Employee Work Schedules for Companies Open

More Than 8 Hours/Day or 5 Days/Week

Businesses that operate more than 8 hours a day or more than 5 days a week will benefit from having a set work schedule for employees. Employees will be happy with the increased predictability that comes with knowing when they are scheduled to work and, more importantly, when they will be off. Managers will appreciate not having to spend so much time creating new schedules every week or running short-handed because a vacant shift can't be filled.

 

Employee work schedules should be based on the company's hours of operation and how the workload is distributed. Let's take a look at how these can affect the schedule:

 

Shift Length

If you're open for more than 8 hours a day, the first step is to decide how long you want employees to work each day, i.e. the shift length. Here are the things you'll need to consider:

• If the workload is steady, you should match the hours (shift length) with the hours of operation. For example, if you are open for 11 hours a day, setting the shift length to 11 hours avoids having two shifts to cover the 11-hour period. Two shifts takes a lot more people than just one shift unless you are using part-time employees to cover hours not assigned to full-time employees. For example, if you are open 11 hours, you could have full-time employees for 8 hours and part-time employees for the remaining 3 hours.
   
• If the workload varies over the course of the day, one approach is to select shifts that overlap at the same time you are busiest. For example, if you are open from 8a-8p and you're busiest from 2p-6p, you could have a 10-hour shift that runs from 8a-6p and a 6-hour shift that runs from 2p-8p. 
   
• Another approach for a workload that varies by time of day is to use a long shift that matches the daily hours and overlay that with a shorter shift that matches the busy period. For example, if you need a minimum of 3 people at all times for 12 hours a day, you would schedule 3 people on a 12-hour shift. Then you could overlay that with a shorter shift to boost the coverage when you are busiest, e.g., a 6-hour shift from 2p-6p or a 3-hour shift from 1p-4p. 

Format

If you have more than one shift per day, you'll have to decide if you want employees to work the same hours every day, or if you want them to work different hours from time-to-time, i.e. rotating shifts. Most full-time employees will prefer to work the same hours (i.e. fixed shifts). On the other hand, you may want them to gain experience both opening and closing, or working during the busy periods. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages that you'll have to weigh before deciding.

 

Work Pattern

Here are three common issues:

• If you are open Saturdays and/or Sundays, you may want some employees to alternate the weekends worked. This will require a schedule that rotates the days of work. For example, if you have 4 employees and need 2 people working every weekend, you could create a 4-week schedule in which everyone works 2 weekends every 4 weeks.
   
• Many employees prefer to work the same days every week. This makes it much more difficult (or often impossible) to alternate the weekend shifts, but it is commonly done.
   
• If your workload varies by day of the week, you'll need to decide how much coverage is best for each day. For example, suppose Fridays and Saturdays are the two busiest days of the week and you need 3 people on those days but only 2-person Mon-Thu. You need a schedule that schedules an additional person for those 2 busy days.

Staffing

The first consideration is whether to use any part-time (PT) employees. They are great for short shifts, odd shifts each week, or even absence coverage. Using both full-time (FT) and PT employees can keep your staff size and costs at a minimum. For example, if you need 1-person working at all times on a 10/6 basis (10 hours a day for 6 days a week), two full-time (FT) employees working 40 hours a week (or 4 days a week) would overlap 2 times a week. This is unnecessary coverage that could be avoided by having one FT employee for 4 days and one or two PT employees to cover the remaining 2 days.

 

PT employees are often only available for certain shifts or days of the week. They may only be able to work a limited number hours each week. If these are good employees and/or you don't have a lot of choice, this means you'll need to start the scheduling based on their availability and build the schedule for FT people around that. For example, suppose you are open 12 hours a day Mon-Fri and 6 hours on Sat and you need 3 people at all times you are open. You have 2 PT people. One is available Saturdays only. The other is available weekday evenings but can only work 8 hours a week. Once you lock in these days and times, you can start on the FT employees' schedules. 

The next step is to allocate the days of work to the FT employees to total as close to 40 hours a week as possible. When you have a mix of part-time employees, different shift lengths, short shifts, and coverage that varies from hour-to-hour and/or day-to-day, it's difficult to figure out an efficient schedule. We can help! Click on the link below to get a quote for our schedule design services.

 

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