WO2003081491A2

WO2003081491A2 - The management of work forces

Info

Publication number: WO2003081491A2
Application number: PCT/IB2002/000928
Authority: WO
Inventors: Brian Van Zyl
Original assignee: Brian Van Zyl
Priority date: 2002-03-26
Filing date: 2002-03-26
Publication date: 2003-10-02
Also published as: AU2002247888A1

Description

THE MANAGEMENT OF WORK FORCES

This invention relates to the management of the work forces of business

operations. In particular, the invention relates to a method of managing the work force

of a business operation, to a system for performing the method, and to a computer

program and computer equipment for implementing the method and system.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method

of managing a work force of a business operation, which method includes the steps

of: estimating a future level of activity of a business task of the business operation

over a predetermined time period, the activity level varying over said time period;

automatically computing an estimated staff complement required efficiently to

perform the task over said time period;

automatically computing a roster which allocates to the task suitable employees

of the business operation in accordance with the estimated required staff complement,

the employees being associated with a work place at which the task is to be

performed; and

in the event that the complement of suitable employees associated with said

work place is insufficient to satisfy the estimated required staff complement over said

time period, automatically performing an alternative rostering action. It will be appreciated that the term "employee" as used herein means

personnel which have employer-employee relationships with the business operation, such as personnel having permanent or long-term employment contracts with the

business operation. In contrast, "temporary staff" are personnel which are not

employees of the business operation, but which are used by the business operation

to perform tasks from time-to-time on an ad hoc basis, as the need arises. The terms

"work force" and "staff" include both employees and temporary staff members.

"Suitable employee" means an employee who meets specified

requirements for a particular task, e.g. the necessary skill levels, and which is available

during the time period under consideration.

It will further be appreciated that "efficient" performance of a task as

used herein means that the staff complement allocated to a task more or less meets

or approximates the optimal staff requirement for the time period under consideration.

The alternative rostering action may include the steps of automatically

generating a temporary staff requirement roster which indicates the time periods for

which the allocation of temporary staff members is required in order to satisfy the

estimated required staff complement. Advantageously, the temporary staff requirement roster may contain data

indicative of the number of temporary staff members which are required to be

allocated to the task in order to satisfy the estimated required staff complement. The

temporary staff requirement roster may also contain data indicative of required skills

which the temporary staff members need to possess in order to satisfy the estimated

required staff complement.

The alternative rostering action may include the step of allocating to the

task suitable employees who are associated with a work place other than the work

place where the task is to be performed. These different work places are typically

either units of the business operation at different locations, or they are different

departments of the same unit.

The alternative rostering action may include the step of generating a

timetable indicating the time periods for which there are insufficient employees

associated with the work place where the task is to be performed in order to satisfy

the estimated required staff complement.

It can thus be seen that the alternative rostering action is more than the

mere logging of an exception, but is an action which either meets the identified

employee shortfall, or accurately indicates the task and time period in respect of which there is an employee shortfall.

The alternative rostering action may include the step of generating a

report showing information regarding the temporary staff members required to satisfy the estimated required staff complement.

The step of computing the roster may include taking into account

information regarding predetermined groups of employees, such that said groups of

employees are preferably allocated together.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method

of:

estimating a future level of activity of a business task of the business operation

automatically computing an estimated staff complement required efficiently to

perform the task over said time period;

monitoring the actual attendance of staff members and gathering data relating

to the actual performance of individual staff members; and

automatically computing a roster which allocates to the task suitable employees

of the business operation in accordance with the estimated required staff complement, taking into account the gathered data relating to the actual attendance of staff

members.

The roster may be computed such that suitable employees who have

worked the least amount of time in a predetermined preceding time period will be

preferred in the allocation of suitable employees to the task.

The step of computing the roster may include the step of adding the

amount of work time which has been allocated to each employee but which, according

to the gathered data, has not yet been performed by that employee to the amount of

time which has actually been worked by that employee, and using this adjusted work

time in determining which employees will be preferred in the allocation of suitable

employees to the task.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a method

of:

automatically computing an estimated staff complement required efficiently to

perform the task over said time period; automatically computing a roster which allocates to the task suitable employees

of the business operation in accordance with the estimated required staff complement; and

generating at least one report regarding the allocation of employees.

