In line with the strategic planning, the healthcare organization has adopted an automated scheduling system. The general manager agreed to adopt the automated scheduling system after conducting a wide consultation with the departmental managers. Due to the weakness of the current scheduling system, the automated scheduling system will enhance even distribution of schedules and boost the healthcare organization to meet its operational budget objectives.
Given the introduction of the automated scheduling system, many changes and challenges will ensue, and the general manager has advised that all employees should prepare themselves for the healthcare organization to cope up with the impending dynamics. For the healthcare organization to keep abreast of the dynamics of the contemporary healthcare systems it must adopt new and customized strategies that will enable it to meet operational budget goals. Therefore, as one of the strategies, the general manager together with the respective departmental managers adopted the automated scheduling system to enable the healthcare organization to meet its operating budget goals.
The automated scheduling system has an advantage over manual scheduling because it ensures even distribution of working hours, weekends off, and vacation days, thus fairness to every employee and optimization of human resources. According to Schwager (2010), “the science of placing the right staff in the right position at the right time is nearly impossible using a manual process because it takes hours, if not days to manually produce a schedule, a process that often generates sub-optimal results (p.3). Poor scheduling of workforces does not only increases the cost of labor but also affects the productivity of the employees in an organization. The benefits of using an automated scheduling system include enhancing fairness, the motivation of employees, ensuring proper work-life balance, saving time, and optimizing workforces. These benefits are critical in making the healthcare organization achieve it’s budget operational goals.
Although the general managers can override the automation schedules through their inputs and settings of the system, the departmental managers will double-check the schedules to guarantee evenness and fairness. The employees should brace themselves and adapt to the dynamics of the automated scheduling system because drastic changes in schedules may seem quite unfavorable particularly to the employees who have served more than five years within given schedules. Due to the impending challenges, the department is anticipating to provide adjustments to any complaints that the employees may present concerning their schedules. Kendall (2005), argues that “despite the ultimate objective of producing a schedule that satisfies domain constraints and optimizes overall performance, scheduling in most practical domains is concerned with solving a problem of much larger scope … refinement of input requirements and system capabilities” (p.10). In this case, managers’ inputs and scheduling system capabilities will need refinement during implementation to minimize unfavorable outcomes while optimizing labor.
For effective implementation of the automated scheduling system, the managers will ensure that the schedules are available to all employees at appropriate places and convenient times. The schedules will be available weekly on all notice boards in the respective departments, on the healthcare organization website, or any employee can pick a copy at the managers’ office. The weekly schedules will be done a week earlier to provide time for complaints and necessary changes, hence employees should direct complaints to the general manager in writing, a week before any drafted schedule takes effect.
References
Kendall, G. (2005). Multidisciplinary Scheduling: Theory and Applications. Nottingham: Springer Publishing.
Schwager, R. (2010). The Benefits of an Automated Scheduling Solution. Versult Journal, 1-7.