Work Schedule Problem Justification Report

Tiara Miller

ENG 315 – Professional Communications

Rebecca Coleman

May 21, 2016

August 21, 2016

Tiara Miller

1 Student Way

Hampton, VA 23661

The HR Manager,

Since the formulation of the virtual Assistant Company Agency, there have been a vast number of issues in regards to scheduling of work. Work scheduling problems are caused by high levels of underemployment persons, whereby workers have to do about three different part-time jobs with shorter hours of work on a daily basis. As a result, this has further led to over straining of both employees and customers leading to low levels of productivity as well as mediocre services. Consequently, this circumstance negatively affected the employees’ household consumption as well as the economy. As a result of the irregular scheduling and change in shifts, the firm’s performance level is compromised. Research analysts have proven that irregular hours of working bring about conflicts in homes, which causes so much stress on employees resulting in poor performances at work.

Nevertheless, employees who handle more than two jobs a day with an unpredictable working schedule are often inconvenienced as it prevents them from having a social life as well as improving themselves or securing services such as childcare for their children.  Due to unstable working schedules, students who work part time strain to strike a balance between their studies and their work. This is such a big problem that requires fixing in order to guarantee both high levels of productivity and customer satisfaction. If you have any questions concerning this report, please do not hesitate to contact me at (757) 555-5555.

Sincerely,

Tiara Miller

Enclosure: Justification Report

Executive Summary

Work scheduling is increasingly becoming an important issue in today’s business. American Fine Paper Co. is a company that has been affected by work scheduling problems. The company has a myriad of alternatives to solve this problem that has affected its productivity and competitiveness. This paper has sought to discuss two critical alternatives that the company can employee to solve its work schedule problem. The two alternatives are hiring more workers and giving work schedules notices in advance. These two alternatives have been discussed in light of five main criteria namely cost, time, durability, efficiency, and number of employees. Valuation has been done in light of these five factors to recommend the best alternative to be employed by the company in solving the work scheduling problem.

Work Schedule Problem

Work schedule problem is caused high levels of underemployment whereby employees are forced to do part-time jobs. Handling to or more jobs without proper scheduling is always stressful to the employee, hence high level of stress and conflicts both at workplace and in their households. This problem extends to customers/clients since the employee’s work becomes too complicated to manage. Additionally, the changes in working hours may also have toll on the employee’s family economic well-being. Irregular scheduling and constant changes in shifts disrupts the smooth running of the company since it affects productivity, employees’ moral and job satisfaction. Moreover, irregular scheduling and changes and shifts may result in family conflicts and high levels of stress in the employee involved. An employee in such a situation is also unable to take part in social and recreational activities.  On the other hand, students who work part time may also find it to strike a balance and effectively handle both their job and education demands.

Problem Statement

The majority of the company’s employees arrive late for work shifts. American Fine Paper Co. is seeking alternative to solve the inconveniences and conflicts brought about by their ineffective work scheduling system.

Terminology

Work scheduler- Software developed to help managers accurately create work schedules and adjust for unforeseen inconveniences such as sick calls.

Overview of Alternatives

Alternative work schedules are important since they provide options for the organization to help its full-time employees work the hours they are required to work but not in the conventional/traditional way. Such flexible schedules promote good working relationships, loyalty, and dedication to work. These alternatives include hiring more workers and giving work scheduling notices.

Criteria

In the evaluation of these two alternatives, factors like cost, time, efficiency, durability, and number of employees available will be taken in to consideration.

Under cost, evaluation will involve determining the cost implications employing more permanent employees and engaging the part-time employees more. The latter is always a cheaper alternative but lacks flexibility. Employing more permanent employees, on the other hand, is expensive but makes it easy to schedule workforce employees.

Time is the other criteria that will be used and it will involve determining the amount of downtime offered to workers and establishing whether it is enough to make them refresh before they get back to work.  The working hours of the employees will also be considered.

On the durability criterion, the durability of each alternative in solving the scheduling problem will considered and the best on chosen. The best alternative should have the ability to maintain both customer and employee satisfaction.

