How To Manage Your Shift Operation

Holidays and Absences

Flexible Learning That Fits Around You

Many organisations choose to attend our popular one‑day course in London, but the full online version is available anytime. It’s ideal for:

New managers who need a complete foundation
Experienced managers who want to refine and modernise their approach
Organisations looking for consistent, high‑quality training across multiple sites

Why This Course Works

Because it’s built by practitioners, not theorists. Every module is grounded in real‑world experience, real data, and real shift operations. By the end, managers walk away with:

A shift pattern that manages itself
A confident understanding of staffing, fatigue, and flexibility
Tools and templates they can use immediately
A calmer, more predictable operation
A happier, more balanced workforce

How to Manage Your Shift Pattern – The Complete Course for Modern Shift Managers

Running a shift operation shouldn’t feel like firefighting. How to Manage Your Shift Pattern is the most comprehensive, practical training available for managers who want to run a smooth, efficient, and people‑focused operation. Whether you manage a small team or a complex 24/7 environment, this course gives you everything you need to design, run, and maintain a shift pattern that works.

What the Course Covers

This 16‑hour online programme brings together the full breadth of shift management expertise, including:

Designing the best shift pattern for your workload Learn how to match staffing to demand, avoid over‑ or under‑cover, and build patterns that support both operational needs and employee wellbeing.
Managing holidays and absences without stress Discover proven methods to cover leave, maintain service levels, and avoid last‑minute scrambles.
Avoiding an overtime culture Understand how to balance contracted hours, banked hours, and flexibility so your team stays productive without burning out.
Fatigue management Explore the science of fatigue and learn how to minimise it through smarter scheduling, better break structures, and thoughtful start/finish times.
Incorporating training into the shift pattern Ensure development never gets pushed aside by operational pressures.
Calculating how many staff you really need Use clear, practical methods to determine staffing levels with confidence.
Using VisualrotaX and other practical tools See real examples of how software can simplify planning, automate calculations, and reduce day‑to‑day management time.

"How to Manage your Shift Pattern" An essential management reference book that no manager should be with out. It is unique in its analysis of the problems facing shift pattern managers today. This book outlines the main problems in running a shift pattern and offers a set of solutions to encompass all circumstances. Complete with summary pages, worked examples and example shift patterns this book will help any manager run their shift pattern perfectly and effortlessly.

The main problem facing all shift pattern managers is how to accommodate all of the holidays within the year and not have it effect the operation. The answer is of cause to plan for the holidays in advance. With the correct shift pattern with the proper holiday management planning in place a shift pattern manager can manage the holidays of over a 100 people on less than ½ hour per day. This book contains a range of solutions for holiday management along with examples and detailed explanations of how to implement them with in your organisation.

Once the holidays are sorted the next problem facing shift pattern managers will be absences. Absences have always caused problems because often they are at short notice and whatever cover arrangements are in place there is always that chance that they will still break down at the vital moment. In "How to Manage your Shift Pattern" the different types of absences are discussed, including what an absence rate of 3% actually means in practice. A wide range of solutions is discussed along with examples of how to incorporate the cover arrangements into the shift pattern.

Along with holidays and absences a host of other issues are also covered in this book including:
· Banked Hours
· Training
· Skills Mix
· Fatigue
· Terms and Conditions of Employment
· Annualised Hours

However what makes this book truly unique is that it answers the age-old question "How many staff do I need?" This book takes you through the calculations with several worked examples so that you can ascertain quickly and easily if you are under or over staffed.