Most guides on how to make a rota start with the grid. This one starts with arithmetic, because a rota that looks full and does not add up is the most common kind and the most expensive. To create a rota that covers the week, keeps everyone inside their hours and tells you what it costs before it is published, you need five numbers before you need a single name: the days you open, the shifts in a day, the people each shift needs, the hours in a shift and the rate you pay. Rota planning is what you do with those five; the grid is where you write the answer down.
Step one to three: shifts, hours and people
Multiply the days you open by the shifts in a day by the people each shift needs and you have the shifts to fill. Multiply that by the hours in a shift and you have the rota hours in the week. Divide by the people on the rota and you have the average hours a head. On the worked example that is seven days, two shifts, three people and eight hours: 42 shifts, 336 hours, 28 hours a head across twelve people. If the average is past the 48 hour weekly limit or under people's contracts, the rota is wrong before anyone is on it.
Step four: cost it, then put the names on
Multiply the rota hours by your average rate and you have the cost of the week. 336 hours at £12.71 is £4,270.56, or £610.08 a day. That is the figure to set against what the week is expected to take, and it is the figure that decides whether the third person on the Tuesday early is worth it. Only now do names go on the grid, and they go on the shifts that matter first: the ones that are hardest to cover, not the ones that are easiest to fill.
Step five: publish it, and record every change
A rota is published once and changed a dozen times. Someone swaps a Saturday, someone is off sick and a colleague covers, a shift is added because a delivery is coming. On a spreadsheet those changes live in a group chat and the sheet stays wrong. Record each one against the week by a named person and the totals move with it, so the rota payroll is run from is the rota that was worked. The free rota calculator on this site does steps one to four; the paid record does step five.
Questions people ask about how to make a rota
How long should making a rota take?
For a team of a dozen on a stable pattern, under an hour a week once the pattern is set, and most of that is handling requests. If it takes an afternoon, the rota is being rebuilt from scratch each week instead of rolled forward from the last one.
Should I ask for availability first?
Collect it, but do not build from it. Build from the shifts the business needs, then place people against their availability. A rota built from availability covers what is convenient and leaves the difficult shifts to be argued about on the day.
What is a rota calculator?
A sheet that turns the shifts, hours, people and rate into totals: rota hours, hours a head, the cost of the week and the gap against contracted hours. The free work rota template on this site is one, and it needs no account.