How to Create a 4-Week Rolling Rota in Excel: FREE Template
Meelik Samel
November 24, 2023
Rolling rotas are essential scheduling patterns for providing 24-hour coverage while ensuring that all employees will have a healthy work-life balance and sufficient rest breaks to keep everyone healthy and motivated. This article will guide you through how to create a rolling rota. You can also download our 4-week rolling rota Excel templates to quickly get started.
What is a 4-week rolling rota?
A 4-week rolling rota is a work schedule system that spans four weeks and involves rotating shifts for employees. This type of schedule is also known as the DuPont schedule or rotating roster and has employees working different shifts or hours on a regular basis. The schedule repeats every four weeks.
The purpose of a rolling rota is often to provide variety in work hours, distribute peak workloads more evenly among employees, and ensure that each employee takes turns working different shifts, including evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays. This can be particularly relevant in industries that require continuous operation or extended hours, such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and some service industries when figuring out how to schedule employees effectively.
A 4-week rolling rota might have employees working a combination of day, evening, and night shifts, with days off distributed throughout the four-week period. The specific details of the schedule can vary depending on the employer's needs and the work's nature. It's designed to offer a balance between the business's needs and the employees' well-being.
4-week rolling rota in Excel - Video Tutorial
Take a look at this video tutorial to quickly get started with 4-week rolling rotas in Excel or Google Sheets.
How to create a 4-week rolling rota in Excel
Creating a rolling rota in Excel can seem daunting at first but once you get going, it’s not that difficult. Follow our step-by-step guide to get started.
Create a new spreadsheet
Create a new Excel or Google Sheets document. Whichever option you choose, make sure to start the process off having the file in the right location to make it accessible for all relevant employees and managers. Make sure to double-check that only you have the editing permissions for the file and share viewer permissions with employees.
Choose your rolling rota type
This is the most essential step for creating a 4-week rolling rota template. How many teams or employees need separate schedules? How long are the shifts? Do you need 24-hour coverage? Depending on how you answer these questions, you will better understand what is a rolling rota that suits your scheduling needs best.
Create a schedule for one month
Now that you know which type of rolling rota you are going for, set it up on one sheet for one month. To make it easily readable, organise your rota by weeks, add weekdays, dates and week numbers, if salaries are paid out weekly. If you have one month set up, just duplicate the sheet and adjust the dates and schedules accordingly.
Enter employee names or teams
Finally, start the scheduling process by adding teams and employee names to each shift. This is the step where you mark down when and what shifts each employee will be working for the following periods. Depending on your team size and industry-specific needs, you should consider using work rota abbreviations to keep everyone on the same page.
4-week rolling rota template for free download
Download our free 4-week rolling rota template for Excel and Google Sheets. This template is based on Pitman rolling rota to provide 24-hour coverage using three shifts: morning shift from 6 am to 2 pm, afternoon shift from 2 pm to 10 pm and night shift from 10 pm to 6 am. Each team or employee will have one of morning shift for one week, afternoon shift for the next one and so on until repeating the process.
This template is created for January and February 2024. You can easily add new months by duplicating sheets and editing team rotas and dates. If you need to add specific employees, feel free to insert new rows between teams and add the names there.
4 on 4 off shift pattern template for Excel
We also have another template free for you: a 4 on 4 off shift pattern template for Excel and Google Sheets. 4 on 4 onff shift pattern is used for 24-hour coverage with four teams working 12-hour shifts for four days after which they will have four days off. This is one of the essential scheduling patterns for the healthcare industry and nurse scheduling.
Our 4 on 4 off shift pattern template is created for 2024. You can easily view color-coded teams A, B, C and D and the dates and shifts for which each one is scheduled for. Feel free to edit team names or add rows if you need to add individual names.
How Parim can help you easily manage rolling rotas
PARiM Rota Software lets you automate rolling rota schedules and quickly allocate shifts to the right employees. Furthermore, every employee will receive their schedules on their mobile phones as soon as they are published so you don’t need to worry about communication.
Create endless rolling rotas in seconds
PARiM Shift Patterns feature lets you create an endless variety of weekly rolling rotas and ON/OFF shift patterns in seconds to easily create schedules for months or even years ahead. In addition to this, you can also add patterns following a specific date each month or the last day of the month. No more manual work with spreadsheets.
Provide real-time updates for all employees
PARiM Staff App gives employees their individual work schedules on their phone. They can set up their availabilities and receive notifications about new schedules as soon as you have created them. And if you need quick replacements or fill a number of openings immediately, just publish open shifts and all team members with relevant skills will receive invites to theis phones.
Manage absences with ease
One of the hardest challenges in managing rolling rotas is working with absences. PARiM Absence Management Software lets you easily set up tools and restrictions for absence requests and provides you with absence calendar to overview absences and understand absence trends. No need to manually edit multiple spreadsheets or worry about human errors. PARiM has schedules and absences in one place.
Automate payroll tracking
This is probably the most tedious part of manual scheduling work as human errors in this area can majorly irritate employees. PARiM Pay & Charge will let you set up custom hourly or fixed pay rules for each shift. No need for calculations, no need to worry about human errors.
Make data-driven decisions
PARiM enables data-driven decision-making with robust analytics tools. Gain insights into employee performance, track attendance patterns, and analyze historical data to optimise your rolling rotas efficiently. This strategic approach ensures that your workforce management aligns with your business objectives.
FAQ related to 4 week rolling rota Excel template
Why should I use Excel for planning rolling staff rotas?
Choose Excel for staff rota planning if you are still managing your schedules with pen and paper. Excel lets you visualise patterns, and automate calculations. But bear in mind that even though Excel is a better option than pen and paper, it inevitably still requires manual work and is prone to human errors. Larger organisations seeking more intricate features may find dedicated workforce management software beneficial.
Is an online rota better than a paper rota?
Yes, an online rota is a better option than paper rota. If you have initial Excel templates in place, you can copy and paste these for quicker workflow. Excel spreadsheets can be distributed virtually either via email or a cloud service, such as Google Drive. Online software solutions that are dedicated to rota management are even better. Tools like this, such as PARiM, will further automate your workflows to free up time and reduce human errors, while providing even quicker and more efficient communication workflows.
How far in advance should you prepare a 4-week rolling rota?
You should prepare your 4-week rolling rota at least one or two months ahead. This will ensure that your employees have enough time to adjust their personal schedules. This timeframe provides ample room for anticipating workforce needs, accommodating employee preferences, and making necessary adjustments. By following this instruction, you contribute to a more efficient and organised team, minimising conflicts and enhancing overall effectiveness in workforce management.
