Weekly Employee Schedule Template- A Guide for Restaurant Owners and Managers

What is a Work Schedule?

A work schedule is a pre-decided plan of employee work timings and corresponding tasks for a week or month, All employees are expected to abide by it. The work schedule determines the number of hours each employee is required to put in per day and per week and the tasks they are to perform during this time.

Designing a successful, conflict-free employee schedule even for a small group can be challenging. and preparing weekly schedules or monthly schedules can become an additional burden on a restaurant that is already managing a number of daily tasks. This is why some managers choose to use schedule templates or employee scheduling software that make the job much easier and hassle-free.

Why Use a Work Schedule?

Preparing a roster that takes care of all the business needs and daily tasks that have to be performed, while also keeping in mind employee availability, leaves, shifts, different skillsets can be a hectic job to do every week or month. With the myriad tasks one has to perform at a restaurant, employee scheduling can seem like an additional burden. This is why work schedules and pre-decided tasks can help take off some of the load.

Work schedules or schedule templates can be used to replicate employee schedules that have earlier worked well for your business and can be used again with minor changes. Work schedules templates reduce the margin of error you may encounter with the manual method of drawing up a fresh work schedule time after time.

Keeping track of who is working when is a nightmare. You’re constantly having to update the schedule and you never know when someone is going to call in sick or leave.

A weekly employee schedule template will make your life easier. It will keep you organized and allow you to be more efficient with your time.

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What is an Employee Schedule Template?

An employee schedule template is a calendar of all employees, their work schedules and assigned tasks. All employees, their work hours, leaves and tasks are listed in an orderly fashion. Schedule templates make it easy for employees and managers to find the details of each shift, task and team member within seconds, instead of having to go around asking or shuffling through a pile of papers every time.

A schedule template can be prepared such that you can keep editing and updating it to draw up monthly or weekly work timings and tasks without having to draft everything from scratch everytime. A work schedule prepared in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets can be easily edited, modified and updated according to changing work situations. The schedule can include the Employee Time schedule, notes on employees on leave, tasks they need to perform and so on.

How to Use a Google Employee Schedule Template?

1. Open your Google Drive account, create a new Google Sheets file and select the option 'from a template'.
2. Scroll through the template gallery and select the 'schedule' template from the options.
3. Click on the date cell on the schedule template and set the dates for the weekly work schedule you wish to prepare.
4. The Google Sheets employee schedule template will also have different shift timings on the right column, which you can select and edit according to your needs.
5. Similarly, you can add the corresponding employee names for each of the tasks, shifts and weeks, etc in the rows and columns.
6. When done preparing the employee schedule template, click on the 'share' button and enter the email addresses of the employees to whom you wish to send the work schedule.

Benefits of Scheduling Software over Spreadsheet Templates

While most employee scheduling templates will restrict themselves to simply handling work schedules, scheduling software does much more. From Performance Management to employee Time Tracking, managing time-off requests and labor compliance, scheduling software takes care of virtually every HR process a restaurant needs to follow.

Scheduling software automates the process of employee scheduling, while also suggesting changes to the work schedule by keeping track of your scheduling patterns and employee availability. It also keeps track of time-off requests and labor law compliance your restaurant needs to follow. The system will keep sending you reminders and notifications about any labor law violation and remind employees to take breaks and clock in and out of the system on time to avoid running up labor costs. These tools are not available in a spreadsheet template system, which is basically a schedule Excel sheet with the weekly work schedules printed on it.

Another important aspect of scheduling software is the time clock tool with which you can keep track of all your employee movements and attendance, leaves, etc. and check time theft and buddy punch practices. You can also integrate the system with your payroll management software instead of manually exporting all the data sets from one software to another.

Managing employees is hard. There are so many things to consider:- hours, shifts, days off, vacations, and more. You need a system that helps you manage all of this information in one place.

A weekly schedule template is the perfect solution for restaurant owners and managers. It’s customizable and easy to use. Here’s how to set one up.

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Top 3 Scheduling Software for Restaurant

1. Zip Schedules
The Zip Schedules system offered by Hubworks is a scheduling software that helps you set up your work schedules within minutes, and that too with utmost accuracy. It helps you create conflict-free work schedules that can be easily delivered to each of your employees through the software. As a manager, you can also effortlessly manage all employee time-off or shift swap requests on the go, using Zip Schedule's mobile app. The Time Clock feature helps you keep track of employee attendance, clock-ins and clock-outs, and absenteeism, helping you curb time theft and other malpractices. The system will also give you Real Time employee accountability as well as insights into how the workforce is managed.

2. 7shifts
A dedicated employee management software meant for restaurants and foodservice businesses, 7shifts automates a restaurant's scheduling. It also helps trim labor costs and helps with labor law compliance and employee engagement. 7shifts has an in-built communication system where employees can directly communicate with the management, instead of trying to sneak in a word about leave, etc. with their managers verbally.

3. Connecteam
Connecteam is an all-in-one software solution for workforce management for all non-desk employees across different sectors, be it food, retail or service. This is a mobile-first solution that not only takes care of employee management, but also manages employee communication and other daily staff-related processes. Connecteam also offers tools for employee onboarding, training, employee scheduling, time tracking and task management.

Employee Schedule FAQs

Q. Are there any free employee scheduling apps available in the market?
A- There are a bunch of free-to-use employee scheduling apps available in the market for new and struggling businesses. However, most of these would allow a limited number of tools for a limited number of users.


Q- Can scheduling software be integrated with other HR systems?
A- Yes, most employee scheduling software solutions can be integrated with other third-party workforce management tools your business might be using. However, work schedule templates cannot be integrated with any other system and you will have to export the data using the schedule Excel sheets.

Employees are often scheduled to work at different times, and they need to be flexible. The weekly employee schedule template is the answer!

This article will show you how to use a weekly employee schedule template to make your life easier.

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