Creative Scheduling Cancel The title field is required!

1. Jamie Downton

   

   0 posts
   
   12/2/2014 1:12 PM

   I am looking for thoughts and ideas as to how some of you have changed your crew scheduling over the years. I have heard many different scheduling techniques such as having your crew work 12 on 2 off, 6 on 1 off, 3 days of 8 hour shifts, 2 days of 6 hours shifts, 3 day weekends, etc.
   
   I have been kicking around the idea of splitting my crew into even staggered start times every day; such as having a crew complete an AM shift, and the other half completing a PM shift, but wanted to toss the idea out there to see what you have found to be effective, efficient, and most popular among your teams.
   
   Thanks!

   
   
   
   
2. Peter Bowman

   

   11 posts
   
   12/3/2014 7:12 AM

   Split your crew in two.
   
   11 on, 3 days off. I loved it when I was first on a crew.
   
   8 hours Tues - Fri = 32 hours + 4 hours each Sat - Sun = 40. Then 8 hours Mon - Fri = 40, so 80 hours in the two-week pay period.
   
   I liked the three consecutive days off every two weeks. Not so good for the course maybe as every Sat, Sun, and Monday were only half a crew.

   
   
   
   
3. Kyle Fick

   

   4 posts
   
   12/3/2014 9:12 AM

   Jaime,
   
   I've been doing the 2 crew method for about 9 years, and it works well for us. But, that's because of the way we cater to the customer. As a daily fee public course, we cater to the early arrival or "prime tee slots". I bring in just enough staff to do a full CSU in front of them, and we do our major maintenance in the afternoons when play is less, and turf is dryer. Our focus is to have our guys do a quality job without getting caught by golf in the morning, the customers paying a little less in the afternoon, well they can see maintenance a little more for the discount.
   
   In our semi-arid environment, I prefer mowing later in the day to help with clipping dispersal, as well as not having a wide open wound for increased ET during the day. Disease pressure for us is irrelevant for the most part, as our dew burns off rather quickly each morning as well.
   
   We also have found that it's much faster and easier to topdress and drag sand around 4 pm when the canopy is dry vs just after mowing in the mornings, when guttation fluids aren't completely gone and humidity is higher.
   
   It is a fine balance though, some staff members don't like a later shift, others really like being able to come in at 11:30 am once and a while. We try to have each staff member do 3 morning and 2 afternoon shifts per week, I keep it consistent week to week, most do pretty well with it. We sometimes run into problems when an afternoon tee sheet fills up unexpectedly, then we are stuck playing catch-up to finish for the week. It's a balance, but has worked well for us. The times we have deviated from this schedule, I've felt we are less productive. The negative to this schedule is that there should be a manager on duty, that means hanging around till late afternoon more often than not. My asst and I usually kick out around 5-5:30 pm, allowing the final 2-3 staffers to park and lock stuff up.

   
   
   
   
4. Craig Moore

   

   0 posts
   
   12/3/2014 9:12 AM

   I have a 9 man crew on each course in peak season (18 total).
   Monday - 8 hours
   Tues - 6 hours (mens day = lock down busy)
   Weds. - 8 hours
   Thurs. - 8 hours
   Friday - 6 hours (always lock down busy)
   Work either a Sat. or Sun. morning for 4 hours
   All hours start 30 minutes before sunrise - start early get out early.
   I need a min. of 4 guys on a weekend morning at each course, toss in my asst. and myself and that always leaves room for two guys on each course to have an entire weekend off if desired.
   Time off is never an issue and my staff does not work enough hours (40 or less) to get burned out and if they do its a personal problem.

   
   
   
   
5. Brian Woster

   

   0 posts
   
   1/5/2015 2:01 PM

   After decades of working 6 days a week I decided to start working 5 days/week off on weekends. The crew is split up into three different work weeks, 18 total groundskeepers, 6 will have Fri-Sat off and 6 will have Sun-Mon off and 6 will have off Wed-Thurs. Everyone works Tuesday because that is our maintenance day and I have an Assistant there on Sat and Sun both when I'm not there. Works out great we have enough people to cover the basics everyday and everyone gets 2 days off each week.
   
