Despite the best schedule tools and your managers’ attention to detail, staffing shortages occur. Follow these three steps to help a staffing situation from taking you by surprise:
- Look at past trends to predict staff coverage needs. Are there certain times of year or month where you’ve tradition been short staffed. Have adequate coverage scheduled, particularly for things like cold and flu season or holidays.
- Design your schedule around peak business days. Instead of starting your schedules at the beginning of the calendar week, think about starting them on a busy day. For instance, if you have the most new admits on Tuesday, create your schedules starting on those days.
- Plan schedules as far in advance as possible. Share these with your team so they have time to see it and plan accordingly. Communicate schedules regularly so vacations or days off don’t fall off the map, are misunderstood, or get lost in the shuffle.
