Urgent help with a Rota from someone logical and good with numbers!

[CatherineCawoodsbestie]

I asked you lovely lot about fair number allocation when developing a duty rota and there were a number of incredibly helpful and logical people that helped this confused brain create a fair rota that didn’t make my staff shout at me!

Stuff numbers have now changed and please can someone help me again!

My team work monday- Friday 9-5 or part time equivalent. I need two people on duty every day - so 40 slots . Ideally I would like a 4 week rolling rota - as fair as possible but I know that won’t be exact and the team are ok with that.

I have the following staff:

10 FTE
1 0.8
1 0.6
2 0.5

Please oh please can someone help me by working out a fair division of duty days. I have even tried chat GP but it got it wrong - you lot are much cleverer. Thank you !

I mean 11 FTE not 10 - sorry!

I need two people on duty every day - so 40 slots

I'm clearly missing something here. You only need 2 people on duty each day, but you already have 11 FTE working every day?

Could the part time people work set days or does it have to be different every week?

Yes so everyone has a caseload (Social workers) and then they share out the duty rota with two people needed every day. Ideally the days would vary over the four weeks so the dreaded Mondays and Fridays can be shared out fairly equally.

I know that it can’t be completely fair, but I am just trying to work out how many duty days, over 4 weeks , to allocate to each member of staff.

thank you!

I think OP means that 2 are needed as duty contacts (like manning a phone for emergency enquiries) for each day, in addition/alongside their roles.

What do you mean 40 slots? You need 2 staff for 5 days, that’s 10 shifts. Maybe one part timer from 10-2 each day to cover lunches.

Sorry, I was typing as you updated. I was envisaging a retail environment.

Where is the 40 coming from? Are you saying 10 covers a week x 4 weeks =40 slots?

I meant over 4 weeks. So 20 days with two members of staff on duty every day means 40 slots. We don’t need people on from 10-2 - lunchtime is juggled/ eaten at desks etc.

Full timers - 3 days
0.5 -1.5 day
0.6 and 0.8 - 2 days

Why do you need only two people on duty each day? You are not leaving much room
for sickness and annual leave. You may need to build in more resilience.

Is your whole time equivalent 40 hrs?
Leave entitlement?
Is there only one role and are all roles equivalent?
Is two people the minimum, or a fixed number?

From the way you described it, you have 80 hours a week to cover, and 13.3 FTEs (532 hours) of available workforce.

OK.
You've got 13.4 people.
At 40 slots, that is very very close to 3 slots for each FT member of staff over the period.
If the 0.8 and 0.6 people did 2 slots, and the 0.5 people did 1, you would be 1 slot short each time.
This could go to the 0.8, or float around.... your call. Edit or 1.5 slots each for the 0.5 people as suggested above.

Does that help?

56 days (28 * 2)
FT at least 1 (avg 1.5) per week = 46 days
0.8 1 per week = 50 days
0.6 3 over 4 weeks = 53
0.5 2 to 3 over 4 weeks = 55/6

Maybe you could offer a choice of days to cover (i.e. not Friday) for those doing more than their share.

40 slots ÷ 12.9 (you have a total of 12.9 FT Equivalents)= the number of slots 1 FTE should do, which is 3.1 per week.

The 0.8 does 0.8 x 3.1 = 2.45 slots. The 0.6 does 0.6 x 3.1= 1.86 slots and the 0.5 does 0.5 x 3.1= 1.55 slots.

Times each by 4 for the number they do over a 4 week period and round up or down to arrive at a sensible number.

Ignore me, I was counting weekends. 😅

Thank you everyone - I think I have a plan now, I really appreciate it. I am going to do 3 for the full timers, 2 for 0.6 and 0.8 and 1.5 each for the 0.5 staff - and they can swap them between themselves if they choose. For those of you who asked why we only have 2 a day - essentially because our waiting lists are so long that the manager is forced to give people loads of allocations that they are expected to respond to and turnover quickly so we try and keep duty to a minimum. There is a senior on duty every day too. And the team are amazing and covering sickness; they swap out leave between themselves. And if someone goes off on LT sick, the rota is redone to remove them to keep things fair .

I really appreciate all of your help - I do not have a duty rota or numbers brain! So thank you! You are all much cleverer than AI!

That only adds up to 37 of your 40 I think? Your 0.8 needs to do 2.5 and your point 0.6 does 2 and your 0.5 needs to do 1.5.

You have my sympathies. I used to have to do the social work duty rota. It was a nightmare. There was always someone who didn't like it, didn't want to work with particular people or who booked visits on days they were supposed to be on duty. Good luck.