Nhs e rostering - any info?

[VivaLeBeaver]

Just about to get e rostering at work and people aren't happy. We've been told if you're full time you can request four shifts a month and the computer allocates the rest. Part timers get less requests.

If you need a weekend off you have to use annual leave to get it off even if you could happily work the number of shifts you're needed to in the week.

So people who currently have no childcare on certain days or plan their shifts around their husbands work are going to be buggered. Is it really this bad?

Think I may have to leave, along with half the ward by the sound of it.

[twinklytoes]

thats about it! but they have to still honour flexible working etc.

the system we used you could upload preferences for staff, i.e. I could input that I never work fridays or a nurse doesn't work lates on a tuesday. I would also input all the requests before running the programme to self-roster. Problem was it could not recognise that I needed one 5, one 4 and 3 3's and could end up with a day with 3 5's and nowt else. I don't work in general hospital with fixed shift patterns and it couldn't cope with changes to shift patterns (I move shifts back/forward a couple of hours for individuals if the clients need specific support outside of the traditional shifts)

We dumped the auto-roster function before we even went live!

we did use it and entered in manually and it was probably the best system we had. it was always updated and kept check on toil etc. we always had plenty of rosters out so staff didn't moan they didn't know what was happening week on week etc. we were able to link it into payroll and abolish the writing of timesheets and all that occurs to get everyone paid. using it this way saved a lot of man hours once the person repsonsible adjusted their behaviour and keep on top of it. rosters were created alot quicker and a weekly update took 1/2hr. payroll time took an hour tops rather than the 3hrs to check manually timesheets against rosters against toil/annual leave records.

the system was used for 18mths or so and came to an end in march this year as the trust decided they couldn't justify the expense (it was free initially!) as the system wasn't working across all the services properly and we'd changed payroll offices and they didn't have the software to take payroll online.

[VivaLeBeaver]

It doesn't sound good to me. Hope our place drop it.

[twinklytoes]

the key is how they choose those that are the "roster creators" - they have the power. if you've got a roster creator that knows everyones patterns etc, knows the ward and how best it is run then e-rostering won't make much difference for those on the floor.

check who's putting a limit on the number of requests. the organisation we were working with basically told us that to use the auto-roster function to its best i.e. produce a full weeks roster that requests needed to be limited. we argued this as it went against the policy (which incidentally hadn't been reviewed to fall in line with e-rostering). we were adamant throughout the implementation phase that we'd not go back on staff requests; flexible working requests etc. we made it clear we were following our employers policies etc not those suggested comments from a third party.

there's another thread in the employment archives, prob 4-6mths back now. there were a few other stories on it.

i

[tinker316]

Had it at my work just over 2 years now-so much better more fairer in my opinion! Just takes a while of getting use to the system

[VivaLeBeaver]

Well it doesn't sounds like ours is going to be fair or that our manager is going to be helpful.

Some of the single parent staff have been to see our manager and said that they need a specific 2 weekends off a month as they're the weekends they have their small kids. Manager said bad luck, can not be taken into consideration, that she didn't care about peoples' childcare problems and that if people didn't like it they could leave.

[zipzap]

Can you complain or discuss with hr or a union?

[Whorulestheroost]

gosh viva your manager sounds awful! Good staff are hard to come by and a little empathy goes a long way! We are soon to start using it in our PCT so it will be interesting to see how it will affect us. I manage our evening teams roster so I will try and be a little nicer than your manager :)