PRIORITES & WORK PROGRAMS
+ Developmental Discussion, has to be upgraded for work to date
+ Paul to read and update GUIDELINES FOR ROSTERING
JOB DESCRIPTION UPDATES
+ Paul Mc. to review Weekend manager job des objective weekends add relevant comments from wages review.doc
+ Add how to save and and upload pdfs to internal website, need to include the 5 weekdays and the staff rostered hours report
JOB DESCRIPTION & GUIDELINES FOR ROSTERING
INTRODUCTION
The day to day operation, long term direction and viability of the nursery is determined and described in the rosters that you operate.
BAAG is nothing more than the people who have in the past been rostered to work here and those who are now part of the current BAAG team. Those who have worked here in the past have created it and those that are here over next few weeks are creating BAAG’s future every minute of every day.
Your rosters importance cannot be underestimated in relation to the labour costs, baag’s future relevance & current effectiveness, staff morale and customer service. The continual/daily massaging of rosters is how we can make baag staff and organisational needs have as close a fit as possible.
In previous years labour costs have regularly been so high that they have destroyed the profitability of the business, frequently due lack of attention to detail and lack of forward planning. Rosters are your tool to control and contain this cost and use the BAAG team effectively.
Importantly it is also management’s opportunity to provide a working week which is relevant to staff members private lives. A little effort with the rosters can have a huge impact on staff’s lives. Continually talk to all staff and find out how there lives are changing and what suits them. If this can be worked in with the requirements of the nursery juggle the rosters to accommodate them. Particular efforts should be made to accommodate staff who are important to BAAG. Always try to balance the requirements of staff members and of BAG. Do not assume staff will tell you what their changed circumstances are, they will not. You have to ask them regularly what hours they would prefer and if you have this info the different changed requirements seem to magically balance out .
The right staff at the right time in the right place with the right enabling direction. You can be overstaffed and still provide poor customer service or not get important work done because the right staff are not in the right place throughout the day or you have an inappropriate balance of staff.
You must therefore allocate enough time at the right time to ensure that rosters are continually up to dated pretty methodically.
Rosters are also a tool to bring the whole baag team together, sharing responsibilities fairly and letting everybody have an insight into how the whole place operates and how we are interdependent. The whole place depends on all team members to be effective.
Key strategies for staff and wages are in Wages Review.doc Titled Wage Cost Management, Staff Effectiveness an Efficiency Strategies & BAAG Viability. (In management folder under financial/expenses) This document has to be regulary reviewed, progressed and acted upon.
BACKGROUND PLANNING
No system will work unless it is worked and improved continually, and clearly understood by those managing it and those that source information from it.
We need to inform and train our team.
Plan the next seasons roster well in advance and draw up core rosters for the next period. Eg end of spring, Christmas gift focus for December, less nursery time watering from march (which frees up significant labor etc) This gives you a framework for discussion with staff and area managers. Decisions coming out of left field are minimised and staff management relationships more open and stable.
DETAILED PLANNING (KERIO)
Kerio Roster in Public Folders is your tool to feed into the system day to day detail and to develop you medium to long term plans. This has been developed to enable the team co-ordinating rosters to share and store information.
It should make your notes and reminders easily accessible when you need them and allow you to work on particular area’s in an efficient focussed manner. E.g you do no need to see the notes for July in February and it is easier if you have all the notes for the nursery restock team in the one place.
If you record staff break requests, glitches, strategies, team requirements/weaknesses here as they come in and keep them meticulously up to date it should enable another person to come in and keep it all rolling, share the work load and cover for when you are on holidays.
Keeping the due dates up to date is the only way you are going to effectively manage the considerable detail. E.g. here is your reminder is to update the wages clerk rostered hours via the due date on the regular jobs tasks date.
WEEKDAY ROSTERED TIMES AND VARIABLE RESPONSIBILITY ROSTER. (VGP)
The core variable responsibility roster (VGP) details who is normally available to perform particular responsibilities on a particular day, if no holidays, days off etc. A roster that is relevant to the daily variations can then be built and we can, when necessary, do a rough costing of our wages.
Variable responsibilities allocated on this roster are those which are allocated to different staff at specified times through the day. E.g you are on the register for lunch on Thursdays.
