Recruitment Process and Roster Management

Creating the weekly or fortnightly roster is a challenging responsibility. Roster management involves communication between the employer, manager and employees on a regular basis. Rostering in the retail industry is particularly complicated as shifts are generally short and staff turnover is high. 

The retail industry is comprised of employees who are considered casual, part-time or full-time. Each employment condition is paid either a yearly salary or on an hourly basis. Usually, casual staff get paid more in comparison to regular part-time or full-time staff and a required to be flexible. This is a result of the irregular nature of their employment. They are not always guaranteed a particular shift so the hours they work in one week will vary on a regular basis. According the Fair Work Ombudsman, casual and part-time worker are required to be paid a minimum of 3 hours work per week and this goes down to 1.5 hours per week for casual high school workers. This makes earnings relatively unpredictable for these workers and therefore they are compensated with a higher hourly wage to make up for this irregularity. 

These different employee payment methods contribute to the difficult nature of roster management. For example, hiring casual staff is also more expensive on Sundays and public holidays so this is generally avoided by employers. In the retail industry there are legal implications when it comes to employees taking lunch breaks, depending on the number of hours they are working in one shift breaks are compulsory. “No employee can work more than 5 hours without a meal break” (Fair Work Ombudsman 2012). This means that all breaks need to be organised and rostered into the daily timetable in order to avoid clashing break times which potentially reduce the number of staff on the ground at any one time and could impact profits. 

Additionally, “employers must give their retail employees a 12-hour rest period between finishing work on one day and starting work on the next day. The break between shifts can be reduced to no less than 10 hours by agreement between the employer and the employee or a group of employees” (Fair Work Ombudsman 2012). These agreements must be made in writing and all parties must obtain a copy for their records.

As you can see there are many small rules and regulations behind the roster management and recruitment process procedures throughout the retail industry, not only the ones mentioned above but many more. In order to successfully create your rosters often a great HR manager with great organisational and time management skills is required as well as a live web based rostering program such as RosterLive.  

Web based rostering solutions allow you to build rosters which can be changed at any time and can instantly notify employees of these changes. It determines your labour costs in order to help you keep within your budget. It will allow you to create rosters for many sites and stores useful for franchisors and can be accessible at any time and place. 

Make sure you find your roster management solution before your next rostering period arrives. There are many options and alternatives and ensure you are organised, plan ahead and practice your managerial skills well.