How to Prepare a Shift Schedule: Step by Step (With Examples)

A shift schedule is the weekly plan showing who works on which day and at what hours. A good schedule balances workload, staff availability and the legal working limits together. To build one, you first size the demand and place people against it; then you check for conflicts, overtime and rest periods before sharing the plan with the team.

This content is for general information only and is not binding legal advice. Consult a professional for your specific situation.

Steps to build a shift schedule

1. Size the demand. Decide how many people you need on which days and hours; separate the busy and quiet periods.
2. Collect availability. Gather staff leave, preferred hours and constraints (school, second job, health) in advance.
3. Place people. Match demand to availability; balance experienced and new staff on the same shift.
4. Check. Is anyone double-booked? Do weekly hours exceed 45? Is the rest between two shifts enough? Review all of it.
5. Share and update. Publish the schedule in a single place everyone can see, and announce changes instantly.

Example: a weekly shift table

For a small team a simple table is usually enough to make the plan clear:

The last column flags the portion above 45 weekly hours as overtime.

Example schedules by shift pattern

Below are the four most common shift patterns by team structure and coverage hours, each with its own hour total check. The "planned total" in the tables is the sum of the visible shift windows; unpaid breaks are not counted as work time, so actual worked hours must be calculated separately.

2-team shift — 12/24 rotation

Two teams rotating a 12-hour planned shift window with 24 hours of rest:

Shows how two teams can rotate 12-hour planned shift windows with 24-hour rest periods. Two teams alone do not provide uninterrupted 24-hour coverage; for 24/7 operations, team size and coverage must be planned separately.

• 45 hours a week: the general and statutory normal working time; work beyond it falls under overtime rules.
• Breaks: not counted as working time.
• Daily actual work: cannot exceed 11 hours.
• Rest between shifts: cannot be less than 11 hours between two working periods.

This general framework applies to standard employees under Law No. 4857; special status, sector and collective agreement exceptions must be assessed separately.

3-team 8-hour shift — 4 teams rotating

Morning 06:00–14:00 · Evening 14:00–22:00 · Night 22:00–06:00 · O = Off/rest

Illustrates operations that need coverage across three shifts — morning, evening and night. Three teams are on duty each day while one team is off; the shift and rest order rotates between teams.

• 45 hours a week: the general normal working time; actual hours beyond it are assessed separately under overtime rules.
• Night work: the daily limit is 7.5 hours; the source notes exceptions exist.
• Rest between shifts: at least 11 hours must be provided between two working periods.
• Averaging period: standard period is 2 months; the daily 11-hour limit still applies within it.

Sector and employee-status exceptions must be assessed separately.

Fixed weekly shift

09:00–17:00 planned window · 30-minute break · 7.5 hours actual work

For teams working the same hours on set days, a fixed shift model is easier to read and simplifies planning for operations where work and rest days rarely change.

• 45 hours a week: the general normal working time for standard employees under Law No. 4857.
• Breaks: not counted as working time.
• Daily actual work: cannot exceed 11 hours.
• Weekly rest: at least 24 uninterrupted hours of weekly rest within every seven-day period.
• Rest between shifts: at least 11 hours between two working periods.

Security — 12/24 shift example (3 teams)

Day 08:00–20:00 · Night 20:00–08:00 · O = Off/rest. Three teams are used to show uninterrupted 24-hour coverage.

The 12/24 rotation can illustrate the shift structure for security operations that need staff on duty around the clock, day and night. In this three-team example, teams rotate between day, night and rest positions to provide 24-hour coverage. The same structure is covered in more depth on our security industry page.

• 45 hours a week: the general normal working time; actual work beyond it is assessed separately under overtime rules.
• Daily actual work: cannot exceed 11 hours.
• Night work: a 7.5-hour limit applies; the same source notes exceptions for some employee and sector groups.
• Rest between shifts: at least 11 hours between two working periods.

This table is not a statement of legal compliance — it's an example shift pattern.

If you'd rather manage the schedule from one place instead of by hand, take a look at ROTA's shift scheduling feature — it warns about conflicts and calculates rest periods and overtime automatically.

Legal limits in a schedule

The core limits to keep in mind when building shifts are:

• 45 hours a week: work beyond this counts as overtime and is paid at a premium. Overtime cannot exceed 270 hours a year.
• 11 hours between shifts: there must be at least 11 uninterrupted hours of rest between two working periods.
• 24 hours of weekly rest: the employee must be given at least 24 uninterrupted hours of weekly rest within each seven-day period.

Common mistakes

• Missing conflicts. Double-booking one person is easy to overlook on a hand-kept schedule.
• Ignoring breaks. If unpaid breaks are not deducted, the weekly total looks inflated.
• Not announcing last-minute changes. A change sent over WhatsApp does not mean everyone sees the current plan.

From Excel to digital planning

Excel is fine to start with, but as the team grows, conflicts, leave and changes get hard to manage in one table. At that point a tool that builds the plan in one place and pushes it to the team's phones makes the work easier. ROTA plans shifts by drag-and-drop, warns about conflicts, and calculates real hours — down to overtime — from clock-in/clock-out.