How to create a shift roster

Start from the workload, not the staff list

List the hours your operation runs and how many people each part of the day needs. A pharmacy store open 8 am to 10 pm might need 3 people in the morning and 4 in the evening peak. A warehouse might need 20 pickers from 6 am to 2 pm, 25 from 2 pm to 10 pm when orders peak, and 8 overnight. Write the need for each day of the week, because Saturday and Monday rarely look like Wednesday. The roster exists to cover this need at a fair cost, so everything that follows is checked against it.

Define a small set of shifts

Shifts are the building blocks: a code, start and end time, break and hours. Keep the set small, because every extra shift makes the roster harder to read and to swap. A store might run M from 8 am to 4 pm, E from 2 pm to 10 pm and G from 10 am to 6 pm to cover the overlap at the evening peak. Give each shift a clear code and colour so a supervisor can read a week at a glance. Record which shifts cross midnight or count as night work, because allowances and rules for night work differ.

Worked example: headcount for a 7-day store

The store needs 3 people on M and 4 on E every day, which is 7 shifts a day and 49 shifts a week. Each employee works 6 shifts a week with 1 weekly off, so the minimum headcount is 49 / 6 = 8.17, which means 9 people just to cover the week with nobody on leave. Now add leave. If each person takes about 2 days a month, 9 people lose 9 x 2 = 18 shifts a month, around 4 shifts a week, which is most of another person's week. The store should roster 10 people and expect a few weeks each year to need overtime or a swap.

Fairness checks before you publish

Before publishing, read the roster once as each employee would. Coverage can look perfect on the grid while one person gets every Sunday and another closes the store at 10 pm and opens it again at 8 am the next day.

• Weekend offs rotate, so the same people are not always working Sundays.
• Evening and night shifts are shared across the team, not left to the newest joiners.
• Nobody works a closing shift followed by an opening shift the next morning.
• Weekly hours stay within the limits that apply to you, with any excess approved as overtime.
• Each shift has the skills it needs, such as a pharmacist or a first-aider.

Step by step

1. Map the workload by hour and day. Write down how many people each part of each day needs, using sales, orders or patient data. This is the target the roster must meet.
2. Define the shift set. Create a few shifts with codes, times, breaks and hours. ZeniaHR's shift catalogue holds each shift's code, timings, break, full-day and half-day hours, grace and a night shift flag, with editable default shifts.
3. Work out the headcount. Divide the weekly shifts needed by the shifts each person works, round up, and add cover for leave. Compare the result with the staff you have and plan the gap.
4. Place weekly offs first. Put weekly offs in before shifts, spreading them across the week so every day stays covered. Rotate Sundays and festival days fairly.
5. Fill the shifts. Assign people to shifts day by day, checking the skill mix on each shift. In ZeniaHR, shifts can be assigned by day or in bulk over up to 92 days, with a day grid and a roster per employee.
6. Check hours and rest. Total each person's weekly hours, check the rest between consecutive shifts, and send anything over your limits for overtime approval before publishing.
7. Publish two weeks ahead. Share the roster at least two weeks before it starts so people can plan. Employees using ZeniaHR see their roster in the mobile app.
8. Handle changes through swaps. After publication, changes go through a swap request approved by the manager, not verbal deals, so the roster always shows who actually worked.

Frequently asked questions