Rostering is an artform – A system is NOT the Panacea
By David Cuda
In our time working closely with friends and colleagues leading Community Service providers over the last 20 years, we commonly hear statements such as:
“We spent all this money on a rostering system that doesn’t work”
“We spent a fortune on a rostering system which we are not even using”
“It was better when we rostered off Excel”
“Our rostering systems and function are broken”
“We stuffed up the implementation of our new rostering system”
“Overhead spend on our rostering team is totally out of control, and just keeps blowing out”
“We put all this money into a rostering system, and it doesn’t integrate with any of our other systems”
“Our regions got sick of using the system we bought so they are now doing their own thing, including rostering off paper again”
“Our rostering and service delivery teams are always at each-other, they blame each other for all the issues”
When it comes to rostering, it’s simple, a software system is an enabler, never the solution.
So, what does it take to have an effective rostering function?
That’s easy, it’s a perfect union of the right people, workflows (internal controls) and systems. What’s not easy though, is achieving this perfectly synchronised union.
It’s a union of people, workflows and systems!
Rostering is a professional artform. You need to be a specific type of person, with a specific set of skills to survive and flourish in rostering roles within Community Service organisations. You need to have contrasting skills and attributes to adapt, and adapt quickly, to a never-ending dynamic operating environment and have a whole range of levers in your toolkit to create positive outcomes.
Rostering never sleeps and during just another day in rostering, the need for a rostering function to deliver never ceases, even outside of business hours, as rostering is a Monday to Sunday, 24 hours a day undertaking.
In some situations, you need to be systematic, whilst in others, you just need to be reactive. Sometimes you need to communicate with authority and then other times you need to be nice (i.e., pretty much plead for a staff member to do a shift!). Your ability to negotiate and influence is key but there is a fine line as you don’t want to manipulate situations and upset stakeholders. You need to essentially have multiple split personalities and skills to deal with everything yet another relentless day in rostering brings.
No hour, day or week is ever the same in rostering. You won’t understand the day-to-day challenges and pressures experienced by rostering professionals until you have had lived experience of working in a rostering coordinators role and have “walked a mile in their shoes”. You may think it’s easy to roster, let me assure you, it’s not, particularly in the context of rostering in dynamic Community Services environments.
Last time I checked, rostering was not a module in a Bachelor of Human Services or Social Work.
Just to throw a further piece of the rostering puzzle in the mix, let’s consider the scenario where providers include rostering as part of Service Delivery Manager roles. It is difficult for a Service Delivery practice professional to be able to switch between the rostering activities and service delivery activities as part of their role as they are both distinctively different functions. In consultation with Service Delivery practice professionals over many years who carry out rostering as part of their role, they estimate spending upwards of 75% of their workday rostering rather than supporting their teams to help clients achieve their expected outcomes.
I can confidently say, we have never met a Service Delivery Manager that loves the rostering part of their role, they see this as a necessary evil and their biggest source of frustration and dissatisfaction.
An effective rostering function is the “Playmaker” for Community Services Provider
Rostering functions are the “playmakers” in a Community Services provider, they put the organisation in a position to service its clients in a manner which either enhances or diminishes the end-clients service delivery experience.
Rostering is the “heartbeat” of Community Services operations, with the recruitment, service delivery and finance functions all connecting through the rostering function, as
Rostering performs better if the Recruitment function is onboarding the sufficient flow of new frontline staff to support the master roster and emergency shift fill processes;
Service Delivery teams can only deliver services if rostering is filling all the required shifts for end-clients; and
Finance functions can only deliver accuracy in payroll and invoicing if the rostering of shifts is performed correctly.
All the key operating levers for a Community Services provider flows through the rostering function.
But it’s not easy to survive in the rostering jungle!
Rostering functions are constantly dealing with curve balls, as it does not matter how well you plan your day, it will change, and change constantly.
The challenges and dynamics faced by rostering teams are wide-ranging and multifaceted, including:
Industrial Agreements are difficult to interpret and have an abundance of interconnecting rules you need to truly understand and adhere to.
Internal colleagues such as service delivery teams are demanding as they want to deliver well for clients.
End-clients have choice and control resulting in a wide range of variations to their rosters.
Support Workers can disappoint as they pull out of shifts late, turn up to shifts late and attempt to manipulate situations to get the shifts they want.
Let’s now also throw the impact of organisational internal dynamics in the mix, which is in play for every service provider. It’s so common to hear within Community Services providers that, the service delivery team is frustrated with the rostering team, and then, the rostering team is frustrated with the service delivery team. They both want the same thing for the end-client, but often struggle to work collaboratively in order to deliver on the purpose of why their organisation exists.
And that’s just to highlight a few of the many challenges involved in the extreme sport of rostering.
Not getting it right is problematic, if not Fatal! Beware the Risk!
For a Community Service provider operating on thin margins, if you don’t get the inputs and outputs associated with rostering right, then it will lead to some serious issues for the organisation.
We have all heard of the horror stories of how Community Service organisations have incurred huge backpay liabilities due to incorrect rostering practices. The erroneous application of Industrial Agreements alone has forced some of Australia’s oldest Disability Service providers to be gobbled up by bigger providers, or in some cases, be wound up. It is saddening that due to Community Service providers not getting their operational execution house in order, their participant/clients must endure the distress associated with forced service provider changes.
Whether it be not getting a roster of care right, not coding shifts correctly creating overpayments to employees, not coding shifts correctly creating underpayments to employees and the consequential backpay and fines, not optimising workforce utilisation, not filling shifts to deliver on client service requirements, and so on, if the Community Service provider rostering function “playmaker” is not playing at the peak level, then the Community Service provider will have critical, if not fatal issues.
Final Thoughts
Having effective workflows, controls and systems will help your people in rostering functions succeed. But if you don’t have the right people and leaders, doing all the right things in the rostering function, an uphill battle lies ahead for your organisation to produce quality and improvements in the myriad of undertakings for Community Services providers connected with all-things rostering.
I’ll leave you with this question to wrestle with as it is a common rhetorical question we often get asked by our clients:
Should rostering be a core competency of a Community Services provider, or should it be outsourced to an expert Workforce Services firm?
Author - David Cuda, Managing Partner – Support Worker Co.
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