Problem
You are the business manager of a very busy multi-disciplinary health care clinic. One of your responsibilities has been to manage all of the scheduling for all the staff.
You have been doing this using a paper-based approach, and many times, there are mistakes made such as: failing to assign shifts, double-booking shifts, scheduling shifts during vacations, failing to assign the correct number of employees per clinic area, etc. This has resulted in employees who do not show up for their shift, are sent home because there are too many, are not getting their vacation time, or, clinic areas being short-staffed.
There is constant confusion among the staff about their weekly schedules and they continually come to you for clarification and correction of their schedules. The employees feel unhappy because there is no stability in the schedule. They also feel resentful and stressed when the clinic is understaffed and they have to carry the burden of extra work.
The employees have brought their concerns to the CEO of the clinic. The CEO directs you to implement an electronic scheduling system to address the issue, as well as develop a change management strategy to handle the implementation.
Using evidence from the textbook, the lecture material, and reputable scholarly online sources, how would you approach this task? Where would you go to find answers and/or the information that you need?
Be clear and specific in your change management plan and, where appropriate, provide reliable and valid evidence to support your proposed actions.