Patent ID: 8452630

Claim:
A method for scheduling a plurality of workers in a business day, comprising: obtaining a scheduled worker distribution comprising a plurality of work windows and specifying an original amount of work to be performed by the plurality of workers during the business day, wherein each of the plurality of work windows comprises a core component and a flex component, and wherein the flex component represents a maximum amount of time, adjacent to the core component, by which schedules in the core component may be shifted; identifying, for a worker of the plurality of workers, a schedule within the core component of a work window of the plurality of work windows; notifying the worker of the schedule and the flex component of the work window; obtaining, after notifying the worker of the schedule and the flex component, a forecasted demand distribution specifying an updated amount of work to be performed by the plurality of workers during the business day; generating, by a computer processor, a comparison of the scheduled worker distribution with the forecasted demand distribution for the business day, wherein the comparison takes as an input a threshold parameter specifying a tolerable number of deficient workers for each increment of time in the comparison, wherein the scheduled worker distribution and the forecasted demand distribution are not equal; creating, by the computer processor and based on the comparison, a new schedule for the worker by shifting the schedule into the flex component of the work window while leaving the core component of the new schedule unchanged, wherein the new schedule satisfies the updated amount of work; and notifying, in advance of the business day, the worker of the new schedule.