anyone had dealings with computerised rostering in nhs setting, especially part time parent?

[allbie]

My ward is taking on computerised rostering for the off-duty. Many part time staff are clearly worried as previously, they had set days (with some flexibility for the ward) to cope with childcare arrangements. Now it would seem that these previous working arrangements will not be necessarily be met by the computer and the staff with childcare issues will have to 'like it or lump it'. There has been mention that if these staff members can't be flexible then they should look to going on the 'bank'. This all seems totally opposite to the so-called family-friendly mantra and the government's aim of enabling people to work! If you have any valid advice or heart-warming tales, then I shall be truly grateful to you!

My Trust is about to implement this.

We have been told that we are allowed up to 4 requests a month for full timers and 2 for part-timers.

Have also been told that if I need to work a certain day for mandatory training this should not be one of my requests as it is classed as study.

A friends trust has been using it for years and she said that the system can be set up so "personal preferences" can be imputed at the beginning i.e those who have set days or hours to work. She also said that the system can be "over-rid" to change the rota if needed.

Has any of that happened in practice for you all??

My trust uses a system called "allocate" its just being implemented. We have two choices- Full time gets 5 requests a month all other shifts are randomly allocated by the computer. Part timers get 2-3 requests dependent on their hours or can choose to work a pattern and get no requests at all. I work set days but not always the same, eg I can work sat/sun/mon/tues but only have to work 2 long shifts a week to cover my hours. We used to have a self rostering system which meant I could get specific weekends off or load my shifts towards the beginning of the month in order to take a weeks leave and actually have 2 weeks off.
It is a headache as we are constantly getting requests to change shifts as people cant work on the day the computer has insisted they should because they have no childcare. Yes you can overide the system and make manual alterations but its time consuming and causes stress to staff. It is supposed to allow the management to see where we can reduce numbers etc-sold on the basis it will save the trust a million quid on staff.
I will give it time as its still pretty new but on balance preferred our previous system

I didn't realise there were so many different roistering systems. I just assumed it would be the same one across the whole NHS!!

So I can research further into this what was the name of your systems??

Sorry - I know this is a zombie thread but I was wondering how things are with the rostering issues? 4 years down the line (from commenting under a different name), we are still not using it fully and we input our own rota onto the computer. It is still worked out on paper by a human!

We don't use a computer and it is done by a human. Part timers where I am, and my old trust, had to apply for flexible working so that their days were fixed. It is reviewed annually and when their youngest child reaches 14 then they will no longer be eligible for fixed days. Fair enough. It has an impact on full timers though as they can end up working 8 and 9 days in a row without a day off.
In my job, we also do on call, and you can be put down for any day of the week which is frustrating as you have fixed days off!
The NHS is a mess and not the most family-friendly employer as it makes itself out to be!

Allocated annual leave? I sincerely hope not! My husband (who doesn't work for the NHS) already gets annual leave allocated so with his holidays, my holidays and school holidays (2 kids) all different when exactly would we have any time off together??!

And would allocated annual leave apply to managers and senior managers? I guess NOT.

Oh, and in reply to a post higher up (I know that this is a zombie thread)...all part timers should be working a pro rata share of out of hours work (including nights, bank hols and weekends). To force a part timer to work the same as a full timer is unfair as they earn less.
If anyone has found childcare at weekends please share...I have this exact same problem now. No family and childminder works M-F. I bet so many mums are being forced out of the NHS.

We use e rostering and have for a couple of years. I remember the fear well!

At my trust If you have an agreed set days then they are Inputted into the primary template but you will loose the 4 requests a month you can make.

As managers we set up the template alongside it team to make it work for us which required a lot of tweaking, for instance it was giving staff night shifts but leaving none to allocate to staff who worked agreed nights.
So we set rules to make it do what we wanted.

It's still not full proof and once it's rostered I spend quite a while tweaking it, I imagine the final result relies on having a manager that does this. For instance I wouldn't leave someone on nights fri sat sun and back on 2 long days tues and weds....others may!

It has caused problems in some areas giving shifts too close together and areas not allowing staff to swap.

But yes ERoster has no feelings or empathy so doesn't care if you work everyday over Christmas

Didn't notice it's a zombie thread