If you can’t avoid them, fill them
As much as we’d like to avoid them, short-notice dropouts and no shows are a fact of life.
As a small business manager, you’ve doubtless had to deal with these on endless occasions.
But as stressful as they are, they needn’t ruin your day.
This article will talk you through the best ways to handle last-minute shifts.
Why you want to avoid last-minute shifts
Late changes to your rota aren’t just a headache for you and the associated admin. They can also have a negative impact on your overall business.
If you aren’t able to fill the shift, you risk being short-staffed for that period. That could reduce morale for the employees who are present, and they may struggle to provide the same level of customer service if they’re overworked.
Even if you are able to find replacement cover, those employees could be coming in cold and may be less familiar with the ins and outs of that specific shift. Perhaps you have a cantankerous regular that needs to be handled a certain way!
Getting people in as cover may also mean more admin for you, though it’s normally a lot easier with an intelligent scheduling solution like Findmyshift.
Get out ahead of issues
With that in mind, your best approach is summed up by an old adage.
“Prevention is the best cure.”
Ideally, proper planning can reduce the frequency with which you have to fill open shifts at short notice. It won’t eliminate them completely, but it can reduce the overall workload of dealing with them.
Our piece on employee scheduling best practices details how setting your shifts out well in advance can help you and your team foresee and proactively address issues.
The most effective ways to fill shifts
If you do still find yourself needing to fill shifts, don’t take this as a failing of your rota. Life happens, and the occasional late change to your schedule is inevitable. Instead, take a deep breath and work your way through your options.
You may have a system in place that allows employees to swap directly. Findmyshift implements this with a flexible and customisable shift request system, giving you the option to maintain managerial oversight of any changes while empowering your employees to manage their own rotas.
As well as being a great tool for filling shifts at short notice, trusting your employees to make decisions for the good of the business can be an excellent show of faith and strengthen your bond with them.
You can also use a digital message board to advertise open shifts. This works particularly well if you have a pool of part-time employees who are looking for opportunities to regularly pick up extra days for some additional pay.
If you rota needs a change for unforeseen circumstances, like someone calling in sick, this can be the better approach than asking the employee to fill the shift themselves.
Maintain visibility
However you fill your shifts, it’s important that you are aware of what the solution is, even if the employees are sorting it between themselves. After all, it’s you that has to manage whoever does show up for that shift. And you need to know what resources you’ll have to work with.
If you’re using a digital tool, that will be pretty straightforward. Findmyshift maintains a single source in truth in terms of presenting you and your employees with one unified rota. Any changes are automatically and instantly reflected, and you can even set up notifications to inform employees of changes as they happen.
If you’re still using a pen and paper rota, or a monstrous Excel spreadsheet that needs updating manually… first of all, what are you doing? This is 2025, and you and your business deserve a better solution.
But until then, make sure there is a system and process in place for your employees to communicate any changes to you or to update the relevant rota and everyone involved. You don’t want to find a solution to a stressful situation, only to have it not fully communicated and ending up with double coverage for a shift because people didn’t talk.
Talk to your employees about process changes
If you do take the advice in this article and adjust the way you fill shifts, it’s important to get your employees onboard. After all, you won’t be able to do this without them. Share the new ways of working you’ll be bringing in, and be clear on the benefits this will have for them.
It’s all well and good saying how much easier this will make your life, but if you want to effect real change, you need everyone pulling in the same direction. Employees are more likely to do that if they can understand what’s in it for them.
Giving them more flexibility in when they work, offering additional shifts to those that want them, and working as a team to cover unexpected absences should benefit everyone, and if you can communicate that, you should be on your way to a more cohesive unit that covers last-minute shifts together.