Work & Family

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Allocation and rostering of work

Type of roster

The most common types of roster used in nursing homes for both the nursing and non-nursing staff are rotating rosters, self-rostering systems and fixed rosters.

Rotating rosters are often used in organisations where work is rostered over 24 hours 7 days a week, such as in the public hospital system, to ensure staffing of all shifts including those at 'unsocial' hours. Under rotating rosters, employees are automatically rotated through morning, afternoon and night shifts, usually within one roster period. In practice, by advertising vacancies for specific shifts to attract part-timers who want to work those hours, most nursing homes are unlikely to need to implement rotating rosters to cover shifts involving 'unsocial' hours.

Rotating rosters can make it extremely difficult for employees who are responsible for caring for children, or aged, disabled or sick dependants to organise alternate care arrangements on a regular basis. Employees who are studying or have other regular commitments outside work will also have great difficulty working under rotating rosters. Some employees will have a strong preference for regular night and weekend work, because that is the only working pattern that ensures availability of affordable and reliable care, often because their partner works days during the week.

Under some circumstances, requiring employees with caring responsibilities to work under a rotating roster system could be indirectly discriminatory, where it can be shown that it would be reasonable in all the circumstances to make adjustments to the arrangements, and that more people without caring responsibilities would be able to work under those arrangements than people with caring responsibilities.

Self-rostering systems usually involve the Roster Manager putting up a blank roster for members of staff to fill in the shifts they wish to work in that roster period.

Self-rostering may work better with smaller teams familiar with each other's patterns. Where there are a large number of part-time workers, self-rostering systems may lead to staff dissatisfaction and dissension. It is possible for those who work on the day the roster is regularly put up to choose the best shifts, leaving others who work later in the week to take remaining less convenient shifts, and over time this may cause problems. Where self-rostering is implemented, Roster Managers may wish to monitor the process and intervene if necessary.

Fixed rosters are usually drawn up by the Roster Manager on the basis of employee preferences, so that employees are allocated specific shifts on particular days on an ongoing basis.

Fixed rosters give employees regular and predictable work patterns, which makes it much easier for those with caring responsibilities (or other regular non-work commitments including study) to make necessary arrangements for alternate care or lecture attendance, and to fulfil commitments such as picking up children after school or taking aged parents for medical appointments.

Use of a fixed roster may simplify the work of the Roster Manager, particularly where a computerised rostering system is not used, as it provides a framework of regular shifts which can then be fine-tuned by allocating extra shifts to fill any roster gaps. A fixed roster is likely to provide greater surety of staffing and reduce absenteeism, because employees are more likely to be able to make satisfactory permanent arrangements around family and other commitments. It may also provide greater consistency of care for nursing home residents.

Rosters used must be consistent with any requirements specified in the relevant industrial award or agreement. Rosters also need to be displayed in an accessible place prior to the commencement of the first working period for the time specified in relevant awards, usually two weeks, with an absolute minimum of one week, so employees have notice of shifts to be worked, except where emergency changes have to be made.

The rostering process can often be simplified by the use of a computerised rostering system. For example, where self-rostering systems are to be used, there are tailored software packages available which can implement streamlined computerised 'bidding' systems which produce rosters based on the inputs (availability or 'bids') and the organisation's imperatives (fairness, staffing needs etc) and may be manually changed or fine-tuned.

Where a nursing home is considering changing the type of roster used, it is advisable to consult fully with the staff and with relevant industrial organisations.

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Allocating shifts

Under a fixed roster, the Roster Manager usually allocates shifts on the basis of expressed employee preferences. Where some employees are not immediately able to have their preferred shifts, the Roster Manager may be able to achieve this over time.

In many cases an employee wishing to change a rostered shift may be able to arrange a swap with another appropriate staff member, and inform the Roster Manager of the changes.

