10 free employee schedule templates and how to create yours
Work schedules are more than just a list of shifts on a spreadsheet tacked up next to a time clock. They’re essential tools that support your business in running smoothly and efficiently. A well-structured work schedule helps HR teams and hiring managers handle staffing demands, avoid unnecessary overtime, and comply with federal and state labor laws. Carefully planned employee schedules can improve productivity and reduce burnout, helping lower turnover while boosting morale and engagement.
In this guide, we’ll explore the different types of work schedules, their features, and key benefits. Download our free employee schedule templates and learn how to make a work schedule for your team.
What is an employee work schedule template?
An employee work schedule template is a pre-made shift schedule that organizations can retain and reuse. Companies use different work schedule templates to match their needs and employee expectations. The work schedule outlines when and how long employees work, and sometimes specifies what tasks they’ll handle. Work schedules come in many forms, from a sheet of paper on a bulletin board to an advanced software platform with mobile access. However, they provide the same basic information, including assigned roles, shift start and end times, lunch breaks, and more.
A work schedule template isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. As you’ll see, various types of templates are available, each suited to different staffing and industry requirements. The template you use depends on how you want to organize your workforce. Here are some common types of work schedules:
Daily work schedule
A daily work schedule outlines the shifts and tasks for employees each day. They ensure coverage of all required positions throughout the workday. Some daily work schedules cover little more than working hours, while others can be quite detailed, including details such as meetings, breaks, and time allocation for different tasks.
Shift schedule
A shift schedule organizes your workforce into shifts, such as morning, afternoon, or night. This type of schedule benefits businesses that operate around the clock or have varying demand throughout the day.
Fixed schedule
Some employers use a fixed schedule in situations where employees work the same shifts on the same days at the same times every week. This consistency and predictability help managers and staff, making resource planning easier.
Restaurant shift schedule
A restaurant shift schedule is a good example of an industry-specific approach. They outline hours and shifts for employees over a designated period and their roles (e.g., bartender, sous chef, or host). This helps ensure sufficient staffing so that the restaurant can run efficiently.
Project schedule
A project schedule differs from the typical employee schedule in that it organizes tasks and timelines for specific projects. Project schedules fall under task and project management and are detailed plans that outline roles, actions, and goals required to complete a project. It’s like a roadmap that helps you organize the different pieces to ensure the project is completed on time.
Why you need accurate employee work schedules
Simply put, businesses need accurate employee work schedules to operate like a well-oiled machine. Without them, they may face a number of scheduling scaries. Here are the main reasons to have well-planned schedules:
Operational efficiency
Carefully planned scheduling ensures you have the correct number of staff members on shift at the right time, boosting productivity and reducing waste. You can optimize operations and prevent disruptions by allocating enough workers to meet your (and your customer’s) needs without overstaffing.
Employee satisfaction and retention
Flexible and predictable scheduling can enhance employee satisfaction and retention. HR tools and scheduling apps that allow for easy shift swaps and clear schedule visibility help employees manage their time better.
Compliance with labor laws
Accurate scheduling is key for maintaining compliance with federal and state labor laws, including overtime regulations and break policies. While you can do your scheduling manually, it’s not without risk.
According to Kathi Enderes, a leading global industry analyst and Senior Vice President of Research at The Josh Bersin Company, manual scheduling workflows have significant drawbacks. “Four in 5 companies use outdated manual processes, risking compliance issues and frustrating employees and managers alike,” she says.
Modern scheduling software can automatically enforce compliance rules, reducing the risk of legal issues and financial penalties while reducing frustration with manual methods.
Cost and control budgeting
Well-organized scheduling helps you control labor costs by preventing overpayments and reducing unnecessary overtime. Tracking the financial impact of employee shifts is necessary for businesses that strive to stay on budget and make smarter human capital decisions.
Improved customer service
Prompt attention is key to great customer service. Businesses with the correct staffing levels provide better customer care, boosting sales and elevating their reputation—both with customers and as employers.
Benefits of using a work schedule template
You can easily optimize your scheduling process and improve team performance by using a work schedule template designed for your business sector or industry. These are the main benefits:
Easy data transfer
Digital work schedule templates make transferring data between different departments and systems effortless. Once you’ve created your template, sharing it is a snap. Depending on the schedule format, you can incorporate the template into modern HR platforms and scheduling solutions. This reduces the need for tedious manual data entry, minimizing the risk of data loss.
Controlled access
Unlike paper schedules, electronic schedules provide controlled access to your data. Authorized employees can view the schedule, and you can stop unauthorized changes, like shift swapping, by restricting the ability to make changes to approved team leaders.
Time efficiency
A staff schedule template eliminates the need to reinvent the wheel every work period. It saves time by quickly auto-populating data, including employee names, shift times, and other recurring details, speeding up the process and improving efficiency.
