Staff Rota - Can I outsource this?

[Joe Shepherd]

Hi all,

I have had a look on google for a company to whom i can outsource my staff rota planning. There is nothing available? There are tons of software solutions which provide the software to design my own but i really dont want to get involved with learning to use a new peice of software - i would rather just pay someone to do this for me!

1) Is this a viable business opportunity for someone? Surely someone could train & perfect one of the software options and provide a monthly service to lazy peopel like me who dont want to learn? I would happily pay a £100pm subscription to have my rota designed for me. I am sure there are hundreds of other business owners out there who also dont have time.

2) Is there someone or a company already doing this - if so can you point me in teh right direction?


A bit of background - i have a used vehicle sales business with 30 ish staff, 8 of which are sales staff - those 8 need a rota designed each month to cover our busiest days and to account for annual leave etc. making sure they all get their fair share of weekend days off.

Its harder than it sounds!

 

[STDFR33]

You need knowledge of the day to day running and operational needs.

This is not something UI would want to outsource.

 

[Joe Shepherd]

No i am telling you i do want to outsource it because its a pain and i dont have time!

 

[fisicx]

£100/month = £1200/year = £6000 in 5 years

You could get your own bespoke software written for a lot less than that. It's only really a calendar with filters. I built something like this a while back. Wasn't too complicated

 

[STDFR33]

No i am telling you i do want to outsource it because its a pain and i dont have time!

And once the rotas are done, who is going to sort it out when people are sick, don't turn up, leave, need last minute holidays?

 

[fisicx]

And once the rotas are done, who is going to sort it out when people are sick, don't turn up, leave, need last minute holidays?

Easy. Staff login and request a rota change. This gets emailed to Joe who just has to click on a link to update or refuse.

 

[STDFR33]

Easy. Staff login and request a rota change. This gets emailed to Joe who just has to click on a link to update or refuse.

How do refuse someone not turning up or having a sick day?!

 

[fisicx]

Even a handmade rota can't manege this. So all the application is doing is automating the rota creation not the firefighting

 

[STDFR33]

This is what I am getting at.

You can pay someone to do a rota for September, for example. You hand over your £100 and you receive a rota.

The next day, someone hands their notice in. Three days into September, someone calls in sick. Last day of the month, someone tells you to stick your job up your arse.

Who is going to handle this? Doing the rota from the outset is the easy bit.

If I had 30 staff, rather than paying someone outside of the organisation to handle this, I would delegate the task if I couldn’t be bothered to do it myself.

Yes, you can get software. But software can’t pick the phone and make decisions. It needs manual intervention at some point – and would you want someone that doesn’t know the day-to-day operations to handle that? I wouldn't, and I accept that is just my opinion.

 

[deanpunchard]

I think @fisicx idea for a custom piece of software to manage the rota sounds a like a very good solution. I would probably go one step further and integrate this into some kind of smart phone app, or at least a text messaging service. If there's a gap in the rota, the app / messages can automatically alert staff who could fill the roll. They could then automatically submit their request for the shift, and it's all sorted without you having to do a thing.

Also once everything is digital, and you have the data, you can use it for all sorts. Who's been ill the most. Who's late. Who doesn't turn up. Who fills in the gaps in the rota.

 

[fisicx]

Exactly. If you read the spec @Joe Shepherd wrote he only want is to do the initial rota and then fill the gaps. It's really not a complicated thing to do.

 

[CVRO]

As others have mentioned, the software will not manage the day to day of your rota.
Maybe, instead of outsourcing it what you need to do is to delegate it.
I have no idea what each of your 30+ staff does but, perhaps, it's time to promote one of them to take up some of the responsibilities of running the day to day part of your business. This will free you up to focus on the money-making part of your business.
This is likely to cost you over £100/month though.

 

[webgeek]

Get an offshore VA. You'll be shocked how many hours of their time you can buy for the £100/month. If you want the details on some, just shout. I've worked with several in the Philippines (for several years) and they're good people with a solid work ethic.