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Questions on Process of Roster Writing Assessment Answer

Section 4

Short Answer Questions 

Answer these questions to show your understanding of the process of roster writing and its importance. Display your depth of understanding by using specific examples. It is expected that you would need to write between 1500 and 2000 words in total answering these questions to show competence.

1. How do rosters assist in controlling wage costs?

2. a/ Why should rosters be fair and equitable? What impact do rosters have on staff? b/ What are at least 5 examples of fairness and equity that should be found in staff rosters?

3. What are some examples of good rostering principles? These are things that may not be in the award but make a good roster. Why are they good? 

4. What is an ADO (also known as a 38 hour RDO)? How is it earned by workers? 

5. What are some ways (at least 3) in which an enterprise agreement (such as that used at Crown casino) may differ from the award?

Answer the following questions imagining that you are the manager of a restaurant in Melbourne: 

6. What factors would you use to decide how many staff to roster on in your restaurant? You should be able to list and explain at least 5 different considerations. 

7. When writing a roster would you prefer to: a/ Hire more people at a lower rate of pay (meaning they are younger less experienced staff)? or, b/ Hire fewer people with a higher skill level? Why? What are 3 factors you should consider?

8.When writing a roster would you prefer to: a/ Roster on 4 bar attendants each working 6 hours a day? or, b/ Roster on 8 bar attendants each working 3 hours a day? Why? Which costs more? What are 2 other factors you should consider other than cost?

9. What consultation with staff is required to develop the best possible roster? You should be able to list at least 5 different pieces of information you could ask your employees. 10. Once the roster is completed, how would you communicate the roster to your employees? Suggest 3 or 4 different ways and then discuss which method you would use.

11. When evaluating luating your rostering process: a/ How would you measure if the roster was successful or not? b/ With whom would you consult to measure its success and to improve it for the future? 'Why? 2. Would you use rostering software for your business? What are some (>3) of its advantages and disadvantages?

Answer

Roster writing

Q1 Rosters are basically schedules used by business firms and other organizations to sketch out the list of the employees available for the functioning of the company including their location, working times and responsibilities. These rosters are quite necessary for the day to day operations of the company in a more systematic manner. Rosters known as the workforce management handles the labor cost or the wage cost by implementing comprehensive payment rules. These help the companies design model costs and later compare the actual to the planned expenditure. The costs displayed instigates the manager to take control of the wage cost and thus enforce budget responsibility before sanctioning the roster. The model formation helps the mangers to devise labor variables like overtime, casual staffing and subcontracts (Emden-Weinert¶, 2001). 

Q2 A roaster should be fair and equitable as it is quite important to increase the efficiency of the company. A well efficient roaster will help the stakeholders to track the performance of the employees and replace them underperforming. A fair and equitable roaster also helps in devising which employees perform best on which shifts analyzing and maintaining their track progress. A fair and equitable roaster will help managers slot employees into the right shifts ( Key  rostering principles and concepts - Tips for roster managers - Rostering  Portal, n.d.).

With the implementing of staff rosters into business, the employees undergo huge changes into performing their operations. The record of the absentees gets reduced as with the help of rosters the managers can keep a sharp vigilance on the number of absents. More prominently the underperforming staffs are replaced with more potential employees as well as the productivity level increases as the performance of each staff enhances.

  1. Listed below are the 5 examples of fairness and equity in staff rosters.
  2. The first is the fact of listing of individual names in the staff roster as this puts the business first. Managers should allocate shifts on hourly rates and add names on the roster who are most skilled. 
  3. The second fact is that favoritism should be avoided and thus managers should schedule options for employees as because the most productive ones could choose accordingly.
  4. The busy shifts should be allocated to the most experienced and skilled labors to enhance productivity. Favoritism or appeals should not be encouraged. This process of fairness and equity would intensify business operations. This would also reduce the gaps in coverage (A.T, Ernst, & H. Jiang, 2004).
  5. Fairness and equity could also be maintained in the staff roster by ensuring all employees with a two days off. This would encourage employees to work in favor of management and magnify their performance.
  6. The last but the most important step to create fairness and equity in staff roster is to allow the staff to check their roster and to ensure there has been no wrong information recorded. Thus the rosters could be created online for the staffs to check-in. 

