Scheduling

What is team scheduling?

Team scheduling is another name for self-rostering. Team scheduling is about creating a good schedule for everyone. As an employee, you get more say about your working hours and you have the opportunity to take into account your personal preferences, recovery needs and social obligations. This helps to keep a better work-life balance. The process of team scheduling often consists of three phases:

Phase 1: employees pass on their individual wishes
Phase 2: the team will work together to make the schedule correct
Phase 3: the planner finalizes the schedule

Tips for team scheduling

Good preconditions are important in team scheduling. A team must be mature enough for the tasks. Is there a good atmosphere in the team and is good consultation possible? The team needs to know exactly what team scheduling is and what is expected. Of course, there are still services that no one likes to do. It should be clear that team scheduling is different from just making your own schedule. For example, if there is a capacity problem in the department, team scheduling is not the solution. The purpose of team scheduling is enabling individual employees to have more influence on the schedule.

What is healthy scheduling?

Making a schedule is a profession. Planners and teams can come up with a lot, but without clear rules about what is expected of employees, it won't work. For example, if there are no rules about how many night shifts someone has to do, then scheduling together will not solve that problem. More self-management over the shifts improves the work-life balance and seems to have a positive effect on sleep, fatigue, and mental health, among other things. Planners, managers and employees must comply with the rules of the Working Hours Act and the collective labor agreement on working and rest times. These are there to protect you as an employee. This way you prevent overload and fatigue, and thus absenteeism and incidents. In addition to the laws and regulations, there are TNO's 'rules of healthy scheduling' for irregular working hours.

Tips for healthy scheduling

As a planner and as an employee, try to apply the 'rules for healthy scheduling' to disrupt your biorhythm as little as possible, such as:

• Schedule two to three shifts of night shifts in a row, which is the optimal number of
• Create a forward rotating grid, from day to evening to night
• Plan sufficient recovery time after a series of night shifts; at least two consecutive days off
• The maximum working hours per shift is 9 hours and 8 hours for a night shift

Read more about the rules of thumb for healthy scheduling in the Goedenacht App or in the NVAB guideline 'Night Work and Health'.

Discuss with your team and planner whether the scheduling process aligns with the above principles of healthy scheduling. Your umc has working time specialists who can advise on this. Your occupational health and safety advisor can help you further.

What is chronotype?

Everyone has their own time when going to sleep and getting up is the easiest. These differences in sleep patterns are called chronotypes. Your chronotype is mainly determined by your biological clock. People with a late chronotype may not fall asleep until very late at night and get up late in the morning. People with an early chronotype, on the other hand, go to bed very early and get up early in the morning. Most people have a chronotype that is somewhere in between. As you get older, your chronotype and rhythm can change. 

Tip: Tune work to chronotype

You can adjust your working hours based on your chronotype. As a morning person, choose more for morning shifts and as an evening person, more for evening shifts. This is good for your biorhythm and your energy level and also for productivity on the ward. The Goedenacht App (only Dutch) contains a short chronotype test.

Careful planning needed

There are three types of on-call services: on-call service, stand-by time: on-call time. The definitions of these services and of night work can be found here . Combining on-call services with regular working hours requires close coordination. Night work during on-call duty in particular affects your recovery and work-life balance. According to the Working Hours Act and collective labor agreement, you are entitled to rest after night work and you are lawfully absent during the day. This is important for your health, but it can also have consequences for planning and continuity of care. On-call services must therefore be planned carefully, so that maximum working hours are not exceeded with possible overload, absenteeism, incidents or fines as a result. It is also important for you as an employee to comply with the regulations in the Working Hours Act and collective labor agreement.

Tips for your own employability

As an employee, you can play an active role in remaining sustainably employable:

• Discuss with your supervisor and the team to minimize on-call shifts and convert them to regular shifts if possible.
• Avoid on-call services immediately before or on your scheduled days off, such as weekends and holidays.
• Ensure sufficient recovery time of at least 8 hours following calls during the night in accordance with article 6.2.4 of the collective labor agreement.
• Preferably use the compensation and overtime hours immediately after a series of night shifts or on-call shifts.

In accordance with the Working Hours Act, it is forbidden for young people under the age of 18 to work during the night. Exceptions apply to medical specialists, medical doctors of physician and residents, as stipulated in Working Hours Decree 5.20 and the collective labor agreement for umc. Those aged 57 or older are entitled to no longer work evenings or nights (collective labor agreement article 4.7.3.3).