subject: Effectively Managing Employee Shift Trades Will Avoid Conflicts [print this page] Managing employee shift trades can lead to problems if they are not handled correctly. In many ways staff managing to get cover for the days they need off is a good thing, and it saves those responsible for the schedules from having to find people to cover these shift. There are some disadvantages to be considered with this type of system as well though. These days it is becoming far more common so a lot more thought will need to be put into managing employee shift trades.
The first thing you need to do when it comes to managing employee shift trades is to set some ground rules. It is probably not such a good idea to allow staff members to have complete control over this system; they should at least run everything passed the person in charge of scheduling before anything is approved. This will prevent issues of having too few or too many staff on any shift from becoming a problem. It is always a good idea that managing employee shift trades takes place to prevent chaos for arising.
One consideration when it comes to managing employee shift trades is skill mix. It is not just the case of a staff member finding anybody who is willing to trade shifts with them. The person that is replacing them and that they will be replacing will need to have a similar set of skills and do more or less the same job. It has to be people of equal skills because while one person may be able to do the job of another member of staff it doesn't mean that this other member of staff can do their job. This is something that will need to be given a lot of thought when managing employee shift trades.
Difficulties can also arise with managing employee shift trades where the staff members wish to swap with somebody who is doing a shift that is overlapping their shift. For example say employee A is working from eight am to five pm and they wish to swap with employee B who is working three pm to midnight. If employee finishes at three o'clock then the two hour period between three and five will be one staff down. This is why when managing employee shift trades that these types of things are considered
Managing employee shift trades correctly can work well for everyone concerned. It takes a lot of pressure off the person involved with creating the schedules because so long as the people exchanging are the same skill level it will not make too much difference to the rota. Allowing this type of freedom can be good for staff morale. It is also likely to lead to fewer sick days because if staff members feel too stressed and they can manage to trade a shift with someone then this will allow them to take a break. Obviously this is a lot better than having them phone in sick and needing to struggle to find a replacement.
by: Ryan Fyfe
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