One general shift is fine, until it is not
An office and a shop can run on a 10 am to 7 pm shift with an hour's lunch for years. Add a second pattern only when the work demands it: the godown loading at 6 am, the delivery driver starting at 8, or a factory running morning and evening shifts. The default shifts, General 9 to 6, Morning 6 to 2, Evening 2 to 10 and Night 10 to 6, can be edited to your own timings rather than built from scratch.
Split shifts for shops that close in the afternoon
In many towns, shops open from 10 am to 1:30 pm, close for lunch and rest, and reopen from 4:30 pm to 9 pm. That is a split shift of two blocks, 3.5 hours and 4.5 hours, which add up to 8 hours of work. Set it up as a split shift so the afternoon gap is counted neither as work nor as absence, and the day adds up to the hours you actually pay for.
The 12-hour shift habit
Many small factories run two 12-hour shifts, 8 am to 8 pm and 8 pm to 8 am, because it is simple to manage. Under the OSH Code, ordinary daily work is capped at eight hours, and hours beyond that are overtime paid at twice the ordinary rate with the worker's consent. A 12-hour shift is therefore 8 ordinary hours plus 4 overtime hours every day. If you keep the pattern, record and pay it as overtime; if the cost is too high, consider three 8-hour shifts instead.
Weekly offs and swaps in a small team
In a team of eight, one person's weekly off is felt by everyone. Give every employee a fixed weekly off, set on the shift or personally, and let staff swap with a colleague when a family function comes up, with the supervisor and HR approving so the change is on record. A roster that shows everyone's day off ends the daily question of who is coming in tomorrow.
How to set it up in ZeniaHR
- Edit the default shifts in Shifts & Roster to your timings, and add a split shift for shop staff where the shop closes in the afternoon.
- For factories running 12-hour days, keep the shift's full-day hours at 8 and let the overtime policy count the extra hours.
- Set each shift's weekly off, or personal weekly offs for staff who follow a different day.
- Assign shifts in bulk and check the day grid for each unit, so the godown and the shop are covered on market days.
- Turn on Shift Swaps for the day a family function clashes with a shift; the supervisor and HR approve each one.
Read more about shifts and rosters in ZeniaHR.
Roles this applies to
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Is a 12-hour shift legal in India?
Only as 8 ordinary hours plus 4 hours of overtime. Under the OSH Code, ordinary daily work stops at eight hours, and anything over the prescribed hours counts as overtime, payable at twice the ordinary rate of wages and worked only by consent. Also check the spread-over and weekly limits notified for your state before running such a pattern.
What is a split shift?
It is a working day cut into two blocks with an unpaid gap, such as 10 am to 1:30 pm and 4:30 pm to 9 pm in a shop that closes in the afternoon. The gap counts as neither work nor absence, and the two blocks together make up the day's hours.
Do small businesses need a roster?
Once you have more than one shift, staff with different weekly offs or work that starts early at the godown, yes. A simple roster showing each person's shift and weekly off ends daily confusion, and attendance rules can then judge late marks against the right shift.