Scheduling software application to reduce shift work exhaustion, a case of weight and balance group in saigon ground services joint stock company

Mai Duc Nam SCHEDULING SOFTWARE APPLICATION TO REDUCE SHIFT WORK EXHAUSTION: A CASE OF WEIGHT AND BALANCE GROUP IN SAIGON GROUND SERVICES JOINT STOCK COMPANY MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINIS

Mai Duc Nam

SCHEDULING SOFTWARE APPLICATION TO REDUCE SHIFT WORK EXHAUSTION: A CASE OF WEIGHT AND BALANCE GROUP IN SAIGON GROUND SERVICES JOINT

STOCK COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Mai Duc Nam

SCHEDULING SOFTWARE APPLICATION TO REDUCE SHIFT WORK EXHAUSTION: A CASE OF WEIGHT AND BALANCE GROUP IN SAIGON GROUND SERVICES JOINT

STOCK COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: PROF NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018

Executive Summary

Fatigue, which is the common issue of every single worker in any area, tends to be worse

in the service industry, especially in 24/7 continuous service like aviation, rail or medical Comparing to all industries, shift work is a different element of service For example, labor

in aviation field like air traffic controller, cabin crew and ground staff mentioned shift work

as a common cause of their fatigue beside specific job’s traits The consequences of fatigue are low productivity, poor health and even high turnover rate which should be paid more attention by human resources management as an important task In this case, imbalance shift distribution is the main cause of increasing fatigued level Obviously, shift arrangement would not only decide how effective and appropriate shift system is, but also play a key role in fatigue level of workers

Table of contents

1 Introduction 7

1.1 Company background 7

1.2 Company structure 8

2 Problem context 9

2.1 Fatigue in service and aviation industry 9

2.2 Fatigue in Weight and balance group of ground operation department 10

3 Problem identification 11

3.1 Effort – reward imbalance 12

3.2 Shift working exhausted 13

3.3 Annual leave shortage 14

4 Problem validation 15

5 Cause validation 18

6 Alternative solutions 23

6.1 First alternative solution: Software application 23

6.2 Second alternative solution: Erasing level barrier 26

6.3 Third alternative solution: Flexible shift 29

7 Implementation 32

8 Conclusion 35

9 Supporting information 36

List of Figures Figure 1: Saigon Ground Services JSC Organization structure 8

Figure 2: Ground operation department structure of Saigon Ground Services JSC 8

Figure 3: Causes fishbone diagram 18

Figure 5: The Best Employee Scheduling & Shift Planning Software of 201717 25

Figure 6: Original ERI Model8 (Siegrist, 1996) 41

Figure 7: Current ERI Model8 (Siegrist, 1999) 41

List of Tables

Table 1: Data of fatigue measurement 11

Table 2: Estimated cost for scheduling & shift planning software 25

Table 3: Estimated cost for level change 28

Table 4: Flexible shift options 30

Table 5: Organization action plan for applying Software in shift arrangement 34

Table 6: Interviewee’s demographic 37

Over 10 years of experience in ground handling, SAGS have obtained and successfully renewed the ISO9001 quality management certification and the industry ISAGO (IATA Safety Audits for Ground Operations) registration

In 2016, company’s revenue is over VND 876 billion, increased 46% than 2015 SAGS already set the new milestone with over VND 1,000 billion in 2017

1.2 Company structure

Source: http://sags.vn/About-Us/Organization-Chart/

Figure 1: Saigon Ground Services JSC Organization structure

Source: Made by Author based on SAGS’s data

Figure 2: Ground operation department structure of Saigon Ground Services JSC

Weight and Balance group belongs to Ground Operation Department They are responsible for doing load sheet and contributing to the accuracy of passenger, baggage and cargo weight for captain and airlines load control center Weight and Balance activity is always

