Government
When it comes to civil servants and those working for authorities, we often think of standard 9-5 office work. However, there are many public sector organisations where irregular hours and shift work are the norm - such as fire brigades, the police, and customs. European governments believe that these employees should have more of a say in their working hours, as it improves health and well-being and thus employee longevity. In turn, this helps maintain national pension systems.
Agility
Creating and implementing a new schedule is a time-consuming task, and this also applies within planning departments in public sector organisations. It also often involves extensive negotiation with workers councils and unions. Once a schedule is operative, requests for shift changes due to variations in demand continue to keep planners busy. More than 60% of shifts are likely to be changed in some way. Self-rostering makes all of this much easier by having employees themselves play a major role in scheduling. This means significant reductions in lead times from creation to implementation of schedules, substantially improving agility within government organisations.
Sustainable employability
Civil servants who work irregular hours often do so for many years, longer than those in private sector positions. As a result, maintaining their health until retirement age becomes more and more challenging. The impact of working such hours varies per individual, which is why self-rostering offers the perfect solution, allowing employees more control over their shift patterns to better fit their physical and social needs.
Utilisation
Most public service positions do not lend themselves to the hiring of flexible workers. On top of that, hiring new employees generally takes longer than in the private sector due to a wide range of specific requirements. The effective deployment of existing employees is therefore very important. Self-rostering leads to improved employee availability and reduced sick time and absenteeism in the long term, which ultimately results in a more effective workforce
Embracing the idea of flexible methods
In Europe, public sector organisations seem to be embracing the idea of flexible workforce scheduling methods. We are already seeing pilot schemes and other experiments in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK. As leading experts, we provide tailored advice in implementing self-rostering, from pilot schemes to full scale solutions.
