How to onboard a new employee onto the roster in their first week

A new starter learns how your roster works in their first week, and what they learn tends to stick. Settle the paperwork before the first shift, get them into the roster before they arrive and roster short, paid shifts beside the right person, and by the end of the week they will know where their shifts come from and what to do when one has to change.

Written by Roster Flow. Published 1 August 2026.

A new starter’s first week usually goes wrong in small, avoidable ways. They are rostered before anyone has asked when they can work. They cannot see the roster because nobody sent the invitation. Their first shift is the busiest Saturday of the month, beside someone too flat out to show them anything. And nobody tells them how to swap a shift, so the first time they cannot make one, they simply do not come. Each of these is a rostering decision, and each is easy to get right if you plan the week before it starts.

Here is the order to do it in, from what has to be settled before the first roster to the conversation at the end of the week. It works for casual, part-time and full-time starters, with the differences noted where the rules differ.

A worker in a grey shirt tying the straps of a dark apron behind their back beside a wooden counter — Photo: Pexels

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Settle the employment details before you roster anyone

You cannot roster someone properly until you know what kind of employee they are, which award covers them and when they can work. Settle these before a roster with their name on it goes out:

Employment type. Full-time, part-time or casual, agreed and written down. It decides the minimum shift, how their hours can change and what records you keep.
The award and classification. Confirm the award with the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool, and check the rate on the award pay rates pages.
A part-time agreement, if they are part-time. Several awards require the hours to be agreed in writing when a part-time employee is engaged, as the table below shows.
Availability, by the hour. The days and times they can work, collected on the staff availability form rather than remembered from the interview.
Contact details they actually use. An email address and a mobile number, so the roster and any changes reach them.

The part-time rules matter most, because the agreement made at the start limits every roster after it. These are the terms in four awards that cover many small food and retail businesses, as consolidated to 1 July 2026.

What must be agreed in writing when a part-time employee starts
Award	What is agreed	Clause
Restaurant Industry Award 2020	Guaranteed hours, and the days and times the employee is available to work them	10.4
Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020	Guaranteed hours and availability, on the same terms	10.4
General Retail Industry Award 2020	A regular pattern of work: the hours on each day, start and finish times, and when meal breaks may be taken	10.5
Fast Food Industry Award 2020	A regular pattern of work, including the days, start and finish times, meal breaks and a minimum daily engagement of 3 consecutive hours	10.3

Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a part-time employee must not then be rostered to work any hours outside that availability (clause 10.7). Other awards set different terms, so read the part-time clause in the award that applies. Rostering part-time and casual employees together covers how the two fit on one roster.

The paperwork that comes with day one

Some first-week obligations are not about shifts at all, but they belong in the same plan, because a first pay run that goes wrong undoes a good first week. The Fair Work Ombudsman sets out these:

Every new employee must be given the Fair Work Information Statement before, or as soon as possible after, they start
Every new casual employee must also be given the Casual Employment Information Statement at the same time
Your records for each employee include their start date, whether they are full-time or part-time, and whether they are permanent, temporary or casual
Pay slips have to be given within 1 working day of pay day

Ask for what payroll needs before the first shift, not after the first pay day. The Fair Work Ombudsman lists the details an employer can ask a new employee for, including bank details, a tax file number, superannuation fund details, an emergency contact, and their date of birth if they are under 21.

Trial shifts and training shifts are different things

An unpaid trial is where many first weeks start on the wrong foot. The Fair Work Ombudsman describes an unpaid trial as a demonstration, under supervision, that someone has the skills for the job, and says one may be unlawful if it is not necessary to demonstrate those skills, lasts longer than needed, involves more than a demonstration of skills, or is not directly supervised. How long is needed depends on the work, but it gives a range of an hour to one shift. Any time beyond what is reasonably needed must be paid at the appropriate minimum rate.

Once the person is your employee, the question is settled. The Fair Work Ombudsman says that if an employee does training as part of their job, they have to be paid for those hours, because time spent in training is time worked. A shadow shift, a coffee lesson or an induction is a paid shift, and it belongs on the roster with a start and a finish like any other. Probation does not change that: employees on probation receive the same entitlements as anyone else.