Ground operation department

included in service level agreement of all airlines, which have been provided ground services by SAGS Meanwhile, Loading group is only in charge of international flights and cargo flights Operation group involves in coordinating of international flights and domestic flights Shift working hour is a trait of aviation industry, there are fourteen different shifts

at Weight and Balance group, nineteen shifts at Operation group and twelve shifts at Loading group to ensure handling flights

This study concentrates on Weight and Balance group because of its typical traits and involvement in all kind of flights In addition, Weight and Balance group not only has suitable organizational size but also allows author to access secondary sources and collect primary data There are three levels of skills for Weight and Balance staff Entry level (level 1) focuses on narrow body aircraft, level 2 is on wide body aircraft and level 3 is on cargo flight Weight and Balance group includes one manager, three deputy managers, two supervisors and sixteen members Employees are required to work 48 hours per week and the schedule changes weekly Furthermore, they are arranged specific flights with their ID beside flight number on SAGS management information system (SMIS) each day

2 Problem context

2.1 Fatigue in service and aviation industry

Aviation industry is 24/7 service therefore shift working is the only way to keep every task being done constantly, which is similar to railway industry or healthcare industry There is

no doubt that fatigue is common status of labors in these industries Shift work4, which has been associated with fatigue, is frequently cited as a major cause of fatigue Fatigue is

defined5 and operated in different ways, for example in terms of increased sleepiness and reduced alertness

According to the report from International transport workers’ Federation2 in 2009, 46% of respondents felt that fatigue was an issue happening in the most of the aviation workers they represent with 35% respondents said that most of aviation workers feeling burned out from work but more than half show that only some workers had this feeling Pursuant to fatigue statistic indicated in occupational groups including cabin crew, ground staff and air traffic service workers with more than 50% respondents reported that most of the ground staff workers felt tired in the morning as a fatigue symptom This proportion is the same in case of feeling used up at the end of the workday of ground staff workers

In addition, fatigue6 has been pointed out as a serious problem by ICAO and has been defined as “A physiological state of reduced mental or physical performance capability, resulting from sleep loss or extended wakefulness, circadian phase, or workload (mental and/or physical activity) that can impair a person’s alertness and ability to perform safety related operational duties.”

2.2 Fatigue in Weight and balance group of ground operation department

In first stage of collecting data, 11 employees had been asked about fatigue symptoms by several short questions about quality and quantity of fatigue according to the health care professional27 Feeling in the morning has been described by employees that sleepy, tired, headache Employees also mentioned that the feeling depends on types of shift and sleeping time The feeling after finishing shift is more similar, tired and leave immediately was the

common answers Most of employees said they used caffeine or energy drinks during shifts, more than a half of frequent use

To be objective and measurable, visual analogue scales9 was used to measure fatigue level, scale have been done by employees after finish their shift Although result could be limited

in terms of quantity due to author’s work schedule, this scale could support health care professional question for describing fatigue picture The below table was made from scale result, Sags management information system (SMIS) and Weight Balance group weekly schedule

Table 1: Data of fatigue measurement

Source: Created by Author based on visuak analogue sacles 9 , SMIS and weekly schedule

All figures above show that fatigue at weight and balance group exists by given evidence and statistic

3 Problem identification

Fatigue in aviation is a chronic disease, each department is suffering fatigue in different contexts, therefore it is necessary to find out the reason and its consequences based on specific group Thus, this study focuses on fatigue at Weight balance group of SAGS

Several literatures and papers have been used as relevant sources to provide the potential factors are effort – reward imbalance, shift working and annual leave

Moreover, six people joined in-depth interview from management level, frontline employees and former staffs in the weight and balance group Their sharing about fatigue

at work combines with literatures and papers This points out some crucial reasons leading

to fatigue at weight and balance group of SAGS including effort – reward imbalance, shift working exhausted and annual leave entitlement shortage

