Two on the bar for the derby
The rota for next week is written on Thursday from the usual pattern: two on the bar in the evening, three on Saturday. Nobody checked that Wednesday has the local derby on the big screen, Friday has a band and Saturday afternoon has a sixtieth birthday in the function room.
On Wednesday the pub is packed at kick-off and there are two people behind the bar. You ring round to get someone in. On Sunday, the rota has three on for lunch, but it is raining and the garden is empty.
Why the rota and the events do not meet
Events are booked by different people at different times. The quiz is every week. Fixtures are announced by the leagues and broadcasters. Gigs are booked in message threads. Functions are in the function room diary. The rota is written by the manager from habit and memory. There is no one place where all of it is visible next to the shifts.
Past trade would help, but the EPOS reports by day and product, not by the kind of night it was. So nobody knows how much busier a derby is than a quiet Wednesday, or what a band night does to the bar after ten.
What an out-of-step rota costs
| Mismatch | Effect |
|---|---|
| Short-staffed event nights | Long queues and lost rounds |
| Overstaffed quiet days | Wages spent with nothing to do |
| Last-minute call-ins | Tired staff and goodwill used up |
| Functions not rostered | The bar and function room covered by the same person |
| No link to past trade | The same mistakes every season |
Bar staff talk to each other, and a pub known for chaotic, short-staffed nights finds it harder to hire. A rota that fits the week is part of keeping a good team.
Many pub staff are students or have second jobs, so late changes land badly. Someone asked to come in at two hours' notice for a match that was announced a month ago can reasonably ask why nobody planned for it, and after a few of those, they stop answering the phone.
A rota guide from events and trade
- We bring your events into one calendar: quiz nights, fixtures you plan to show, gigs, functions and anything else that changes trade.
- Past EPOS sales are pulled by hour and tagged with what was on that day, so the tool learns what a typical match night, quiz night or gig night looks like at your pub.
- You set simple rules for staffing, such as how much trade one person on the bar can handle per hour, plus fixed needs like a person on the function bar when it is booked.
- For the coming weeks, the tool suggests how many bar, floor and kitchen staff you need in each part of each day, with the event shown alongside.
- The suggestion is exported to your rota tool or a spreadsheet, where you turn it into named shifts.
- After each week, actual trade is compared with the suggestion, so the rules can be tuned.
The rota itself, contracts, breaks and hours stay with you and your employment adviser. This is a planning aid that tells you what the week is likely to need.
Writing next week's rota
On Thursday you open the guide. It shows the derby on Wednesday needing four on the bar from an hour before kick-off, the band on Friday needing an extra person after nine and a function bar on Saturday afternoon. Sunday lunch is flagged as weather-dependent. You write the rota with that in front of you, and on Wednesday nobody has to be rung in.
- Events and shifts on the same page
- Staffing based on how similar nights actually traded
- Fewer last-minute call-ins
- A rota guide that improves each week
Is your rota like this?
- The rota is written from a standard week.
- Big match nights have been short-staffed.
- Functions are sometimes left out of the rota.
- You ring staff in or send them home most weeks.
- You do not know how much busier an event night is than a normal one.