The January roster reset: returning staff, new casuals and changed availability

Written by Roster Flow. Published 15 October 2026.

The roster that ran through November and December was built around people, timetables and plans that have changed since. Someone is back from three weeks away. A student has a new timetable, or will not know it until semester starts. A casual who worked every weekday in December can now only do weekends, a part-time employee has new childcare arrangements, and two people hired for summer would like to stay. Copying the last roster of the year into the new one carries every old assumption with it.

This article is about resetting the roster itself: who is on it, when they are available and what the base week looks like. Planning the hours for a slow month is covered in how to plan labour for a quiet January.

Pick a reset week and work back from it

Choose the first week the new roster will apply. For many businesses it is the week schools go back in their state, because trade and staff availability often both change then. Work back from that week so that every step happens before the roster is built, not after it is published.

Publishing early matters more than usual in a reset week, because more people have changes to plan around.

Ask everyone for availability again

It is tempting to ask only the students. But availability shifts over summer for many reasons: a new second job, a partner’s new roster, a child starting school, a move further away. Ask every employee to confirm or update their availability, with the date it starts, and set a deadline.

• Days and hours they can work from the reset week, not just which days.
• Dates already booked in the first months of the year, such as holidays or exams.
• Anything not yet known, such as a semester timetable, with the date they expect to know it.
• Other jobs, and the hours they already work there.
• Travel, if they have moved or their transport has changed.

Record each answer with its start date, so last year’s availability does not carry over. A staff availability template gives everyone the same form. Students change through the year in their own way, set out in how to roster students around uni and school timetables.

Bring returning staff back onto the roster

Staff back from annual leave, casuals who took the holidays off and people who were away for longer all need a confirmed first day before they are rostered. Check the leave already approved, so nobody is rostered on a day they are still away. How to manage annual leave when building a roster covers putting leave on the roster first.

• Confirm the first day back in writing. A message that says "back on Monday 1 February, first shift 7:00" avoids a no show on day one.
• Tell them what changed while they were away, such as a new menu, a new supplier or a changed opening time, and put their first shift alongside someone who worked through.
• Ask seasonal casuals whether they want to stay. Some were only ever there for summer. Find out before you build the week around them.
• Take people who have left off the roster, so they are not copied into next week by mistake.

Part-time employees whose availability has changed

For a part-time employee, availability or the pattern of work is agreed in writing, so a change is more than a note on the roster. The rules differ between awards. These are from three common awards, so confirm yours with the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool.

Whether a particular change is a genuine and ongoing change in personal circumstances depends on the facts, so talk to the employee as soon as they raise it, and contact the Fair Work Ombudsman if you are unsure. Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, the roster of a full-time or part-time employee can change by agreement or with 7 days’ notice (clauses 15.3(d) and 15.5(d)).

Before changing an employee’s regular roster, all three awards also require you to consult them: explain the change and when it starts, invite their views about its effect on them, including on family or caring responsibilities, and consider what they say (clauses 33, 39 and 35).

Set up new casuals before their first shift

Summer casuals who are staying, and new people starting with the new year, need to be set up before they appear on the roster. The Fair Work Ombudsman says employers must give every new employee the Fair Work Information Statement before, or as soon as possible after, they start, and every new casual the Casual Employment Information Statement at the same time. How to onboard a new employee onto the roster covers the rest of the first week.

• Meet the minimum shift length. A casual must be engaged and paid for at least 2 consecutive hours each time under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards (clause 11.3), 3 consecutive hours under the Fast Food Industry Award (clause 11.3) and 3 hours under the General Retail Industry Award, which allows 1.5 hours only for some school students after school (clauses 11.2 and 11.3).
• Pair them with someone experienced for their first shifts, on quieter days where possible, and count those hours in the week’s budget. How to train new starters without blowing the wage budget covers the cost.
• Record what they can do, so the roster puts them only where they are trained. A skills matrix makes the gaps visible.