3.1 Effort – reward imbalance

Statistics contributed by International transport workers’ Federation in 2009 about effort and reward are clear Specifically, effort in work relates to heavy workload, responsibility, working overtime meanwhile reward includes receiving respect from supervisors, treating fairly, support, salary, prospect for promotion Effort-reward imbalance (ERI)8 model of Siegrist & Weber, 1986 was cited in N van Vegchel’s paper that represents job demands and obligations imposed on the employees, occupational reward distributed by the employer consisting of money, esteem and career opportunities ERI model also shows that the imbalance could cause sustained strain reactions, working hard without receiving appreciation is an example of a stressful imbalance

Mr Luong Nguyen Minh Khoa admitted that overtime is a common situation but there are

no reward policies and he thought it is quite difficult to figure out The imbalance of responsibility for his flights and what he received may lead to frustration

Mr Nguyen Hoang Phuoc stated that: “I’m satisfying with current salary but there is no official recognition on overtime effort, people accept to work overtime as a job characteristic Overtime means I spend too much time for work and less for myself, it makes

me tired.”

Mr Nguyen Van Lam - deputy manager mentioned he always tried to support employees leave shift on time He understood that company has no money policy for overtime but managers recognize employee’s effort by choosing for training and promotion opportunity

3.2 Shift working exhausted

difficult for workers to maintain a regular sleep-wake cycle, affecting negative to sleep quality and potentially weakening insulin resistance "Some of the most serious and persistent problems shift workers face are frequent sleep disturbance and associated excessive sleepiness," report the NSF Symptoms relate to shift work including indigestion, irritability and reduced concentration Time issue was pointed out in the report from International transport workers’ Federation2 in 2009 as well, “shift work in general puts workers at heightened risk of fatigue and rotating shift systems are known to be even more hazardous than regular shift patterns as the body rhythm cannot adapt to a regular time pattern”

is time Working on shift makes circadian rhythm unstably like normal people, rotating

Mr Luong Nguyen Minh Khoa – frontline employee compared with his previous job that

he felt more tired from joining SAGS because his circadian rhythm cannot stay constantly Furthermore, he also blamed that sometimes shifts between two days were so close and too many early morning shift or splitted shift made the situation worse

Rest break between shifts are not enough as one of the reason according to Mr Nguyen Hoang Phuoc as well

3.3 Annual leave shortage

An article on Health24 by Mandy Freeman8 cited Shelagh Goodwin, general manager of human resources at Media24 that “It’s important for people to take time off All the research shows that proper rest periods improve wellness, reduce stress and increase productivity,”

Dr Colinda Linde - clinical psychologist also agreed that taking your annual leave and avoid burning out mentally and physically according to explaining that "Humans are the same as devices need idle or hibernate function – if our bodies and minds are switched on

in 'work' mode 24/7, it results in inefficient performance, exhaustion and errors, as well as mood changes such as becoming more sensitive, more reactive, less tolerant.” The research

of university of Otago7 2006 described encouraging annual leave as the way to control work stressor

Mr Nguyen Van Lam - Deputy manager of group stated that:

Beside fatigue from personal health or family status, work characteristic is quite pressure, employee could not have fully entitlement, especially annual leave

Mrs Doan Pham Thao Lan - Supervisor with 10-year experience said she hasn’t had official long leave in recent years because of lack of same level co-worker than frontline employees

Mr Nguyen Thuong Hong, former staff, also agreed annual leave is one of the fatigue’s causes, he stated: “The annual leave entitlement still could not be solved year after year, it was one of my own reasons making me quit this job I think there are inequality and unclearness between staffs in the same department and between departments.”