Plan the first week’s shifts

A good first week is quieter and better supervised than an ordinary one. Build it in this order:

Pick a buddy firstChoose one experienced person who is patient and knows the job, and roster the new starter’s first shifts around that person’s shifts rather than the other way round.
Start in a steady periodPut the first shift where there is time to show things: a weekday morning after the rush, or the setup before a service. A full Saturday night teaches speed, not the job.
Keep casual and part-time shifts short, but inside the minimumShort shifts help people learn, but they still have to meet the award’s minimum shift, set out below. A full-time employee works full-time hours from the start, and under the Restaurant Industry Award at least 6 ordinary hours on any day they work (clause 15.1(a)), so plan their learning inside those shifts.
Roster them on top of the normal crew at firstFor the first shift or two, add the new starter to the usual team rather than replacing anyone, so nobody is relying on them yet. Label the shift as training so the rest of the team knows.
Cover each part of the job onceSpread the week so they see an opening, a busy period and a close with the buddy there, before they work any of them alone.
Leave time between shiftsDo not roster a late close followed by an early open. For full-time and part-time employees, the Restaurant and Hospitality awards require at least 10 hours between finishing one day and starting the next, or 8 hours at a roster changeover (clauses 15.1(e) and 15.5(e)).

Minimum shifts apply from the first day

A short first shift is sensible, but it cannot be shorter than the award’s minimum engagement. The minimums differ between awards:

Minimum shifts in four awards
Award	Casual employees	Part-time employees
Restaurant Industry Award 2020	Engaged and paid for at least 2 consecutive hours each time they attend work (clause 11.3)	Not rostered for fewer than 3 hours in a day (clause 10.7)
Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020	Engaged and paid for at least 2 consecutive hours each time they attend work (clause 11.3)	At least 3 ordinary hours on any day, not counting meal breaks (clause 15.2)
General Retail Industry Award 2020	3 hours, or 1.5 hours for a full-time secondary school student working between 3:00 pm and 6:30 pm on a school day, under the conditions in clause 11.3 (clause 11.2)	3 consecutive hours (clause 10.9)
Fast Food Industry Award 2020	3 consecutive hours (clause 11.3)	3 consecutive hours on any shift (clause 10.2)

So if an induction takes an hour and a half, a casual under the Restaurant Industry Award is still engaged and paid for at least 2 hours. The simplest answer is to roster the induction as the start of a normal shift. Building a fair roster for casuals covers sharing hours once they are up to speed.

Get them into the roster before they arrive

A new starter should see their first week before their first shift, in the same place everyone else sees theirs. On the day they accept the job:

Add them to the roster with their availability, employment type and the roles they will learn
Send the invitation or the roster link, and ask them to reply once they can see their shifts
Tell them when the roster is normally published and how far ahead, so they know when to look. When to publish the roster covers the timing
Show them how to ask for a shift swap, and who to tell, and how early, if they are sick before a shift
Agree how and when you will contact them about shifts outside their working hours

That last point matters more than it used to. The Fair Work Ombudsman explains that employees have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact outside their working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable. It has applied to employees of small business employers, those with fewer than 15 employees, since 26 August 2025, and to other employers since 26 August 2024. The Ombudsman encourages employers and employees to discuss out of hours contact and set expectations, and notes the benefit of having that conversation before the contact happens. The first week is the natural time.

A man in a black shirt pointing to a document held by a colleague seated at a restaurant table — Photo: Pexels

A worked example: a casual barista’s first week

A cafe covered by the Restaurant Industry Award takes on a casual barista who can work weekdays from 7:00 to 15:00 and Saturday mornings. The owner plans the first week around Priya, the senior barista, who works Monday to Friday from 6:30 to 14:30. This shows the shape of a first week, not a rule.