The step of generating a report may include generating a productivity

report which compares the amount of work allocated to each employee with the

amount of work actually performed by that employee.

Preferably, the method includes the prior step of gathering data regarding

the actual performance of work by individual employees.

Other reports may include, amongst others, a report regarding the casual

or temporary staff requirements, a report regarding the employees allocated to a

specific work place, and a report regarding employees allocated to work places other

that the work places with which they are associated.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a system

for managing a work force of a business operation, the system including:

a staff complement calculation means for calculating an estimated required staff

complement for efficiently performing a particular business task for a predetermined time period;

a roster computation means for automatically computing a roster which

allocates to the task suitable employees of the business operation who are associated

with a work place at which the task is to be performed, in accordance with the estimated staff complement for the task, and for automatically performing an

alternative rostering action in the event that the estimated required staff complement

exceeds the number of suitable employees who are associated with the work place at

which the task is be performed.

Typically, the system will include an employee database for interfacing

with the roster computation means in order to allocate suitable employees to the task.

The system may include an expected business level calculation means for

calculating an expected business level associated with the task for the predetermined

period, the business level calculation means being in co-operation with the staff

complement calculation means, so that the calculated staff complement varies together with variations in the calculated expected business level.

Conveniently, the system may include an attendance monitoring system

for monitoring the actual attendance of individual staff members, the attendance

monitoring system being in communication with the roster computation means for factoring actual time worked into the computation of the roster.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the system includes an

electronic processor and a computer program associated with the processor, the computer program having program instructions such that, when the appropriate

instructions of the computer program are executed by the processor, the processor

constitutes the staff complement calculation means and the roster computation

means.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer

program comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform a method of

managing a work force of a business operation according to the first, second, or third

aspect of the invention.

According to a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer

program according to the fifth aspect of the invention, embodied on a record medium.

According to a seventh aspect of the invention, there is provided a

computer program according to the fifth aspect of the invention, embodied in a read¬

only memory. According to an eighth aspect of the invention, there is provided a

computer program according to the fifth aspect of the invention, carried on an

electrical carrier signal.

According to a ninth aspect of the invention, there is provided computer

equipment having a computer program according to the fifth aspect of the invention

stored therein.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying

diagrammatic drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of a system for implementing a method

of managing a work force in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a more detailed schematic block diagram of the system of Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of an employee data editing means

forming part of the system of Figure 1 ;

Figure 4 is a schematic block diagram of a sub-system of the system of Figure

1 , the sub-system being for calculating expected levels of activity of a task of the

business in accordance with the invention;

Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram of a sub-system of the system of Figure

1 , the sub-system being for generating a roster which allocates employees to a

business task; Figure 6 is a detailed block diagram of a roster computation means forming part

of the sub-system of Figure 5;

Figure 7 is a block diagram of a report generating means forming part of the

system of Figure 1 ; and

Figure 8 is a schematic view of a computer forming part of the system of Figure

1 .

In Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings, reference numeral 10. generally

indicates a system for managing a work force of a business operation or company, in

accordance with the invention. The system 10 includes a central computer 1 2 which

has a computer program 14 associated with an electronic processor in the form of a

central processing unit 1 6 of the computer 1 2. The computer program 14 contains

program instructions for causing the computer 1 2 to perform the method of managing

a work force in accordance with the invention, when the program 14 is executed. The

computer 1 2 also has an electronic storage means in the form of a hard disk 1 8 for

storing information which it receives from the central processing unit 1 6 in electronic

format.

