Click on each Stream for a detailed description of the process:
BUSINESS PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT STREAM
Whether you want to get better value from your current staff scheduling system, buy a new system, or just review your staff scheduling business practices quite apart from any software considerations, the Business Practice Stream is the starting point.
Discovery
The Discovery Phase is an initial review of your staff scheduling business practices. In a relatively short time, we are able to paint a picture of the impacts of your current practices, and provide recommendations regarding the priorities you should be focusing on to drive improvements in your labor spending.
The deliverables from the Discovery include a short report of findings and high level recommendations, and a presentation of the report to your project team and your executive/senior management team. This is where your momentum for change begins to form.
Opportunity Assessment / Business Case Development
Whether you are purchasing a new system, or focusing on improving your staff scheduling business practices using an existing system, it can be frustrating trying to quantify the ROI you expect. Yet this is exactly what you need to do in order to get your project funded. During this phase, Workforce Edge works with you to gather data from various sources in your organization and develop a series of models to identify the ROI that you can expect from your project. The process can be applied whether you are purchasing and implementing a new software system, or simply looking at business practice changes in the way that staffing and scheduling is performed in your organization – either way, the Business Case phase quantifies the outcomes you can expect and sets targets that form the basis for benefits measurements throughout the project.
The main deliverable from the Opportunity Assessment / Business Case Development phase is a report that explains the recommended business practice changes, including a cost/benefit analysis, an indicative project budget, and a recommended implementation approach. During the data gathering and development of the report, we engage an increasing number of people from your senior and middle management groups, which is critical to building the momentum and commitment to change that is needed for the next phase.
ARTICLE: Will Your Current Practices Give You an ROI?
Practice Design
Once your Business Case is complete and you have the approval to move ahead, it's time to determine the nuts and bolts of how your new business practices will actually operate. Practice Design is comprised of three main elements: process design, master rotation / roster development, and organization design.
• Process Design is accomplished through a series of professionally facilitated, participatory design sessions which incorporate input from across the organization in a constructive and inclusive manner. The process involves establishing a design team of front line managers, schedulers, and staff, and a senior guiding coalition. Topics covered include Leave Management, Short Notice Schedule Changes, Daily Staffing, Timekeeping and much more. This phase also includes design of a Balanced Scorecard for your new staff scheduling model, containing Key Performance Indicators that will ensure that performance of staff scheduling are tracked and reported effectively.
The deliverables from the Process Design phase include signed off design documents that outline how the various processes and procedures involved in staffing and scheduling will work. These documents form the basis from which your operations toolkit and software requirements will be developed.
• Master Rotation or Roster Development involves assessment the need for improved master rotations, or pattern based rosters, and constructing roster frameworks that will help each of your units achieve the right number of staff and the right skill mix on each shift, each day of the week. The development and signoff of organizational guidelines for rotation or roster building ensures fairness and equity in future roster, which translates into sustainability and increased staff satisfaction.
• Organization Design includes the creation of or modification of the organizational structure needed to support your new staff scheduling model. This is the key to ensuring accountability within your organization in the future, for quality staff scheduling practices and outcomes. During organization design, we also created the detailed resource plan for the future state of staff scheduling and identify changes such as reallocation of existing scheduler resources, that are needed before the new model can be implemented.
• Scorecard / KPI Design is a mission critical step in designing your new business model for staff scheduling and workforce utilization, because it establishes that in future, the performance of this key business function will be measured. And what gets measured, gets managed. Our methodology follows the Kaplan and Norton Balanced Scorecard principles, and produces a scorecard made up of meaningful and useful indicators that will ensure visibility and accountability are built into staff scheduling operations in future.
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SOFTWARE ACQUISITION STREAM
Finding and acquiring the right software system for your organization is an involved process. From developing requirements to assessing the marketplace, working through a thorough, fair evaluation process, and then negotiating and contracting with a vendor, this phase requires sorting through and making sense of a never-ending stream of input from internal and external sources. Workforce Edge's years of experience with the staff scheduling software acquisition process in markets around the world can help you move through this process as efficiently as possible.
Requirements Development
Your software requirements need to reflect your future business practices. Sometimes organizations can get bogged down trying to develop meaningful requirements from a jumble of needs, wants, and creative ideas solicited from various end users across the organization. Using the outputs of the Process Design phase, Workforce Edge helps you develop clear requirements that focus on the right priorities to support the project outcomes you need both now and into the future.
Software & Vendor Assessment
In order to assess the various options out in the marketplace, you need a structured process that reflects your system requirements as well as the requirements for professional services and an ongoing partnership with the selected vendor. Workforce Edge will assist you with developing your approach to comparing the important dimensions of the multitude of systems and vendors available in the market, using a structured methodology that will lead you to a quality decision.
