A schedule is more than a shift pattern
A schedule is a system for deploying capital and personnel, with employee buy-in, and specific work, pay, and coverage policies.
Every service on this page starts from that idea. We weigh three things together: Business Needs, Employee Desires, and Health and Safety. The balance differs by organization, but a solution has to work for the operation and for the people who carry it out.
OUR CORE ENGAGEMENT
Full project: analysis, buy-in, design and implementation
Most CCG engagements are full projects. We work with you from the first look at the problem through implementation and follow-up, using a structured 16-step process. The structure stays the same. The solution is built for your operation.
1
Fit and the case for change
Initial conversations with experienced CCG staff, then a half-day onsite seminar with senior leaders to test familiar assumptions and estimate the size of the opportunity
2
Operations analysis
Data collection, facility tours and interviews. We connect workload to workforce availability, check the findings with your managers, and quantify cost-saving and profit-making opportunities.
3
Employee assessment
Communication meetings across shifts, then an anonymous Employee Assessment. Results go back to managers and employees so they can see how their input shapes the options.
4
Solution design
Options that blend the three circles, refined with management, supervisors and, where it fits, a joint employee-management committee. Work, pay, and coverage policies are written down, not left to interpretation.
5
Implementation and follow-up
Implementation meetings, help with preference assessment or consensus building where employees choose between options, then follow-up by phone and onsite as the project needs. We check operating results and employee feedback against the original business case.
What you receive
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Operations Analysis Report
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Employee Assessment Report
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Implementation Manual covering the solution and its policies
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Implementation and follow-up support, scoped for your project
Typical timeline
A full project is typically completed in 12 to 16 weeks. Smaller organizations may need less time. Some projects take longer, mainly because of the timing of management decisions, holidays, or other changes going on in the organization. We set the pace around your decisions and calendar.
Working with a union workforce? See how we involve the local from the first meeting to the ratification vote.
Want the detail? Read the white paper below.
Changing Schedules Delivers Results →
From our Results stories
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
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Coleman Consulting Group brings an exceptional level of expertise in implementing alternative work schedules, even in large scale, complex, unionized manufacturing environments. Their balanced approach, considering the needs of employees, business objectives, and health and safety practices, makes the entire process both simple to understand and effective. CCG excels at educating stakeholders that scheduling encompasses more than just start and end times and days off; it also involves policies and systems that govern how time is spent both at work and away from work, such as vacation, breaks, and absenteeism.
CCG's change management skills were instrumental in the successful implementation of the most significant business and human impact change our 63-year-old company has undergone in 43 years: altering schedules and associated policies. Their adept communication with both management and employees, insightful analysis, and clear presentation of data were invaluable assets throughout the process. I highly recommend CCG for their exceptional scheduling expertise and nuanced understanding of union environments. Attempting such a high-profile project without the professional and experienced support of a team like CCG would be ill-advised.
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Sr. Organizational Development Manager, Flexfab
Client Testimonial
Focused services
CCG is also contracted for individual pieces of work. Each of these can be scoped on its own.
Business and people assessments
Get the facts before you commit to change.
Operations Analysis
The analysis stage of a full project, on its own. We study workload, staffing, absences, overtime, coverage and how departments depend on each other, check the findings with your managers, and quantify the opportunities. Findings are documented in an Operations Analysis Report.
Employee Handbook and Policy Review
A review of the work, pay, time off, overtime, attendance and coverage policies behind your schedule. There is no one-size-fits-all deliverable. It can be a complete markup of your employee handbook, markups of individual policies, or a set of recommended changes.
Employee Engagement Surveys
Anonymous surveys on how employees experience their schedule and work today, and what they would value in a change. Overall results are compared to CCG norms adjusted for your industry and scheduling practices, and can be broken out by department or current schedule. We usually present the results to employees on site, but we can also present them remotely, by recorded video, or train your staff to deliver them.
Analytic Support
Help with the numbers behind a staffing or scheduling decision, such as workload and coverage analysis, overtime, and modeling schedule options. It can also support continuous improvement initiatives or the analysis of large data sets to find trends.
Business Case Assessment
Less comprehensive than an operations analysis, but in depth enough to support a decision: move forward with a full-scale project, or wait until business conditions are more favorable.
Safety and Training
Identify risks in your current scheduling practices and help employees live well with shift work.
Fatigue Risk Assessment
A review of how your schedules, hours and related policies create fatigue risk. Using time and payroll records, surveys and interviews, we look at work and rest patterns and overtime and identify the groups and shifts most at risk. You receive a report on every area where workforce fatigue puts your organization at risk, with practical steps to reduce it.
Train-the-Trainer
We prepare your own people to deliver the shift work health and safety class, with materials prepared for your site, so you can run the training in-house. It includes a practice session where your trainers demonstrate they can deliver the class.
Shift Work Health and Safety Training
A shift work health and safety class for your employees, led by CCG and tailored to your schedule and operation. Teaching new hires how to adapt to shift work, and to their own shift in particular, significantly reduces new hire turnover once they are assigned to shift work. Many clients also invite employees' families, so they understand how to support their shift worker.
Launch and support
Start a new site well, or get help steering a change your team is leading.
Greenfield Projects
Advice on scheduling and ramp-up for a new site: shift patterns, staffing levels, and how the schedule grows as lines and headcount are added.
Related story: a start-up plant scheduled to grow from 3 lines to 8 →
Expert Witness for Mediation or Legal Proceedings
Expert opinion and testimony on work schedules, staffing and shift work. CCG consultants have served as experts in grievance proceedings, as neutral third-party advisors during contract negotiations, and as expert witnesses on fatigue factors related to schedules.
Project Management Support
Change work that is not always about scheduling: HRIS or ERP implementations, logistics and warehousing continuous improvement, coordination between client project teams, Six Sigma and Lean projects, executive mentoring and coaching, and other data analytics and change management work.
Not sure which fits?
Most first conversations start with the problem, not the service. Tell us what's happening and we'll help you work out what you need.
WHITE PAPER
How the CCG Methodology Identifies Opportunities, Builds Buy In, and Carries Solutions Through Implementation
A closer look at how a full project works: the first conversations, the onsite seminar, the operations analysis, employee participation, solution design and follow-up, with the 16-step process at a glance.
Free download. No form.
Changing Schedules Delivers Results
Find your situation
Working in union environments
How we work with union leadership and members on schedule change.