The computer 1 2 is in electronic communication with a human resources

system 20, an attendance monitoring system 22, a department management system

24, a payroll system 26, and with employees 28 of the business operation. Although not illustrated, the human resources system 20 includes a

remote human resources computer which is in electronic communication with the

central computer 1 2; the department management system 24 comprises a number of

satellite computers which are in electronic communication with the central computer 1 2, the respective satellite computers allowing department managers to input data into

the department management system; the attendance monitoring system 22 is a

conventional system, such as a clock-in system, for monitoring and recording the

attendance of individual members of staff at each of a number of work places of the

business operation, the attendance monitoring system including a processing unit

which is in electronic communication with the central computer 1 2; and the payroll

system 26 includes a processor which is arranged to calculate and effect payment of

individual members of the work force, the payroll computer being in electronic

communication with the central computer 1 2.

The central computer 1 2 is capable of communicating with individual

employees 28, universally indicated by reference numeral 28, through a number of

communication media, which in this example includes an electronic connection

between the central computer 12 and a number of satellite terminals associated

individual employees, but which may include a connection to a wider electronic

communication network (not shown), such as the Internet. For some business tasks, the staff complement required efficiently to

perform the task varies over a predetermined time period together with the level of activity associated with that task. In this example, which relates to the restaurant

industry, the number of waiters required to ensure effective serving of customers in

a restaurant will vary during the course of a day, together with variations in the

activity of the restaurant. The number of customers, and thus the activity level, in a

restaurant will typically peak at lunehtimes and dinnertimes, with lulls in activity in

between. Naturally, the waitering of tables serves as an example only, and the

principles explained with reference to this example is applicable to a wide range of

business tasks.

In most instances, a fixed staff complement is assigned to a particular

task for any predetermined time period, such as day. Consequently, if the staff

complement is sufficiently large to cope with peak activity, the staff complement will

exceed the staff requirement during the lulls in activity. However, assigning a smaller

staff complement to the task will lead to a staff shortage at peak activity.

A solution commonly used to overcome the above problems is to use

temporary or casual staff. This allows the company to man for lower levels of activity

and still provide the required service at peak demand. This solution is, however, not

entirely satisfactory. The system 10 in accordance with the invention is intended to manage

the work force by reducing the manning levels at periods of low demand and to use the saved man-hours at peak times. This reduces temporary staff needs and increases

the efficiency and productivity of the business operation as a whole. Also, the system

10 is capable of providing detailed information regarding temporary staff needs, in the

event that there is an insufficient supply of suitable employees that can be assigned to a task.

This method of optimisation can be used on two levels. The first level

is concerned with long term cyclical variations, such as seasonal changes, monthly

variations (beginning of the month and payday syndrome) and weekly cycles (Monday

as opposed to weekend). The second level is concerned with short term variations on

an hourly basis, during the course of a day. In this example, the operation of the

system 1 0 is described in more detail with respect to the rostering of employees

during a specific day, but it will be appreciated that the system 1 0 will typically be

used to roster or schedule the performance of certain tasks by employees on a longer

term basis as well.

The business operation or company of which the work force is to be

managed is arranged in a hierarchical structure having a number of levels. Usually, the

business operation is divided in five levels, arbitrarily named, in descending order: units, departments, sections, subsections, and tasks. In this example, in which the

business operation is a chain of hotels, the hierarchical structure is simplified to

comprise units (individual hotels), departments (food and beverage, accommodation,

security, etc), and tasks (waitering, food preparation, cleaning, etc). This example focusses on the table waiting task, which falls under the food and beverage

department, but it will be appreciated that the system 1 0 will conveniently be used to

manage the work force in respect of the entire range of tasks of the business

operation.

In its simplest sense, the system 10 enables the management of the work force by estimating an expected required staff complement for a particular task in

respect of a predetermined time period (in this case a day), and allocating individual

employees to the task such that the allocated staff complement more or less satisfies

the expected required staff complement. As explained above, the estimated required

staff complement, and therefore the allocated staff complement, varies during the

course of the day together with the activity levels of the task. More waiters are thus

allocated to lunchtime- and dinnertime shifts than to other shifts.

The system 10 includes an estimated staff complement calculation means

30 (Figure 5) for calculating the estimated required staff complement for a particular

time period for the task under consideration. The staff complement calculation means 30 uses a task template 32 for the task and an estimated business level 34 associated

with the task to calculate an expected daily manning requirement 36 for that task. The calculation of the expected business level 34 will be described in more detail

below.

