Matching staff numbers and skills to the expected workload across days and weeks so service levels are met.
Good work shows: Bases staffing on forecast workload; covers the skills each period needs; keeps labour cost within budget.
Scheduling and staffing is one of the operations skills on FinderK.
The job simulations and Skill Paths below include work that is checked for this skill. You do the work in an original fictional company and get feedback on it.
Nurse in charge, night shift at St Aldhelm's Hospital
About 54 minutes. Included in Plus.
A registered nurse has called in sick and a confused patient now needs someone with him all night. Work out what the ward needs, get cover through the escalation route, and allocate the night safely.
Skills: Calculate safe staffing from patients' care levels; Escalate a staffing gap in writing with SBAR; Allocate patients within load and competency limits; Plan for the time before cover arrives
Three teachers are absent and the cover list must be on the staffroom screen by 08:30. Build it within the cover rules, tell the people affected, and deal with the change that comes at lunchtime.
Skills: Allocate cover within workload and safety rules; Weigh a department's priority against the policy; Tell colleagues what has been arranged and what it risks; Choose between costed options when the day changes
A failing transformer must be swapped by crane before winter, with 2,168 customers kept on supply through a neighbouring feeder that can carry only so much. Find a window the load allows, look after the people who depend on medical equipment, and replan when a pre-check cuts the backfeed.
Skills: Read demand profiles against network capacity; Choose a work window within safety and field rules; Plan support for customers who depend on medical equipment; Replan quickly and within authority when capacity changes