Sunday evening with a whiteboard
The café manager plans next week's rota on Sunday evening. The café needs two people on the counter at lunchtime, one in the kitchen, and someone on the till. Five of the eight people rota'd are trainees at different stages. One can run the till alone in quiet periods but not at lunch. One needs a job coach nearby for the first hour of each shift. Two cannot work Tuesdays because of college. A job coach is only on site Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The catering order for Thursday needs an extra pair of hands in the kitchen.
The manager uses a whiteboard, a spreadsheet and her memory. On Wednesday she realises that the lunchtime shift has two new trainees and one experienced member of staff, which is not enough support, and moves people around at short notice. Trainees who rely on routine find the change hard.
Why a normal rota app is not enough
Ordinary rota apps are built around staff who can all do the job. In a social enterprise, the rota is also a support plan.
- Each trainee is signed off for some tasks and not others, and that changes as they progress.
- Supervisors and job coaches can each support a limited number of trainees at once.
- Some trainees need the same shift pattern every week, and changes need notice.
- Agreed hours per person, sometimes rising gradually, must be kept to.
- Trading demand varies: catering orders, events and seasonal peaks.
How many trainees each member of staff can support, and what each person is ready for, are judgements for your managers and job coaches. We build the rota to follow the rules they set.
What a hand-built rota costs
Shifts with too little support are hard for trainees and stressful for staff, and customers notice when the counter is struggling. Last-minute changes unsettle people who find change difficult.
The manager's Sunday evening becomes a regular fixture. And the rota does not help trainees progress: people who are ready for a new task are not given it because the manager cannot see that at a glance.
A rota that checks support and skills
What we build is a rota tool that uses the skills record and your support rules.
- Each shift is set up with the tasks it needs and how many people for each, with extra shifts added for catering orders and events.
- Each trainee's signed-off tasks come from their progress record, so the rota only offers them tasks they are ready for, or marks a task as a supported practice opportunity.
- Each supervisor and job coach has a support capacity your managers set, and the rota warns if a shift has more trainees than its support can cover.
- Availability, fixed patterns and agreed hours per person are held, and the rota warns if a week would take someone over their agreed hours.
- The manager builds the week from last week's pattern, adjusts it, and sees warnings before publishing.
- Trainees receive their shifts in a format that suits them, such as a text, a printed card with pictures or a calendar on their phone, with changes clearly highlighted and sent with notice.
| Warning | Example |
|---|---|
| Support over capacity | Lunch shift has four trainees and one supervisor |
| Skill not signed off | Trainee placed on till alone at a busy time |
| Hours over agreement | Week totals more than the person's agreed hours |
| Pattern change | Trainee who needs routine moved to a new day |
| Task uncovered | No one signed off for the kitchen on Thursday |
Next Sunday
The manager opens next week, copied from this week. The Thursday catering order is already in as an extra kitchen shift. The tool warns that Tuesday lunch has three trainees and one supervisor, and that one trainee's week would go over his agreed hours. She moves a trainee from Tuesday to Wednesday, when the job coach is on site, and trims a shift. The rota is published in twenty minutes, and trainees get their shifts in their chosen format.
A trainee signed off on the till last week shows up as available for a quiet afternoon till shift, and gets his first one.
Is your rota like this?
- Rotas are built by hand around who can support whom.
- Shifts sometimes have too many trainees for the support available.
- Trainees are not given new tasks when they are ready because it is hard to see.
- Agreed hours are checked after the rota is published.
- Last-minute changes unsettle trainees who need routine.