The death of THE 8-HOUR SHIFT?

The death of THE 8-HOUR SHIFT?

India Inc employees have adapted themselves to varied forms of ‘shift work’ schedules. However, the popular ‘8-hour shift’ format could be on the decline,

    According to Wikipedia, ‘shift
    work’ is an employment practice designed to make use of, or provide service across all 24 hours of the clock each day of the week (abbreviated as 24/7). The practice typically sees the day divided into ‘shifts’ - set periods of time during which different groups of workers take up their posts. The term ‘shift work’ includes both, long-term night shifts and work schedules in which employees change or rotate shifts.
    “When it comes to labour strategies, we are still using the strategies from the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Different types of shift work schedules are known to be in operation worldwide with two common shift categories with the 24-hour cover, which are systems comprising of three eight-hour shifts or two-12 hour shifts,” suggests James Thomas, country head, Kronos India.
    To remain competitive on the operations side and keep employees happy with new work options that support a better work-life balance, it’s time to question whether the 8-hour shift is the best way forward.
    Commenting on this, Manuel D’Souza - chief human resource officer, global services, Serco
    says, “Certain industry segments
    like hospitality, aviation and
    outsourcing necessitate a
    ‘shift work’ pattern, given
    their very nature and the
    need to cater to a global audience.
    Be it an 8-hour or a 12-hour shift, either ways, the organisation has to look at maintaining an equilibrium between its operational efficiencies and productivity.” John Frehse, chief strategic officer, Core Practice, a consulting firm, notes, “Although the number of people required to cover a 24x7 operation is the same, whether a company is working in 8- or 12-hour shifts, the actual labour costs are different. The staffing ratio is 4.2:1 in most cases, meaning that if employees work 40 hours each, it will take 4.2 people to cover each key position over the course of the 168 hours in a week (4.2 x 40 = 168).”
    “12-hour shifts, as an example, provide a dramatic increase in day-offs and increase weekend time-off by 50 per cent. In this option, employees get every other weekend off instead of every fourth weekend off. All their weekend-offs are 3-day weekends. They get 87 more day-offs than the 8-hour shifts and work 182 days a year and get an equal number of day-offs. They also never work more than three days in a row in their base schedule,” says Frehse.
    D’Souza concludes, “A decline in the 8-hour shift can be perceived as a trend where companies focus on the quality of work only.” So, are you game?
8-HOUR SHIFT V/S 12-HOUR SHIFT, ACCORDING TO JOHN FREHSE In 8-hour shifts, there are three shift changes each day compared to only two with 12-hour shifts. Shift changes create a variety of problems; Invariably, not every employee shows up on time and the management is forced to fill positions and shuffle the workforce to get the coverage they need. Simply put, 8-hour shifts cause 50 per cent more shift change chaos than 12-hour ones; Total work days on a traditional 8-hour shift are 260. On 12-hour shifts, the total workdays are 173. The difference is 87 days; Longer shifts typically provide more opportunities for employees to come in on dayoffs to make additional income. This is not possible in 8-hour shifts due to a lack of schedule flexibility.