Work schedule and staff rota template

A weekly employee schedule, or staff rota as it is called in the UK, for shops, cafés, care homes, warehouses and any team that works shifts. Pick Early, Late, Night, Off or Holiday for each person and day; shifts colour themselves, each person’s weekly hours are totalled from a shift key you can edit, and a cover table shows how many people are on each shift every day.

Templates

Work schedule (staff rota) (Excel spreadsheet): A weekly employee work schedule and staff rota: pick a shift per person per day, colour-coded, with hours per person and staff per shift.
Weekly timesheet (Excel spreadsheet): A weekly timesheet template: start, finish and break times give daily hours, regular and overtime hours, and total pay.
Employee attendance sheet (Excel spreadsheet): A monthly employee attendance sheet in Excel: mark present, absent, leave, half day or holiday, with automatic totals and attendance %.

How to use these templates

Set the week starting date; the dates above each day update.
Edit the shift key with your own shift times and paid hours per shift.
List your staff and roles, then choose a shift for each day from the dropdowns.
Check the cover table for days that are short-staffed, then print the rota for the staff room or share the file.

Writing a fair rota

Publish the rota at least a week or two ahead. In some places, such as parts of the US with predictive scheduling laws, it is required.
Avoid a late shift followed by an early one. Under UK working-time rules, adult workers are entitled to 11 hours’ rest between working days.
Spread weekend and night shifts evenly across the team, and use the hours column to keep part-time staff within their contracted hours.
Keep a copy of each week’s rota. It is the easiest way to answer questions about hours and pay later.
For a monthly view, copy the sheet four times in the same workbook, one tab per week.

Frequently asked questions

What is a rota?

Rota is the British word for a work schedule: a table showing who works which shift on which day.

Can I add more shift types?

Yes. Add a row to the shift key with its name and hours, then add the name to the dropdown list in Excel with Data, Data Validation.

How are weekly hours calculated?

The sheet counts how many of each shift a person has, multiplies by that shift’s hours in the key, and adds them up.

Can staff see the rota on their phones?

Upload the file to Google Sheets or OneDrive and share a view-only link.