Academics / Undergraduate Program / Client Project Challenge / ProjectStaff Scheduling and Strategic Planning at a Local Non-Profit
Staff Scheduling and Strategic Planning at a Local Non-Profit
June 13, 2024
Boys Hope Girls Hope (BHGH) is a 45-year old nonprofit Residential Scholarship organization providing full-time, year-round care and housing for middle to high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds and supporting those students through high school graduation, college graduation and into career. BHGH has consistently faced operational scheduling challenges which has only been exacerbated in recent years. Since the COVID pandemic, BHGH has struggled with staffing their houses adequately due to a widespread labor shortage and a lack of college-educated, mission-driven applicants for house parent roles. This has led to operational challenges.
BHGH sponsored a Client Project Challenge with Northwestern IEMS students to create a system for better scheduling staff and evaluating staffing alternatives.
The NU Team made numerous site visits, timely data and info requests, and asked thoughtful, insightful questions. We could see early-on that they were thinking about the problem creatively and were focused on an implementable, flexible set of solutions.
The team did stakeholder research to get at the complexities of the scheduling puzzle we couldn’t see (staff with other jobs, grad school schedules, strong preferences for certain shifts, and other issues that impact their availability and job satisfaction).
They created a flexible, user-friendly scheduling platform that will be immediately useful to the BHGH staff and can adapt to changes in team needs.
Along the way, the team made several great suggestions: a dedicated driver, dedicated cook/grocery shopper/chef that could be tried to allow the house-parent focus on homework help, social-emotional needs, and other tasks. These roles might also reduce transportation costs and improve meal quality.
Jennifer Downs O'Shaughnessy, Vice President, said, “I was so impressed with how deeply they understood the complexity of this “simple” scheduling project and how well their proposed solution will work for us. The project was wonderful. Jhanvika, Sarah, Aditya, and Vivian did great work!”
The student team was Jhanvika Bhakta, Sarah Sarowitz, Aditya Sundesha, and Vivian Wu. The faculty advisor was Professor Derek Nelson.
About Boys Hope Girls Hope:
Boys Hope Girls Hope of Illinois helps motivated high school students rise above disadvantaged backgrounds. Our goal is to graduate young people who are physically, emotionally, and academically prepared for post-secondary education and productive life, breaking barriers so they can become community-minded leaders.
Boys Hope Girls Hope firmly believes that young people have the power to overcome adversity, realize their potential, and help transform our world. They create these successes when we remove obstacles, support and believe in them, and provide environments and opportunities that build on their strengths.