Administer your staff to meet highly variable demand

Administer your staff to meet highly variable demand

Staffing for highly variable demand beyond your control is a difficult issue, and believe me this article will not resolve all of the questions. But it suggests some simple and more sophisticated actions, perhaps you haven't considered, perhaps you can combine with other ideas, or jog a useful thought process.

Non-controlled demand in my recent experience is an intensive care unit where accidents and health emergencies are treated; tax collector offices where property taxes due on the first of a month create huge influxes; a depot for emergency relief supplies waiting on the next hurricane or flood. There will be others with a similar characteristic, a sudden demand not within the control of those who must fill it.

When non-controlled demand is released, the management of the organization is often required to meet the demand, period. Budgets and plans become second priority, although sometimes as in the tax collector's office the deluge can be anticipated. 

A. Is control possible, perhaps through policy?  

Control may not wielded by the management specifically involved, but by others they can influence:

1. Tax bills due as of November 1 create the peak workload of the year, the most visits, and the most questions, at the tax collector's office. There is nothing the tax collector can do about the date, but the politicians can change the timing; perhaps  to cycle bill like commercial establishments do. Change the law so that one twelfth of all bills are due in November; or the due date of monthly bills are spread throughout the month. License plate renewals are spread throughout the year already, and if you think the lines are bad at the DMV now, consider what they would be like if all renewals were due in one month.  

2. The beds occupied at intensive care units of hospitals are a result of natural causes and accidents, but also by surgeons who schedule surgery. When hospital management is able to influence surgery schedules, it is possible to evened out not only bed occupancy, but also  the use of operating rooms and other facilities.

B. General solutions, useful and widely practiced; use these actions to ease overloaded times.

1. That old standby, overtime. Yes it is time and a half but do the math; if OT reduces the number of people on the payroll and their benefits it might be cost effective. How much is customer service worth? Overtime is more effective for temporary workload peaks; if the growth in workload is both predictable  and permanent, hiring will sooner or later be required and sooner is better.

2. Schedule vacations during the off-peak times, none during the peak.

3. Cross train thoroughly, for instance all clerks to perform all clerical jobs, but for all products and forms and situations and at all desks; face to face with clients and on the phone and in the back office. Cross train between departments. Then during the busy period, place the employees where the work is. Especially effective if department peak workloads are at different times of the day or year and inter-departmental assignment is practical.

4. Ask supervisors and other management help out.

5. Stagger work times so all hands are on deck at busy time and fewer before and after, during the work day.

6. Delay deferrable work during the rush hour, either as a planned activity or on the spur of the moment. But sooner or later even deferrable and low priority work must be done.

7. Call back retirees and ex-employees in good standing; be sure to approach them before the increase in work.

8. Train a cadre to call up in busy season, employees from other departments, interns, another local industry who has a slow season concurrently, especially others who work with similar equipment such as computers.

9. Staff for the peak loads, and reduce off-peak labor costs by encouraging unpaid time off; or provide help to other departments, or build inventory.

10, Where goods are produced, inventory is the great leveler. Maintain shippable inventories, or stocks of supplies ready to be converted to finished goods.

11. It is certainly possible to call employees up on short notice for busy times, and not call them in for slow times, but there will be a long term price you may not want to pay in employee dissatisfaction.

C. More sophistication required

1. An effective but more sophisticated technique can perhaps be useful. Typically there will different levels of talent working together, at different pay grades. Also typically, the lower pay grades can be more readily trained. In such circumstances, an objective is often to maintain a stable work platform for the skilled employees, even at the expense of the lesser skilled. It may be possible to train the skilled to perform some duties of the lesser skilled, then in lower workload periods reduce the number of unskilled and keep the skilled busy by performing the less demanding tasks. When work picks up, add back the lesser skilled.

2. In some organizations, another training variation is useful. Train the lesser skilled upward, into more demanding duties. Then alleviate rush periods as less skilled perform their newly learned tasks to assist skilled workers, and bring in even less skilled to make up the slack.

D. The silver bullet for all effective workload relief

The very first action indicated is to quantify how much time each major task takes. Only with that knowledge will you be able to calculate intelligently what your practical options are, and develop plans. Objective time study or other work measurement will define times and provide a basis for a realistic solution.

Thanks for your attention; I hope this adds to your perspective. When your organization is ready for professional attention to work measurement and staffing, JPR will share what we know about the subject, and will welcome your inquiry.

Jack Greene     Jackson Productivity Research Inc.