How to roster when your only supervisor is away

Written by Roster Flow. Published 14 August 2026.

The supervisor has the keys and the alarm code. They know which supplier to ring when the milk is short, how the till float is made up and who can be called in at short notice. They decide when people go on their breaks and what to do about a customer complaint. Most weeks nobody notices how much of the business runs through one person. The week they are away, everybody does.

Two kinds of absence need a plan: leave you can see coming and a sick day you cannot. The planning is the same for both, and doing it for the first makes the second survivable. Managing annual leave on the roster covers approving the leave itself. This article is about running the business while the one person in charge is not there.

List what only the supervisor does

Start with a list, not a name. Write down everything the supervisor does in an ordinary week that nobody else does, then write who could do each task instead. Anything with a blank in the last column is a gap to fix before the leave starts.

The list usually shows that cover is several jobs, not one. The best opener may not be the right person to handle a complaint, and neither of them needs to approve timesheets. Split the work where it makes sense rather than looking for one person who can do all of it.

Choose who runs each shift

Most small teams have someone who already steps up when the supervisor is busy. They are a good place to start, but check a few things before you give them the shift.

• Judgement over length of service. The longest serving employee is not always the one who stays calm when the coffee machine fails in the rush.
• Trained on the real tasks. They have opened, closed and counted the till with the supervisor watching, not just seen it done.
• Willing to do it. Ask. Someone pushed into charge who does not want it is a risk to the shift and to them.
• One named person per shift. Mark who is in charge on the roster itself, so staff, suppliers and customers know who to ask.
• A backstop. Name who the person in charge calls when something is beyond them, usually the owner, and make sure that person can be reached.

A skills matrix shows quickly who can open, close, handle cash and run the floor. It also shows the gaps worth training before the next absence rather than during it.

Write down what the person in charge can decide

Acting supervisors most often get stuck, or get it wrong, because nobody told them how far their authority goes. A short written list removes the guesswork and protects them as much as the business.

• Decide alone: replacing a sick call from the list of people available, moving breaks around a rush, closing a section early when it is quiet, and refunds up to an agreed amount.
• Act, then call: injuries, incidents, a break in, or an equipment fault that makes something unsafe. Deal with it first and tell the owner straight after.
• Call first: anything that adds hours to the roster or keeps someone back past their finish, and any change to a full-time or part-time employee’s shift.
• Leave for the owner: hiring, performance problems, pay questions and next week’s roster.

Hand over keys, codes and contacts properly

1. Give them their own key and codeSet up a separate alarm code rather than sharing the supervisor’s, so the alarm history shows who opened and closed, and the code can be removed later without affecting anyone else.
2. Write a contact sheetSuppliers, the landlord or centre management, the equipment technician, the alarm company and the owner, kept where the person in charge can find it.
3. Write down the cash routineHow the float is made up, when the till is counted, where the money goes and what to do when it does not balance.
4. Walk through the open and the closeUse the same checklist the supervisor uses. Opening and closing duties shows how to write one with a time against each task.
5. Run a practice shiftBefore the leave starts, roster the stand-in to run a shift with the supervisor also on, doing the work while the supervisor only answers questions.
6. Set up the handoverAgree where notes go between shifts, and keep codes and passwords out of them. Shift handover notes covers what to include.

Pay the higher duties correctly

Putting someone in charge can change their pay. If the duties belong to a higher classification than the employee’s own, awards pay the higher classification’s minimum rate, and the rules on how long the duties must last differ between awards.

Whether running the shift is a higher classification depends on the duties and on the classification definitions in your award, so check them before the leave, not after payroll. Mark the days in charge on the roster and the timesheet so payroll pays them correctly. Current rates are on the Restaurant Industry Award, Hospitality Industry Award and General Retail Industry Award pay rates pages, and the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool confirms which award applies.

Build a lighter roster for the weeks they are away

The weeks without the supervisor are the wrong time for anything that needs them. Take the pressure off the roster where you can.

• Move what can wait. A stocktake, a menu change or a new starter’s first week can usually be moved. A new employee’s first roster needs someone with time to train them.
• Put your strongest people on the busiest shifts, so the person in charge is not also the only experienced person on.
• Do not make one person close and then open. The gap between shifts still applies. Under the General Retail Industry Award, an employee needs at least 12 hours between finishing one day and starting the next, or 10 hours if agreed (clause 16.6). Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, full-time and part-time employees need 10 hours between finishing ordinary hours one day and starting the next, or 8 at a changeover of rosters (clause 15.1(e) of the Restaurant award and 15.5(e) of the Hospitality award).
• Plan breaks for the person in charge, with someone reliable covering the floor while they take them.

