The rota #
One sheet covers one team or one site for one week. Write each shift as a start and finish time, or use a letter from the shift key, and keep the sheet that actually ran, with the changes marked on it, not just the plan you published on Friday.
Click anything in brackets to type over it, then copy, print or download the result. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Weekly staff rota
| Team or site | [Name and address] |
|---|---|
| Week commencing | [Monday's date] |
| Rota written by | [Name] |
| Published to staff on | [Date] |
| Who to call about a shift | [Name and phone number] |
Shift key
| Code | Shift | Start | Finish | Unpaid break |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | Early | [07:00] | [15:00] | [30 minutes] |
| L | Late | [14:00] | [22:00] | [30 minutes] |
| N | Night | [22:00] | [07:00] | [30 minutes] |
| X | Day off | |||
| H | Holiday |
Shifts
| Name | Role | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff on shift |
Absence and cover
| Date | Absent | Shift | Reason | Covered by | Agreed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Working time checks
| Every shift over 6 hours has a 20 minute break | [Yes or no] |
|---|---|
| 11 hours between one shift and the next | [Yes or no, and who if not] |
| 24 hours off this week, or 48 this fortnight | [Yes or no, and who if not] |
| Anyone averaging over 48 hours has a written opt-out | [Names] |
| Night workers on the rota | [Names] |
| Staff under 18 on the rota | [Names; 30 minute breaks, 12 hours rest, 8 hours a day] |
Sign-off
| Checked by | Name | Date |
The rules a rota has to respect #
A rota is where the working time rules either hold or quietly break, because each one is about the gap between two shifts or the total across a week. GOV.UK sets out the rules for workers over 18, and stricter ones for young workers above school leaving age and under 18.
| Rule | Workers over 18 | Under 18 |
|---|---|---|
| Break during the shift | 20 minutes, uninterrupted, when working more than 6 hours | 30 minutes when working more than 4.5 hours |
| Rest between working days | 11 hours | 12 hours |
| Weekly rest | 24 hours each week, or 48 hours each fortnight | 48 hours |
| Hours | 48 a week on average, normally over 17 weeks, unless opted out | 8 a day and 40 a week, never averaged |
The one a rota breaks most easily is rest between shifts. A late that finishes at 22:00 and an early that starts at 07:00 the next morning leave 9 hours between them, two short of the 11, and nothing about either shift looks wrong on its own. That is why the checks box asks the question across the whole week rather than shift by shift.
The 48 hour week and the opt-out
The average is normally taken over 17 weeks, so one long week is not a breach on its own. Breaks when no work is done do not count towards it. Anyone over 18 can agree to work more, but GOV.UK says the opt-out has to be voluntary and in writing, the employer must keep a record of it, and nobody can be sacked or treated unfairly for refusing to sign one.
Night workers
A night worker is somebody who regularly works at least 3 hours in the night period, which is 11pm to 6am unless a different period is agreed. Night workers must not average more than 8 hours in any 24, and unlike the weekly limit, there is no opting out of it. GOV.UK says their hours are recorded and the records kept for at least 2 years.
How to use it well #
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Check the gaps, not just the shifts
Read each person’s row across the week: the finish time of one day against the start time of the next, and whether a full day off is in there.
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Mark every change on the sheet
A swap agreed by text and never written down is how the published rota and the worked one drift apart, and the worked one is the record.
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Write cover down with who agreed it
Cover arranged at 6am is the shift most likely to cut into somebody’s 11 hours, so it is the one most worth checking.
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Keep it with the timesheets
The rota says who should have worked; the timesheet says who did, and payroll runs on the second.
What happens to it by hand #
Writing the rota is rarely the slow part. Rewriting it is: somebody rings in sick, a swap is agreed, and the person holding the rota works out who is free, who would break their 11 hours, who has already done their hours this week, then rings round and tells everyone affected. Every one of those checks follows the same rules every time. Choosing who to ask first, and how to ask, is the part that needs a person.
For cleaning firms covering several sites, that loop is set out in rotas and shift cover. The cost of admin time calculator puts a number on the hours your own business spends on it, and the cleaning rota template covers the other kind of rota: the tasks on a site rather than the people.