4 Problem validation

Based on potential problems, in-depth interview from 6 respondents from managers, frontline employees and former staff, statistic of SAGS management information system, weekly schedule and related papers, shift arrangement plays prominent role leading to fatigue at work in weight and balance group of SAGS It is necessary for weight and balance supervisors to improve and innovate weekly schedule arrangement tool to solve this problem immediately

Regarding to annual leave, this problem cannot be solved immediately because of following reasons Long-term human resource strategy, levels of skills were set clearly as company policy It takes a long time for employee to go through three different skill levels In addition, management level may not accompany with skill level because of managerial ability and organization structure This makes the shortage of management level person therefore it’s impossible for staffs take an annual leave Beside that covering too much shift for other colleague’s long leave is also a bad idea

Mr Nguyen Van Lam – Deputy manager stated:

Taking annual leave should be equal for everybody, if managers want to take annual leave, they have to focus on training frontline employees to enable cover management stuffs

At lower level, employees do not mention too much about annual leave shortage as a fatigue’s cause Number of frontline employees could be a logical explanation Especially, there are no management function limitation, official long day leave could be covered by others or co-worker may have unofficial annual leave by asking other to help then pay back

as well

In term of effort - reward imbalance issue, Mr Luong Nguyen Minh Khoa mentioned above that there is no money reward for overtime policy Furthermore, Mr Nguyen Van Lam also said that: “It is possible for changing but salary budget is set for each group, therefore if there is money reward for overtime, it has to be included in fixed budget.”

His explanation is not meaningful, money reward requires to have good appraisal Changing salary budget and its formula are out of weight and balance group ability As Mr Nguyen Hoang Phuoc stated that he satisfied with current salary, he thought overtime problem should be solved by official recognitions like career and training opportunities In fact, these recognition is invisible for employees and it may takes several years to consider for getting promotion In summary, good appraisal criteria, working time monitor system and reward budget might improve this issue, however it is complicated and cannot be solved

in short time

Shift working exhausted are becoming a main problem leading fatigue at work due to following reasons Firstly, rest break between shifts is not enough causing tired and sleepy For example, weekly schedule showed that employees finished their shift today at 10pm ought to start new shift at 6am tomorrow This does not ensure 12-hour rest break regulation for employees Mrs Doan Pham Thao Lan who is in charge of building weekly schedule admitted that: “Sometimes recreation time is not enough because it absolutely bases on flight schedule and employee’s levels to be responsible for the quantity of flight Besides, she also said: employees should inform her if there is any issue.”

Manual excel tool also has no warning function about minimum recreation time between days therefore there is no doubt about weekly schedule builder’s fault Secondly, the imbalance of shift is also a remarkable factor that some employees have too many night working hours than others, the difference could be up to 30 hours among employees at same level According to Mr Luong Nguyen Minh Khoa, he said that too many early morning shifts per week could make tired and sleepy Author realizes some people have been arranged so many early morning and splitted shifts leading imbalance provided by weekly schedule

Mr Nguyen Hoang Phuoc also confirmed: “Schedule and rest break between shift arrangement are unreasonable therefore it is not enough time for recreation and stamina recovery.”

Shift working exhausted seem to be a feature of aviation industry Although employees understand this field’s characteristic, they mentioned shift working as main problem of fatigue in weight and balance group In detail, shift arrangement could be improved without

any cost, complicated approval step, monitoring system Thus, the way to build weekly schedule should be upgraded with additional function to become more integrated

5 Cause validation

Figure 3: Causes fishbone diagram

Shift work has been determined as a problem of weight and balance group by previous stages, above fishbone diagram describes some causes of shift work included imbalance shift arrangement, nature of job and personal circadian clock

5.1 Job characteristics

Shift work is one of the job characteristics in aviation This industry also includes accuracy,

on time performance, alertness, continuous operation and tough weather Different carriers flight from hundreds of countries with a variety of time options so that non-sleep operation

Shift system:

Flexibility

Shift work exhausted

Personal circadian clock

Job characteristics

Non standard work hour

Quit the job

Errors Low performance

requires shift work to ensure handling ability The link between job characteristics and fatigue was showed in report from International transport workers’ Federation2, Union affiliates said that “physical work and long/odd hours was one of the workplace factors as main contributors to fatigue among staff” Obviously, there are impossible to prevent shift work exhausted by changing nature of job, people have right to keep or leave the job when they feel used up enough by non-standard working hour Saigon ground service company does understand non-standard working hour means high turnover, five times recruitment28and over 20 new employees for each could be trusted evidence In addition, although all employees, who joined interview confirmed exhausting shift work as a nature of job, they respect and understand non-standard working hour is a nature of job, as an unchanged factor

to avoid shift work exhausted

5.2 Personal circadian clock

Non-standard working time make circadian clock different from normal people Shift worker not only face to rotating shift every day, they could also harm their health by working night shift Jame Mc1 mentioned in Medical New Today article that shift worker could experience problems form disruption people’s circadian rhythms, given reasons are working overnight, successive rotating shifts restricting the hours available for sleeping Consequently, personal circadian clock plays an important role in shift work exhausted, it could make fatigue level worse or better

Mr Le Hoang An mentioned:

Cause of fatigue might be my time table My weird circadian clock began long time ago

Mr Nguyen Hoang Phuoc also compare his life one year after joining SAGS, he said:

It could be my attitude, from enthusiasm and devotion at beginning, now I learn to relax and I do not spend much time for com pany’s stuff to avoid overload

Although personal circadian has been seen as a cause of shift work exhausted, it depends

on employees more than company, fatigue level could not improve if employees have bad habits and negative time table According Carla V cited by Jame Mc1, shift work was linked with behavioral and lifestyle factors that are also known risk factors for certain chronic diseases Thus, shift workers might be exhausted by lack of outdoor activities, their schedule always changed because of rotating therefore it is quite hard for them to maintain positive habits frequently

Mr Le Hoang An also said:

My fatigue symptoms do not relate to his job, it came from my weird time table.

Mr Nguyen Van Lam confirmed that he has not played any sport or joined any outdoor activities because he was lazy, job traits and circadian clock were not mentioned

In contrast, other people try to maintain positive physically like Mr Nguyen Hoang

Phuoc He Said:

I worked out at home Sometimes, I played football after I had finished work

In short, employees take full responsibility on their health, their behavioral and lifestyle factors are the key to avoid fatigue, not the company

5.3 Imbalance shift arrangement

Report from International transport workers’ Federation2stated that “regular rest brakes are necessary to recuperate from strenuous work and to prevent fatigue.”, ineffective work organization was mentioned as a cause Imbalance shift arrangement has been seen as not enough time for rest break, not enough time for recreation, inappropriate shift rotating, equal shift between employees Employees all stated shift arrangement

Mr Luong Nguyen Minh Khoa said:

Too many splitted shifts or early morning could lead high level of fatigue, Short rest break time is also a reason for fatigue

The Department of Labor Newzealand16 recommended early morning shift should be minimized They stated that avoiding rosters that require starting work before 6 am as one

of the roster arrangement policies Meanwhile, the earliest shift in the Weight and Balance

of SAGS start at 5 am

In addition, the report2 by International transport workers’ Federation described rest breaks and recreation time between shifts that “regular rest breaks are necessary to recuperate from strenuous work and to prevent fatigue”

As Mr Nguyen Hoang Phuoc mentioned:

Mainly, time could be inappropriate arrangement, inappropriate recreation and shift break, lacking

of recovery energy

Mr Le Hoang An said:

I think shift arrangement as a cause of fatigue is acceptable argument, shifts have been arranged quite close

Because of weekly scheduling, roster designator usually arranges by excel file then release

on the weekend Manual arrangement creates inappropriateness and ineffectiveness Mrs Doan Pham Thao Lan – roster designator mentioned:

I arrange schedule by manual so I could not avoid mistakes Once schedule release, people should take a look and notice me if any inappropriate

Obviously, current scheduling tool does not remind designator about neither recreation time nor imbalance between day shift and night shift of individual These poor functions could explain for employee’s complaints Moreover, manual scheduling will be influent by human factors, that cannot control lists of roster arrangement policies for over twenty individuals

Mrs Doan Pham Thao Lan also admitted that:

I use excel file currently, it only has non-duplicate in same day and day off warning There is no warning function for short rest break time between shifts

This study concerns that simple scheduling file is making low productivity, imbalance situation and ineffective operation Shift can be missed because supervisor rearranges schedule without any announcement

In conclusion, given information could be sorted as subjective causes and objective causes

of shift work exhausted Job characteristic stand for objective cause, which is impossible to change Meanwhile, personal circadian clock is under employee’s control, shift work exhausted could be eliminated by better work life balance and good habits subjectively Imbalance shift arrangement is also subjective factor, organization plays a key role in decreasing shift work exhausted instead of employees As a result, imbalance shift arrangement might be the most suitable reason for problem solving in organization to decrease fatigue level of shift work

6 Alternative solutions

According to early analysis, it could be seen that the main cause of fatigue in the weight and balance group at Saigon Ground Services JSC is inappropriate shift arrangement Therefore, this part would concentrate on offering solutions for this case Below statements would indicate some alternative solutions could be appropriate for shift arrangement issue

6.1 First alternative solution: Software application

According to The Department of Labor Newzealand16, shift work should be developed base

on operational needs, legal needs, senior management commitment, employer and employee responsibilities There will be a plenty of notices and guidance that shift builder have to follow to ensure roster arrangement policies such as keep night shift to a minimum, having at least of 11 hours between shift, preferably 12, moving the shift with the clockwise, providing a minimum of 2 full night recovery after 2 night shifts, avoiding rosters that require starting work before 6 am

Those guidance combine with more than 20 employees would make roster designer confuse and feeling more complicated As Mrs Doan Pham Thao Lan admitted that she needs people told her if something went wrong in schedule, she currently uses excel to create weekly schedule manually In fact, many softwares provide functions to make things simple, automated planner, real time notification, multi-platform

Benefits

Roster designator only set up list of conditions for software following to criteria at beginning such as roster arrangement policies16, operational needs or skill needs Then, Software will compute those conditions for over 20 individuals to release weekly schedule This output ensures each employee will not start their shift from 5am more than once a week or not more than four times a month Recreation time could be maximized up to 12 hours between shifts of individual as labor law Individual’s schedule would be equal to others base on total day shift hours, night shift hours, sum of recreation time in month Software would use those priority scheduling criteria to prevent employees from fatigue as much as possible

In addition, software could be used on any devices from computer to smartphone, it could help employees access their roster anytime, anywhere rather than looking at hardcopy of schedule Specific roster software would not let employees miss among thousands of emails, any schedule changes will be noticed for employees by notification function All actions from booking schedule to automatic generating schedule will be recorded, that would be more equal than hard copy calendar booking and manual scheduling

According to PCMAG17, trusted technology magazine, reporter point out several functions

to evaluate the best employee scheduling & shift planning

- Platform availability (PC, iOS, Android)

- Open application programming interface (API) allow user edit code to modify

guidance and condition Creating criteria for scheduling automatically

- User interfaces: the way to use application, booking shift, generating schedule

- News feed or group announcements automatically

- Automatic scheduling workers

- Generating report easily

Costs

Figure 5: The Best Employee Scheduling & Shift Planning Software of 2017 17

Deputy18, this software seems to take advantage because of provided functions, lowest price per month and editor’s rating, the table below would show detail costs

Table 2: Estimated cost for scheduling & shift planning software

minimum)

2 Additional function + 755.000/year/user to

upgrade enterprise level version (highest)

+ 1.118.000/year/user to upgrade enterprise version

Source: Created by Author base on Deputy 18 and Humanity 19

In addition, author also find out that number of scheduling softwares are free of charge Thus, the Weight and balance should consider free platforms at beginning to measure what they need with their specific work characteristics Author recommend some free platforms such as ABC Roster, Google Sheet, Google calendar, Sling Finally, any softwares require time for all employees to get familiar and become main scheduling tool