Each task template 32 comprises data indicative of the manning

requirement for the particular task over the relevant period of time when the business

level 34 of the business operation relating to that task is at an average, or baseline,

level. Thus, for instance, the task template 32 for the table waiting task may show

the varying number of waiters required efficiently to perform the task during the

course of the day.

The template 32 includes information regarding the number of staff

members required, the required skills of the staff members, the starting time of the

time period, and the ending time of the time period. Naturally, not any staff member

can perform any function, as, for instance, only some employees are qualified to be

head waiters. The task templates 32 reflect these skills requirements, so that each

task template 32 is used to represent the workload and skills requirement of an

associated task over a time period at the baseline activity of that task.

A number of task templates 32 will typically be created for each task, for instance a template 32 for each day of the week, as well as templates 32 for any

unusual days, such as public holidays and the like. Naturally, the appropriate template

32 for any period in respect of which the manning requirements 36 are to be

calculated is automatically selected, at 74 (Figure 6). Templates 32 can be edited and

updated, at 31 (Figure 2), by department managers through the department

management system 24.

As mentioned above, the staff complement calculation means 30 adjusts

the relevant task template 32 in accordance with an expected business level 34

associated with the task for the time period under consideration. The "business level"

indicates the relationship between the average or baseline level of business associated

with a task, and the expected level of business associated with that task. Thus, for

instance, when, during the course of a day, the number of patrons to be served in the

restaurant is about half the number of patrons usually served during corresponding

days, i.e. at baseline levels of business, the business level of the table waiting task will

be about 50%.

When the business level of a task deviates from 100%, there are two

values which can be adjusted to accommodate this variation, namely the number of

hours worked to complete the task and the number of staff members required to

execute the task. One of these values could be fixed and the other one changed, or both could be changed. The manner of adjustment of the templates 32 is governed

by a man/hour factor, which can be set by a user at different levels for the respective

tasks. A man/hour factor of 100% indicates that the time to be worked is fixed, and

all adjustments are made to the number of staff members required. Conversely, a man/hour factor of 0% indicates that the number of staff members will be fixed, but

that the time to be worked will be adjusted. Any value between 0% and 100%

indicates that the number of staff members and the working hours will be affected

proportionally.

For example, the restaurant may need six waiters at 100% business level

for six hours (thirty six man-hours) to complete a serving. When the business level

falls to 50%, then it is theoretically possible to use three waiters for six hours or six

waiters for three hours. Naturally, depending on the nature of the task, this may not

be possible.

The manning requirements 36 are calculated by using the following

formula:

Man_(i) = Man_(def) x (BusLev_(i) x ManHoFac_(i))

Hour_(i) = Hour_(def) x (BusLev_(i) x (100 - ManHoFac_(i))) wherein: Man_(i) is the calculated staff requirement;

Man_(def) is the manning requirement defined in the relevant template; BusLev_(i) is the business level relating to the relevant task, determined in

accordance with the method described below;

ManHoFaC₍i₎ is the selected man/hour factor;

Hour_(i) is the calculated task duration; and

Hour_(def) is the task duration defined in the template.

The manning requirements 36 thus calculated are forwarded to a roster

computation means 38 (Figures 5 and 6) for generating a roster 50 which allocates

individual employees to the relevant task for a predetermined time period.

In addition to calculating manning requirements 36 which vary in

accordance with the estimated business level 34 of the task, the system 1 0 provides

fixed templates 40 (Figure 5) for roster generation where staff requirements for a task

do not change with the business level of the task, i.e. the manning requirement for the

task remains constant. This is, for example, the case for security or surveillance

personnel. The system 1 0 allows for the definition of fixed shift patterns or time

tables for a particular period. A user is allowed to select whether to use an adjusted

manning requirement 36 or a fixed template time table 40 in the generation of the

roster. For each time period to be considered, the department management

system 24 provides an expected unit business level 42 indicating the expected

business level of that unit (Figure 4). This is usually done by department managers

(not shown) inputting estimated business levels 42 of the respective units, in this case

inputting the business levels 42 of the respective hotels. The system includes a

business level calculation means 44 for calculating the expected business levels 34

of hierarchically lower levels of the operation, in this case the food and beverage

department and the waitering task.

