Annualised Hours Calculators – How Rota Software Helps
Annualised hours is a flexible way of scheduling employee working hours, so they are used more effectively over a year. Managed effectively, Annualised Hours remains one of the most efficient and effective means of ensuring an organisation and its mobile workers’ interests stay aligned.
This blog covers the systems you’ll need to calculate and manage annualised hours for your field service operations. It looks at the limitations of annualised hours calculators and how specialist rostering software is required to unlock the full benefit of annualised hours.
Annualised Hours Requirement 1: Demand and Capacity Analysis
Annualised hours require you to regularly calculate how many hours are needed to meet your field service operations’ projected annual demand. These projections include understanding how demand varies, so mobile workers’ annualised hours are scheduled effectively through optimised shift patterns.
Totalmobile’s Organise software supports annualised hours far better than any annualised hours calculator. It allows you to assess precise demand and capacity forecasts in your field service operations across a day, week, month, season or year.
Our team of shift work and rostering specialists can also help you build an accurate demand and capacity model that underpins annualised hours.
Annualised Hours Requirement 2: Shift Pattern Design
Most annualised hours calculators cannot identify the shift patterns that will most efficiently and effectively cover demand. An additional challenge for annualised hours calculators is ensuring shift patterns within an annualised hours system are aligned with mobile workers’ diverse preferences.
Totalmobile’s Organise software enables you to design custom shift patterns that effectively balance various factors vital to the success of annualised hours. Its shift pattern design tool can auto-calculate ‘best fit’ shift patterns that meet variables such as seasonality, T&Cs, policies and holiday allowances in your field service operations.
Our team of shift work and rostering experts will help you design and implement the best shift patterns for your annualised hours system and engage your mobile workers.
Annualised Hours Requirement 3: Day-to-Day Rostering
An annualised hours calculator needs to track worked hours and exceptions to ensure your annualised hours system is effective and compliant. Demand and mobile worker availability can change at short notice. Hence, an annualised hours calculator needs to keep on top of the changes and ensure the system remains accurate. This changeability is particularly the case if you use Banked Hours, Flexi-Shifts or Standby-Shifts to manage demand variability in your field service operations. Mobile workers must be given clarity over when they are working, when they are not due to work, and when there is a need to be potentially flexible.
Totalmobile’s Organise software automatically captures, analyses and reports the information that is key to annualised hours. Its cloud database enables real-time monitoring of variations, cover, and balances holidays, hours worked, overtime, sickness etc., letting you manage annualised hours no matter how volatile or complex the field service environment.
Annualised Hours Requirement 4: Employee Self-Service
Annualised hours calculators often fail to enable mobile workers to co-manage annualised hours. There is increasing demand for more flexibility and control over working patterns which can be challenging to achieve in an annualised hours system without the appropriate technology.
Totalmobile’s Organise software provides:
- Visibility over annualised hours.
- Calendars and account balances.
- The ability to request holiday and shift swaps with colleagues.
It also supports shift bidding by sharing empty shifts with colleagues in your field service operations who have the required availability and skills. It uses an automated, rules-based system to auto-check and reconciles all requests and changes to ensure your annualised hours system remains accurate and effective.
The Best Annualised Hours Calculator
If you are looking for an annualised hours calculator to help you plan, manage and monitor annualised hours in your field service operations, then look no further than Totalmobile’s Organise.
Contact us to demo our Organise software or speak to an expert in annualised hours.
