8+ Work Schedule Templates (Free Samples)

Making a work schedule is important for doing the work within the specified time limit and is required for being productive at all times. It is also essential in the business world.

The schedule for work can be made on weekly basis by using different templates basis or monthly work schedule templates can also be used based on the working conditions and other requirements of your company. The work schedule is not limited to making the timetable only rather it is much different from it.

Using a work schedule template can help you in becoming organized regarding your tasks but it requires a lot of effort to make it suitable. The weekly work schedule templates allow you to make a proper working plan for the employees about all the tasks being assigned to them for the upcoming week. On the other hand, the monthly work schedule templates allow you to plan for the whole month so that the tasks can be then assigned to the employees according to your plan.

The choice of using the type of work schedule template will depend on the workload, number of employees in your company, and your convenience that how many tasks can be planned and monitored by you appropriately. Once the weekly or monthly work schedule has been made then you should instruct your employees to follow it appropriately and be consistent about the assigned tasks. It is because a perfect work schedule template is that which is being followed by the company’s employees appropriately and it requires the process to be properly streamlined.

A good work schedule template should have some of the important features so that you can get the expected results according to the plan made for your employees. Following are the essential considerations that should be kept in mind while making a work schedule template:

Properly staffed shifts

The most important factor by which a work schedule can be made perfect is to the number of staff members allocated for each shift is appropriate in number and is according to the actual requirement. It is important to have a proper number of staff members so that all the tasks can be divided among them and any of the employees may not get overloaded of work.

Different aspects will not be taken under consideration while deciding the number of staff members for the weekly or monthly work schedule template. It is because the number of staff people will depend on the type and nature of the event being conducted and the weekly or monthly work schedule template will be amended accordingly. Following events might need more staff than that of the regular staff:

• Sports event.
• Concerts.
• Festivals.
• Theater performances etc.

The number of required staff during these events will be more because the number of people coming to attend the event will also be large in number and more members will be required to handle the crowd.

The work schedule template will be made on a weekly or monthly basis by considering the type of work shifts according to which the employees are working with your company, such as:

• Extended working hours.
• Shift work.
• Flexible working hours.
• Part time working hours etc.

Work schedules for all these types of working shifts can be easily made with the help of templates. It is because the weekly work schedule templates and monthly work schedule templates also provide different options related to it.

If the shifts have not been staffed properly then many problems can arise which may include:

• Stressed employees.
• No balance in employees’ personal and professional life.
• Poor health of employees.
• Unsatisfied customers.
• Reduced profits.
• Poor company culture etc.

All these problems can be solved if the shifts are properly staffed as it has many advantages such as:

• The employees will not become stressed about their work as they will be already informed about their work schedules as mentioned in the template.
• There will be a proper balance in the personal and professional lives of your employees as they will know about their working hours in advance.
• When there will no workload, the employees will remain mentally and physically fit.
• The other commitments will be made by the employees after keeping their weekly or monthly work schedule in mind.
• When everything will be properly planned in advance, then you will not need to add and remove any thing while other tasks are in progress.
• When the employees are already provided with their weekly or monthly work schedule templates and know what duties are to be performed by them, then they will also be able to make the customers satisfied.
• All the expected outcomes can be achieved with the help of properly made work schedule templates for all the employees.

Free of errors

Another factor about which you should strictly make sure that it is not present in your work schedule template is that it should be free of any error. It is important to make the schedule without any error to avoid many kinds of troubles in the upcoming time. If the work schedule template will not be made accurately then you and your employees will also face difficulty in accomplishing the tasks within the allocated time.

Being a manager, you should also think from the perspective of your employees while making their work schedules with the help of templates. There are common points where there are more chances of making a mistake, so those points should be avoided while making the work schedule for all the employees. Those points include:

• Last-minute scheduling: To assign the duties to any of the employees at the last minute seems to be non-professional behavior. It may be possible in some circumstances where the client has informed you about a particular project at a short notice by he/she is your regular client and you will have to fulfill their project by assigning this task to any employee with a short time deadline.
  But if it is being done on regular basis then it is not good for the employees and your company as well because you are in charge of managing all the things appropriately and informing the employees about all the plans well before time. This mistake should not be repeated continuously as it will not allow the employees to plan other things according to the available time and they will become stressed out.

• Double scheduling: It might be possible that an employee has been assigned two different duties in the same slot. On the other hand, there is a possibility that you assign the same duty to two different employees working in the same shift. Such mistakes in the weekly work schedule templates or even in the monthly schedule templates will give rise to a great deal of confusion among the employees. It will also make the employees feel less important for the company and develop a perspective of mismanagement in the company.