Q3 Listed below are some of the most acknowledged rostering principles.

  • Sufficient and skilled labors- this is first among the principles that should be considered while creating a staff roster. Any roster should add the names of the most sufficient and skilled labors of the company appropriate for the daily tasks in hand.
  • Regulations and policies- a good roster should induce the necessary regulatory frameworks, the company policies, work health and safety legislation as well as the industrial awards. This would help the employees understand the protocols while conducting operations.
  • Fairness and equity- a good roster should be in the peaks of fairness and equity as because the process should ensure each staff is rostered fairly while inducing flexibility to meet the staff requirements (LEACH, 2001).

Q4 A required day off (RDO) or the additional day off (ADO) is provided to every employee working more than 38 hours per week. It is a paid day off that is provided to this category of employees in order to maintain relaxation and flexibility for the employees as well as to maintain the average working hour at 38 hours a week. Any worker working for at a stretch for 38 hours a week can appeal for RDO.

Q5 The biggest difference between awards and agreements is that modern awards cover upon a whole industry or occupation by providing a safety net of minimum pay rates and other employment conditions. Awards enhance the working condition and encourage employees to upraise performance to achieve more. On the same hand agreements or enterprise, agreements are a compromised structure to meet the needs of the particular enterprise. An agreement must leave an employee better off overall when compared to the relevant award or awards. Business agreements are collective agreements discussion the terms and conditions of employment between the employer and the employees. 

The enterprise agreement also induces the contract of the employee whether working full time, part-time or contractual basis as in Crown Casino enterprise. The wages are determined depending on the contract of employment. On the other hand, awards are given to every employee irrespective of any contact. Awards mostly remain equal and are distributed among employees upon their business performance and not based upon their wages or contracts.

Q6 As functioning as a manager at a particular restaurant in Melbourne, there are certain factors that is required to consider while determining a staff roster. Listed below are the set of these factors.

  • Weekly requirements- the best way to determine the staff required at the restaurant and to structure the roster accordingly is to analyze the sales forecast and the staff required to handle the pressure. Mostly in cases of restaurants, the needs are evaluated by the data given and thus manpower might be distributed in considerable shifts around the clock.  
  • Employee size- designing the shift lengths and the employee size is another best way to schedule the staff roster. Large shifts for employees would give them more leaves and thus could go in waste if there is no crowd in the restaurant and thus determining an employee size and shift length ranges among the major factors.
  • Rotational and fixed shifts- the major thing to be considered while scheduling a staff roster is to focus upon the rotational and the fixed shifts. Rotational shifts reduce the workload of the employees and avoids overnight shifts. Yet it might affect a proper stable routine. Fixed shifts increase the work pressure and overnight hours but manifests a stable routine. Determining upon the rotational and the fixed shifts is a major churn into sketching the staff roster.  
  • Days off- Day offs are also important factors that needs to be contemplated while scheduling a staff roster. Improvising day-offs as RDO to employees working 38hours in a week as well as reducing day-offs upon part-time labors should be considered to maintain an efficient working system (Wagen, L.,  & A., 2015). 
  • DuPont- the last and the major thing that needs to be induced while scheduling a staff roster are to implement DuPont as because employees lookup for something at the end of the month. It may be a long holiday for a vacation or a few days leave. To avoid its effect on business and to grant employee requirements high risk and high reward better known as the DuPont should be executed. Employees willing to participate in a 12-hour shift per day can manage to take a major 7 day leave at the end of the fourth day. 

Q7 As being the manager of a restaurant while creating a roster as applied by the given conditions there some the major factors that would be required to consider.

  • The first in the case is that hiring fewer people with a higher level of skills should be more important as because they could be made to function on rotational shifts with less pay and more professional work structure.
  • The second in the case is that during non-seasons these high skilled employees would be more affluent in providing the best of the services to the fewer consumers of the restaurant and achieve a good name for the brand.
  • The last but the major thing to consider is that these highly skilled employees would meet up the weekly requirements for the restaurant. In weeks when the demand is low the wages would meet up sufficiently as the number of laborer’s is less and even in weeks when there is high demand these highly skilled laborer’s would induce their best performance to meet up customer satisfaction.

