Learn how minimum and ideal staffing requirements are calculated when creating service plans, and how this is displayed when managing your roster.
Patchwork supports a truly evidence-based calculation of minimum staffing numbers. With a comprehensive awareness of demand, rota coordinators can match worker availability to the activities that are actually needed to run a service, rather than making educated guesses as to where workers will be needed.
Watch the below tutorial to explore how minimum and ideal staffing requirements (MSN, ISN) are set within the service plan and displayed within the system.
MSN and ISN calculations for the roster are still grade-dependent. In the same way that only activities that have a requirement for the grades included on the roster are shown, the system only considers MSN/ISN requirements for grades that are included on the roster. For example, if a roster only includes staff of grade ‘ST3’, the system will not show or consider requirements for e.g. CON or FY1 when calculating MSN or ISN. The system assumes a 1:1:1 relationship between rosters, grades and departments, so there is no cross-roster calculation of MSN or ISN. Please consider this dependent carefully, as if this has not been understood it may result in confusion. For example, if a roster only includes staff of grade ‘ST3’ and MSN is shown as ‘met’ or ‘exceeded’ you cannot assume that this means that the CON staffing requirement has been met. In this scenario, if a separate roster specifically for CON is in use the user should check each roster to determine an accurate view of MSN and ISN across the department.
💡 MSN is calculated based on inputs from the service plan, so make sure you are familiar with how to create and manage service plans in the system.