The business level calculation means 44 automatically calculates the

expected business levels of lower levels according to the following formula:

BusLev_(i) = 100 - ((100 - BusLev_{( )}) x BusSens_(i))

wherein: BusLev_(i) is the expected business level of the hierarchical level

considered;

BusLev_{( )} is the expected business level of an immediately higher

hierarchical level, or parent level; and

BusSenS_d, is a business sensitivity factor 46 between the hierarchical level

considered and its parent level. The business sensitivity factor 46 represents the extent to which a

daughter level is affected by variations in the business level of its parent level. For instance, if the table waiting task business sensitivity factor 46 is 50%, and the

business level 42 of the food and beverages department varies by 1 0%, the system

10 calculates a 5% decrease in expected business levels 34 for the table waiting task.

Usually, the business level 42 of a parent department for the preceding

day is automatically provided, at 48, to the expected business level calculation means

44, so that the expected business levels 34 are automatically adjusted on a day-to-day

basis. Instead, the expected business level of any hierarchical level can be entered manually, at 51 . It will be appreciated that manually entering a business level, at 51 ,

for any hierarchical level will only affect the calculated expected business levels 34 of

hierarchically lower levels.

Once the manning requirements 36 for a particular task has been

calculated, the roster computation means 38 computes or generates a roster or work

plan 50 in which individual employees are allocated to particular tasks for the time

period under consideration. The roster 50 is computed such that the staff complement assigned to each task is satisfies the estimated required staff complement, or manning

requirements 36, over the period of time. To select the appropriate employees for

allocation on the roster 50, the roster computation means 38 interfaces with an employee database 1 8 containing extensive data relating to individual employees.

The employee database 1 8 includes:

an employee availability database 1 8.1 which contains data relating to the availability of employees, the data being arranged in the data fields for starting date

and end date of the period for which availability is to be considered, starting date and

end date of unavailability, reason for unavailability, and whether the employee is to be

paid for the period of unavailability;

an employee requests database 1 8.2 which contains data relating to requests

by individual employees regarding their rostering preferences, the data being arranged

in data fields for starting and end date of period considered, the start and end date of

request, and the reason for the request;

a groups database 1 8.3 which contains data relating to a series of groups of

employees, the employees of each group being associated with one another for a

particular reason, such as that the employees of a group are required to work together

as a working unit;

an employee skills database 1 8.4 which contains data relating to the skills of

individual employees, the data being arranged in data fields for skills which each

employee possesses, level of each skill, and the date at which each skill level was

attained;

an employee details database 18.5 which contains information relating to the details of each employee, the data being arranged in data fields for first name,

surname, employee number, payroll number, employee status, occupational category, job title, and cost code (i.e. the work place with which the employee is associated);

and a skills database 1 8.6 which contains data relating to the various skills which

are required in the business operation.

The database 1 8 is maintained by an employee data editing means 52

(Figures 2 and 3). This data editing means 52 enables a human resources manager

(not shown), through the human resources system 20 to update, at 54, the skills

database 1 8.6 if the requirements of the operation changes. In the event that an

employee acquires a new skill, or attains a new skill level, this information is inputted

in the human resources system 20, and the employee skills database 1 8.4 is

automatically updated, at 56. Employee details contained in the employee details

database 18.5, and the groups database 18.3 can be updated in a similar manner, at

58 and 60 respectively.

The employee requests database 1 8.2 can also be updated, at 62, but

this is done in response to a request updating message, at 64, from the relevant

employee, at 28, directly. Employee availability is calculated and updated, at 66, with reference to

leave information which is received from the human resources system 20, at 68, and

availability messages which it may receive directly from the relevant employees 28,

at 70.

As can be seen from Figure 3 of the drawings, the system 1 0 is

configured such that updating of the employee request database 1 8.2, at 62, and the

updating of the employee availability database 1 8.1 can be done after interfacing with

the groups database 1 8.3, so that editing of availability and preference requests for

whole groups of employees are possible.