Q8 As being the manager of the restaurant it is a prime duty to check that the wages meet the employees sufficiently and the restaurant earns a greater profit. Thus it is better to go for four-bar attendants working 6 hours a day as eight attendants working 3 hours a day would certainly cost more. The major two factors which are to be considered are listed below.

  • The first factor which needs to be to maintain is of the weekly requirements. In certain weeks when the demand is low it would be a greater loss to pay 8 attendants doing a 24 hrs. Duty than to 4 attendants on the same work (Rocha, F,  Oliveira, & Carravilla, 2012).
  • The second factor is that more the labors into the job higher would be the day-offs with minimum business operations conducted. Thus to conduct a stable operation with less wage cost an option of 4 attendant with 6 hrs. Duty would be better.

Q9 Staff consultation would be the best piece of advice that could be ranged while devising a roster. The major factors of staff consultation which would enhance the roster formation are listed below.

  • The first fact is that the staff knows better at what they are skilled at and thus might choose the appropriate duty for themselves reducing time and effort.  
  • The second most important factor is that involving staff into managerial functioning would certainly improve employee morale. This would enhance intrapreneurship into the business context of the restaurant.
  • Enabling into the roster formation the staffs and the well-skilled labors might well advice on strategic process implementation and how well business aims could be achieved in a comprehensive manner (Thomson, J., Nischal, & S.,  2017).
  • A team lead knows his employees quite well and thus in consultation might genuinely provide better suggestions on implementing varied staffs into different business grounds as well as the RDO process.
  • The last and the major piece of information that could be well achieved from the staffs while consulting during the formation of a roster is that of the lacking that they are during business operations and how well it could be assorted (Ivory).  

Q10 Listed below are some of the certain ways via which the roster could be well communicated to the employees.

  • Employee service system- an employee’s service system or the Roubler’s rostering tool are some of the most integrated software that communicates the data of the roster to every employee in a much seamless manner. This creates no confusion and reduces the usage of paper.
  • Employee meetings - in devising weekly rosters an employee meeting might reduce the confusions in the process. Employees know better in what they are skilled at and thus might register them names in their preferable allocated jobs reducing confusions and thus understanding the weekly roster.
  • Notices - putting up notices on the notice board about the enterprise roster or the weekly roster is a way too antiquated manner of communicating the employees about the weekly or an enterprise roster (Yarnold & P. R., 2015).

Q11 As being the manager of the restaurant it is quite important to analyses the success ratio of the roster implemented. To figure out this fact the success could be determined on a major two basis.

  • The first in the case to determine the success of the roster is to evaluate the business performance and the major business operations of the week. If the business operations have been handled in quite a skilled manner with lesser complaints then the roster was quite successful.
  • The second in fact to determine the success percentage of the roster is to visualize upon the satisfaction level of the consumers. If the consumers were well satisfied with the week’s job then the roster was quite successful (Tinsley &  Adrian, 1973).

The discuss ad know more about the success of the roster it is quite relevant to old up a meeting with the board of director and the external stakeholders of the restaurant as they shall be knowing well about the customer satisfaction of the restaurant. To enhance the performance of the roster in future a well-organized meeting shall be arranged with the employees to highlight the areas in which they are lacking. 

Q12 A rostering software would enhance the functioning of the roster in a much more comprehensive manner. It would help to communicate the objectives of the roster well and thus magnify better performance. Listed below are the advantages of rostering software.

  • Reduces labor costAutomated rostering can help cut labor costs. Businesses can spend less on their payroll or stick to their existing payroll budget with the use of this software. There are several reasons for these cost-saving advantages. On the first hand, it reduces business cost by avoiding over staffing and on the second it sends warning alert when it comes to overtime pay.
  • Avoids worker fatigue- the automated rostering software helps in finding replacement options for a particular job and thus helps in restoring business performance as well as engrosses the remaining workers to avoid workload due to lack of employees.
  • Reduces absentees- companies using automated rostering software has witnessed a reduction in absentees as because the software records their previous absents and lets the HR know if they are demanding for more. On the same hand, this software automatically shows the availability of the employees (Bard, F,  & Purnomo, 2006).
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