2 minute read

Moving From Job-Based to Task-Based Scheduling: Understanding the Basics

If you followed recent blog posts by Logile, specifically the “Scheduling Insights” series, you learned about the four most common approaches to scheduling. In this post, we focus on using different types of available data to drive scheduling in a variety of ways.

One aspect to consider in scheduling is utilizing job-based or task-based schedules. Ideally, this decision needs to be made while the labor model is initially configured; that said, changes can be made retroactively. Deciding on job- or task-based schedules has a huge impact on schedule effectiveness. Labor standards, labor tasks and job codes must be configured symphonically to get the most out of your scheduling toolset.

Let us define a few terms before going onward:

Task-based scheduling provides significantly more flexibility in scheduling your employees. Rather than grouping all labor demand into two or three buckets for a department, schedules work in a more focused manner.

Let us look at a hypothetical scenario. Maybe there are 30 hours of associate demand for a department on a given day. Scheduling administrators can set up the system to schedule hours in several ways.

To optimize task-based scheduling, cross-train employees and keep their qualifications updated in the scheduling system. This is impactful when meeting the scheduling requirements while minimizing waste. Task-based schedules allow the system to move employees from their primary function to a secondary role(s) when demand may not require labor in the primary job, but scheduling rules for minimum shifts must be met.

Overall, there is a balance to find in system setup because you do not want your tasks too granular, causing employees to constantly change activities. This creates a loss in productive time. In ending, if you are not utilizing task-based scheduling, it is something you might strongly consider. It could take your organization to the next level in schedule optimization.

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