How to Schedule Employees (+ Free Templates)

Deciding how to schedule employees requires you to be in tune with how your company operates, like knowing its busiest days and months and product sales trends. Having insight into your employees’ needs is also important. The best schedules are flexible, don’t underwork or overwork employees, maximize profits, and are published well in advance.

Follow the six steps below to start scheduling employees and download our free scheduling templates as Google Sheets or Excel files to save time (we include some video instructions for using the templates below).

To streamline the process even more, you can use scheduling software like Homebase. It lets you easily create work shifts for an unlimited number of employees. Additionally, once you create your weekly schedule, you can replicate it each week, and time calculations are done by the system to ensure overtime compliance while saving you time and reducing errors. The best news is that Homebase has a forever-FREE plan for businesses with only one location.

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Employee Scheduling Templates Video Instructions

Watch our video for complete instructions on how to best use our free downloadable templates.

Step 1: Make a Detailed List of Employees

Start with making a detailed list that includes all of your current employees. This will serve as your reference sheet when you begin assigning work times. Input as much information as possible that can help you create the best schedule, including employee names, job titles, and shift preferences (night vs day).

When you input each employee’s name, be sure to include first and last names at a minimum. Look out for duplicates. Employees with common first and last names are likely to one day have at least one co-worker who shares their name. In cases like these, you’ll need to use a differentiator, like a middle name or initial.

You might also be able to use a nickname for one worker and a full name for the other (Michael vs Mike) if they approve. Inadvertently scheduling an employee for a double shift due to confusion about their name could lead to conflict and expensive overtime pay (along with higher taxes).

You should document any official job titles or roles that reflect the scope of your employees’ work. Later, when you start creating the schedule, you’ll need an easy way to match employees with the jobs you need to staff.

Depending on your business, some workers may have multiple job titles. For instance, many restaurant employees work as both servers and hosts, just on different days. Including this information in your employee list ensures you always know how to maximize your employees’ work time throughout each week.

Upon hire, you should determine each employee’s shift preferences. Do they prefer to work morning hours, evening hours, full time, or part time? Including this in your reference sheet will make scheduling easier.

Although you should request and document your employees’ general availability at the time of hire, you should also encourage them to communicate any deviations from that as soon as possible (at least a couple of weeks in advance, if possible).

Organize the information for your employee list more efficiently and quicker using Excel scheduling templates, such as those we included above. The columns you need are already set up, and all you need to do is enter the information specific to your employees and business.

Step 2: Use a Calendar

Using a calendar for scheduling helps mark important dates, allowing you to track employee hours to be sure they do not fall into overtime within a pay week. Jot down notes on certain days or weeks to remind yourself of important considerations such as upcoming vacations for employees, holidays when the entire team is off, pay dates, and high sales volume weeks.

You can also use a calendar to schedule your employees, although this method is not foolproof and may require extra work when schedules need to be changed.

Identifying pay periods and shifts on your calendar.

Identify pay periods and shifts on your calendar.

Step 3: Consider Company Scheduling Needs

To create a successful employee schedule, you must consider the needs of your business. Are some days busier than others? Are there weeks that always seem to be slower than others (such as around the holidays)? Are there certain products or services you sell more of that require you to schedule more workers in a particular position?

You may feel like you can use your instinct to gauge what trends to consider when scheduling, but we recommend you reference data or reports from your systems or software, if possible, as they’re more objective and precise. Review your company sales reports, year over year, if you have them. If you notice big jumps in business during certain months or weeks over the course of multiple years, you can more confidently increase the number of employees you schedule for that time frame.

If you have a service business with different employees for different services—like beauticians, nail techs, and estheticians—having data on service sales trends would be helpful. For example, if you are aware that historically customers don’t set many hair appointments during July, but nail services increase, you should be able to schedule accordingly.

Step 4: Assign Shifts

Once you have finished organizing and reviewing the information you need to schedule your employees for the upcoming period, you can start to assign shifts.

Software like Homebase makes scheduling easy, either online or via its mobile app.

You should always start the scheduling process knowing which and how many positions you need to fill each day. To do this successfully, identify what your business’ typical staffing needs are on an average day (e.g., 10 waitstaff, four cooks, five hosts). Use this as a baseline each time you create an employee schedule—on higher sales volume days, increase the number and vice versa on slower days.

