Communicate rosters to appropriate colleagues within designated timeframes
Communicating rosters to colleagues
It is crucial for rosters to be communicated to colleagues as quickly as possible. According to the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010 rosters “must be posted in a conspicuous place accessible to the employees concerned.” This is likely to differ between businesses.
Communication methods may include:
➢ Verbally, in person
➢ Email
➢ Through online software
➢ On posters
➢ In memos
➢ Meetings.
Who requires information?
While individuals will require a copy of their own roster to understand when and where they are supposed to be working, you may also need to communicate rosters to other personnel. For example, managers may want to supervise rosters to ensure there are an adequate number of employees in place for certain events or periods. A human resources department may seek information about rosters to see who will be taking part in training sessions or courses and at what time. The accounts office will also want information about the schedules of other employees in order to verify the amount of hours worked and to plan the paying of wages.
Timeframes
You should make sure that any timeframes set out regarding communicating rosters are realistic and can be achieved regularly. Your organisational policies should state the length of time in advance that employees should be informed about their shifts.
Providing rosters with plenty of notice has the following advantages:
➢ It enables colleagues to plan their lives accordingly
➢ It provides employees with time to report any issues with their planned shifts
➢ Changes can be made in advance.
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Responsibilities of staff
When informing employees about the planned schedule for work, you should also inform them of their responsibilities. It is the responsibility of employees to check the roster regularly to keep up to date with their work shifts. If they work on a regular shift pattern and it rarely changes, then it may be the supervisor or manager’s responsibility to inform them of any last minute changes, especially if they are not in work at the time of change.
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Activity 2B
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- Maintain rostering records
3.1. Administer records of shift time completed by employees or contractors
3.2. Maintain staff rostering records according to organisational procedures
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3.1 – Administer records of shift time completed by employees or contractors
3.2 – Maintain staff rostering records according to organisational procedures
Records of shift time completed
Following the development of rosters and the communication of schedules to employees, it is crucial to have policies and procedures in place for maintaining records. As a business that aims to maximise output and minimise costs, you ought to consider methods of ensuring employees have worked the hours they are supposed to.
By keeping suitable records on attendance and hours worked, employers and employees can protect their respective rights and benefits. Additionally, record keeping can help to avoid unnecessary disputes.
Methods of establishing hours completed:
➢ Using time cards to state time of arrival, breaks, and time of leaving work
➢ Having a written signing in and out system at the workplace
➢ Using an electronic signing in and out system at the workplace
➢ Requesting employees to email their supervisor when they arrive and leave work each day.
Potential issues
While it is important to keep a detailed record of the total amount of time worked by employees in order to manage wage costs, it can at times to be inefficient to scrutinise the shift times completed by employees. Employees may feel that they cannot be trusted to work their scheduled work hours, and the time it takes to sign in and out, particular during breaks, can add up to time wasted. Furthermore, it becomes difficult to track the hours worked by colleagues who have to travel between different locations, and creating varying policies for different employees could lead to frustration.
Nevertheless, some employees might become annoyed if they feel certain colleagues are persistently arriving to work a few minutes late, leaving early, or taking extended breaks. An electronic swiping system is perhaps the fairest way of tracking work hours, as it takes less time in comparison to signing in with a written format or sending an email.
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Maintaining records
It is usually the responsibility of an operations manager or payroll team to review data regarding hours worked and rostering records. The actions taken will vary according to workplace policies, but will normally involve inputting the actual hours worked by employees into a database or software programme which can then be used to calculate wages.
Maintaining records accurately is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it can protect an organisation from issues in relation to industry regulations, such as about maximum hours worked and the regulation of breaks. When assessed regularly, records can highlight when future rosters need to be altered, such as if an employee has worked a lot of overtime and they need to reduce their hours in the coming weeks.
Maintaining records can also help to settle disputes in relation to wages. Some employees may base their pay expectations on their rostered hours rather than the actual time spent working, so precise details can be used to solve such problems. They can also highlight where employees have taken annual leave, personal or carer’s leave, or if they have attended jury service, for example.
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