The databases 1 8.1 ...1 8.6 are connected to the roster computation

means 38 (Figure 2), so that the data contained in the respective databases

18.1 ... 18.6 can be used in generating the roster 50.

The roster computation means 38 (Figure 6) first rosters employees, at

72, according to the fixed templates 40, being in respect of tasks where the required

staff complement does not vary together with the associated business level 34.

The roster computation means 38 thereafter selects, at 74, the relevant

estimated staff complement requirements from the previously calculated daily manning requirements 36, thereby obtaining temporary manning requirements 76.

These temporary manning requirements 76 are grouped, at 78, according

to the respective required skills. Thereafter, the grouped temporary manning

requirements 76 are compared with data in the employee skills database 1 8.4 to

select, at 80, all employees which have the required skills.

The reduced list is compared, at 82, with data relating to employee

availability from the employee availability database 1 8.1 and all employees which are

unavailable are purged from the list. The list is then sorted in accordance with the

cost centre (i.e. the associated work place) of each employee, such that employees

which are employed at the work place, in this case the hotel, or the restaurant, as the

case may be, where the considered task is to be performed are at the top of the lists

of the respective skills groups.

The employees in these lists are then sorted, at 84, in descending order

of hours worked in a current two month period, while still remaining sorted in groups

according to cost centre and skill level. The information relating to the work record

of the employees is obtained, at 86, from an employee statistics database 88. The

list is purged of employees who do not satisfy work rules (e.g. 1 2 hours rest between

shifts, 7 days off in a month, etc), the work rules being forwarded, at 90, to the roster computation means 38 from the human resources system 20. Typically, a human

resources manager will ensure that these work rules comply with ruling labour law

requirements.

Employee preferences are then considered, also at 84, and the list is

adapted accordingly.

Finally, the required number of employees are selected, at 84, from the

top of the list. The employees who have worked the least hours, are associated with

the relevant cost centre, and have the necessary skills are thus selected and posted

to the roster 50.

In the event that the number of available employees with the required

skills associated with the relevant work place is insufficient to satisfy the estimated

temporary manning requirements 76, employees associated with a different work place

are allocated to the task. This is known as "flexing in" of employees.

In the event that there are not enough suitable employees available, even

taking into account the flexing in of employees, temporary staff requirements are

calculated, at 92, and a casual requirements roster 94 is generated. This casual

requirements roster 94 reflects the particular tasks and the particular time periods in which there is a shortfall of suitable employees, as well as the skill profiles of the

temporary staff members required to satisfy the estimated manning requirements 36.

The system 10 automatically compiles, at 1 1 0, an individual roster for each employee (Figure 2), and a notification message is sent, at 1 1 2, to each of the

employees 28, informing them of their rostered shifts. The system 10 also

automatically compiles, at 1 14, a departmental roster showing the rostered employees

and shifts for each task to be performed at the respective departments.

Furthermore, the roster 50 is exported, at 1 1 8 to the attendance

monitoring system 22. This enables the attendance monitoring 22, for instance, more

effectively to control access to certain work places or work areas, limiting access to

rostered employees.

It is a feature of the invention that the actual performance of individual

staff members are monitored, and information 96 relating to the actual performance is factored into future rostering.

The information 96 gathered by the attendance monitoring system 22 is

used to compute, at 98, the amount of time worked by each employee in a particular

time period (Figure 6) . This actual time worked is added, at 100, to future work which has been rostered, but has not yet been executed, this data being obtained from

the roster 50. The worked time thus calculated in respect of each employee is used in conjunction with relevant rules determined by the human resources system 20 to

compute, at 102, mandatory or desirable rest periods for each employee.

This information relating to the adjusted actual time worked by each

employee is forwarded to the employee statistics database 88, which is used in

generating the roster 50, at 84, as described above.

The computer 1 2 imports, at 106, data relating to the work attendance

of each staff member from the attendance monitoring system 22 (Figure 2). This

information 96 is exported, at 108, to the payroll system 26.

