p and 11p-7a (last shift of day; 7am Monday was the first shift of the work week). When we were short supervisors, they worked three 12 hours shifts 8am to 6pm, etc. and were paid for 40 hours). We tried to have some employees work off times 8 to 4, 4 to 12, 12 to 8, so we have employees on at all time.

psrcello

We use 12-hour shifts, 5:30 to 5:30. The "first half" shifts work every Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, plus alternating Wednesdays. The "second half" group works every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, plus the other Wednesdays. Seems to work pretty well, although nobody really likes the "second half nights" shift.

At a previous employer, we used a "2-2-3" schedule - it's a little tough to explain, but I'll give it a shot:

Week 1 Monday On
Tuesday On
Wednesday Off
Thursday Off
Friday On
Saturday On
Sunday On

Week 2 Monday Off
Tuesday Off
Wednesday On
Thursday On
Friday Off
Saturday Off
Sunday Off

The other shifts would switch week 1 and week 2, so all days would be covered over a two-week period. Advantages - employees never worked more than 3 days in a row, always got at least two days off in a row, and got a three-day weekend every other week. Disadvantages - everyone had to work some Sundays, hard to schedule weekly activities (like a golf league) because the employee has to work that day every other week, and we had to change our payroll week because employees had a hard time budgeting one big paycheck and one small paycheck in a two-week period (we paid weekly).

Don D

When I worked in the transportation industry, we put a rather large 24/7 maintenance department on the following: Everybody worked 12 hour shifts, four days on, three days off. That way each of them eventually worked every day of the week and eventually got every day of the week off as well and it cycled for everybody equally, so it was fair.

Depending on when your payroll week ends, under the above cycle, there would be some pay weeks with overtime included and some without. But, averaged over the course of a year, everybody's pay pretty much balanced what they would make working straight 40's.

As I recall, we had virtually zero discontentment with this schedule.

deniseE

We have a few departments that operate 24/7. We've tried it a few ways and determined that a regular schedule just works best for us. So we have employees that work 7A to 3P, 3P-11P, and 11P-to 7A. Just like a regular work week they work 5 days with 2 off, but it's always the same days. It helps with scheduling...people that have visitation with their kids...shift work is hard on everyone...and can get hard to keep track of.

The managers of these areas tend to be flexible as long as there is coverage...so if a 3/11 guy needs the afternoon off, he can switch with the 11/7 guy...so long as it's approved in advance.

WT

To start at the very beginning, a seven day week is composed of 168 hours. This does not divide equally into forty hour segments. In a typical eight hour swing shift, you need four shifts. At any given time, three shifts are working and one shift is having a day off. In each week there is one day that must be filled in by overtime or by a relief operator designated to fill that day along with sick leave, vacation, and other missed time. Shifts then rotate through the month generally starting with days, then afternoons, and then nights. The cycle then starts again. You will find that you need 20 days for this usually some combination of 7, 7, and 6 days on each shift. Here is a typical rotation: days start on Thursday and run seven days. Thursday and Friday off. Afternoons start on Saturday and run six days. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off. Nights start on Monday night for Tuesday and run seven days. Tuesday and Wednesday are days off and the cycle starts again on Thursday. The four day weekend is needed to keep from working over 40 hours in any given week.

The main reason for shift work is to be able to work on weekends at straight time. No overtime need be paid for the above schedule with the exception of the extra 8 hours in any given week.