How Businesses That Operate 24/7 Can Plan Shifts Efficiently

May 30, 2024

by Malysa O’Connor

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Key concerns for large-scale 24/7 operations include comprehensive coverage, skill matching, fatigue management, and regulatory compliance. With so many factors at play, workforce management (WFM) software becomes a vital tool for global large-scale enterprises managing complex shift patterns. It removes the guesswork from employee scheduling, reducing human error and eliminating natural biases.

With Legion’s Automated Scheduling, businesses can effectively manage the intricacies of around-the-clock coverage. This is particularly relevant for the healthcare industry, convenience stores, and hospitality environments.

Legion Demand Forecasting creates fully automated demand forecasts based on mature data science that has been in production for more than 7 years. It automatically handles scale and complexity and creates a unique model and forecast for every driver and location leading to unparalleled precision and accuracy. It’s intelligently automated and continuously learns, improves, and adapts to deliver highly accurate results in changing conditions. Weather and local events are automatically syndicated and pre-integrated.

Labor Optimization leverages precise forecasts to create the optimal labor plan. It determines the number of workers and shifts needed in 30-minute increments to meet demand, comply with labor laws, adhere to budget constraints, and meet predefined labor standards.

Key Summary

  • Legion’s Workforce Management (WFM) Software enables large-scale, 24/7 enterprises to meet the unique needs of their demanding sector.
  • The margin for error is high when you factor in large teams, the need for uninterrupted coverage, and compliance and safety regulations.
  • Legion Automated Scheduling, Time and Attendance, Labor Optimization, and Demand Forecasting synthesize data to optimize labor, schedules, and employee assignments to shifts, creating seamless schedules that benefit both the employer and the employee.

Understanding Shift Planning Complexities in 24/7 Enterprises

Specific industries, such as hospitality, don’t have the luxury of closing their doors outside standard operating hours. They must be available to provide exceptional customer service 24 hours a day.

This creates separate challenges from standard 9-5 operations. Providing around-the-clock coverage requires stability in staffing, compliance, adherence to safety standards, and a quick response time to unexpected absences or demand surges.

These complexities increase exponentially when an enterprise expands. The healthcare industry is one that is tasked with around-the-clock staffing needs. For example, a veterinary ER company currently scaling from 3,500 to 13,000 staff members implemented Legion WFM to eliminate manual processes that would’ve proven cumbersome and inefficient at that level, not to mention the compliance catastrophes they could have faced.

Benefits of Using WFM Software for Shift Planning

Manual planning and spreadsheets leave too much room for human error. Here’s how WFM software refines operations, allows an enterprise to scale continuously, and optimizes shift planning.

Demand Forecasting

With Legion Demand Forecasting, businesses can automatically improve their agility, accuracy, and labor efficiency.
Demand Forecasting synthesizes current and historical data about how customers make their decisions. As new data becomes available, it updates automatically, reforecasts, and regenerates guidelines, mitigating the potential for human error.

Predicting business demands in dollars, transactions, foot traffic, and other tangible variants makes it easy to see which employees should be matched with which shifts. The result is managers who have more time to dedicate to their employees and customers.

Labor Optimization

Legion takes your demand forecast and creates a labor plan that avoids understaffing or overstaffing. This one-two punch of forecasting and labor optimization provides staffing guidance according to the number of shifts needed in the labor model. From there, the scheduling application optimizes who is assigned to the schedules, when they are scheduled, which locations, etc.

Automated Scheduling

Intelligent, data-driven automation allows businesses to instantly create optimal schedules to match business needs and employee skills and preferences. It’s about improving efficiency and the employee experience simultaneously.
Legion Automated Scheduling is self-learning and continuously improves based on hourly employee preferences, changes in compliance guidelines, and manager edits. This reduces manual errors and biases and builds trust through transparency and scheduling equanimity.

Automated Scheduling uses shift templates to ensure the right employee is scheduled at the right time. Legion allows employees to share granular preferences such as locations, availability, ideal shift length, and more. With targeted shift offers, you can reduce open shifts and ensure coverage. Legion also fully automates shift offers from targeted offers to approving employees claiming the shift, and automatically updating the schedule.

Time and Attendance

Legion’s Time and Attendance helps businesses manage shift differentials by offering an equal spread of hours so everyone can access premium-pay shifts.

Because of its data-driven analytics, it also reduces compliance burdens. Automatic reports are generated when violations arise, including audit trails and attestation.

It’s also easy for employers and employees to access automatic premium pay computation. This supports predictable pay and lets employees see which shifts they want to pick up.

Time and Attendance further empowers employees by enabling them to attest to meals and breaks and consent to schedule changes and clopening.

Employee Self-Service (Mobile App)

Self-service mobile apps give employees back control by enabling them to request shift changes and time off directly through the app. The system can automatically approve or route these requests to a manager for review.

Employees also have immediate access to earned wages through Legion InstantPay. Next-day transfers are an option, creating new opportunities for them to achieve financial wellness.

Real-Time Adjustments

Workforce demands can rapidly shift due to various factors, including sales forecasts and staff availability.
Real-time adjustments predict scenarios where immediate changes are necessary due to last-minute shift changes or absenteeism that can disrupt operations.

This means fewer shifts are left uncovered, staff members aren’t overly burdened when they’re on the clock, and businesses can operate at peak performance levels.

Large-Scale Workforce Management Systems Streamline Operations That Have Many Moving Parts

With so many moving parts in a 24/7 operation, the margin for error increases exponentially. Accurate shift planning cannot be emphasized enough. Since time is money, managers do not need to expend inordinate amounts of time on complex shift planning.

Let Legion Automated Scheduling and Demand Forecasting put some hours back on your clock. Schedule a demo today to remove any inconsistencies you may face throughout your complex, 24/7 operations.