What is a shift schedule?

A shift schedule consists of the days and hours your employees work. Schedules are necessary to stay organized, manage resources, enhance efficiency, and boost customer service. Many industries like bars, restaurants, trade services, manufacturing, medical, retail, and others incorporate shift schedules to manage their workforce according to their workload. Therefore, shifts can vary according to the time of day, day of the week, or season.

Why are shift schedules important?

There are five reasons why every employer should use a shift work schedule: 

1. Manage workforce attendance 

Attendance issues can throw a schedule into chaos unless your schedule accounts for backup employees. Having a backup plan for last-minute sick days, personal issues, or mental health breaks is vital to maintaining business as usual.

2. Promote efficient operations

Employees who know their work schedule ahead of time have a better work-life balance, leading to a happier workforce and higher productivity.

3. Stay on top of overtime hours

Overtime can be costly and a health risk. Implementing a proper shift schedule allows your leaders to monitor overtime hours and allocate them fairly so that no employee takes on too much and becomes a safety risk.

4. Provide a fair time-off policy

When allocating time off, management can analyze previous schedules to keep things fair. For example, everyone takes their turn working a statutory holiday.

5. Ensure efficient workforce management 

Management can use shift schedules to ensure that employees with the required skills work in the right areas, and they have enough workers to cover peak hours.

Typical work schedules

Each industry has its preferred type of shift schedule, and some use more than one type. Here are a few of the more common schedules used with today’s workforce.

Full-time schedule

This schedule generally has employees working approximately eight hours per day, five days a week. However, some companies have moved to a four-day work week, with their full-time employees working, for example, ten hours per day to allow an extra day off. The days of the week can vary depending on the business, but ultimately, a full-time schedule means working between 30 and 40 hours per week.

Fixed-shift schedule

A fixed-shift schedule refers to employees who regularly work the same hours on the same days. For example, if you have a valued employee who can only work certain hours some days, you can accommodate them with a fixed shift rather than lose them.

Part-time schedule

Working part-time means the employee works less than 30 hours per week. The number of hours per day and how many days per week can vary. This type of schedule suits employees who can only commit to part-time hours or businesses with peak periods that could use the extra help.

Split-shift schedule

A split shift means splitting a full shift into two non-consecutive time blocks. For example, a restaurant server could work a split shift from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for the lunch rush and then return for the dinner rush from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. 

Shift-work schedule

Companies that operate 24/7 have three eight-hour work shifts that require scheduling, usually called the day, evening, and night shifts. These shifts can be permanent or set up to rotate weekly or monthly. Since an extra two days (48 hours) of work are available each week, part-time employees are necessary to fill the gaps, along with some full-time employees working overtime.

On-call or standby schedule

When a scheduled employee is on-call or on standby, they must remain available during that period. This type of schedule allows for backup in case another employee can’t work or the business becomes busy enough to require an extra hand. Also, in the case of service trades or the medical field, on-call employees are often on standby for emergencies beyond the scope of their regular working hours.

Seasonal schedule

Working seasonally means working when business is booming. For example, the holiday season brings large crowds to the retail sector and often requires more workforce to cover the higher demand. Likewise, the hospitality industry usually booms during the warm summer months, while autumn usually requires extra workers for short-term harvesting sessions. 

Scheduling issues you can avoid

While some scheduling issues are unavoidable, an effective work schedule can help reduce or eliminate the following: 

• A lack of workforce availability: Even the best thought-out schedule can run into dilemmas, like an employee having to deal with an unforeseen personal matter that prevents them from going to work. This wouldn’t be a problem if you had an on-call employee on the schedule to cover their shift. 

• Staff shortage: Don’t get caught short-staffed during peak periods. It’s frustrating enough when employees call in sick, but not having enough staff on hand to meet changing demands is avoidable when you plan ahead.

• Chronic tardiness, calling in sick, or straight-up no-shows: It’s difficult to value the effort of staff who don’t value their job. No schedule remains intact for long if continuously disregarded.

• Staff turnover: Training new staff is costly. Take a step back, determine what’s causing the turnover, and fix the initial problem. If scheduling is the issue, talk with your employees to see if their current shift balances their schedule appropriately.  

• Lack of communication: Sick employees, tardiness, and shift swapping will always be scheduling headaches, but clear communication and allowing enough notice can alleviate unnecessary stress.

Things to consider when creating schedules 

There’s more to effective scheduling than just choosing which type of schedule to use. Understanding and considering both employee and employer needs are vital to the process.

Here are some things to consider when creating schedules: 

• Have a clear understanding of the employee’s job description
• Give employees advance notice of any changes in the schedule
• Offer the opportunity to pick up extra shifts or swap shifts where it makes sense
• Allow employees time off when they give you reasonable notice, but be sure to have a replacement in place 
• Avoid under- or over-staffing
• Use different types of scheduling to maintain productivity and employee satisfaction
• Reduce your turnover rates
• Optimize scheduling to improve efficiency

Benefits of effective scheduling

Balancing your business needs with your employee’s needs when creating shift schedules earns you benefits, such as:

• Improved company morale
• Increased employee engagement
• Reduced labour costs
• Improved customer experience
• Employee accountability
• Increased profits

How to build an effective work schedule

There are several steps to building an effective employee work schedule:

1. Calculate the labour required 

Take every role your business has and calculate how many hours it takes to do each task. Deep dive into the smallest details, so you don’t overlook anything. 

2. Examine the current daily activity

Analyze current reports to determine the amount of staff you need per shift. Not sticking to actual data can lead to under- or over-staffing.

3. Forecast long-term activity

Use past reports to identify trends and anomalies like daily, weekly, and monthly slow and peak periods to prevent over-staffing or being caught short-handed.

4. Consider staff scheduling needs

Be as flexible as you can to the needs of your staff, as it makes for happier and more productive employees. Employees with seniority may require special exceptions.

5. Decide on schedule types and assign shifts

Choose the schedule types that optimize production while satisfying your employees, even if it means using several different types. As you assign shifts, remember the unique circumstances that some employees may have.

6. Share new schedules with all employees

Communicate new schedules with your staff in real time via group text or some other platform, so you can deal with any feedback quickly and efficiently. Be prepared for any last-minute changes you may have to make.

7. Regularly review your scheduling process

Review and track production reports, labour costs, and process efficiencies to help continuously improve and optimize your scheduling process.