Enhanced team coordination
The right template helps boost team coordination by giving managers and their teams a complete and clear view of work shifts and tasks. With this knowledge, team members can coordinate their efforts and improve collaboration, making sure everyone is working toward the same team goals.
Error reduction
Shift schedules created manually are error-prone and can lead to all kinds of problems, including understaffing, overstaffing, conflicts, and misunderstandings. A standardized employee schedule template reduces these issues by ensuring that all required details are included and shifts are correctly assigned.
10 employee work schedule templates
As we mentioned above, there’s no one-size-fits-all employee work schedule template. Different businesses have different needs. They may operate 24/7, employ remote workers, or operate within a specific industry. We’ve put together 10 work schedule templates you can use immediately. Each one has different benefits and features. Just pick the one that fits your requirements and download or copy it to your Google account. Then, fill in the fields with names, hours, and template-specific information related to tasks, roles, etc. These templates are optimized for Google Sheets, although you may be able to export some of them to Excel and OpenOffice.
Shift schedule template
A shift schedule template outlines employees' work shifts, dividing the day into different time blocks. It helps assign staff to specific shifts and roles, and you can save and reuse shift patterns, which is beneficial for businesses with consistent shift rotations.
Benefits: Ensures fair distribution of shifts, reduces scheduling conflicts, helps maintain efficient staffing levels, and allows you to pre-assign shifts.
Hourly schedule template
This template tracks work by the hour, detailing tasks or shifts in hourly increments. It’s helpful for jobs requiring precise time management, allowing employees to manage tasks and track their progress. You can use it as a daily or weekly planner.
Benefits: Better time tracking and management, suitable for businesses that manage hourly staff, and can be adjusted as needed.
Daily schedule template
A daily schedule template provides a structured outline for organizing daily tasks and activities. Often broken down by time slots, it helps team members prioritize tasks, set goals, and manage their time.
Benefits: Boosts daily productivity, cuts down on wasted time, and reduces workplace stress.
Weekly schedule template
Our weekly work schedule template is simple to use and covers the basics for many businesses. You can use it to organize shifts and other priorities over a week.
Benefits: Encourages better weekly planning, balances workloads, and helps you anticipate staffing needs.
Night shift schedule template
Similar to a shift schedule template, this template is designed for employees working night hours.
Benefits: Defines night shifts and helps businesses manage night staffing.
Monthly shift schedule template
A monthly shift schedule template outlines employee shifts for a whole month. This improves long-term planning and decision-making.
Benefits: Reduces scheduling issues, provides scheduling consistency, and improves time tracking, helping to lower payroll and compliance errors.
Restaurant shift schedule template
This template is specific to the unique scheduling requirements of restaurants. It manages different types of shifts (e.g., rotating, fixed) for various roles, including chefs, servers, bartenders, and hosts.
Benefits: Optimizes staffing during busy periods and ensures consistent operations and customer service during service times.
Work-from-home schedule template
A work-from-home schedule template helps remote workers manage their time and tasks. It provides a blueprint for maintaining productivity and sets work boundaries for telecommuting staff. Work-from-home schedules vary, but most contain information like working hours, start and finish times, and breaks.
Benefits: Clearly outlines expectations and helps improve remote work efficiency.
On-call schedule template
This template maps out when workers must be available to work on short notice. On-call schedules are popular in the IT and healthcare industries.
Benefits: Guarantees that staff is available for unexpected events, reduces coverage gaps, and ensures employees are ready to work on short notice.
Project-based schedule template
A project-based schedule template helps organize and manage large projects. It breaks the project into tasks, personnel assignments, milestones, and deadlines for each activity.
Benefits: Tracks progress on specific projects, ensures timely completion, and enhances accountability.
How to make a work schedule
Creating an effective work schedule involves more than just assigning shifts. It requires careful planning. You’ll need to consider many factors, including who should work, when, and how to build and publish your schedule. This is how to make a schedule:
Step 1. Coordinate schedules with your team
The first step in creating a work schedule is coordinating with your staff. You need to have a clear understanding of the shift preferences and availability of your employees. Survey them about their current work hours, days off, and any work-related limitations or challenges they might have (e.g., unable to work a night shift due to child care). Consider using shared calendars as they can give you a big-picture view, helping avoid conflicts and obstacles amongst your workforce.
Step 2. Determine task assignments
Next, you need to determine your employees’ task assignments. You’ll need a solid grasp of each person’s skills, strengths, and experience to do this. Based on this knowledge, tasks should be assigned to the team member who can carry them out most effectively. Determining tasks in this way can help boost efficiency, productivity, and reveal areas requiring employee development or training.
Step 3. Organize tasks by due dates
If you’re managing different projects, each task should be assigned a due date. This helps you assign people to the tasks with the highest priority while managing time and resources productively. You need to strike the right balance between meeting deadlines and not overburdening your team. This approach will enable you to meet your goals in a focused and controlled manner.