   Brian

   
   
   
   
6. Melvin Waldron

   

   43 posts
   
   1/5/2015 3:01 PM

   We are either scheduled to work Sun - Thursday or Tuesday - Saturday. If a holiday falls during the week, the Sun-Thursday staff gets off on Thursday, the others take Tuesday as their holiday.
   
   Mel

   
   Melvin H. Waldron III, CGCS, Horton Smith Golf Course, City of Springfield/Greene County MO
   
   
7. Sean Hoolehan

   

   0 posts
   
   1/6/2015 2:01 PM

   This is the schedule I used for my employees in 2014. It is in response the the ACA requirement that anyone who averages over 30 hrs a week must receive health care. I would say more employees liked it than disliked it. The retired guys really liked having every other week a 4 day weekend. I found my coverage was better on weekends as a result of this schedule since i had half of my staff working every weekend. It was a hardship for a couple of employees due to the loss of hours but they also got free healthcare via Healthcare.gov. My observation was they would have prefered the hours.
   
   Regular Golf Maintenance Employee
   2014 Schedule 14 groundskeepers split in 2 teams.
   
   Day 1 Monday 5:00am – 11:00am
   Day 2 Tuesday 5:00am – 11:00am
   Day 3 Wednesday 5:00am – 11:00am
   Day 4 Thursday 5:00am – 11:00am
   Day 5 Friday 5:00am – 9:00am
   Day 6 Saturday 5:00am – 8:00am
   Day 7 Sunday 5:00am – 8:00am
   Day 8 Monday 5:00am – 1:00pm
   Day 9 Tuesday 5:00am – 1:00pm
   Day10 Wednesday 5:00am – 1:00pm
   
   Eagle Team Weekends May 3-4, May 17-18, May 31-June 1, June 14-15, June 28-29, July 12-13, July 26-27, August 9-10, August 23-24, September 6-7, September 20-21
   
   Birdie Team weekends May 10-11, May 24-25, June 7-8, June 21-22, July 5-6, July 19-20, August 1-2, August 16-17, August 30-31, September 13-14, September 27-28
   
   10 days on 4 days off, every other weekend 4 days off.

   
   
   
   
8. Andrew Cross

   

   5 posts
   
   1/7/2015 8:01 AM

   Sean Hoolehan, CGCS said: 10 days on 4 days off, every other weekend 4 days off.

   
   
   Make sure you check your local/state laws. Here in Illinois we have the 1 day in 7 act. We are not allowed to work employees 7 days in a week, the way around this is:
   
   Week is Sunday-Saturday so we could work them Monday thru the following Friday. They could work 12 days in a row as long you had the ends free.
   
   We do a split system with everyone working M-F, split the crew with half days on Wednesday and Thursday, then split again on Sat Sunday.
   
   Employee 1: M,T,Th,F (5:30 - 1:30), W,Sat (5:30 - 9:30) We give paid lunch in lieu of 15 breaks. They work 40hr/wk
   Employee 2: M,T,W,F (5:30 - 1:30), Th,Sun (5:30 - 9:30) We give paid lunch in lieu of 15 breaks. They work 40hr/wk
   
   Everybody works 6 days/wk
   Works pretty well for us, we work them 40hrs/week because we are seasonal (Mar-November) and keep them under the yearly limit of 1500hrs.

   
   
   
   
9. David Soltvedt

   

   0 posts
   
   1/8/2015 3:01 PM

   Craig Moore said: I have a 9 man crew on each course in peak season (18 total).
   Monday - 8 hours
   Tues - 6 hours (mens day = lock down busy)
   Weds. - 8 hours
   Thurs. - 8 hours
   Friday - 6 hours (always lock down busy)
   Work either a Sat. or Sun. morning for 4 hours
   All hours start 30 minutes before sunrise - start early get out early.
   I need a min. of 4 guys on a weekend morning at each course, toss in my asst. and myself and that always leaves room for two guys on each course to have an entire weekend off if desired.
   Time off is never an issue and my staff does not work enough hours (40 or less) to get burned out and if they do its a personal problem.

   
   
   
   Craig,
   What tasks for set up do you do on the weekends and do you handwater anything? .