Availability of alternate care arrangements will have an impact on employees' shift preferences where they have family responsibilities to balance. Some employees may prefer to work on particular days, at particular times or at night or on weekends because their partner, or another family member, is available to provide care at these times, and they can avoid the extra expense involved in placing children or other dependants in formal care.

One way to ensure adequate staffing for night or weekend shifts is to advertise and recruit specifically for these shifts.

Employees with family, study or other commitments may depend upon their regular pattern of shifts to balance work and non-work responsibilities. If employees with caring responsibilities who usually work night or weekend shifts are asked to work blocks of day or weekday shifts, it may be so difficult for them to arrange alternate care that they may find it hard to continue in employment. Under some circumstances, this may be indirectly discriminatory because it would be easier for a person without caring responsibilities to change their shift arrangements in this way than it is for someone responsible for young children or other dependants.

Where nursing management identifies a real need to make a temporary change to an employee's work team for supervisory or on-the-job training reasons, it will usually be preferable to roster them to work their usual shifts in a different team or on another floor. Imposed changes to the roster pattern of an employee with caring responsibilities may create additional problems if the employee is unable to make arrangements for care, and may lead to the employee's resignation. A work culture with frequent forced roster changes may also lead to overall problems in staff morale.

Employees can be invited to revise their preferences as their commitments change. Where students are employed, their preferred shifts may change in accordance with each semester's lecture timetable. Similarly, as children grow up or change their after school arrangements, where an aged parent requires increasing care, or where an employee's partner changes their working pattern, the employee may wish or need to change their pattern of shifts to accommodate these different arrangements.

In allocating shifts, nursing management must comply with any requirements in the relevant award regarding maximum hours to be worked in any one day or breaks between shifts.

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Allocating extra shifts

Employee shortages or leave arrangements will often leave gaps in the roster and necessitate allocation of additional shifts. Many part-time workers in aged-care would like to work additional hours, so it may often be possible to cover the roster without having to call in casual workers.

One way of simplifying allocation of extra shifts is to ask all employees to indicate regularly in an Availability or Replacement register if they are interested in working extra shifts, and when they would be available. If replacements are required, the Roster Manager can offer extra work to these employees in the first instance. If extra staff hours are still needed other employees can be approached or casuals called in.

Staff morale will usually be better if the process of allocating extra shifts is transparent, so that the offer of extra work is not seen as a reward or a punishment, and if there is not a punitive attitude to employees who refuse the offer of extra shifts.

Employers may find it a useful incentive to attract and retain employees to pay part or full overtime for extra shifts worked which would normally be paid at the ordinary time rate, particularly when the shift is allocated at short notice. Employers may also reach agreement with employees for such overtime to be treated as time in lieu, and either added to annual leave or banked so the employee may use it for family and other emergencies.

In allocating additional shifts, nursing management must comply with any requirements in the relevant award regarding the maximum hours to be worked in any one day or breaks between shifts.

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Reviewing part-time hours

If worker shortages result in part-time employees regularly working the same additional shifts for reasons other than providing relief for staff on leave, nursing management might consider discussing with these employees whether they wish to take the additional hours on a permanent basis.

Regular review of part-time hours, resulting in increased regular hours for part-time workers who want them, will maximise predictability for employees and should improve their capacity to balance work and family or other outside commitments. It will also increase predictability of employees' income, which could improve their access to finance, and could offer increased administrative efficiency for nursing home managements.

Maximising permanent shifts in this way may offer benefits to management by increasing stability and predictability in the roster overall. It may also help to address situations where part-time workers seeking to work extra hours for financial reasons accept additional shifts at other facilities, sometimes at the expense of adequate breaks between shifts.

Some nursing homes may have permanent part-time employees working almost full-time hours. Consideration could be given to ways of making such employees full-time for efficiency reasons as calculation of pay, superannuation and leave entitlements will be simplified. Regular entitlement to an Allocated Day Off (ADO) could reduce absenteeism (and improve morale) by ensuring time for family arrangements and appointments.