The normal site week
Outside the peaks, one site shift such as 8 am to 5 pm with an hour for lunch, six days a week with Sunday off, covers construction management, QC and HSE staff. The design office works the General 9 to 6 shift, with alternate Saturdays off. Hold both in the shift catalogue with separate grace minutes and full-day hours, and give camp in-charges and store keepers who cover Sundays a personal weekly off on another day.
Round-the-clock commissioning shifts
Once commissioning starts, the site needs engineers watching systems at all hours alongside the client's operators. Two twelve-hour shifts look tempting, but the OSH Code caps ordinary daily work at eight hours, so each twelve-hour shift carries four hours of overtime. Three eight-hour shifts, Morning 6 to 2, Evening 2 to 10 and Night 10 to 6, stay within ordinary hours but need more people. Cost both options before commissioning and choose knowingly.
For three shifts, a four-engineer crew per discipline works well. Each week one engineer takes mornings, one evenings, one nights, and the fourth is the relief: he covers the other three's weekly offs, staggered to Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and does day-shift punch list work on the other days. A 28-day rotation template, staggered by seven days per engineer, moves everyone through all four roles in a month.
Shutdown rosters and night shift fatigue
A client shutdown has a fixed window, often three to four weeks, and every day lost costs the client production. Build the roster before the window opens, publish it a week ahead, and do not leave the same engineers on nights for the whole job. Rotate nights weekly, keep a rest day in every seven, and plan a handover of 15 to 30 minutes where the outgoing engineer briefs the incoming one on permits, isolations and open jobs. Night shifts crossing midnight are filed to the day they started, so a Monday night stays a Monday duty.
Swaps and weekly offs in the crunch
Even during commissioning, everyone needs a weekly off. Let engineers swap shifts or weekly offs with a colleague from the same discipline, so an instrumentation engineer's day off is covered by another instrumentation engineer rather than whoever is free. Once the colleague agrees, the swap needs the reporting manager's approval followed by HR's, and the roster updates only at that last step. Check the day grid every evening for the following day, so a missing night shift is found at 6 pm, not at 10.
How to set it up in ZeniaHR
- In Shifts & Roster, keep the six-day site shift and the General shift for head office, and edit the default Morning, Evening and Night shifts for commissioning.
- Mark the Night shift with the night shift flag, which files post-midnight punches to the day the shift began.
- Build a 28-day rotation template for each commissioning discipline, staggered by seven days per engineer, and assign it in bulk for the commissioning period.
- Stagger weekly offs within each crew, and give camp and stores staff who cover Sundays a personal weekly off.
- Enable shift swaps so engineers can exchange shifts or weekly offs with a colleague, approved by the manager and HR before the roster changes.
- Check the day grid every evening during commissioning and shutdowns to confirm each discipline is covered on every shift.
Read more about shifts and rosters in ZeniaHR.
Roles this applies to
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What shift pattern do EPC companies use during commissioning?
Either two twelve-hour shifts or three eight-hour shifts, run round the clock alongside the client's operators. Twelve-hour shifts need fewer people but carry four hours of overtime a day, because anything beyond eight ordinary hours a day is overtime. Three shifts need more engineers but keep hours within the ordinary limit.
How many engineers are needed to cover three shifts every day?
At least four per role once weekly offs are counted. Three shifts a day for seven days is 21 shifts a week, and three people working six days each cover only 18. A fourth engineer covers the weekly offs of the other three and does day-shift work on the remaining days.
How often should night shifts rotate on an EPC site?
Weekly rotation is common: a week of mornings, a week of evenings, a week of nights, then a relief week. It spreads night work fairly and keeps anyone from spending a whole shutdown on nights. Keep at least one rest day in every seven, even during the crunch.
Can women engineers be rostered on night shifts at EPC sites?
Yes, provided the engineer consents and the government's safety conditions for night work are met. Plan safe transport between the site and the camp, and never roster anyone on nights without asking first. Keep the written consent in the employee's documents before the first night shift.