Shift plan


The shift plan, rota or roster is the central component of a shift schedule in shift work. The schedule includes considerations of shift overlap, shift change times and alignment with the clock, vacation, training, shift differentials, holidays, etc. The shift plan determines the sequence of work and free days within a shift system.

Notation

A notation used often identifies day, swing and night shifts for the W days and O for rest days.
; W: work days
; F: free days
; A~F : work teams
Note that a worker transitioning from N to O works for the first six or seven hours of the first day "off". Thus, when days off follow night shifts, the first one or more days "off" are, in fact, days of recovery from lack of nighttime sleep.
This daily notation refers to the start of a shift. If a shift starts at 23:00, then this is a W day even though only one hour is worked. The day after this shift is an F day if no shift starts on this day, though many hours have been worked from midnight on.
One shift system may allow many shift plans. For example, the twelve-hour, 2nW:2nF system with n = 1 allows twelve different plans in three serially-identical sets. Within a set, DONO has the same sequence as NODO. DNOO is the preferred sequence because days off follow night work and there are two consecutive days off.

3-day shift plans

Prior to 2014, the U.S. Navy used a three shift system with an 18-hour day instead of a 24-hour day. The 24-hour period was divided into four shifts: 00:00-06:00, 06:00-12:00, 12:00-18:00, and 18:00-00:00. A sailor stood watch on their shift. During the off shift there is time to perform maintenance, study for qualifications, and handle collateral duties. During off time the sailor has time to sleep, relax, and perform personal tasks, such as laundry. With sufficient personnel, a given watchstation may benefit from a fourth man. He would stand the same 6-hour watch in a given 24-hour period, usually from midnight to 06:00 and the normal watchstander would then be free. This gave rise to a schedule of six on, twelve off, six on, thirty off, six on, twelve off.
Beginning in 2014, the Submarine Force to a 24-hour day, with watches split into 8 hours on, 16 hours off. This does have the side effect of sailors assigned to a certain shift having the same meals every day, and so the shifts are periodically rotated in order to provide variety.
The Surface Fleet in 2017, transitioning from their "five and dimes" approach of 5 hours on, 10 hours off.
This does not apply to the attached air wing, which will work a 12 on, 12 off schedule 7 days a week.

4-day shift plans

In the 12/24/12/48 or 12/24 plan, employees work in shifts of 12 hours; first a "daily shift", followed by 24 hours' rest, This plan needs four teams for full coverage, and makes an average 40-hour workweek. The pattern repeats in a 4-week cycle, i.e. over 28 days, and has 14 shifts per employee therein.

5-day shift plans

In four on, one off the employee only gets one day off after a work streak of four days. There are 28 shifts per employee in a five-week cycle. This adds up to an average of 42 hours worked per week with 7½-hour shifts. This plan is mainly adopted by industries in which companies prefers to work for all days of the week, often with four shifts per day, and where laws do not let employees work for 12 hours a day for several days. Five groups of employees are needed to cover a specific shift on all days, where each group gets a different day off.

6-day shift plans

In four on, two off the employee gets two days off. There are 28 shifts per employee in a six-week cycle, this adds up to an average of 56 hours worked per week with 12-hour shifts, or hours per week with 8-hour shifts. Three groups are needed for each time span, i.e. to cover the whole day and week a company needs 6 groups for 12-hour shifts or 9 groups for 8-hour shifts. This plan is mainly adopted by industries in which employees do not engage in much physical activity.

Week shift plans

Three-shifts

The three-shift system is the most common plan for five 24-hour days per week. The "first shift" often runs from 06:00 to 14:00, "second shift" or "swing shift" from 14:00 to 22:00 and a "third shift" or "night shift" from 22:00 to 06:00, but shifts may also have different length to accommodate for workload, e.g. 7, 8 and 9 or 6, 8 and 10 hours. To provide coverage 24/7, employees have their days off on different days.
All of the shifts have desirable and less desirable qualities. First shift has very early starts, so time in the evening before is heavily cut short. The second shift occupies the times during which many people finish work and socialize. The third shift creates a situation in which the employee must sleep during the day; it may be preferred for night owls, for whom this is a desired sleep pattern.
TimeMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
07:30–14:30
14:30–22:30
22:30–07:30

To provide an overlap in shifts, some employers may require one of the shifts to work four 10-hour shifts per week. In that scenario, the night shift might extend from 21:00 to 07:00, but the night- shift would have nearly four days off between work weeks. This change, along with first shift moving a half-hour later, or second moving a half-hour earlier, ensures at least a half-hour overlap between shifts, which might be desirable if the business is open to the public to ensure that customers continue to be served during a shift change.
Some U.S. states, such as California, accommodate this arrangement by allowing the employee to be paid at their regular rate for the 10-hour shift, calling this an "alternative workweek".

Four on, three off

In four on, three off, each employee works four days and gets a three-day weekend. For some types of manufacturing, this is a win-win arrangement. For example, a paint company had been making 3 batches of paint per day, Sunday through Saturday. They changed to making 4 batches of paint, Monday through Thursday. Total worker hours remained the same, but profits increased. In exchange for two additional hours of work per day, over 4 days, workers got an additional day off every week. See also the book, 4 Days, 40 Hours.

Continental plan

Continental plan, adopted primarily in central Europe, is a rapidly changing three-shift system that is usually worked for seven days straight, after which employees are given time off, e.g. 3 mornings, 2 afternoons and then 2 nights.
TimeMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
06:00–14:00
14:00–22:00
22:00–06:00

24*7 shifts

In the 24*7 plan there are 24 consecutive shifts of 7 hours per week, hence covering 24/7. With 4 groups and 6 shifts per group, the work time is 42 hours per week. Several sub-patterns are possible, but usually each group is responsible for one of four time slots per day. Each of these is 6 hours long and if a shift begins in their time slot, a group has to work it. This way there are 14, 21 or 42 hours of rest between shifts, every group gets one whole day off. Shifts can be swapped to make double-shifts and increase the minimum time of rest.
Shift/GroupWork time windowMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
Night21:00–09:0021:00–04:0001:00–08:0022:00–05:0000:00–07:00
Morning03:00–15:0004:00–11:0008:00–15:0005:00–12:0002:00–09:00
Day06:00–18:0015:00–22:0012:00–19:0009:00–16:0013:00–20:00
Evening15:00–03:0019:00–02:0016:00–23:0020:00–03:0017:00–24:00

Split shift

Split shift is used primarily in the catering, transport, hotel, and hospitality industry. Waiters and chefs work for four hours in the morning, then four hours in the evening. The average working day of a chef on split shifts could be 10:00 to 14:00 and then 17:00 to 21:00
ShiftTimeMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
Lunch10:00–14:00
Break14:00–17:00
Dinner17:00–21:00

Earlies and lates

Earlies and lates is used primarily in industries such as customer service, convenience stores, child care, and other businesses that require coverage greater than the average 09:00 to 17:00 working day in the UK, but no 24/7 coverage either. Employees work in two shifts that largely overlap, such as early shift from 08:00 to 16:00 and late shift from 10:00 to 18:00
ShiftTimeMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
Morning
Evening

In businesses where two shifts are necessary to cover the day, earlies and lates may be combined with one double shift per week per worker. Six 7-hour shifts in five days and seven 6-hour shifts in six days both result in 42 hours per week.
ShiftTimeMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
Earlies08:00–15:00
Lates15:00–22:00

ShiftTimeMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
Earlies08:00–14:00
Lates14:00–20:00