Dialyse Centrum Groningen: Giving staff control of their schedules

The challenge: complex rosters across four sites

DCG serves about 175 patients and employs about 160 people. The majority of them are healthcare professionals working varied shifts six days a week across Groningen and annexes in Assen, Stadskanaal, and Scheemda. Night shifts run only from Groningen, substitutes can come from any branch, and each team's staffing requirement can change from one day to the next. Scheduling was complex, and while overall employee satisfaction was high, staff wanted more control over their working hours and DCG wanted to support sustainable employability.

Created value: staff-led self-scheduling

By letting employees actively shape their own rosters, DCG shifted scheduling from a planner-driven task to a shared process. Staff now propose their preferred shifts in two structured rounds, within the same rules and staffing requirements as before. After these rounds, the schedule is about 80 percent complete, so schedulers can spend their time on urgent gaps and patient scheduling instead of building each roster from scratch.

How the rollout was approached

The phased approach was deliberate. DCG implemented self-scheduling first and did a version upgrade afterward, to avoid too many changes at once. The work was guided by a cross-functional taskforce drawn from HR, IT, scheduling, care, finance, and nursing staff, with ORTEC consultants supporting the technical setup and training. A 2019 pilot in Assen and Groningen set a baseline against earlier employee-satisfaction scores; after a unanimous decision to continue, self-scheduling was rolled out organization-wide in 2020, with some annexes asking when their turn would come.

What changed for employees

For staff working weekends and varied shifts, self-scheduling changed how work fits around life. Instead of receiving a fixed roster, employees can schedule their own time off or choose an earlier shift when they have evening plans, and most of the shifts they set for themselves stay as they are. The result is a greater say over when and where they work, without the roster losing the structure DCG needs across sites and shift types.

A calmer process for schedulers

Self-scheduling also changed the schedulers' role from building rosters to refining them. Because employees largely build their own ideal schedule in the first two rounds, only limited changes are needed afterward, leaving more room to handle staff shortages and urgent matters. The main adjustment was cultural: schedulers had to get used to staying on the sidelines during the first two rounds.

The benefits: More control, calmer scheduling operations

Self-scheduling gave DCG's staff more control over when and where they work, while keeping the roster feasible across sites and shift types.

• More sustainable employability and a greater say for staff

• More effective use of schedulers' time

• Less shift swapping

• A calmer, more predictable scheduling process