Siemens Energy
What major challenges did the power engineering corporation face in shift planning and how were they solved?
Newsroom - Media
How real-time absence management positively impacts business
The challenge
In 2016, Berlin Newsroom GmbH took over overall publishing responsibility for the Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Kurier as their service provider. As a result, the company now produces print versions of both newspapers across all digital channels, formats, and innovative products. Although new working environments and forms of collaboration were created, this posed problems in terms of staff scheduling:
Mapping different teams as well as their staffing requirements for both newspapers
The need for functional software per the company's data protection and IT guidelines
Everything had to be laid out for editors, journalists, assistants, graphic designers, layout designers, and freelance employees
"I can immediately see, at a glance, how the teams are staffed and where there are bottlenecks. It's also a significant advantage that I can reschedule quickly and go through the planning processes more swiftly."
Jan Schmidt, Newsroom Manager
The problem
Scheduling had previously been done using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, in addition to other tools. In the event of last-minute absences and shift changes, it became necessary to conduct telephone calls with employees to coordinate the work. Once this problem was solved, a new one emerged. Schedulers, again, had to notify all employees of changes made to printed schedules. Newsroom searched for a solution that simplified the scheduling of shifts and the respective communication surrounding it.
The solution
Since 2017, Newsroom has relied on shyftplan's cloud-based software solution to coordinate the shifts of approximately 150 employees. This software complies with the company's data protection and IT guidelines and allows for different teams, personnel requirements, and shifts to be mapped. There is no need for time-consuming arrangements, and each employee can respond to notifications directly and in real-time as needed. This saves time; smaller teams of five to six people can organize themselves, and no outside help is required.
The result
Thanks to the high software transparency, planning managers now have several advantages. Many employees can now work across teams because with shyftplan, they can see what department they're in, what shift they're working, and who else is scheduled to work.
In addition to real-time absence management, shyftplan offered many other advantages for Newsroom such as:
High transparency within shift assignments, which promotes employee self-determination and simplifies processes
Unscheduled shifts are not lost, as employees can also retroactively apply for worked shifts
Clear absence management enables timely and simple coordination in real time
