Flexible and fair scheduling in healthcare
Use our checklist to evaluate your working time practices–and create conditions that support staff wellbeing, compliance, and quality care.
To retain skilled staff and attract new healthcare professionals, organizations need modern, employee-focused scheduling models. This checklist helps you assess where your workforce planning stands today—and reveals opportunities to improve flexibility, fairness, and operational resilience across your hospital, clinic, or care facility.
How do you actively involve healthcare staff in working time management?
Hospitals and care facilities have been urgently searching for skilled professionals for years. This search is made even more difficult by the demanding working hours in the sector: qualified elderly and nursing care is required around the clock. In response, the German Federal Ministry of Health introduced the Nursing Staff Strengthening Act (PpSG).
Better staffing levels are intended to create more attractive working conditions. Since January 1, 2019, the regulation on minimum nursing staff levels in hospitals (PpUGV) has also been in effect. The goal: hospitals must ensure that enough qualified staff are available for patient care.
However, in times of staff shortages, this often pushes hospitals and care institutions to their limits when it comes to capacity. On top of that, compliant scheduling becomes an enormous administrative challenge.
These regulations increase pressure on HR and operations. Flexible working time concepts that also take into account the needs of physicians and care staff—as well as fair, reliable, and demand-optimized scheduling—are now more important than ever. Personalized and attractive working time arrangements are a clear advantage for healthcare organizations looking to recruit additional staff.
Flexible working time models, preferred shift schedules, and digital shift swaps not only promote a healthy work-life balance, but also increase employee motivation and satisfaction. In turn, this helps ensure optimal care quality for patients. A professional workforce management solution enables you to put this employee- and patient-friendly approach into practice.
What to consider when involving employees in working time management
How can your hospital, clinic, or care facility benefit from involving employees in working time planning? Use the following questions to assess your optimization potential.
1. Transparency and self-service for employees
Do doctors and care staff have real-time visibility into their working time accounts?
Can vacation requests be submitted anytime, from anywhere, via a digital tool?
Can employees specify multiple vacation preferences?
Can employees submit preferences for their shift schedules?
Are these shift preferences submitted electronically?
Do employees have mobile access to time-related information via an app?
2. Digital approvals and information processes
Are approvals handled through electronic workflows?
Can managers approve or reject requests with a single click in the system?
Are shift preferences and approved vacations clearly visible in the planning tool?
Are employees and managers notified of upcoming tasks via the tool?
3. Shift swapping and absence management
Is there a digital platform for shift swaps?
Does the system automatically verify compliance with legal, contractual, and company-specific rules during shift exchanges?
Are required qualifications automatically checked during shift swaps?
Are swapped shifts automatically updated in both the planning and time tracking systems?
In the event of employee absence, are shift offers made available via an app or online tool?