Covering the leave often means changing someone else’s hours, which has rules of its own. Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a full-time or part-time employee’s roster can be changed by agreement or with 7 days’ notice (clause 15.3(d) and clause 15.5(d)). Under the General Retail Industry Award, a part-time employee’s regular pattern of work, other than their guaranteed hours, can be changed with 7 days’ written notice, or 48 hours in an emergency (clause 10.10(a)). All three awards also require you to consult an employee about a proposed change to their regular roster, unless their hours are irregular, sporadic or unpredictable, and to invite their views on how it affects them, including their family or caring responsibilities (clause 33 of the Restaurant award, 39 of the Hospitality award and 35 of the Retail award).

Food safety supervisors and licensed venues

Check whether the supervisor holds a certificate the business relies on. Under Standard 3.2.2A, category one and two food businesses must appoint a certified food safety supervisor and make sure that person is reasonably available to advise and supervise each food handler doing the high risk work. Food Standards Australia New Zealand explains that reasonably available means the supervisor works on site and oversees that food handling, or can be easily contacted, for example by phone. If your only certified supervisor is the one going away, sort that out well before the leave starts. Licensed venues should also check their licence conditions with their state or territory liquor regulator.

When the absence is not planned

A supervisor calling in sick at 6 am is where the planning pays off. With a named backup, keys already issued and the decision list written, the morning looks like this.

1. The supervisor calls the ownerAgree in advance that a supervisor’s sick call goes to the owner by phone, not as a message in the group chat.
2. The backup takes chargeThe owner calls the named backup, confirms they are running the shift and notes it for payroll if higher duties apply.
3. Fill the gap the backup leavesMoving the backup up usually leaves their own job uncovered. Filling open shifts covers finding a replacement quickly.
4. Tell the teamEveryone on shift should know who is in charge before they start. Communicating roster changes covers reaching everyone affected.

A worked example: two weeks of leave at a cafe

A cafe covered by the Restaurant Industry Award trades from 7:00 to 15:00, seven days a week. Its supervisor opens Monday to Friday, and the owner works the weekends. The supervisor has two weeks of annual leave booked in March. Mia, a part-time barista who has been at the cafe for two years, has opened and closed alongside the supervisor for the last month. Josh, a casual, has been trained to close.

Six weeks before the leave, the owner explains the plan to Mia and asks how it would affect her. Mia usually works three mornings a week. She agrees to run the cafe from Monday to Thursday for the two weeks, and the change is recorded in writing. The owner covers Fridays as well as the weekend.

Mia’s 6:30 start gives her half an hour to open before the doors do, and her meal break at 11:00 falls after the first hour and within the first 6 hours, as clause 16.2 requires for a shift of 5 hours or more. She finishes at 15:00 and starts again at 6:30 the next day, 15.5 hours later, which is well clear of the 10 hour gap in clause 15.1(e). The owner checks the award’s classification definitions and confirms that running the cafe is a higher classification than Mia’s own, so under clause 18.8(a) she is paid the higher rate for each whole day in charge. If the difference were $1.50 an hour, an example figure, her 32 hours would add $48 a week, or $96 across the fortnight.

The rest of the plan is small. The stocktake moves to the week after the leave, and a new starter’s first shift is pushed back a fortnight. Mia gets her own alarm code and a copy of the contact sheet, and a casual picks up her usual barista shifts. If Josh closes as the backup, those hours are marked on the roster too, so payroll can check whether higher duties apply to him.

Roster Flow keeps the cover plan in front of everyone: 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 checklist before the supervisor goes away

• Every task only the supervisor does is listed, with a name against it
• One person is in charge of each shift, and it shows on the roster
• The person in charge has a written list of what they can decide
• They have their own key, alarm code and a contact sheet
• They have run a practice shift before the leave starts
• Higher duties are checked against the award and marked for payroll
• Changes to other employees’ rosters are agreed or given the notice the award requires, after consulting them
• Nobody closes and then opens without the gap their award requires
• Food safety supervisor cover is sorted if the supervisor holds the certificate
• A backup is named for a sick day

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 Ombudsman: find my award
• Food Standards Australia New Zealand: food safety supervisor

Back to the blog