Contracting
Even after you've evaluated the options and decided on a system and vendor that you wish to partner with, the work is not over. Structuring the contract with your selected vendor and negotiating the various terms around software, services, and ongoing support and enhancements is a critical piece of work that establishes the playing field for the rest of the project. Input from Workforce Edge in this stage can help you ensure that the contract you end up with contains the terms, conditions, and safeguards you will need as your project unfolds.
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IMPLEMENTATION STREAM
Having experienced over 300 staff scheduling implementations in various countries around the world, Workforce Edge can help you leverage what's worked for other organizations, avoid common pitfalls, and generally lower your risk.Operational Toolkit Development
An array of tools will be needed in order to operationalize the design created in the Practice Design phase, Your operational toolkit will include things like job descriptions for schedulers, service level agreements, procedure manuals, training materials, and more.
Practice Implementation
Implementing a new business model for staff scheduling and workforce utilization involves much more than rolling out new software, and can be best understood by thinking of it as three distinct but very interrelated components: implementation of new processes, implementation of new rotations or rosters, and implementation of software. Each is complex.
- Process Implementation involves changes in day to day routines and tasks for departmental managers, schedulers, and employees. In other words – everyone! The change management techniques used here, from communication strategies, to training approaches and issue resolution, are of utmost importance to achieving manager and employee acceptance, and successful adoption of new processes.
- Rotation or Roster Implementation requires a complex set of steps be planned and well executed to ensure that requirements of collective bargaining agreements are met, that employees and managers have the information they need at each stage in the process, that line selection is executed fairly and timed effectively, and that ultimately, schedules are posted when they need to be, and provide the right balance between operational and employee requirements.
- Software Implementation is last, but certainly not least in the list of implementation categories. During the software implementation your new vendor should be a great source of support, including software training for the project team, installation and configuration of the system, development of required interfaces, and ongoing support as you get the system up and running smoothly. If desired, Workforce Edge Consulting™ can help with ensuring that your software implementation plan supports your overall project goals, and links effectively with your new business practices.
Workforce Edge can help by providing overall leadership over the implementation categories above, ensuring that your software implementation supports your new business model, new processes, and new rosters or master rotations, and that all of the elements are implemented in a manner that is seamless to your end users.
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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT STREAM
Scheduling Office ReviewIf you have a Scheduling Office in place now, and you aren’t sure it’s operating as effectively as it could be, you should consider a Scheduling Office Review. We call it our SOS (Save our Scheduling!) service. Taking a relatively short period of time, no more than a few weeks, an SOS will identify the real issues, and assist you and your team with prioritizing and planning how to tackle them in a way that will create sustainable improvements.
Leadership Skills Development
Your managers play a pivotal role in staff scheduling and workforce utilization, and how effectively they execute that role will have a dramatic effect on the success of your new business model. Our Leadership Skills Development program includes an assessment of current leadership skills, and a series of interactive workshops to increase leaders’ understanding of their role in effective scheduling and workforce utilization, and enhance their confidence and skills in performing it.
Periodic Operational Reviews
Once your staff scheduling project is complete, you would expect that the business practices you've worked hard to implement will continue to be used, and the benefits you've achieved will continue to flow. However, what we've seen over the years, is that once the project is signed off, these things can begin to erode slowly, until much of the benefit of the project is no longer apparent. Keep your work intact and ensure that your new business practices are well anchored in your organization through periodic reviews designed to give you an objective picture of how your staffing and scheduling processes and outcomes are progressing.
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Effective project management of your staff scheduling transformation is key, particularly as your design nears completion and you prepare for implementation. At Workforce Edge we believe that the most valuable project manager is one who bring expertise in the subject matter of the project, and can provide related guidance to the project team, and advice to the senior management of your organization. Our project management approach generally follows the PMBOK, and is flexible to adapt to your organization’s preferred methodology and the requirements of your project management office if applicable. But most importantly, we have experience in managing staff scheduling projects – we know the risks and the opportunities, and have the tools and strategies at hand to ensure that your project is a success.back to Services
COMMUNICATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT
The Workforce Edge methodology includes the development and execution of a robust communication plan for each stage in your project, to ensure all stakeholders are informed with the information that they need, when they need it. Our change management approach starts with mobilizing your organization for change through the Opportunity Assessment and Practice Design phases, and continues strongly into Implementation with a comprehensive change management plan that supports and directs the human side of change. Employees, managers, schedulers, HR staff, payroll staff, IT staff, and more, all need to know what will change, what they won’t do any more, and what they will do the future. Our change management tools and tactics ensure that the transition takes place effectively for all of these groups, and that your change is successful and as positive as possible for everyone involved.back to Services