Writing a duty roster made easy with these tips
In this article, we reveal how to write a duty roster with the help of a few tips and, above all, what exactly is important.
How are shifts planned?
Shift work does not only exist in the care sector, but in many other industries. For example, newspapers, TV stations, promotion agencies, hostess agencies, event organizers, sports stadiums, call centers, logistics companies and so many more work with rosters.
All of these shift schedules must be created and prepared accordingly by employees. The challenge often arises: How are the shifts divided up fairly?
Put simply, the various shifts should be distributed as fairly as possible among all employees.
However, many details such as individual working hours, vacation days, illnesses, parental leave, qualifications, etc. must be taken into account when dividing up the schedule. This makes things very difficult with the duty roster.
If work is done in shifts, there are usually early, late and night shifts. The working hours are as follows, for example:
- Early shift: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Late shift 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
- Night shift 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Duty roster criteria: 6 tips
If you want to write a duty roster, you should take a few criteria into account.
1. operational objectives
First of all, it must be clear that there must be neither too many nor too few team members in the respective shifts. The balance of the number of people is crucial here.
It also makes sense to use the most cost-effective workforce possible and to avoid overtime.
2. legal requirements
There are legal criteria that must be observed when writing a duty roster. The Labor Act is the most important of these.
For correct planning, particular attention must be paid to the minimum rest period between shifts and the maximum daily working hours. The weekly working hours and compensation days for work on Sundays and public holidays must also be taken into account.
There are other laws that influence a shift plan, such as the Federal Leave Act, the Maternity Protection Act, the Minimum Wage Act and the Youth Employment Protection Act.
3. employment contracts
The employment contracts provide further criteria for drawing up a duty roster. These include the following aspects that influence the shift plan:
- Working hours (full or part-time)
- Vacation days
- Working time accounts
- Overtime
- Supplements for night work or public holidays
- Allowances for e.g. on-call duty
4. employees
Ultimately, the duty roster stands or falls without the team. It is best to ask your colleagues about their wishes before creating the schedule so that you can then take them into account. This will also reduce the number of swap offers from employees.
You should also make sure that unpopular services such as Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are distributed fairly so that everyone gets a turn.
5. plan for possible failures
In your duty roster, you should bear in mind that staff may be absent at short notice. Due to illness or during the summer vacation period, it is important to think about having enough back-up staff.
This will save you more work afterwards.
6. publish in good time
Planning is the be-all and end-all and the duty roster should not be created at the last minute if possible. It is also important that the duty roster coordinates private appointments with work commitments so that employees remain motivated and no conflicts arise.
How do I write a duty roster?
Writing a duty roster with Excel: Far too many companies still do this. However, this is no longer up-to-date, time-consuming and not at all clear.
There are often several people involved in writing the shift plan and they usually spend several days on it. This effort is expensive and simply takes far too long with Excel.
That’s why Teamhero exists. With our software, you can easily create your rosters with just a few clicks. Do you want to convince yourself that Teamhero is the better choice than Excel? Then take a look at our big comparison.
Writing a roster with Teamhero
Shift planning is one of the core functions of our Teamhero personnel management software. We have made it our goal to make your day-to-day work easier and free up valuable time for more important tasks.
Teamhero impresses with its intuitive operation, is available anywhere and at any time and you can use it to perform numerous other HR tasks.
