Why are employers still struggling so much with frontline workforce rostering?

Rostering has always been a challenge for managers trying to balance empathy with productivity and flexibility with compliance. But instead of getting better over time, this challenge has grown even more difficult. This is especially true for frontline workers, who need to balance busy personal lives with unpredictable rosters. And organisations are dealing with ever-more-complex compliance requirements.    

With all the challenges faced on both sides, it’s no surprise that frontline managers and workers agree that their organisations have rostering issues. In fact, a staggering majority of managers (73%) and workers (71%) say they’ve experienced rostering issues at their current employer, according to our new report, Conquering the frontline manager complexity crisis, which surveyed more than 6,900 frontline workers, managers, and executives around the globe.  

This isn’t a new problem, so why does it persist? Part of the answer lies in what we at Dayforce call the “complexity crisis,” which includes an explosion of different types of work and workers, ongoing labour shortages, a mismatch between available skills and evolving roles, and an ever-changing compliance landscape. For many organisations with a large frontline workforce, having the right people staffed at the right times is critical for business continuity and customer service. On top of that, leaders are dealing with a rapid pace of regulatory change. And slow manual processes leave many operations leaders without much visibility, making it difficult to change course.  

What’s causing these persistent rostering issues? 

The first step to addressing rostering challenges is to better understand how they impact frontline managers and workers. In our new report, the top rostering challenges cited by both managers and workers were not having a high degree of control over rosters, missing important events because of it, and experiencing roster-related stress.  

But if these rostering issues cause so much pain for managers and workers, why do they persist at an operational level? The answer might lie in the quantity and quality of information available to companies with frontline workforces. Our report found that nearly half of executives said they often or always lack sufficient data to make staffing decisions, followed by 41% of managers who said the same. Without the right information, it’s impossible to generate optimised, flexible rosters.   

On the operational side, the absence of vital information leaves leaders feeling frustrated over their lack of visibility into inefficiencies. Managers are stuck with legacy tools that require unnecessary manual effort, and they often don’t have the time or bandwidth to make the best decisions for their teams. And employees feel even less control, working on rosters that don’t fit into their lives and leave them scrambling every day just to meet their basic responsibilities. Without anytime, anywhere access to the right information, organisations are always going to lag behind industry pacesetters who can make real-time decisions to achieve simplicity at scale, unlock more value from existing efforts, and realise their full people potential.  

Our report found that nearly half of executives said they often or always lack sufficient data to make staffing decisions, followed by 41% of managers who said the same.

Imagine your options if you were physically exhausted and mentally drained, but still struggled to pay your bills each month? Many workers still take on as many shifts as they can just to make ends meet. Our work schedules may impact our wellbeing today, but now health experts say unstable work patterns may also shape our health in later life as well. A new report in the journal PLOS ONE took a closer look at the links between shift work and health. It found that people with nonstandard rosters were more likely to have fewer sleep hours and lower sleep quality, lower physical and mental function, and a higher likelihood of reporting poor health and depressive systems in middle adulthood.  

Shifting your approach to shift rostering 

Despite the many challenges facing companies with large frontline workforces, there are many positive examples of how to move forward. Consider the case of IKEA, the retail giant that recently made headlines for its bold approach to improving frontline worker engagement and retention. IKEA was facing significant problems with turnover among its frontline workers, so it introduced a combination of increased pay, self-service shift swapping, and stabilised work weeks to show their people that their time is valued. Its example shows that investing in the right tools can equip your managers with the ability to build fair schedules and empower your workforce with more say.  

When managers and workers gain more control over setting rosters, it can create benefits across your entire organisation, such as:  

Increased autonomy: Among the 67% of workers who said they can swap shifts with other employees, 35% needed to involve a manager or team to do so. Modern workforce management apps can give deskless workers the ability to post and trade shifts with coworkers independently without adding to their supervisor’s workload. 

More options: Can your managers make more complex workforce planning decisions? According to Dayforce research, nearly two-thirds (63%) of frontline workers are interested in working shifts at other locations. Labour sharing can offer workers more flexibility in where they work and managers more options for staffing across multiple locations.  

Better wellbeing: Offering managers and workers more choice shows them that you value their contributions and respect their autonomy. Roster control can have many positive impacts over work-life balance and increase workers’ commitment to their employer. Having a healthier workforce can also generate more productivity, resilience, and improved performance. 

Key takeaways to share 

• The majority of frontline managers and employees are feeling the pain of rostering issues.  

• People with nonstandard rosters are more likely to report worse sleep and negagive impacts to their physical and mental health that carry into middle age.  

• Executives and managers agree that they don’t have the right information to make good decisions about workforce staffing.  

• The root of roster issues according to managers and workers is that they don’t have much control over rosters, they’re missing important events as a result, and that poor rostering is causing them stress. 

• Two-thirds of workers are interested in having the flexibility to work at different locations, making labour sharing a helpful option for workforce planning.  

• Even when employees have the option to swap shifts, many still need to involve their manager to make this change. 

Companies with large deskless workforces have a major challenge when it comes to effectively rostering their people for optimal performance and business profitability. Without the right controls in place, your managers won't have insight into how they can reduce absenteeism and overtime, boost productivity, and manage labour costs. Our latest research dives into actionable ways organisations can empower their managers to cut through this complexity and make choices that strike the right balance. Read the full report to learn more. 

Read the full report