Then, move on to each person’s availability. You can easily start populating a schedule based on the details you have on your employee reference list and calendar.

Be sure to create a good mix of workers based on their skill level and performance. For instance, don’t schedule all of your newest employees at once. Be sure to sprinkle in some vets so your newbies have the chance to learn the ropes from more experienced co-workers.

Another aspect to keep in mind is each employee’s proven performance level. You’ll inevitably have some workers who are more productive than others. It’s a good idea to schedule at least one high performer (or more, depending on the size of your business) on each shift.

Scheduling employees doesn’t have to be time-consuming or costly. Check out our article on the best free scheduling software.

Step 5: Get Employee Feedback

Once you finish the first draft of your schedule, it’s a crucial part of employee management to solicit feedback. It is inevitable that certain situations will come up—a sick child, a forgotten doctor’s appointment, or an upcoming family event. Accommodating your workers’ needs improves their job satisfaction and reduces the chance of no-shows.

Once all employee feedback has been received, you’ll need to review it to see if any changes to the schedule are required. If you need to change the staffing lineup, use your employee detail list to figure out which workers are more likely to be available on the date and time in question. You can also empower your employees to find their own replacements ahead of time; they can include that detail with their feedback, so all you have to do is update the schedule.

If you opt to use software like Homebase, this step can usually be automated. Employees can reject a workday and suggest a replacement for you to approve.

Step 6: Finalize & Publish Your Schedule

After incorporating and/or responding to all schedule change requests, you can finalize and publish your schedule. If your draft is in Excel, consider publishing it to PDF and sending it to your team. They won’t be able to edit it, and it will prevent anyone from confusing the final version with the draft. If feasible, it’s also a good idea to post the schedule somewhere in the workplace, like in a breakroom. If your team is more tech-savvy and/or spread out, Google Drive may work better.

Check your schedule often and update employee names when there are shift swaps.

You may think that once you’ve published your schedule, there won’t be any more changes. In a perfect world, that’d be the case, but realistically, you’ll need to monitor it daily so you can make any necessary revisions immediately. Employees get sick, car trouble happens, and the list goes on. Your schedule should be as realistic as possible and always reflect your current staffing plan; otherwise, employees can become confused and not show up to work when they should.

If you need help tracking your employees’ working hours check out our best time and attendance software article.

Employee Scheduling With Software

Although you can create and manage your employees’ work schedules manually, it isn’t the most efficient way to handle them. There are many free or low-cost employee scheduling software you can use, and most have special features that help you avoid overtime costs, find shift replacements quickly, make changes from anywhere using a mobile device, and so on.

We’ve mentioned Homebase, but you may also consider the following:

When I Work: Best if you have fewer than 75 employees and need an easy-to-use employee scheduling software that’s free. Additionally, you can manage the entire schedule online using your mobile device.
Humanity: Best option if you need to watch your budget, as it has tools to help you manage your labor costs.
Deputy: Ideal if you have multiple locations and job sites because of its facility scheduling features.
7shifts: Recommended for larger restaurants because it gives you the choice to only see employees who are eligible to work shifts and positions for which you need to schedule.

Unique Situations

There are some unique circumstances that may require you to document additional information about your employees. For instance, if you measure your productivity by client appointments versus consecutive hours on the job, or if your business is in an industry with an unpredictable work schedule, you’ll need to account for this when preparing to schedule your employees.

Other factors you might also need to consider when scheduling include the legalities of employing minors and required certifications for certain types of work. The weather may also play a role, especially if you conduct your business outside (such as with an auto detailing business).

On-call Work

If your business is within an industry that cannot function if understaffed (e.g., home healthcare), you may need to schedule some of your employees for on-call shifts. These are not traditional shifts where your employees show up for work, but rather a person who is on standby in case they are needed to report to work during the on-call shift timeframe.

Be sure to schedule your on-call staff within your employee schedules so that they are aware they need to be by the phone and report to work if called in. You can also make a note on your detailed list of employees for those that can take on-call shifts.