This needs to be rebuilt completely typically every 2 months but sometimes more frequently. (Staff like to see a reasonably current date on the daily vgp printed to web internal startup)
To avoid paying unnecessary over roster and to ensure staff get public holiday pay entitlements fairly it is important that normal hours on VGP are meticulously kept up to date for the wages clerk so can they can easily work out what is normal and what is over roster wage rates. (Attending to this small detail on rosters can save the need to retrench/sack a staff member who might have lot to offer baag)
This roster is saved to the internal start up via the samba server.
The roster is designed so you can quickly scan down a column to check if we have an adequate number of staff at the nursery when it opens, until it closes, and for early and late breaks.
Also specified on this roster is who is responsible for selling in the nursery, selling in the yard, answering phones and working the cash register throughout the day etc.
The following guidelines should be considered when working out this roster
Try and be as regular as possible with responsibilities, this will save you giving out a lot of instructions as staff get into the habit of the roster.
Share cash register around staff through the week and over time.
Allocating someone to ensure baag is fully open and ready for trade and week will encourage staff to get into their work quicker if the place is open when they arrive and keep working longer if the place if still open when they knock off.
To work this roster does need feedback for staff allocated responsibilities. Check that the person allocated to giving service in the yard or nursery is giving the service etc.
You can also consider allocating early and late lunches for office staff on this roster particularly when the phones are busy in spring.
The other area that causes concern is maintaining the seedling section, watering and topping up the sundries on weekends (particularly in spring and if the seedling buyer is having a day off).
Formal written notice by staff is required if they wish to regularly work more than 20 days in a 4 week cycle. This written notice must be kept in the staff members personal folder.
WEB CALENDAR, VARIATIONS FROM CORE ROSTER, HOLIDAYS & WEEKEND ROSTER. (GOOGLE CALENDAR)
ALL alterations to the core roster (VGP) are then specified on Google Web Calendar.
Web Calendar determines what permanent staff you will have available to work for a particular week.
The two key times for allocating holidays are October and early April. But you need to regularly look at holidays and pressure staff to take their holidays. You will need to individual counsel staff at times who are reluctant to take holidays and lock in agreed times.
A slow time is from the second week of January to the end of February and from mid-April to mid-August. (Subject to sales and project focus’s)
Give staff a fortnight’s warning that you will be allocating holidays, mentioning at a staff meeting always seems to get couple requests without having to hassle.
Check the Kerio Roster inbox for time off requests as they appear.
You should keep records of previous years allocations so you can be fair and the same staff do not get the peak times every year.
Long service leave should be allocated on this roster also.
You should take the following into account when you are allocating holidays.
Staff are not to take holidays in spring.
The maximum number of staff away at any one time
We allow staff to take holidays as soon as they accrue a full day and encourage them to do so particularly if they are prepared to take them during our slower periods.
Allocate preferred times (E.g. summer) on the condition that the remainder of their holidays is taken when we are slack. eg. if staff are prepared to take two weeks in May give them some priority for other requests.
Your best plant buyer should not be away during August while we are building our stock up for spring.
Consider staff with young families when allocating holidays.
Weekend rosters
Need to have a clear system of updating and confirming. E.g. place a question mark in front of staff if not confirmed.
Take particular care selecting weekend staff as the hourly labour cost is significantly higher and a good well-balanced team on weekends will provide the necessary service in our peak selling times.
Refer to turnover from the previous years so you do not increase your staff levels too early in spring and importantly try and anticipate reductions and shifts in business in advance of them happening. Trends tend to be fairly consistent over the years.
Make sure share weekend staff around and be careful not to let staff get in the frame of mind that they are not at all responsible for helping with weekend sales.
You should consider the following guidelines when drawing up holiday roster and public holiday rosters.
Alterations to holidays should be entered immediately so we are at all times adequately staffed and so accurate information is available to the staff member who is doing the weekday times and variable responsibilities roster.
It will save you a lot of headaches if you are regular with weekend work. eg. staff who know they work every second or third weekend are not going to forget to turn up.
The regular weekend manager has to be a full time staff member to get continuity and effectiveness to weekend work programs. Talk to your key staff and find out what they want and then look after them when possible. For example give them first option at the time on Sundays or take them off weekend work if a suitable replacement can be found. Contact all other staff you want to keep and try and work in with their plans.
Use permanent staff on Public holidays that normally would have worked on that day anyhow. These staff cost us an additional 1.25 times the award for every hour they work whereas non-regulars cost us 2.25 the award rate.
Keep good records of staff availability·
TERTIARY WORK EXPERIENCE
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