- Home
- Help centre
- >
- ...
- >
- Everything you need to know about rosters
Everything you need to know about rosters
Learn how:
Rosters
Learn all about our roster and shift planner to get ahead on scheduling in your business.
Creating & Sharing Rosters
Rosters help you plan staff shifts, ensuring you have enough staff working every day.
The roster planning feature on BrightHR also has some handy tricks, automatically flagging when an employee on annual leave, just to name one. So say goodbye to paper rosters and make use of this handy feature!
Creating A New Roster
Head to the 'Roster's' section of your account and click 'Create a new roster' to get started.
There are two ways to create a roster, you can either create a new roster from scratch or copy an existing roster you've already set up.
Let's go into each of these in a little more detail...
- First, select the 'Create a new roster' option.
- Enter your roster name. You could name your roster after a team, site or the date range that the roster is for. Whatever works best for you!
- Next, select the date that your roster will start from.
- Select how many days you'd like to include in your roster. You can select anywhere from 4 to 14 days. Also! Using the Table view, you can create a roster for an entire month.
- Now, we need to select whether the roster will include all employees or just specific teams. When you're assigning shifts on your roster this determines whether all employees are available for you to assign to a shift to or just specific employees from your chosen teams.
There are three ways to build your roster...
Table View
Our nifty table view allows you to set your shift time and assign this across multiple days, or employees, with just a click!
Create Shifts
Click the 'Add / Manage shifts' button to start creating your shift.
Add Details
Enter the start and end times of the shift.
Add a break if needed and any notes.
Select a colour and add a label to your shift if you need to.
Then click 'Add shift' to confirm and add this shift
Top tip: don't forget to click 'Apply' when selecting new shift times or adding breaks.
Assign Employees
Now it's time to start assigning shifts!
Just click on the table to assign this shift across as many days and employees as needed.
Repeat these steps to create all of the shift times you need.
Copy Shifts
Want to copy some shifts you've already added? No problem!
Just copy shifts you've already set up from one day to another, one employee to another or even across all weekdays or weekends in your roster - all from the 'Shifts' menu at the top.
Your Shift Library
Once you've added a shift we'll keep this in your library, so that you can easily switch between different shifts you're adding.
To do this just head to the 'Add / Manage shifts' section, click on the 'Choose an existing shift' box and choose which shift you'd like to add next.
Expand Your Roster
Add additional weeks to your roster using the 'Duration' button.
Add, remove or copy weeks you've already set up in your roster and have this span as many weeks as you need.
Share With Staff
Once you're happy with your rota just click the 'Publish' button then select 'Publish roster' to share the roster with your staff.
They'll even receive a handy push notification to their BrightHR app to let them know their roster is now available to view.
Timeline View
Our handy timeline view allows you to assign users to shifts individually or a team at a time, making shift planning within your business a breeze!
Create Shifts
Click the 'Add shift' button to start creating your shift.
Add Details
Click on the start or end time of the shift to set the shift time.
Add a break if needed and any notes.
Then click 'Continue' to move onto the next step.
Top tip: don't forget to click 'Apply' when selecting new shift times or adding breaks.
Assign Employees
Next, select the names of any employees that will be working this shift.
BrightHR will show you if an employee is absent so you don't need to worry about assigning them to a shift they're unable to work.
Then click 'Continue'.
Top tip: Click 'Select group' to assign full teams to a shift - with a click!
Confirm Your Shifts
Check the details shown and ensure that your shift is correct then click the 'Add shift' button to create your shift.
Repeat
You'll see the new shift you've added on your roster. Just repeat these steps to create all the shifts you need in your roster.
Expand Your Rota
Add additional weeks to your roster using the 'Add week' button. Or click 'Add week & copy shifts' to duplicate the shifts you've already created on this new week.
Choose whether you'd like to include notes when creating your new week and click 'Copy week'.
Share With Staff
Once you're happy with your rota just click the 'Publish' button then select 'Publish roster' to share the roster with your staff.
They'll even receive a handy push notification to their BrightHR app to let them know their roster is now available to view.
Drag & Drop View
Our quick and easy Drag and Drop view allows you to find the employee you wish to assign to a shift and drag and drop their name to assign them with a click.
Create Shifts
Click the 'Add shift' button to start creating your shift.
Add Details
Click on the pencil to edit the shift details.
Then click on the start or end time of the shift to amend the shift time.
Add a break if needed and any notes.
Then click 'Update' to save your changes.
Top tip: don't forget to click 'Apply' when selecting new shift times or adding breaks.
Repeat
You'll see the new shift you've added to your roster. Just repeat these steps to create all the shifts you need in your roster.
Assign Employees
Now just drag and drop the name of the employee from the employee list onto the shift you'd like to assign them to. Simple!
Top tip: Use the search bar to search for employees by name, job title or team.
Expand Your Roster
Add additional weeks to your roster using the 'Add week' button. Or click 'Add week & copy shifts' to duplicate the shifts you've already created on this new week.
Choose whether you'd like to include notes when creating your new week and click 'Copy week'.
Share With Staff
Once you're happy with your schedule just click the 'Publish' button then select 'Publish roster' to share the roster with your staff.
They'll even receive a handy push notification to their BrightHR app to let them know their roster is now available to view.
Still want a paper copy of your Roster? Just press print at the top of the screen to print a copy of this!
Adding An Open Shift
Create an open shift to give your employees the flexibility of being able to claim a shift if they're available. Check out how to do this in our handy how to video...
Editing A Roster
In the Active rosters section of your account, you'll see details of any unpublished, upcoming or in progress rosters.
To start editing a roster click on the pencil to the right of it. You can then click on any of the shifts to edit the assigned employee, day of the shift, shift and break times.
Top tip: click on 'Timeline view' or 'Table view' or 'Drag and drop' to change the roster view you're currently using.