A roster, in the sense a manager means it, is the list of people against the shifts they are working: the published answer to who is in on Tuesday night. The roster definition in a dictionary is a list of names, and the word came into work through the military duty roster; in the United States a workplace roster is usually called the schedule, in Britain the rota, and in Australia and hospitals everywhere the roster. This page sets out the roster meaning as it is used at work, what is a roster as against a schedule or a pattern, and how an employee roster, a work roster or a shift roster is written so that it is complete, published and kept.
What a roster is, and what it is not
A roster is names against shifts for a period: a week, a fortnight, a cycle. It is not the pattern, which is the shape the roster follows (a 2-2-3, a 4 on 4 off), and it is not the timesheet, which records what was actually worked. The three are easily confused because they look alike on paper. The pattern is decided once and the roster is generated from it each cycle; the roster is published and the timesheet is filled in afterwards; and the difference between the roster and the timesheet is the swaps, the call-outs and the overtime, which is why the published roster has to be kept rather than overwritten.
Writing an employee roster
Start from coverage: the shifts that have to be filled and how many people each needs. Lay the pattern across the period so that every shift is filled by the crew the pattern assigns to it. Put names in: fixed crews stay with their shift, rotating crews move as the cycle says, part-timers take the hours their agreement promises. Total each person's hours for the week and compare them with the forty that federal overtime turns on and with any daily limit the state adds. Check the rest between a person's last shift and their next. Then publish it with a date, because a roster that was never dated cannot be the one everybody saw.
Keeping the roster as the record
The published roster is the document payroll runs from, the document a swap is recorded against, and the document a dispute about who was meant to be in is settled from. Every change after publishing is a new version rather than a correction, with who covered what written against the shift. The rotating schedule generator on this site produces the pattern's arithmetic, the hours and the crews; the roster is what that pattern becomes when names are on it and it is published, and keeping every version of it is what Rotazo Pro is for.
Questions people ask about roster meaning
Is a roster the same as a schedule?
In the United States, yes: the roster is what most workplaces call the schedule, the published list of who works when. Roster is more common in Australia, Britain and healthcare.
What is the difference between a roster and a shift pattern?
The pattern is the shape, such as a 2-2-3; the roster is that shape for a specific period with names on it. The pattern is decided once and the roster is generated from it each cycle.
How far ahead should a roster be published?
Two weeks is common, and some cities and states require it of larger retail, hospitality and food service employers under predictive scheduling laws. A dated published copy is what shows the notice was given.