The system 10 further includes a reporting means 1 20 for generating a

series of reports relating to the management of the work force, the reporting means

1 20 being shown in detail in Figure 7 only. The reporting means 1 20 is configured to

generate a series of reports for display by a display means, in this case a computer

terminal 1 22.

An additional work force requirement report 1 24 is prepared, at 1 26,

using information from the calculated casual requirements 94 and the roster 50. This report 1 24 shows the work periods that could not be fulfilled with employees, all

relevant details of these shifts being reported, such as the respective work places where temporary staff will be required, the skill profiles of the required temporary

staff, and the shift times at which temporary staff will be required.

An flexing in report 1 30 is prepared, at 1 28, using information from the

employee details database 1 8.5 and the work plan or roster 50. This report 1 30 can

be prepared in respect of any work place, the report 1 30 showing details of employees

who were allocated to that work place but who are associated with a different work

place. In this example, the flexing in report will thus show details of waiters who

were, or will be, used in a particular restaurant, but who are assigned to and

associated with a different restaurant, or a different hotel, as the case may be.

Similarly, a flexing out report 1 32 is prepared, at 1 34, which shows the

details of employees who are associated with a specified work place, but who were

allocated to another work place.

The system 10 is also configured to produce, at 138, a productivity

report 1 36, indicating the relationship between the work allocated to individual

employees and the work actually done by the employees. This report 136 shows, for

any selected work place, the job titles of the employees, the number of hours rostered, grouped per day of the week, the number of hours actually worked, the difference

between the rostered hours and the hours actually worked, and shows this difference

as a percentage of the total hours rostered.

A unrostered employee report 142 can be prepared, at 140, showing, for

a specified work place, employees that have not been rostered for any specified day.

The report 146 shows information about the relevant day, the name of the employee,

and the reason for not rostering that employee on that day.

The computer program 14 allows department managers, through the

department management system 24, to update, at 1 56, a database 1 58 (Figure 2)

containing data relating to each work place or cost code managed by the system 10.

The information in this database 1 58, together with the roster 50, is used to generate

a number of reports, namely:

a work force per work place report 146, generated at 144, the report 146

showing, for a given work place, the names of all employees, the work place where

each employee was allocated to, the job title, the starting time of all shifts, and the

ending time of all shifts;

a work force per job report 1 50, generated at 148, the report 1 50 showing, for

a given work place, the job titles used in that work place, grouped by day of the week,

the number of employees used, and the total time rostered for that job title, the report being generated for any given time period; and a work force variable report 154 per employee, generated at 152, the report 1 54 listing, for a work place variable, the employees rostered with their shift details, in the following data fields: job description, the names of employees rostered in that job, the job title of each employee, the work place with which each employee is associated, the starting time of the shift, and the ending time of the shift.

It is an advantage of the system 10 and of the method of managing the work force as described with reference to the drawings, that the work force can be more efficiently allocated to specific tasks, and the performance of the work force monitored, than is the case with conventional work force management systems.

The provision of a detailed report of temporary staff requirement 124, and the generation of a casual requirements roster 94 greatly facilitates the effective and early enrollment of casual staff. It will be appreciated that this alternative rostering action taken in respect of temporary staff requirements is considerably more advantageous to the effective management of the work force than the mere logging of an exception in the case of an employee shortfall.

The fact that actual performance is also factored into the rostering process leads to fairer and more acceptable rostering, as employees which do not fulfill rostered tasks will be allocated to another shift sooner than would otherwise have

been the case.

The real-time and continuous generation of reports also promotes

effective management, as data relating to performance and allocation of employees

are readily accessible in an organised format.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1 . A method of managing a work force of a business operation, which

method includes the steps of:

automatically computing an estimated staff complement required efficiently to

perform the task over said time period;

automatically computing a roster which allocates to the task suitable employees

the employees being associated with a work place at which the task is to be

performed; and

in the event that the complement of suitable employees associated with said

time period, automatically performing an alternative rostering action.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , in which the alternative rostering action

includes the steps of automatically generating a temporary staff requirement roster

which indicates the time periods for which the allocation of temporary staff members

is required in order to satisfy the estimated required staff complement.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, in which the temporary staff requirement roster contains data indicative of the number of temporary staff members which are

required to be allocated to the task in order to satisfy the estimated required staff complement.