6.2 Second alternative solution: Erasing level barrier

Shiftboard23 guide their customer that ‘you must understand what you need before you can fill those needs Since everything is based on the master schedule, this is one of the most

important steps to get right.’ Because of difference in both skill and level, therefore roster designator has to determine the resources needed for each role by shift duration base on some criteria25 such as employee’s areas of expertise, level of work experience, regional/country experience, health condition, technical skill, managerial skill Therefore,

it could be say beyond any doubt that roster designator has less option when considering employee’s skill with shift needs to combine senior employees with junior employees, different levels employees or work experience An article on shift-work24 webpage show the way to help roster designator out by uniformity, rotating shift have to create their own advantage include employees take equal turns at covering the undesirable shift, employees rotate through their turn on day shift Schedule creator have more time on ensuring legal

policy, company policy, employee’s expectation, keep balance rotating shift more than operational needs

Benefits

Skill needs could be seen as employees’ level, employees’ ability and their certificates Airlines have different policies thus it may require only qualified staffs to handle its flights Building weekly schedule base on employee’s ability, thus Mrs Lan admitted that:

Some people can do all kind of flights so they are very flexible, meanwhile someone else only do some filghts, their shift option would be limited

Mrs Doan Pham Thao Lan also said:

There are many frontline employees so they could take a trip or take a day off easier than managerial level For example, frontline employees could have one night shift per week, meanwhile supervisor have to work 2-3 night shift per week

Obviously, uniformity of frontline level makes a plenty of choice for their shift, meanwhile the shortage of higher level employees reduces their options

- Skill needs are balanced on every shift

- All employees are given equal number of day shift and night shift

- Managing employees shift trade easily

- Building schedule simpler

- Always ready for substitution

Cost

According to the Weight and Balance group’s manpower and SAGS’s policy, it takes three years for official level upgrade, it also includes huge working experience and list of certificates Different level could not be erased in short term because of experience gap and plenty of training courses On job training is another barrier for uniformity, supervisors or high-level staffs always keep monitoring trainees to avoid mistake although they also have their own flights to handle Trainees should be in charge of specific flight with their trainee for a long time continuously to able to handle independently Finally, level uniformity mean

prediction salary budget could change as the table below, data bases on current SAGS’s salary policy

- Errors: wrong flight messages, missing processes, unexpected situation

- Time to gain equal experience

- Equal ability conflict with different pay level

- Increasing salary budget

Table 3: Estimated cost for level change

Personnel Level Salary base (.VND) Level Salary base (.VND)

6.3 Third alternative solution: Flexible shift

As Workcover New South Wales Health and Safety guide15 about shiftwork, work cycle could be six 8-hour shifts or four 12-hour shifts per week, it allows employees to choose what kind of their shift to have one more day off, 48-hour continuous rest could be better than 24-hour because employee have more chance to take a tour or do something without interruption In addition, according to Williams C20, flexible work schedules lead to greater work-life balance and can offset work stress A flexible work schedule20 advantages could be children's school events, appointments, unforeseen child or elder care issues, or other events Author has concerned about opposite of flexibility in term of daytime workers and shift workers, William C20 mentioned that time-use patterns are slightly different among shift workers Virtually all shift workers spent less time with their spouse than those who worked a regular day schedule But certain types of shifts had little in common with daytime work in terms of time spent on activities For example, night shift workers spent the shortest time on unpaid work or sleeping but spent more time with their children than other shift workers This suggest that workers are in standard hour want to have shift work option therefore they could be go to the bank, do administrative paperwork, take care their children In contrast, shift workers would like to have stability, they could take the same day off with their friends and their family, play sports and take a course with constant time table or even join in outdoor activities with co-workers as Mr Nguyen Van Lam mentioned

As a result, in term of shift worker, flexibility mean constant schedule options, workers could take non-standard time for week compare to changing shift day by day Flex-time22might be a better name for flexibility as tipping has cited that flex-time refers to a working

arrangement in which employee can choose the time of work i.e choosing the start and finish times of work on the agreed amount of hours weekly or monthly

