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A well-thought-out shift schedule is essential for ensuring that employees are assigned as efficiently and ergonomically as possible. It contains important information about which employees are currently at work and what tasks they are performing.
This article explains in detail what exactly a shift schedule is, how companies can benefit from one, and how you can use it effectively.
Definition: What is a shift schedule?
Shift schedules are used in personnel planning to ensure the best possible allocation of work among individual employees. The schedule describes specifically when and where the employee is to perform their work in the company and what their tasks are.
A good shift schedule should take into account the interests of the employees and enable the company’s goals to be achieved in accordance with the relevant quality requirements.
In addition, when designing a shift schedule, the legal framework conditions under the Working Hours Act and any agreements from collective agreements or works agreements must be taken into account.
These include:
- Working hours: You can choose to work more than 48 hours a week on average if you’re over 18. This is called ‘opting out’. Your employer can ask you to opt out, but you cannot be sacked or treated unfairly for refusing.
- Rest break: Workers have the right to one uninterrupted 20 minute rest break during their working day, if they work more than 6 hours a day. This could be a tea or lunch break.
- Daily rest: Workers have the right to 11 hours rest between working days, eg if they finish work at 8pm, they shouldn’t start work again until 7am the next day. However, there are also cases, such as on-call duty or standby duty, where compliance with statutory rest periods is not possible and is regulated by on-call duty.
In addition, when drawing up the shift schedule, exceptions for specific groups of people must be taken into account in accordance with the law. This refers to young people, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, severely disabled people and those performing community service.
What is the difference between a work schedule and a shift schedule?
The work schedule is often used as a synonym for the shift schedule. In production and skilled trades, however, it is not used to plan the working hours of employees, but rather to divide production into different work steps. Accordingly, the work schedule is also known as a production plan and increases employee productivity because everyone knows exactly what they have to do next.
What is the difference between a shift schedule and a duty roster?
Duty rosters and shift schedules essentially serve the same purpose: they are both used for personnel planning to ensure the best possible distribution of employees’ working hours. Shift schedules differ from duty rosters in that they distribute work that extends beyond an employee’s working hours. The work is distributed in such a way that it can be completed by different employees in a specific sequence.
What is the historical origin of the shift schedule?
In the history of mankind, the first shift schedule models, also known as duty roster models, appeared in ancient Rome with Caesar’s legislation. The idea behind this was that goods should be delivered at night so that the narrow streets would not be so crowded during the day. Even before the 18th century, there were many night watchmen who worked in shifts to protect against danger or kept watch during wartime.
The shift schedule as we know it today ultimately originated during the industrialisation period. Shift workers took turns working day and night so that the expensive machines would pay for themselves. At that time, however, there were only a few occupational groups and no legal regulations to protect shift workers.
Nowadays, shift work and alternating shifts are common in many companies in the UK. Today, legal or collective agreement provisions and, in some cases, the needs of employees determine the organisation of work processes – above all, the Working Hours Act.
What shift systems are there?
The shift models are differentiated in terms of both throughput time and the number of shifts:
- Fully continuous shift model (continuous shift schedule): Often, four or more shifts are assigned and operations run 24 hours a day, including weekends.
- Partially continuous shift model: Usually, two or three shifts are assigned per day, i.e. early and late shifts or, in addition, night shifts as part of night work.
What are the legal requirements for a shift schedule?
In principle, there is no clear law specifically governing the organisation of duty rosters. However, the legislator does provide necessary guidelines in the form of labour laws, which define the limits of what is reasonable for employees in more specific terms. These laws enable companies to know how to organise shift planning correctly in order to act in the interests of both employees and economic efficiency.
How does a shift schedule work?
A shift schedule divides the employees’ work over time. In most cases, shifts rotate in a fixed cycle so that none of the employees are assigned to the same shift, for example, late or night shifts, too often in a row.
What needs to be considered when designing a shift schedule?
When designing a shift schedule, companies must take into account the needs and requirements of their employees. Furthermore, employers must also ensure that they comply with the legal requirements regarding working hours and include the necessary rest periods in their planning. A change from night shift to early shift should be avoided in the rotation. In addition, a shift schedule should be designed to be flexible.
Who is allowed to draw up a shift schedule?
As a rule, the employer has the authority to draw up a duty roster by exercising their right to issue instructions (right of direction). In the catering and care sectors in particular, the employer often assigns a shift supervisor to draw up the shift schedule.
How does a shift schedule support companies in personnel planning?
By knowing who is working when, companies can extend their operating hours and bring more structure to their workflows, working time management and staff deployment planning. With the help of certain apps and software solutions as shift planning tools, it is now easy to find the right online tool for creating a good shift schedule.
When searching for suitable software, it is advisable to consider additional functions such as digital management of absences and time recording for tracking potential overtime.
What are the advantages of automatic shift planning?
With automatic shift planning using shift planning software, changes can be easily incorporated. Even with changing order volumes, possible adjustments can be easily incorporated, making the creation of shift schedules much easier.
Real-time communication with employees via email
Data adjustments can then be sent directly to users via email or viewed directly in the digital software to ensure an overview of the current schedules.
Utilise digital products for shift planning
There are now numerous solutions and tools on the market for creating online shift schedules. Depending on your shift planning requirements, there are many products available that can solve the problem of time-consuming shift planning for those responsible for scheduling in no time at all and also offer absence management.
Nevertheless, many companies still use Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Office for shift planning. In most cases, selected templates are used, but these quickly become outdated in everyday work.
Shift planner: Online shift schedule for employees
With a digital shift planner, you can create a schedule without much preparation or expertise and focus on your core business while you work. Unlike analogue shift planning, the digital solution automatically fills in the schedule shift by shift, and you can even invite your employees to participate in the planning process directly online via email.
Note: You decide how much influence employees have in shift planning.
Further questions on the topic of shift schedules
When it comes to shift planning, there are often a number of questions that arise. Some of the most frequently asked questions are explained in more detail below.
When must a shift schedule be available?
There is no general uniform rule for this. However, it has become standard practice for the shift schedule to be available half of the time for which it is valid, but no later than four days in advance. If a duty roster is valid for one month, it should be available at least two weeks in advance.
Can a shift schedule be changed at short notice?
A shift schedule must be adapted to the needs of the employee so that they can plan their daily routine in advance. Accordingly, a shift schedule may not be changed by the company at short notice unless the employee agrees to the change.
Is a shift schedule valid without a signature?
Generally speaking, no, as it must not only be submitted to the works council, but also approved by it. This approval is usually confirmed in writing with a signature.
Is a shift schedule subject to data protection?
Yes, a duty roster is subject to data protection in HR, as it contains personal data of employees. This includes, for example, an employee’s email address. This means that it cannot simply be displayed unless it has been approved.
Who is permitted to view a shift schedule?
As a shift schedule is subject to data protection, only authorised persons may view it. Employees do not have a general right to view their colleagues’ duty rosters, for example.
What influence does the works council have on shift planning?
Since the works council is there to represent the interests of the employee and the allocation of staff should be organised as efficiently as possible with this in mind, both the employee themselves, the employee representative and the works council have a right of co-determination when it comes to planning shifts.
