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-time22 might be a better name for flexibility as tipping has cited that flex-time refers to a working
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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
05:00 – 13:00 x Mon - Thu
05:30 – 10:30 14:00 – 17:00
x Mon - Thu
06:00 – 11:00 14:00 – 17:00
x Mon - Thu
06:00 – 11:00 21:00 – 00:00 06:00 – 14:00 08:00 – 16:00 09:00 – 17:00
13:00 – 21:00 x Mon - Thu
14:00 – 22:00 x Mon - Thu
15:00 – 23:00 x Mon - Thu
16:00 – 22:00
18:00 – 02:00+ x Mon - Thu
18:30 – 02:30+ x Mon - Thu
22:00 – 08:00+
Source: Created by Author
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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
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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.