Advantages of a rotating shift schedule
A nice spread of talent
One of the often-overlooked benefits of rotating shifts is spreading out your best employees. You’ll also be able to pair experienced employees with new hires to expedite training.
Also, team members with special skills may be in high demand. Having them rotate into different shifts can ensure the hiring is smooth.
Always-on service
Around-the-clock employment keeps your business operating smoothly. With rotating shifts, your business is covered at all hours. This also helps you give your team a lot of time off.
24-hour coverage also helps eliminate production delays when team members switch shifts.
Fair earning potential
Rotating shifts allows restaurant employees to work high-paying dinner and low-paying day shifts like lunch service.
Giving everyone frequent access to high-paying shifts serves two purposes.
Greater learning opportunities
Rotating shifts gives your team more chances to learn and build chemistry with one another. By cycling through every conceivable combination of talent, new hires will meet all of their teammates faster and develop new skills.
Even working at a different time of day is a learning opportunity. For instance, opening a restaurant differs from closing one for the night.
Variable work hours help employees understand the unique responsibilities of each shift. This way, your teams can more easily empathize with one another.
Disadvantages of a rotating shift schedule
Some people prefer consistency
The biggest problem with the rotating shift is that team members may prefer a set schedule (or fixed shift). When your employees work the same shift daily, it's much easier to plan the rest of their lives and master their roles.
One way to help your employees’ work-life balance is to give them their rotating schedules ahead of time. Even though their work schedules may change, they’ll notice your efforts to foster a healthy work-life balance.
Physical impact on team members
Rotating shifts can be stressful for your employees' bodies. Drastic scheduling changes can disrupt a person’s circadian rhythm.
Outside of sleep, there are other health risks linked to rotating shifts:
If you’re worried about your team’s mental and physical health, it’s worth exploring ideal shift rotations before building a schedule. Remember, healthy and happy employees are more productive.
Inconsistent income
Shift changes might also affect hourly team members' earnings. Night shifts may pay extra. Employers usually pay extra to get employees to work outside of typical hours.
Because team members on a rotating schedule don't always work specific shifts, these incentives can affect their income.
Keep pay period rotations the same to reduce these fluctuations. All employees could theoretically work the same hours per shift and pay period. This technique helps them obtain the same pay each time.