Free staff roster templates

How to choose a roster template

Pick by how your business runs, not by how the spreadsheet looks:

• Opening hours with a mix of full-time and casual staff (cafes, retail, clinics): the weekly template. Write real start and end times and let it total the hours.
• Fortnightly pay: the fortnightly template, so each person's total matches the pay run without adding two sheets together.
• 24/7 cover with 8-hour shifts (aged care, hospitals, factories): the three-shift template. Five teams keep day, evening and night covered with rest days between blocks.
• 24/7 cover with 12-hour shifts (security, control rooms, process plants): 4 on 4 off. Fewer handovers, longer days, and an average 42-hour week.
• Mixed days and nights on a short cycle: the 7-day rotating (continental) template with four teams.

Staff roster template: what has to be on it

A roster that staff can actually work from needs, per shift: the person, the day, the start time, the end time, the unpaid break, and the role or area if that changes. The templates add three things spreadsheets usually miss: hours that total themselves, NZ public holidays highlighted automatically (staff who work one are owed time and a half and, if it was an otherwise working day, an alternative holiday), and a pattern sheet for rotating rosters so you can see the whole cycle rather than one week.

Rules to keep in mind when you fill it in

• Rest and meal breaks. Employees are entitled to paid rest breaks and an unpaid meal break at reasonable times across a shift; the break column on the template is the unpaid meal break.
• Public holidays. The public holiday pay calculator works out time and a half, alternative holidays and relevant vs average daily pay for any case.
• Otherwise working days. Whether a public holiday would have been a working day for someone on a variable roster decides what they are owed. The otherwise working day calculator applies the test.
• Rotating patterns and fatigue. Keep a minimum gap between shifts (many agreements use 10 to 12 hours) and cap consecutive days. The pattern sheets show the gaps at a glance.

When a template stops being enough

Spreadsheet rosters break the moment someone swaps a shift, calls in sick, or asks for their hours from three weeks ago. If you are spending more than an hour a week on the roster, try the free roster generator to build a fair week in seconds, or let RosterMates keep the roster live on staff phones with clock-ins, timesheets and payroll attached.

More free NZ rostering & leave tools