The Roster Flow blog, page 3
Writing about the week between the roster and the pay run, from the point of view of the person who has to build both. Short, specific, and free of anything we cannot back up.
How to roster retail staff for sale days and stocktake
A sale and a stocktake are the two dates on a retail calendar that break the usual roster. One brings a crowd you have to serve quickly, the other a count that usually happens with the doors shut. This article plans both, with the General Retail Industry Award rules that decide what they cost and a worked example of each.
How to roster for late-night trading
Late nights bring different trade, different rates and a close that finishes long after the day crew has gone home. Here is how to decide whether the extra hours pay, which award rules change after dark, and how to shape the evening shifts so the late night does not wreck the next morning.
How to roster when your only supervisor is away
In a small business the supervisor is often the one person who can open up, sort out a problem or make a call. When they take leave or call in sick, the roster has to answer questions it normally never asks. Here is how to plan the cover, who to put in charge, what they need to be able to do and how to pay them correctly.
Shift handover notes: what opening and closing crews should share
Most of what goes wrong at the start of a shift was known at the end of the last one. A short written handover passes it on. Here is what opening and closing crews should put in one, what to leave out, how to fit it into the roster and how to make sure the next shift reads it.
Opening and closing duties: putting them on the roster
Opening and closing are the two parts of the day most likely to run over, get skipped or fall to whoever happens to be there. Putting them on the roster, with times, names and a checklist, fixes all three. Here is how, with the award rules to check and a worked example from a cafe.
How to use a skills matrix to build better rosters
A roster can have the right number of people and still fail, because nobody on Sunday can open the shop or run the coffee machine. A skills matrix is a simple grid of who can do what. Once you have one, cover decisions, swaps and training plans all get faster and safer. Here is how to build one and use it.
How to train new starters without blowing the wage budget
Training a new starter costs hours twice: the new person’s, and the time of whoever teaches them. Neither can be skipped, and training time is paid. What you can control is when those hours fall, how many there are and when the new starter starts to count as cover. Here is a way to plan all three.
How to prevent accidental overtime when building staff rosters
Most overtime nobody planned starts on the roster: a sixth day added to cover a sick call, a finish that is always later than rostered, or a part-time employee picking up a shift with nothing in writing. Here is where four common awards draw the overtime lines, where they get crossed by accident, and how to build a week that stays inside them.
Roster publishing checklist: what to check before you publish
A roster is cheapest to fix in the few minutes before it goes out. This checklist runs through those minutes in the order that catches the most: cover, people, award rules, hours, breaks, cost and clarity, with the clauses to check and a worked example from a small shop.
Group chats vs rostering apps: why message-thread rosters break down
A group chat is where many small teams start rostering. It is free, everyone is already in it, and a photo of the roster takes seconds to send. It works until the team, the number of changes or the cost of a mistake grows. Here is where message-thread rosters break down, what the rules add, what a chat is still good for, and how to separate the two.
How to communicate roster changes so nobody misses them
A roster change only works if the person whose shift moved knows about it, and so does everyone it touches. Sort each change by how soon it matters, tell the people affected directly instead of the whole team, wait for a reply, and keep the award’s rules on notice and agreement in view.
How to get staff to check the roster and confirm their shifts
A published roster is only half done until everyone on it has seen their shifts. Getting there is less about chasing people and more about a routine they can rely on: the roster out at the same time each week, in one place, with an easy way to say yes or no, and a short list of people to follow up before the week begins.