The reset is a good time to check the casuals who are not new, too. The Casual Employment Information Statement must be given again at set times: after 12 months of employment for small business employers, and after 6 and 12 months and then every 12 months for other employers. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s page explains who counts as a small business employer.

Rebuild the base week instead of copying December

With availability, returning staff and new starters settled, build the base week from what each day needs rather than from the last roster of the year.

1. List the shifts each day needsStart with opening, the busy periods and closing for each day, and the skills each one needs, before any names go in.
2. Place full-time and part-time staffPut them on their usual shifts, keeping part-time employees inside their agreed availability or pattern of work.
3. Fill the rest from the new availabilityGive the remaining shifts to casuals based on the availability they gave you, and share them fairly. How to build a fair roster for casual employees sets out a way to do it.
4. Put new starters beside experienced staffPlace each new person’s first shifts where someone trained is on at the same time.
5. Cost the weekCheck the total against your wage budget in the roster cost calculator before you publish.
6. Keep it as the patternOnce the base week works, repeat it until the next change. How to set up recurring shifts and roster patterns shows how.

A worked example: a cafe resets for February

A cafe covered by the Restaurant Industry Award trades from 7:00 to 15:00 every day, and its base week needs 160 hours. The owner chooses Monday 1 February 2027 as the reset week. Before the break, they asked every employee for their availability from February, with updates due by Friday 15 January.

Dana used to work 7:00 to 13:30. Their notice arrives 21 days before the reset week, the new times apply 14 days after it, and the cafe can accommodate them, so Dana’s 24 guaranteed hours stay as they are and clause 10.12 does not come into it. The week of 25 January is rostered inside the new times as well. The owner still talks the new shifts through with Dana before publishing, as clause 33 requires for a change to a regular roster, and the roster goes out on Friday 22 January, more than the 7 days’ notice in clause 15.3(d).

The hours add up to the base week: 38 for Jordan, 24 for Dana, 30 for Sam, 16 for Eli, 8 each for Farah and Gus and 36 for Lee, which is 160. Lee’s 36 hours are inside the casual maximum of 38 hours a week in clause 11.2. Dana’s and Eli’s shifts are between 5 and 10 hours, so each has an unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes, taken after the first hour and within 5 hours of starting, so no extra paid meal break is due (clause 16.2, Table 2). Farah and Gus start on quieter weekday mornings while Dana is on, and each 4 hour shift is above the 2 hour minimum. Eli will send their weekday availability once the timetable is out, and the owner will offer weekday shifts then rather than guessing now.

Roster Flow helps keep a reset roster current: availability and leave from staff phones, the roster published to everybody at once, clock ins that become timesheets, and approved hours sent to Xero, MYOB or a CSV file. See how staff availability works.

Review the reset after two weeks

The first fortnight shows what the new availability really looks like. Compare rostered hours with the hours worked, note the shifts that were hard to fill and the people who swapped out of their new times, and adjust the base week before the pattern sets. How to review last month’s rosters sets out what to compare.

A January roster reset checklist

• A reset week chosen, with deadlines worked back from it
• Every employee asked for availability from the reset week, with start dates
• Returning staff given a confirmed first day, with approved leave on the roster
• Seasonal casuals asked whether they are staying, and leavers taken off the roster
• Part-time availability and patterns checked against the written agreement
• Changes to regular rosters consulted on and given the notice your award requires
• New casuals given the information statements and paired with experienced staff
• Every casual shift at or above the minimum engagement in your award
• The base week built from each day’s needs and costed before publishing
• A review booked for two weeks after the reset

Sources

• Fair Work Commission: Restaurant Industry Award 2020 [MA000119]
• Fair Work Commission: Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 [MA000009]
• Fair Work Commission: General Retail Industry Award 2020 [MA000004]
• Fair Work Commission: Fast Food Industry Award 2020 [MA000003]
• Fair Work Ombudsman: Fair Work Information Statement
• Fair Work Ombudsman: Casual Employment Information Statement
• Fair Work Ombudsman: rosters
• Fair Work Ombudsman: find my award

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