Step 4. Delegate tasks effectively
Delegate tasks to the team member(s) best suited for the role. Provide detailed instructions and your expectations so that employees clearly understand the company’s objectives and deadlines. By doing so, you encourage accountability and collaboration within the team.
Step 5. Automate and adjust as necessary
Automating parts of your scheduling process can save time and reduce mistakes. If available, use scheduling tools to make time tracking and schedule adjustments easier. Review and adjust your schedules based on feedback and changing business requirements.
Step 6. Use software or templates for efficiency
Utilizing scheduling apps and templates simplifies the process of creating and managing schedules. These solutions provide tools that make customization, duplication, and sharing schedules a breeze while keeping your entire team informed and aligned.
Step 7. Review and communicate the final schedule
After creating the schedule, review it carefully to confirm that it meets your operational requirements and complies with federal, state, and local labor regulations, including predictive scheduling laws (a.k.a. fair workweek laws). Distribute the final schedule to your team, giving them time to notify you of any conflicts or issues.
Why you need employee scheduling software
Workplace schedules are an essential part of operations for most businesses. Here are just a few of the reasons they’re so important.
Enhances clarity and organization
The right software eliminates tedious and mistake-prone manual scheduling by centralizing important shift and employee data. With access to this information, a single solution can track employee availability, time-off requests, shift assignments, and more. Many software solutions offer tools that prevent errors like double bookings and overlapping shifts. A clear overview of staffing gives managers and supervisors an overview of coverage, allowing them to easily adjust staffing levels as needed.
Streamlines team coordination
If you're still scheduling manually, you know how challenging it can be to coordinate your employees and teams. Scheduling software can help you manage your workforce with resources like real-time updates and communication tools. Automated notifications alert your staff to schedule changes so they’re always up-to-date. This minimizes misunderstandings and potential disruptions. Some solutions offer shift-swapping capabilities, allowing employees to easily trade shifts within the platform without burdening their managers.
Improves real-time data tracking
Modern scheduling solutions offer tools like time tracking, attendance monitoring, and detailed analytics that help improve overall staff management. Automatic tracking of employee hours supports accurate payroll and compliance with labor regulations. This data also helps you identify negative trends, including high absenteeism rates and poor scheduling that result in excess overtime.
Optimizes large-scale project management
Big projects? Not a problem. Employee scheduling software helps you improve workforce coordination for special projects, large teams, and employees spread across multiple locations. Scalable features enable you to oversee complex scheduling requirements, while skill-based assignments make sure that the right people fill the right shift. Forecasting tools can analyze historical data to predict staffing requirements, helping you plan for busy times and seasonal fluctuations.
Expands beyond basic scheduling
Modern scheduling solutions go beyond shift management by supporting labor law compliance, equipping employees with self-service tools, and integrating seamlessly with time-tracking systems for more efficient operations.
Integrates with payroll and HR systems
Modern employee scheduling software integrates with payroll and HR systems, creating a unified workforce management solution. By automatically syncing employee hours, overtime, and time-off data, payroll calculations are more accurate, ensuring compliance with federal and state regulations.
Easily manage employee schedules with Rippling
With Rippling, you can build compliant schedules that meet your business needs and avoid common scheduling pitfalls.
Rippling’s employee schedule software is built on a single source of truth for employee data—meaning you have access to information like pay rates, attendance, and certifications as you schedule shifts—so you can build schedules that meet your business needs and comply with labor laws.
With Rippling, you can:
- Copy and paste shifts
- Drag and drop to build schedules
- Easily plug in breaks
- Add new shifts with one click
- Easily assign schedule patterns
- Automatically alert employees to new schedules and changes
Rippling takes the guesswork out of scheduling by automating shift management, compliance, and time tracking—all in one place. No more manual checks or last-minute adjustments—just accurate, effortless scheduling that keeps your business running smoothly.
Get the tools you need to create flexible schedules and a happy workforce.
Employee schedule template FAQs
What is a 4/5/5/4 work schedule?
A 4/5/5/4 work schedule is a staffing structure in which employees work four days on, five days off, five days on, and four days off. Employees benefit from this pattern by getting longer time off periods.
Does Google have a schedule template?
Yes, Google has a schedule template for employee schedules. In Google Sheets, navigate to the template gallery. Select ‘employee shift schedule’ from the options listed under ‘work.’ You can customize this template to fit your needs. If it doesn’t meet your requirements, simply Google ‘work schedule template’ to find third-party sources for free and paid templates in addition to the free templates we’ve provided above.
What is the 5/2/5/3 work schedule template?
It’s a template that helps you create a 5/2/5/3 work schedule. This is a staffing structure that has employees work for five days, then take two days off, followed by five days on, and then three days off. It’s designed to provide a consistent scheduling format that cycles every two weeks, with a three-day break every other week.
This blog is based on information available to Rippling as of April 23, 2025.
Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide or be relied on for tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, accounting, and legal advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.