Client Appointments

If your business operates on client appointments, like hair salons, this will determine how you schedule employees. Unless you’re open for walk-in customers, you only need hourly employees on the job when there will be work; otherwise, you’ll be spending more money than you’re bringing in. To help, look for a good appointment setting system, so you can give your employees as much notice as possible about their schedules.

Additional information you can include in your employee list are the days each worker is generally available. If a client sets a sporadic appointment, this will save you time because you’ll already have a list of employees you can contact who are usually available to work on that particular day.

Unpredictable Shift Work

If you operate a business that has unpredictable shift work, meaning you don’t know when you’ll need someone for a shift until shortly before they need to be clocked in, you have to be more diligent than other employers. Businesses that typically use this type of shift work can range from emergency services workers, such as firefighters or EMTs, to on-call workers, such as nurses or doctors. It’s best if you know each shift everyone is willing to work in the beginning, so you don’t waste time calling and asking the wrong employees to come to work during the heat of the moment.

Schedules for Teams

If your employees primarily work on teams, you may need to coordinate schedules more closely so that projects can be completed efficiently. There may be days in which you need everyone on a particular team to work the same shift.

It’s also good to consider company needs when employees request paid time off (PTO). Depending on the type of business you have, approving PTO on the same week for an entire team could be disastrous. Be sure you always know to which team each employee belongs.

Minors on the Job

If you employ minors, yecifics.

Federal law alloou’ll need to know the ins and outs of federal regulations governing when they are allowed to work. State laws also come into play, so it’s a good idea to visit your state’s website to get spws minors as young as 14 to work; however, if you have 14- and 15-year-olds on staff, you must adhere to the following limitations:

3 hours on a school day
18 hours in a school week
8 hours on a non-school day
40 hours in a non-school week
Between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., except from June 1 through Labor Day, when nighttime work hours are extended to 9:00 p.m.

You’ll need to follow any state and federal labor laws closely if you need to schedule minors. Child labor laws are serious business, and you can subject yourself to penalties and jail time if you break them.

Required Certifications

Some work requires more than just skills, but official certifications. For instance, if you promise your customers they’ll be served by licensed cosmetologists or certified public accountants (CPAs), that’s what you must deliver. Keep this in mind if scheduling for certain services that require your employees to be certified.

You should be able to refer to your employee list to easily find those who qualify for the work you need to schedule. If you use scheduling software like Homebase, you can easily program each employee’s certification into the software and attach the appropriate certification requirements for each position; the system will only populate with employees who are eligible to work that particular shift.

Weather

If the weather affects your business in any way, you should consider it when scheduling. You can see a forecast for the upcoming week with a quick Google search.

Also, simply being aware of weather trends in your location can make a world of difference. For instance, Florida’s rainy season runs from mid-May to mid-October; food trucks and mobile auto detailing companies in this area would ideally keep this in mind, so they’re always prepared for fewer customers during that time frame (unless they make alternative arrangements to protect their business from the elements).

Employee Scheduling Legal Considerations

Learning how to schedule employees in a way that works best for your company is essential. There are numerous labor laws to consider, but not all will apply to your business. The federal overtime rule—all hours worked over 40 in a seven-day period must be paid at the time and half rate—is a big one to consider; to keep costs down, schedule hourly employees for a maximum of 40 hours each week. You’ll also need to retain copies of all employee scheduling records for at least two years.

While there are no federal predictive scheduling laws currently in place, some states and localities have them. It is good practice for businesses to give ample notice to employees of their schedules so that they can plan around their working hours. Affording your employees enough time before the publication of a work schedule gives structure to their schedules and helps them better manage their daily lives.

Bottom Line

The quality of your employee schedules can make or break your business. Figuring out how to schedule employees so that you’re maximizing profits (by avoiding overtime, overstaffing, and losing business due to understaffing) and keeping your employees happy is a balancing act. It requires creating solid processes on the front end, gathering the most appropriate data to help you make the best scheduling decisions, and regularly evaluating the schedules you create.

If you’re tired of using pen and paper to schedule employees and don’t want to deal with Excel spreadsheets yet still want a free option, consider using Homebase. It’s free for employers with only one location, and you can manage it on your mobile device. Employees can also access the schedule and request changes or suggest replacements from anywhere.