4. A method as claimed in claim 2 or claim 3, in which the temporary staff

requirement roster contains data indicative of required skills which the temporary staff

members need to possess in order to satisfy the estimated required staff complement.

5. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the

alternative rostering action includes the step of allocating to the task suitable

employees who are associated with a work place other than the work place where the

task is to be performed.

6. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the

alternative rostering action includes the step of generating a timetable indicating the

time periods for which there are insufficient employees associated with the work place

where the task is to be performed in order to satisfy the estimated required staff

complement.

7. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, in which the alternative

rostering action includes the step of generating a report showing information regarding a complement of temporary staff members required to satisfy the estimated required

staff complement.

8. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the

step of computing the roster includes taking into account information regarding

predetermined groups of employees, such that said groups of employees are preferably

allocated together.

9. A method of managing a work force of a business operation, which

method includes the steps of:

automatically computing an estimated staff complement required efficiently to

perform the task over said time period; monitoring the actual attendance of staff members and gathering data relating

to the actual work performance of individual staff members; and

automatically computing a roster which allocates to the task suitable employees

taking into account the gathered data relating to the actual attendance of staff

members.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, in which the roster is computed such

that suitable employees who have worked the least amount of time in a predetermined

preceding time period will be preferred in the allocation of suitable employees to the

task.

1 1 . A method as claimed in claim 10, in which the step of computing the

roster includes the step of adding the amount of work time which has been allocated

to each employee but which, according to the gathered data, has not yet been

performed by that employee, to the amount of time which has actually been worked

by that employee, and using this adjusted work time in determining which employees

will be preferred in the allocation of suitable employees to the task.

1 2. A method of managing a work force of a business operation, which

method includes the steps of:

automatically computing an estimated staff complement required efficiently to

perform the task over said time period;

automatically computing a roster which allocates to the task suitable employees

of the business operation in accordance with the estimated required staff complement;

and generating at least one report regarding the allocation of employees.

1 3. A method as claimed in claim 1 2, in which the step of generating a report

includes generating a productivity report which compares the amount of work allocated to each employee with the amount of work actually performed by that

employee.

14. A method as claimed in claim 1 3, which includes the prior step of

gathering data regarding the actual performance of work by individual employees.

1 5. A system for managing a work force of a business operation, the system

including:

complement for efficiently performing a particular business task for a predetermined

time period;

a roster computation means for automatically computing a roster which

with a work place at which the task is to be performed, in accordance with the

estimated staff complement for the task, and for automatically performing an

exceeds the number of suitable employees who are associated with the work place at which the task is be performed.

16. A system as claimed in claim 15, which includes an employee database for interfacing with the roster computation means in order to allocate suitable employees to the task.

17. A system as claimed in claim 15 or claim 16, which includes an expected business level calculation means for calculating an expected business level associated with the task for the predetermined period, the business level calculation means being in co-operation with the staff complement calculation means, so that the calculated required staff complement varies together with variations in the calculated expected business level.

18. A system as claimed in any one of claims 15 to 17, which includes an attendance monitoring system for monitoring the actual attendance of individual staff members, the attendance monitoring system being in communication with the roster computation means for factoring actual time worked into the computation of the

roster.

19. A system as claimed in claim 15, which includes an electronic processor and a computer program associated with the processor, the computer program having program instructions such that, when the appropriate instructions of the computer

program is executed by the processor, the processor constitutes the staff complement

calculation means and the roster computation means.

20. A computer program comprising instructions for causing a computer to

perform a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 , 9, or 1 2.

21 . A computer program as claimed in claim 20, embodied on a record

medium.

22. A computer program as claimed in claim 20, embodied in a read-only

memory.

23. A computer program as claimed in claim 20, carried on an electrical

carrier signal.

24. Computer equipment having a computer program as claimed in claim 20

stored therein.