Roster Management

Job scheduling and Roster Management
In the retail industry the store operationally functions for around twelve to fifteen hours daily. Due to this it becomes very important for the management to schedule shifts for the employees to work. Mostly the stores work in two shifts per day and some also have night shifts functioning. It’s a task for the management to prepare a very efficient and effective schedule at store level for the employees. Preparing a roster requires lot of planning and understanding of the store operations and functions and roles of the employees. Different processes and systems are used by various organizations to prepare a roster but the ultimate aim is to set up an efficient roster, which will smooth the operations of a store. An efficient roster contributes equally for better sales of a store.

Features and benefits of a roster:
A roster helps the department manager/floor manager to view the entire store activity department wise, and section wise.It helps to track staff strength, shifts of employees for a specific period, weekly or monthly, in one sheet, or screen itself.It helps to track and check the break-time (tea, lunch, etc.) of individual employees. It helps employees to keep a track of their shifts, and duty timings. It helps the HR personal to keep a track of leaves (weekly-offs, compensatory-offs, etc.)It helps the manager to understand the staff strength or coverage in a particular department or section. It helps during audit process also It is a very informative tool It improves and helps work life balance
It helps managers during change of shifts, handover process as at one glance can understand the schedule. It helps managers to track efficiency of his employees
It helps in investigating incident reports.


An effective roster makes best use of available time and helps improving the efficiency of a store.

How to prepare a roster:

Usually a roster is prepared depending on the size of the store. If it’s a small size store, say around ten thousand square feet then a single roster for the entire store is prepared. For large sized stores the roster is prepared department wise. Every department manager is then held responsible to prepare the roster for his department.
Consider ones need to prepare a roster for a small store having men’s wear, ladies wear and kids wear collections. Before preparing a roster it is very essential to prepare the job schedule for all the staffs within the store. The manager needs to list down the entire job that is expected to be done on a daily basis, the time required to complete the task, and also the number of staffs required to complete a task. This activity is very critical for a store manager to run the store operations very effectively and of course for better customer service. In most of the stores because this activity is not performed seriously one experiences lot of problems inside the store, for instance, absence of a sales assistant in the section to assist a customer, some cash counters closed during peak time, stocks not merchandised properly in the department, or inefficient in performing a task.
A proper job schedule if prepared efficiently by the store manager will help the all the staffs to understand their job and be focussed, save time for the managers to explain the job to the staffs on a daily basis, increase efficiency of the store resulting in better productivity of the store.
Based on the job schedule prepared a roster is made. The roster is usually made weekly basis or monthly depending on the size of the store, the job schedule and also on requirement of the job. While preparing a roster the manager needs to note the week-day activities and week-end activities separately as the walk-ins to the store varies during these two periods. Based on the walk-ins, and the events inside the store, a roster is made, so as to make sure that proper manning and staff coverage is maintained in the departments and sections. Hence one will have to ensure that maximum staffs are deployed on week-ends and public holidays and on sale period as customer flow is more during these time. As the job schedule will vary for the morning shift and evening shift the staff shift will also vary. Accordingly the roster needs to be prepared keeping in mind the time, shift and job-roles of the staffs. Lady employees are mostly called for the first shift due to security reasons; hence the job schedule is also prepared keeping this factor in mind.
The roster needs to be prepared two to three days before the week begins so as all the staffs are prepared for it accordingly. It also gives time for the manager in case some changes need to be done at the last moment due to non-availability of staffs, or if one wishes to change the shift time, or weekly offs on request.
It is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that all staffs follow the roster strictly and adhere to it as the entire store operational activities are functioned based on the roster.

Pls click the link below to see a sample roster template.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlFo_xBgJvjMdEI4Skh1eElMSm5fME1Ha1FpZFYxcUE&hl=en