For efficiency criterion, attention will be paid to the smoothness in operations that each alternative brings to the organization activities. The probability of each alternative to fill in gaps following some employees failing to turn up will also be determined.

Under the last criterion, number of clients, customers and clients in the organization will critically examined.

Research Methods

Research will involve examination of the previous records on sales and number of clients served in order to find out the peak periods and weak areas. Examination of these records help future forecasting and selection of the most suitable alternative in solving the work scheduling problem. Additionally, the company past incomes and profits will also be considered in the process of choosing the best alternative. Moreover, research on the efficiency of workers under the available downtime will be conducted  in order to find out the number of complaints from workers as a result of lack of enough downtime.

Evaluation of Alternatives

Alternative A: Hiring more workers

Cost

The company will be able to solve much of the work schedule problems. However, it will incur extra costs in hiring more permanent employees. In order to make it less costly and manageable, the company will have to engage more part-time workers since this approach is cheaper.

Time

For part timers, the company can have them work from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm from Monday through Thursday with half an hour lunch break, then on Thursday they start work at 8:00 am until 6:00 pm with no lunch break.

Durability

Employing part-time staff will enable the company to adjust for dynamics of markets like low sales periods. During such periods, the company will be able to allocate that job those jobs that do not need to be done on full-time basis to the part time employees. This is approach will enable the company to successfully sail through such low productions periods without incurring unnecessary costs (Probst et al., 2013).

Efficiency

By allowing the flexibility of allocating part-time employees to job roles that do not need to be worked on in full-time basis, the company efficiency will be highly boosted.

Number of employees

Employing more part-time employees will enable the company to respond to changes in demand and number of clients to be served by the company.

Alternative B

Cost

By doing regular and timely work schedule notices, the company will be able to minimize extra costs of re-adjusting for inconveniences that come with changes in schedules and shifts.

Time

Giving work schedules early in advance will enable the company do timely planning of various activities such as packaging, labeling, dispatching even selling. It also helps the employees plan their time well.

Durability

By promoting good time management for the company management and employees, this approach will go a long way in helping the overcome work scheduling problems and also promotes stability in the company. Additionally, by relieving employees off job stress and shift conflicts, it will promote job satisfaction and loyalty to the company.

Efficiency

By minimizing job stress and conflicts in the workplace, productivity and job satisfaction will definitely increase. This is the essence of efficiency in an organization.

Number of employees

Giving work schedule notices helps to the company to determine the number of employees in each shift. Giving such notices in advance, the problem of “just in time” scheduling which inconveniences both the company and the employees as well.

Findings and Analysis

Research has identified that companies that have effective scheduling techniques realize higher efficiency and productivity. Therefore, effective work scheduling is a prerequisite for a company’s ability to compete an s success in the increasingly competitive business environment (Kiser et al., 2012). Findings in this research concurred with the reality that effective work scheduling plays an important role in helping employees effectively perform their assigned tasks, ensure quality, and be able to meet deadlines. Out of the two alternatives, hiring of more workers (part-time) as the better option as illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Comparison of the effectiveness of a company employing more workers (part-time) and giving work schedule notices in respect to time, cost, durability, efficiency and number of employees

Figure 1: Graphic Analysis of Findings

Recommendations

As illustrated in Figure 1, hiring more part-time workers plays an integral part in solving work schedule problems and increasing the company’s overall competitiveness. It helps the company will be able develop and implement a balanced fair worm schedule, which is necessary for cutting down costs, increasing employees’ morale, and more importantly, increasing productivity. Work scheduler can be of great help as the company begins its wok scheduling. In nutshell, it is necessary to have an effective workforce scheduling software in an organization for it to effectively compete in the market.

References

Kiser, A. I. T., Porter, T. I. T., &Vequist, D. I. T. (2012, January 1). Employee Monitoring and Ethics.

Probst, T. M., Barbaranelli, C., & Petitta, L. (2013). The relationship between job insecurity and accident underreporting: A test in two countries. Work & Stress, 27, 383-402.

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