A good roster is built in order: first the demand, then the people and the rules, and the shifts last. Here are the steps, what the law and the collective agreement require, and a template you can copy.
Planning a roster in six steps
A shift roster, a work schedule and a shift plan mean much the same thing: a plan of who works when. The Finnish Working Hours Act calls it a työvuoroluettelo. When you build the roster in the order below, rest periods and hours are not left to be checked at the very end.
Work out how many people you need
Start from demand, not from people. Go through opening hours, bookings, events and last year’s sales for the same weekday. Then decide how many people and which skills each hour needs: for example two cooks and three servers for lunch, and one more behind the bar in the evening.
Gather your people and their limits
List everyone’s contracted weekly hours, skills, confirmed leave, absences and day-off requests. Agreed hours for part-timers and restrictions for students are worth writing down before a single shift is placed.
Choose the period and shift patterns
Decide whether the roster covers a week or a whole balancing period. In period-based work, the roster is drawn up for the whole balancing period where possible, and under the MaRa agreement the period is usually three weeks. Set up recurring shifts in advance, such as a morning 7–15 and an evening 15–23, and filling the roster gets faster.
Place the shifts and check rest periods
Fill the busiest days and the shifts that need rare skills first. At the same time, check daily rest between shifts, weekly rest, breaks and the number of consecutive night shifts. An evening shift followed by a morning shift is the most common place where rest falls short.
Count the hours and the cost
Compare each person’s planned hours with their agreed working time and the period’s hours. If the hours go over, it may be additional work or overtime, which costs more, and overtime needs the employee’s consent. Count the evening, night and Sunday premiums and the increases for holiday eves and days off too, so the roster’s cost does not surprise you at payroll.
Publish on time and manage changes
Give the finished roster to employees no later than a week before the period starts. Under the Working Hours Act a published roster can be changed with the employee’s consent or for a weighty reason related to how the work is organised. The MaRa agreement is stricter: a change always needs the employee’s consent. Record agreed changes.
What the Working Hours Act and collective agreements require
These rules apply to every roster. The figures come from the Working Hours Act and the collective agreement for the tourism, restaurant and leisure sector (the MaRa agreement). Another sector’s agreement may say otherwise, so check your own.
The roster is drawn up and given out on time
The roster must show the start and end times of shifts and the rest periods, and it is given out no later than a week before the period starts. See the Working Hours Act.
Source: MaRa TES 9 § · Working Hours Act s. 30
Daily rest of 11 hours
Leave at least 11 hours of rest between shifts. Under the MaRa agreement the rest can be agreed shorter, but not below 8 hours, and there are always 11 hours between shifts of 10 hours or more.
Source: MaRa TES 7.4 § · Working Hours Act s. 25
Weekly rest and days off
Once a week, give an uninterrupted break of at least 35 hours, preferably around Sunday. In period-based work under the MaRa agreement, a three-week period also includes at least six days off, at least two of them in a row.
Source: MaRa TES 8 § · Working Hours Act s. 27
Shift length and breaks
Under the MaRa agreement a shift is as a rule at least 4 hours, and regular working time is at most 10 hours a day. A shift longer than 6 hours includes a meal break of at least 30 minutes, and a shift longer than 4 hours a paid coffee break or refreshments during work.
Source: MaRa TES 7.3–7.5 §
Working time over the period
In period-based work under the MaRa agreement, regular working time is 112.5 hours in three weeks, or 37.5 hours a week on average. Hours above that are additional work or overtime, and overtime needs the employee’s consent.
Source: MaRa TES 7.1 § and 18 § · Working Hours Act s. 17
Weekends and night shifts
In period-based work under the MaRa agreement, at least every fifth weekend is given off. There can be at most five night shifts in a row, or seven with the employee’s consent.
Source: MaRa TES 8.2 §
A roster template
A roster template can be a table where the rows are people and the columns are the days of the period. What matters is that shifts, hours and days off are visible in the same view. Below is a structure you can copy into your own spreadsheet.
- Header: work location, period (for example 16.11.–6.12.), publication date and who drew up the roster.
- A row for each person: name, role or skill and contracted weekly hours.
- A column for each day: shift start and end (for example 7–15) and the length of the break.
- Codes for other days: day off, annual leave and other absences, each with its own letter.
- A summary at the end of the row: planned hours for the period and the difference from agreed working time.
- At the bottom of each day: demand and planned staffing, for example kitchen 2/2 and floor 3/3.
- A change log: what changed after publication, when and with whose consent.
A spreadsheet is enough for a small team. With more people or work locations, the manual checking piles up fast: everyone’s rest periods, period hours and premiums have to be recalculated every time a single shift changes.
This guide explains things at a general level and is not legal advice. The figures refer to the Working Hours Act and the MaRa agreement. Your sector’s collective agreement and local agreements may say otherwise.
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