• Scheduling staff for wrong positions: Every person is specialized in performing specific kinds of duties and this factor should be kept in mind while making the weekly or monthly work schedule templates for the employees. It is important to assign those duties to the employees in which they are proficient and know how to fulfill those tasks. If an employee is assigned with that duty for which he/she has no expertise and skills, then it will lead to the poor results of the project in terms of the outcomes which will ultimately affect the project as a whole.

• Under/Over scheduling of employees: If the weekly work schedule templates and monthly work schedule templates are not made with proper planning, then there are chances of giving lesser duties to an employee and also assigning more tasks to another employee. To avoid this mistake, the timing shift of all employees should also be considered. For instance, the part time employees will have to be given the duties which can be completed in their specified time periods as they can manage to fulfill the tasks in that time only.
  On the other hand, the full-time staff members can be given a greater number of tasks as they can manage to complete those due to having more working hours in the office. A single employee should not be given multiple shifts in a week because it will lead to a workload any may affect their health.

Different things should be kept in mind while making the work schedule template for any employee due to which a lot of problems can be prevented from occurring. Following are some of the things that are important to be considered while making any kind of schedule either weekly work schedule template or the monthly work schedule template:

Know your team

First, you should have a complete idea of the number of employees working for your company and the number of employees working in different departments of the office. You should have knowledge about the performance of each employee so that it can become easy for you to select a particular person for doing a specific task. It is an important part of your duty as you will be the one who is responsible for managing all the things together. Having an idea about the number of team members and the caliber of each employee will help you to decide a group of staff that will be allocated to a specific project.

When there are enough members for completing a project and all the duties relevant to that project are evenly distributed then it becomes easy to increase the success ratio for that project. To have an appropriate idea, you can list the following details about each employee in a single place:

• Name of the employee.
• Skills and expertise.
• Certifications.
• Job type (Part time or Full time).
• Overtime restrictions.
• Other comments.

Listing all these things will help you in identifying different aspects of all the employees such as:

• Strengths.
• Weaknesses.
• Type of personality etc.

At the time of making a work schedule template, you can easily go through this list and select that employee who is able to fulfill all the requirements of the particular project.

Check the local regularities

The laws and regulations regarding the allocation of tasks to your employees should be considered while doing so. It is important to understand those regulations so that the payment schedule of all the employees can be decided accordingly in order to get saved from any kind of facing any kind of penalties and fines which could be charged in case of non-compliance.

In some states, it is compulsory to pay extra charges named “predictability pay” to those employees whose tasks have been last-minute scheduled. In some other states, there is a complete ban regarding the on-call sifts and clopen shifts and sets a specified time of rest between the two working shifts. So, companies will have to make the work schedule templates according to the requirements of the respective states.

According to the “Schedules That Work Act”, employees can make any kind of changes in their weekly or monthly work schedule templates according to their own requirements by giving a valid reason for doing so. This bill deals with the regulations for cleaning, food, hospitality, retail, and warehousing. The company will also have to pay its employees if any changes are made in their work schedule templates in less than 14 days.

Build shifts around your best employees

Every employee has their own areas of expertise and being a manager, you know which employee is most suitable for handling all the tasks related to a particular project. You can consider different qualities of an employee in this regard, such as:

• Efficiency.
• Personality.
• Experience.
• Coordination with others etc.

Using this strategy will help you in the following ways:

• You can ensure that the most suitable employee has been selected for the assigned project.
• You can also be sure about the leadership qualities of that employee who has the capability of guiding other team members as well. When the coordination among team members will be good then the quality of work will ultimately get improved. That employee will also become a source of inspiration for the others, and they will from him as well especially those who are in the initial training phase of the job.

Establish a team-wide communication method

It is important to consider the method of communication for the team members while making their work schedule templates. It helps the employees in discussing all the aspects of the project with each other in detail. If all the team members are working in person then they can arrange a meeting in the office.

But on the other hand, if some of the employees are doing the remote work and some are in the office, then you may choose to give them access to the same software through which they can communicate with each other and can also monitor the project’s progress. In this way, the use of technology can help in connecting with one another efficiently.

Get the schedule out quickly

It is important to inform the employees about their work schedule template within the time. Whether you are planning to make a weekly work schedule template or a monthly work schedule template, you should plan it before in order to inform the employees about it. In this way, the employees will also be able to plan and adjust other activities accordingly. It will also help you in making any kind of changes according to the availability of the employees.

Giving the work schedule template to employees well before time is beneficial for you and for the employees as well in many ways. If any employee will want to exchange the shift with any other, it can be easily done and you can also find a substitute if a particular employee is not available on a specific day. You can communicate this schedule with all the employees via software which can be accessed by them at any time of the day.

Honor work preferences

You can build the goodwill of your company in front of your employees if you will coordinate with them and set their work schedule template according to their preferences. The employees will also gain a sense of satisfaction in this way and the good potential workers will also not think about leaving their current job.

