How Should Staff Leave and Shift Plans Be Kept?

In a small business, talk about leave often happens on the spot. Someone asks "Can I take next Friday off?" and the answer is "Sure, we'll see." The shift plan is on a sheet of paper hanging on the wall or in a note on the owner's phone. While the team is small this setup works; everyone roughly knows who is away and when.

The problem starts on the day the information spreads to several places. Leave was requested by message but not written on the paper; the shift changed but the plan on the wall stayed old. Leave falling on the same day is noticed only that morning. In this article we look at how leave and shift information can be kept, at what point a plan kept by hand is enough and at what point it starts to struggle.

Where Leave and Shift Information Gets Scattered

When leave and shift information sits in one place, a clash can become visible while the plan is being made. In most businesses the scattering comes from three places: the channel the request arrives through, the place where the plan is posted, and what the owner keeps in mind. When the three do not update each other, each one tells a different truth.

Writing the same information in two separate places and one of them going out of date is a common situation in businesses. We covered this in general in the why do I enter the same information in two places article; leave and shifts are one of the most keenly felt examples of it, because out-of-date information can turn directly into an empty workstation.

When a Paper Rota or a Spreadsheet Is Enough

A plan kept by hand can serve a small team for a long time. A paper rota sits where everyone can see it, needs no computer skills, and changes are made with a pen. A spreadsheet on the computer does the same job; on top of that it makes it easier to keep past months and add up remaining leave.

A spreadsheet or paper can be enough for a team with clear rules and few changes. The strain comes at the point where more than one person starts writing to the same file or the plan is kept in more than one place. Customer records have a similar threshold; we described that threshold in the when is Excel no longer enough for customer tracking article. The table below gathers similar signs for leave and shifts.

How a Leave Request Is Taken

How a leave request is taken can determine how up to date the plan stays. When a request is taken verbally on the spot, whether it gets recorded is left to the memory of the person who took it.

Where the request comes from

Setting a single route for requests can make things easier: a notebook, a form or a single message channel. What matters is not what the route is, but that all requests come through the same route.

Who approves

When the name of the person who gives approval is clear, the employee knows whom to ask. Who stands in when that person is away can also be written down in advance; that way a request does not wait unanswered.

Where the approval is written

Approved leave can be entered at that moment in the place where the plan is kept. When the approval stays in a message and is written into the plan late, another leave may be granted for that day in the meantime.

Leave Falling on the Same Day

Leave already entered in the plan can show a clash the moment a new request arrives. When more than one leave falls on the same day, which one takes priority is the team's rule; what matters is that the rule has been discussed and written down beforehand. Approaches such as order of request, rotating priority or agreement within the team can be used.

Marking busy days in advance can also help. If the plan shows which days are not suitable for leave, employees can make their requests accordingly and the number of rejected requests may go down.

Who Holds the Shift Plan, Who Sees It

The shift plan is prepared by one person but read by everyone. When the place where the plan is prepared differs from the place where it is read, the version being read can be out of date. The paper on the wall, the photo of it on a phone and the latest version in the owner's hands can tell three different plans in the same week.

Everyone seeing the plan from the same place can close this gap. If employees can see their own shift on their phone, the question "when was I coming in this week?" may not reach the owner. Who holds the plan while the owner is away can also be written down separately; we covered what can be done if work stops while you are away in a separate article.

How a Last-Minute Change Is Recorded

When it is written down who made a change and when, the plan can later be read back. Illness, an urgent matter or two employees swapping places between themselves can change the plan at the last minute. These changes are often made verbally and reach the plan itself late.

A single route can also be set for last-minute changes: the person making the change updates the plan themselves or informs the person who gives approval, who then enters it into the plan. Whichever route is chosen, the moment the change reaches the plan, the version everyone sees has changed as well.

Tracking Remaining Leave Entitlement

How much leave an employee has used and how much entitlement is left is a question asked often during the year. When used leave is kept in the same place, this question can be answered by looking at the plan; there is no need to add it up backwards from separate messages.

The leave entitlement itself, that is, how much leave falls to whom and under which rules it is used, is a legal matter and outside the scope of this article. We recommend consulting your accountant or an employment law specialist on this. The job here is for leave granted and used to be recorded in an orderly way.

When to Move from a Spreadsheet to a Panel

There is no obligation to give up a plan kept by hand. The move can be discussed at the point where keeping the plan becomes a workload in itself or the same problems keep coming back. The signs below can show that this point is approaching.

If these signs are showing, a panel that gathers leave requests, approvals and the shift plan on a single screen can be considered. In such a panel employees enter their own requests, the plan is updated when approval is given, and everyone sees the same version. Adding a new staff member to the plan can also be done from the same screen; we covered the preparation before they start in the what to prepare before a new employee starts article. Wider automation of human resources work is the subject of the human resources automation article.

Summary

In a small team, leave and shift information can be kept on paper or in a spreadsheet for a long time. The strain begins at the point where the information spreads to several places, more than one person updates the plan, or changes are made verbally. Requests coming through a single route, a clearly named person who gives approval, approval being entered into the plan straight away and the plan sitting in a single place everyone sees can ease this strain. If the same problems keep coming back, a panel can be discussed; if the team is small and the pattern is fixed, a plan kept by hand can be enough.

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