Benefits

- Free day choice

- Better work-life balance

- More time for recreation

- Decrease workload for roster designator

Costs

- Employees aren’t given equal exposure to day shift or night shift

- Employee’s commitment

- Non-standard working hour for fixed shift

Table 4: Flexible shift options Shift Fixed option for weekly Day off available

On the whole, using software application in building schedule is preferable solution for Weigh and balance group of SAGS to avoid imbalance rotating shift, create effective and appropriate shift arrangement Developer are providing wide range of software from zero

to millions VND per month per user Its benefits and costs have been compared with other solutions to show that software application has its own advantage and suitable approach for improve shift management as several below explanations:

First of all, technology help things become simpler Generating schedule automatically is the most useful, roster designator no longer considers about who need for shifts, how to mix employees to ensure handling ability, avoiding lack of recreation time, balancing employee schedule needs Person who involve in scheduling could spend more time on checking weekly schedule only, modify condition code for software in term of flight schedule change or change season Notification in real time would help employees avoid missing changes, using same system by application on PC, mobile, website help all employees has been noticed any changes on schedule automatically In contrast, hard paper copy of schedule require supervisor inform employees by telephone, email manually, thus the chance of missing information also higher

Secondly, flex-time is available by booking directly Employees in Weight and Balance group are using hard-copy calendar, sending email or texting Viber message to book their expected shifts During a week, there are huge booking list on each day about day-off or shift expectation, roster designator has to watch and arrange without priority Meanwhile, software application allows employees book their shift expectation with priority booking

queue, private stuffs would go after job requirement, early booking also take advantage, that is transparent and equal for all

Finally, developers provide wide range of software included free of charge The list provided by PCMAG website is only recommendation There are hundreds of software allow scheduling function and free of charge like ABC Roster, Excel, Google calendar, SAGS mail calendar, Google sheet At the beginning of change, it is preferable way to pick

a free application to find out and learn how to use The applying software instead of traditional tool is not require company or department permission whether the effectiveness and efficiency has been proved or not Thus, this solution could dismiss complex procedure and controversy unlike erasing level barrier solution

7 Implementation

Applying software in scheduling should be chosen after comparing with alternative solutions In the Weight and Balance group, building schedule is regular task week by week, applying software should be deployed as soon as possible to improve imbalance shift arrangement and decrease workload for roster designator Traditional way in schedule still can be usable but software application brings potential positive point of views as given benefits After comparing costs and functions of various providers, first step that Weight and balance group should take immediately is using trial version, spending time on familiarizing with software and evaluating chosen software

Base on the research results, Weight and balance group of SAGS should notice

- All employees are requested to join scheduling process The purpose of this action

is testing all functions of software, to ensure it works and feasible

- Supporting from employees, who would help current roster designator in

familiarizing softwares Due to test different software on different platform, this helping would share workload on trial step beside daily and weekly tasks

- Considering between functions and price carefully, many functions are provided

could confuse evaluation Once Weight and balance makes decision, any paid functions have to be worthy of fees because of increasing company’s cost

Due to high season (from November to Vietnamese Tet holiday), the plan for deploying software in scheduling would start form March 2018, it takes three months for the final decision Detail actions are showed in the table as below

Listing

Potential

softwares

Building function needs list

To pick 3 potential softwares stand for criteria

Supervisor, Deputy manager, Supporting employees

Collecting softwares information

x

Comparing with operation needs

x

Comparing with other softwares

To explore provided features

Supervisor, Deputy manager, supporting employees

x

Applying to scheduling

To measure the effectiveness and efficiency in reality All employees

Writing report To provide informative

source for evaluation

Supervisor, Deputy manager, supporting employees

To make final decision

To apply for long term and replace traditional way

Manager, all employees

x

Considering operation needs and company’s budget

x