Originally, it was intended as an efficient way to schedule shift-based part-time work, but it is now known that this concept can be applied to any job that requires a number of consecutive hours of commitment as a shift.
An online marketplace is created for employees and employers to meet, apply for jobs and recruit in real time in a cloud-based environment.
Furthermore, any changes in the employees’ schedule and commitment is transmitted real time back to the employer, so that contingency measures can be taken as soon as possible, if needed.
In contrast to automated scheduling software that relies on algorithms to optimise service hours and minimise manpower costs, a shift-based hiring approach delegates the role of filling the duty roster to ensure the appropriate staffing levels back to the managers and the team of workers.
[5] Rather than relying on an algorithm to assign shifts which has been shown to place a high human-factors cost on the team worker, shift-based hiring leverages on its cloud-based nature and crowd-sourcing ideas to ensure that the staffing level needs are transparently communicated to managers and the team in real-time and managers get to assign or have workers bid for their shifts in a dynamic way to meet the staffing needs.
The working hours of service sectors cannot fit into the 9 to 5 job timings, and thus businesses instead maximise their operations in certain periods of a day.
The diversification of work hours[6] to maximise business profitability exemplifies the applicability of shift based hiring in such sectors.
Although manpower can possibly be scalable in the short run, other inputs such as raw materials, long production periods and time lag in responding to change in demand can render the benefits of shift based hiring ineffective.
As work life integration becomes more and more of a choice for many workers, employees seek to have more flexibility in deciding their shift timings.