User Study for Understanding Efficiency and Requirements of Computer-aided Support Systems for Home Help Staff Scheduling

Abstract

When making a schedule in a home help station the scheduler has to ensure each service can be provided on time by an appropriate helper. The scheduler must consider the working hours and intensity of the work, the traveling time to and from the users' home and the availability of each helper to complete a schedule. This scheduling is known to be difficult and time consuming due to the quantity of such constraints. Although computer-aided support systems are commercially available, it was found that such systems are not being utilized to obtain feasible schedules. In this paper, in order to understand what kind of system is needed, we made observations of the schedulers creating schedules on paper by hand. We then observed schedulers using a computer-aided support system in order to capture the issues involved using the computer systems. From the observations, we summarize several requirements that are needed to develop a useful computer system.