The option of adding the preferences can be given to the employees that they can add it in their weekly or monthly work schedule template which has been shared with them. All this process should be well-monitored to avoid any problem at any later time. In this way, the employees will feel that there is transparency in this process when all the queries will be dealt with accurately.

Consider time off requests

The time-off wanted by the employees will also play a critical role while making the work schedule templates for them. In this regard, you can keep those times in mind when there is more probability of time-off requests from the employees. If more than one employee has asked for time off on the same day and in the same shift, then you can consider other factors such as:

• Seniority.
• Reason of time off request.
• Time of request submission.
• Work requirements etc.

In this case, you can specify the number of days for which the employees can ask for time off and the time of request submission time should also be specified that the request should be submitted before how many days.

Involve the employees

It will be a good idea to involve your employees while making the work schedule template because a mutual conversation will lead to making the schedule more secure for you and your employees as well. It will also help in reducing your burden and employees will also have an idea about their future tasks. For this purpose, you can specify those time slots in which they can make the required changes because the work schedule template cannot be altered as a whole. After approving all the changes, then make the work schedule template available for everyone.

Let employees find their own substitutes

It can be a way of reducing the workload to ask the employees for finding their substitute. You can give them an option of giving the name of a person as their substitute in the work schedule template for the time-off. Then you will be the one who will approve the name of another person as a substitute if he/she is capable enough to deal with the responsibilities. On the other hand, the person who wants time off can ask other employees and the one who will be willing to work as the substitute can perform the tasks.

Even if you have asked about the employee’s consent but the final decision will always be taken by you by considering several factors in this regard. That person should be selected as the substitute whose level of skills matches with those of the employee who will not be available on a particular day. Letting the employees find their substitute will not only reduce your workload but it will also help the employees in becoming more mature and thoughtful. This process will also give them a sense of importance for the company.

Create an availability chart

In some cases if the employee is not able to decide about the substitute or the person referred as a substitute is not willing to do the extra work and does not have the required skills then you will have to select the substitute on your own. For this purpose, you can make an availability chart in which the names of those employees will be written who has free time during particular shifts time. It will help you in finding a suitable substitute employee easily.

In this way, the availability chart will act as a second plan by which you can change the work schedule template. It will be greatly helpful for you even if you will have to plan at the last minute because you will already know that which employees can be contacted for the substitute replacement.

Have a Plan C too

The factor of uncertainty always persists, no matter how much perfect plan has been made from your side. As a manager, this thing will be well known by you, and you will be finding a way to deal with such unexpected situations. To solve this problem, you can also make a list of part-time employees who will be available during different time slots. You may negotiate this factor with them in advance that they might be contacted in case of any emergency. It will help you in having a more secure backup plan in case of any unanticipated situation.

Use advanced tools

The world has been much advanced in technological advancements. So you should also use advanced tools. It is important to use the right and advanced tools while making the weekly work schedule template or monthly work schedule template for your employees. Work schedule templates can be easily made in the Excel sheet and shared with the employees through different software. The benefit of using advanced tools is that they offer you a variety of options. You can change their settings as per your requirements.

Advanced tools and software allow you to check if any employee has been double scheduled or to enter any time off request for a specific employee. Once the work schedule templates for all employees get approved, the employees will also get a notification about their access to their schedules.

The implementation of the work schedule brings advantages for both the employee and the manager:

For the employee:

• Organize your workday. He arrives knowing what he needs to do and wastes no time trying to find himself in the middle of all the demands;
• Creates a “reference rule” so that he knows the expected time for the execution of each task;
• Increase your income. The employee exercises the necessary improvement to accomplish a task faster without losing effectiveness.

For the manager:

• It allows management to clearly view internal processes. By listing all the team’s activities, he gains a broader view of the business and the mapping of the stages of each service or project;
• Facilitates the monitoring of team productivity. Just check the schedule to find out what he must be doing and check deliveries;
• It can be used as an indicator of internal improvements. Through the dialogue between the employee and the manager, it is possible to know if an activity has required more time than indicated if there is a process that is blocking the routine … Adjustments can be made at any time to increase productivity.

Do you want to implement a work schedule? Download our templates!

If you have already understood the importance of guiding your team in carrying out day-to-day tasks and are interested in implementing a schedule for your employees, we are providing free templates that can be downloaded and used in your company!

A perfect work schedule template is necessary for you and your employees as well. The employees will have a better idea about their responsibilities, you will also be able to communicate all the things with them and then cross-check the progress of each employee individually regarding their assigned projects with the help of software.

Making a work schedule template makes all the processes well-coordinated and it becomes easy for you to manage all the things efficiently if everything has been planned. Your duties as a manager can also be made easy to perform by reducing the workload and other kinds of pressure situations which are faced by you in case of and mismanagement. Ultimately, your time will also get saved which can then be used for other purposes rather than only tackling the problematic situations.