Burnout rates and dissatisfaction among healthcare workers remain high due to long working hours. One possible solution to this problem is to let them choose their weekly working hours and starting times in order to achieve a work-life balance. Moreover, a scheduling process that responds to changing healthcare demands at different times of the day should increase work efficiency in hospitals. In this study, a methodology and software were developed to schedule hospital personnel, taking into account their preferences regarding working hours and starting time. The software also allows the hospital management to determine the number of staff needed at different times of the day. Three methods and five working-time scenarios characterized by different divisions of working time are proposed to solve the scheduling problem. The Seniority score Priority assignment Method appoints personnel prioritizing seniority, whereas the newly developed Balanced and Fair assignment Method and Genetic Algorithm Method aim for a more nuanced distribution. The methods proposed were applied to physicians in the internal diseases department in a specific hospital. Weekly/monthly scheduling of all employees was carried out with the software. The results of scheduling factoring in work-life balance, and the performances of algorithms are shown for the hospital where the application was trialled.

Work-life balance (WLB) can be defined as the ability of employees to fulfill their family and work responsibilities smoothly. Accordingly, WLB can be achieved by creating an environment that the individual can determine to keep the conflict between the tasks undertaken by individuals in their work and non-work lives to a minimum. In a study, it was found that 30% of the employees were not satisfied with their job due to long working hours, 21% due to high workload and 16% due to work-related stress. It was observed that 11% of the employees could not devote enough time to their social life (family) and therefore had difficulty in establishing the work-life balance. It is necessary to develop the most appropriate solutions with shift planning for the work success and social life of the employees. For this reason, the software developed was developed in accordance with the WLB of the employees, and programming algorithms were applied in the software with different methods. In this study, the ACO and the PSO literature research were conducted for scheduling problems suitable for the WLB of hospital staff. Scheduling flows were created with the software developed by considering the parameters required for the algorithms. In this study, the ant colony algorithm and the particle swarm algorithm literature research were conducted for scheduling problems suitable for the work-life balance of hospital staff. Scheduling flows were created with the software developed by considering the parameters required for the algorithms.