Shift Scheduling in a 5-Shift Model: 5 Tips for Optimal Results
Learn how to increase efficiency in your company using the 5-shift model and whether this model is suitable for you.
Choosing the right shift model and implementing it effectively are crucial to ensuring smooth 24/7 operations, especially in manufacturing industries. Find out here if the 5-shift model is suitable for your company and how you can use it to maximize productivity and employee satisfaction.
Table of Contents
What is a 5-Shift Model?
The 5-shift model is a shift working model for companies that need to ensure continuous operations. It does not necessarily mean there are five shifts per day. Like other shift models, the typical early, late, and night shifts usually remain in place. The difference is that employees are divided into five shift groups. These groups rotate through the various shifts according to a fixed schedule.
Which Industries Benefit from the 5-Shift Model?
The 5-shift model is primarily used in fully continuous operating companies. In modern businesses with over 200 employees, this system is becoming the new standard. It is particularly effective in industries where production facilities cannot be shut down or can only be stopped at high costs. This includes sectors like industrial production and energy supply. The 5-shift model is also used in healthcare and emergency services, ensuring uninterrupted operations and quick response times in emergencies.
Advantages of the 5-Shift Model
The 5-shift model allows for the provision of a flexible reserve of employees through targeted over- or understaffing. There are two common methods for this. The first is understaffing, with the remaining shifts being advertised for coverage, and the second is overstaffing, with a contractually agreed number of shifts that can be canceled at short notice. This makes the 5-shift model more flexible than other shift systems and contributes to greater efficiency in shift operations.
Difference from the 4-Shift Model
Many modern industrial companies with fully continuous operations rely on 5-shift models to plan flexibly and efficiently. However, there are situations where fully continuous operation is less practical—such as when there is no demand on weekends or when collective agreements discourage weekend work. This is often the case in food production or small batch manufacturing. In such instances, a 4-shift model is commonly used. Since the 5-shift model typically offers more shifts than the 4-shift model, it provides greater flexibility for both employees and planners.
Challenges of the 5-Shift Model
One challenge of the 5-shift model is designing an appropriate shift plan that complies with legal regulations while also meeting the needs of employees. The complex structure of this system results in increased administrative workload, requiring precise coordination of working hours to ensure compliance with mandated breaks and rest periods. Additionally, the extra shift group may require more personnel to ensure that key roles, such as leadership or specialized employees, are covered in every shift.
To fully leverage the benefits of the 5-shift model, the use of specialized shift scheduling software is essential. Such software, with AI support, can ensure continuous shift coverage in complex shift systems and allows for GDPR-compliant and legally secure management of shift applications.
5 Tips for Increasing Efficiency
1. Adherence to Breaks and Rest Periods
Even if employees can apply for shifts themselves, employers must ensure that legal regulations for breaks and rest periods are followed. This is not only important from a legal perspective but also crucial for the efficiency and health of employees. Well-rested employees make fewer mistakes and work more productively. Therefore, rest periods should be factored into every shift plan from the start.
Modern shift scheduling tools play a key role in ensuring all legal requirements are automatically met. Such software solutions can manage the complexity of the 5-shift model while improving both work quality and employee well-being.
2. Consideration of Shift Preferences
Taking employees' shift preferences into account can significantly help reduce absenteeism. Employees working in their preferred shifts tend to be more satisfied and less prone to unexpected absences.
Dedicated shift scheduling software allows these preferences to be automatically integrated, giving planners flexibility in how strongly these preferences are considered in the scheduling process. The use of such tools enables greater employee engagement, leading to higher productivity and workforce satisfaction.
3. Posting Open Shifts
Effectively covering staffing needs requires flexibility in responding to absences and increased demand. Scheduling "on-call" shifts allows you to address increased staffing needs and avoid bottlenecks.
With AI-powered shift scheduling tools, open shifts can be posted, allowing employees to independently apply for them. This approach gives planners the necessary flexibility to maintain smooth operations and quickly respond to unforeseen absences.
4. Utilizing Shift Rotations
The use of shift rotation ensures a fair distribution of working hours, preventing employees from being scheduled for night shifts over extended periods and allowing them to gain experience in various work areas.
Modern shift scheduling software can automate the planning of shift rotations to ensure a balanced distribution of shifts. This promotes employee satisfaction and minimizes absenteeism.
5. Using AI-Powered Shift Scheduling Solutions
The use of AI-powered shift scheduling solutions that take availability, qualifications, and employee preferences into account enables much more efficient workforce planning. These systems easily consider various factors such as legal requirements, absences, and qualifications. This ensures optimal shift coverage, leading to optimized resource utilization and reduced operational costs.
Automated Shift Scheduling with shyftplan
The 5-shift model presents both challenges and opportunities. While it enables continuous operations, it requires careful planning to ensure employee health and well-being. Smaller businesses may manage this complexity with solutions like Excel or similar tools, but for larger companies, especially in industrial sectors, an automated solution is essential.
shyftplan specializes in the efficient and automated implementation of shift models in the industrial sector. Using AI, complex shift schedules can be created at the push of a button. Particularly in large companies with extensive manufacturing processes and diverse qualification requirements, shyftplan significantly reduces planning time. By integrating with ERP and personnel management systems, shyftplan can respond to short-term absences in real time and algorithmically determine the optimal replacement.
How Siemens Energy is Setting New Standards with AI-Powered Shift Scheduling
Siemens Energy is a prime example of how AI-supported shift scheduling can improve employee satisfaction and increase efficiency. In our joint case study, you will learn how Siemens Energy, through shyftplan, was able to increase machine utilization by up to 50% while achieving an employee satisfaction rate of 98%.
Regarding data protection, the law is clear on work schedules: not every employee is entitled to view the entire shift schedule. Similarly, every employee has the right to prevent the publication of the schedule—even within the company.
Since personal data is required for a work schedule, data protection naturally applies here as well. A shift schedule should not simply be posted for everyone to see, and it should certainly not be photographed and shared, for example, via messenger—something that often happens in smaller businesses. However, in larger businesses, there can also be problematic interactions between work schedules and data protection. For example, if there is an Excel document that all employees can access and thus view the personal data of others, data protection is violated. Therefore, a shift schedule is a document containing confidential personal data and should be treated as such.
• Never post shift schedules publicly • Do not send photos of shift schedules to your employees • Limit employee access to shift schedule files, such as through an intranet • Ensure that each employee can only view their own data A scheduling software can assist in creating a data protection-compliant shift schedule. This is particularly beneficial for larger companies, as smart solutions consider laws and legal requirements when creating shift schedules, helping them stay on the safe side.
