IT-supported crisis preparedness planning

The coronavirus crisis represents a new challenge in several respects. It can be assumed that the number of short-term failures will increase. Since in the event of a confirmed infection the people who are to be contacted for safety reasons must also quarantine themselves, the number of failures will be higher than average. In many cases, teams working closely together can even be expected to be completely unavailable at the same time.

Planning of on-call services in companies, institutions and hospitals

Even in normal times, planning picket services in companies, authorities and hospitals is a challenging task in which mistakes cannot be made. On-call services as support for staff who may be absent at short notice are only organized for tasks that absolutely must be performed at any time.

Quickly implement new shift and on-call models

In times of crisis such as the Corona virus, shift and standby plans must be quickly adapted to the evolving situation. This applies to companies as well as clinics, the police and other public authorities and institutions. For example, it is not uncommon for one person to be on call to replace two workstations. In normal operations this is possible because it is very unlikely that both regularly scheduled employees will be absent at the same time, independently of each other. For the reasons mentioned above, this strategy must be critically questioned during the Corona crisis.

How should staff deployment planning be adjusted during the Corona crisis?

The planning of staff deployment, in particular the planning of shifts and on-call duties, must be adequate in several respects. The first and obvious question is which jobs should be filled. Non-essential activities are often postponed, key word “social distancing”. Elsewhere, staffing needs may even increase, particularly in the healthcare sector.

The planning of picket services must also take into account a possible increase in demand due to a greater number of breakdowns. In some cases, for example in healthcare companies, it may happen that tasks that are usually only carried out during normal working hours now have to be carried out around the clock. Finally, one must also expect in the future that, due to staff shortages in clinics, the temporary provisions of the Working Time Act may be suspended, for example to allow for more on-call services.

Such legal flexibility would have no effect if the new roster models could not be implemented in practice in a timely manner. In larger organizations, this is only possible with IT-supported staff planning.

React flexibly with digitalized personnel deployment planning

At numerous state police departments and clinics, all scheduled vacations and training courses have been canceled until further notice due to anticipated staffing needs. This means that considerable additional human resources will be available in the coming months. Making optimal use of these additional resources is a very complex task, as all shift and on-call schedules have to be put to the test.

A second example: the Robert Koch Institute asked all cities and regional districts to temporarily assign employees from other administrative sectors to health authorities. Many of these new collaborators will only be able to carry out general administrative tasks, while others will have specialist knowledge in the healthcare sector.

With digital personnel deployment planning, such as PROCESS HR, it is easily possible to optimally use the additional personnel resources in both examples mentioned. In case of holiday and training bans, the qualification profiles are already stored in the system. They can also be created quickly for additional seconded employees. Optimized deployment plans are automatically created based on these profiles.

Self-Service Portal for Employees

Especially in times of high stress, it is very beneficial for employee satisfaction if individual wishes regarding working hours are taken into account as much as possible. This is currently even more important because the closure of schools and nurseries requires special attention to parents’ concerns. Employee self-service portals allow employees to pass these implementation requests directly to staff planning and automatically factor them into the planning. IT-supported staff deployment planning therefore contributes significantly to ensuring the functionality of critical infrastructure in times of crisis.