The new barista’s first week
Day	Shift	What it is for
Monday	9:30 to 12:30	Induction, then making coffee beside Priya once the morning rush is over
Tuesday	7:00 to 11:00	The morning rush, on the register while Priya makes the coffee
Wednesday	Day off	Time to take it in
Thursday	10:30 to 14:30	Lunch and the afternoon clean down
Friday	7:00 to 11:30	The morning rush again, making coffee with Priya beside them
Saturday	Not rostered	Weekends start once they have worked a week of rushes

That is 15.5 hours: 3 on Monday, 4 on Tuesday, 4 on Thursday and 4.5 on Friday. Every shift is longer than the award’s 2 hour casual minimum, sits inside the barista’s availability and falls within Priya’s shift, so there is always someone to ask. Breaks for each shift come from the break table in clause 16 of the award. By the second week the barista can take Saturday mornings and a shift without Priya, and the roster no longer needs to label their shifts as training.

Check in at the end of the first week

The Fair Work Ombudsman suggests that in the first few weeks, employers and employees organise a time to set goals and expectations, and hold regular meetings so issues are raised early. Ten minutes at the end of the first week is enough for the roster side of it. Ask:

Could they see the roster, and did every shift match what they expected?
Is the availability they gave still right, now they know the real start and finish times?
Are the hours about what they hoped for, or do they want more or fewer?
Which parts of the job are they ready to do alone, and which need another shift with a buddy?
Do they know how to swap a shift, and who to call if they are sick?

Then update the roster before the next one is published: availability, the roles they can now cover and whether they still need a buddy. The guide to availability and leave covers keeping availability current as their weeks settle into a pattern.

Common first-week mistakes

Rostering before availability is known. The first swap request arrives before the first shift.
Leaving them out of the roster system. They rely on a screenshot from a colleague and miss the first change.
A week of unpaid shifts to see how they go. That is the Fair Work Ombudsman’s own example of a trial that should have been paid for all hours worked.
Making their first shift the busiest one. They learn to stay out of the way, not the job.
No buddy on the roster. "Someone will show you" usually means nobody does.

In Roster Flow, a new starter’s first week runs the same way as everybody else’s: 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.

A first-week checklist

Employment type, award and classification are settled and written down
A part-time agreement is in writing before the first roster, where the award requires one
The Fair Work Information Statement, and for casuals the Casual Employment Information Statement, have been given
Payroll details are in before the first pay run
Availability is recorded by the hour
Every first-week shift is paid, rostered, overlaps a named buddy and meets the minimum shift
There is no late close followed by an early open
They can see the roster and know how to swap a shift or report a sick day
Contact about shifts outside working hours has been discussed
A ten minute check in is booked for the end of the week

Questions

Do I have to pay a new employee for a trial shift?

An unpaid trial may be unlawful unless it is a short, directly supervised demonstration of the skills the job needs, lasting no longer than necessary. Time beyond that must be paid, and so must every shift once the person is your employee.

Is training time paid?

Yes. The Fair Work Ombudsman says an employee who does training as part of their job has to be paid for those hours, because time spent in training is time worked. Compulsory meetings can count as time worked too.

How short can a new casual’s first shift be?

It depends on the award. A casual must be engaged for at least 2 hours under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards and at least 3 hours under the General Retail and Fast Food awards, with a limited exception for school students in retail.

When do I give a new starter the Fair Work Information Statement?

Before, or as soon as possible after, they start. A new casual also gets the Casual Employment Information Statement at the same time.

Should a new starter work alone in their first week?

Not if you can avoid it. Roster their first shifts to overlap an experienced buddy, starting in a steady part of the day, and roster them alone only once they have worked each part of the job with support.

Can I change a new part-time employee’s hours after the first week?

Only within the award’s rules. Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a change to a part-time employee’s guaranteed hours needs the employee’s written consent, under clause 10.5.

Sources

The roster for a new businessStaffing an opening with no sales history to go on.Staff availability formCollect a new starter’s hours before the first roster.Part-time and casual rostersHow both fit on one weekly roster.A fair roster for casualsSharing hours once new starters are up to speed.

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