How to make a fair rota for your workplace

As your employees check their work rota for the coming weeks, one question might spring to mind: is it fair?

A rota is a black and white record of who’s working when. It makes shift decisions highly visible, from who’s got the dreaded Saturday night shift to who’s stuck working over a bank holiday. And when employees have different needs and preferences, it’s not always straightforward to make these decisions.

To help you get it right, this guide explores how to make a fair rota, including any relevant employment laws you need to know. We’ll also look at how Breathe Rota, Time and Attendance can make it easier to plan shifts and keep everyone up to date.

Skip to:

• What makes a work rota fair?

• Why is a fair rota important?

• What does UK law say about fair rotas?

• How to make a fair work rota

• Make fair rota planning easier with Breathe's rota software

• FAQs about fair work rotas

What makes a work rota fair?

A fair work rota balances your employees’ needs and preferences with the shifts your business needs covered. It’s important for employers and their workers to know that fair doesn’t necessarily mean equal. Your employees may have different contracted hours or agreed working patterns, and you won’t always be able to give everyone the shifts they’d prefer. What counts is having a fair approach that works for your team and your business. Usually, this means:

• Considering people’s availability and working arrangements

• Sharing popular and less popular shifts reasonably

• Applying the same approach to similar requests

• Giving people plenty of notice about their shifts

• Allowing enough rest between working days

• Accounting for reasonable adjustments where needed

The main thing is that your team should be able to understand how you’ve made rota decisions, even when they don’t get their first choice.

Why is a fair rota important?

A fair rota can make working shifts easier for your employees and help your business run more smoothly. Some of the biggest benefits include:

• More control over personal time: A clear, predictable rota helps employees plan appointments, childcare and life outside work, especially when their shifts change each week.

• Greater trust in rota decisions: Employees won’t always get the shifts they want. But when their employer uses a consistent approach, it gives people reassurance that your scheduling process is fair and isn’t based on bias or favouritism.

• Better staffing at busy times: Thoughtful rota planning makes sure you have enough people working when demand is higher, with the right skills available for each shift.

• Happier, more settled teams: Feeling fairly treated can make a difference to how employees feel about work overall, particularly when shift patterns regularly affect their personal lives.

• Less absenteeism: If you give employees fair warning about the shifts they’ll be working, they’re less likely to feel disengaged and be absent from their shifts as a result.

What does UK law say about fair rotas?

Several UK employment laws shape how you schedule shifts, including the following rules on working time, flexible working and discrimination,

Working hours, breaks and rest between shifts

The Working Time Regulations 1998 sets limits on working hours and also explains the minimum amount of rest that workers should have.

Most workers shouldn’t work for more than an average of 48 hours a week, usually calculated over 17 weeks. Workers aged 18 or over can choose to opt out of this limit in writing, although different rules apply to some jobs. Adult workers are also generally entitled to:

• 11 consecutive hours’ rest between working days

• 24 hours’ uninterrupted rest each week, or 48 hours each fortnight

• A 20-minute uninterrupted break when working more than six hours

Different rules apply to workers who are over school-leaving age but under the age of 18. They’re generally entitled to 12 hours’ daily rest, 48 hours’ weekly rest and a 30-minute break if they work for more than four and a half hours.

There are also situations where the usual rest rules work differently. For example, an exception can apply to shift workers who change shifts and can’t take their daily or weekly rest between the end of one shift and the start of the next. If there’s a valid reason for the exception, the worker will usually need to receive an equivalent period of rest at another time instead.

Giving notice and changing shifts

UK employment law doesn’t include a minimum notice period for publishing a work rota. But individual employment contracts may include small print details about employees’ working hours and whether you have the right to change them. Even where a contract includes a flexibility clause, Acas advises that employers may be in breach of contract if they:

• Try to make changes that are unreasonable

• Don’t inform the employee or consult them about a possible change

• Don’t give reasonable notice for changes

There are also important legal changes to be aware of. The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces new rights to reasonable notice of shifts, as well as notice when shifts are cancelled or changed. These rights will apply to zero-hours workers and certain workers with contracts that guarantee some hours but aren’t sure when they’ll work. There are separate rules for agency workers.The Act also introduces the right for workers to receive pay when qualifying shifts are cancelled, moved, or cut short at short notice.

Neither of these new rights is in effect for workers yet. The government plans to introduce the zero-hours reforms during 2027, following consultation and further regulations. These regulations will fill in important details, including how much notice counts as reasonable and when short-notice payments will apply.

Flexible working and shift requests

Since 6 April 2024, employees have been legally able to request a flexible work arrangement from their first day of employment as part of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Requests can cover working hours, start and finish times, or the days an employee works.

Employers don’t have to accept every request and can refuse one for certain permitted business reasons. But they must handle every request reasonably and consult the employee before rejecting it. Any new working patterns they agree must be reflected in future rotas.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 will strengthen these rules further. From autumn 2027, employers must be able to prove that refusing a request is reasonable and explain their decision.

Discrimination and reasonable adjustments

Rota decisions must meet the results set out in the Equality Act 2010. The Act protects employees from discrimination connected with protected characteristics, including age, disability, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. A rota rule applied to everyone can still be considered indirect discrimination if people sharing a protected characteristic seem to be at a particular disadvantage.

For this reason, it’s important to be careful about making assumptions when allocating shifts. For example, you shouldn’t assume a mother won’t want evening shifts or that an older employee would rather not work nights simply because of their sex or age.

The Equality Act also gives employers the responsibility to make reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities. Depending on the circumstances, an adjustment could involve changing someone’s working hours or working pattern.

How to make a fair work rota

A fair rota needs to work for your employees and your business. The following steps can help you make consistent decisions about who works when, but still give your team some flexibility.

1. Understand employee availability and preferences

Start by finding out when each employee is available to work and whether they have any shift preferences. There's a good reason to give people some choice – 80% of employees say flexible working has had a positive impact on their quality of life, according to CIPD research.

Keep in mind that availability and preferences aren’t necessarily the same thing. An employee might be unable to work on Tuesday evenings, for example, but prefer a Friday morning shift. A preference can help you build the rota, but it doesn’t guarantee the employee will get that shift.

Recording regular availability can also save employees from having to tell you the same information every time you plan the rota. With Breathe Rota, Time and Attendance, you can use the employee details that are already held in Breathe when assigning shifts.

2. Work out how much cover you need

Next, look at what your business needs from the rota, including:

• When you’re busiest

• How many people you need on each shift

• If you need specific roles or skills covered

Remember to factor in approved leave and other known absences. And if you have a multi-site business, check that each site has enough people scheduled to work. An important part of keeping your rota fair is making sure you don’t put extra pressure on your employees by leaving their team understaffed.

Breathe Rota, Time and Attendance gives you a clear view of your employees, their roles and locations while you plan the working week, making it easier to see where you have the cover you need.

3. Balance shifts fairly across your team

Look beyond the number of shifts each person receives and consider the types of shifts they’re working too, such as early starts, late finishes, weekend shifts, and bank holidays.

Try to avoid repeatedly giving the same employees the less desirable shifts unless this reflects their agreed working pattern. You’ll also need to account for differences in contracted hours, so a fair split won’t necessarily mean everyone works the exact same number of shifts.

Tip: It can help to look at the rota over several weeks rather than trying to make every week perfectly balanced. One option is to alternate early and late shifts between employees, rather than regularly giving the same people the less popular working times.

4. Use consistent rules when employees want the same shifts

Sometimes, several employees will want the same shift or time off. You won’t always be able to accommodate everyone, so decide how you’ll handle competing requests and apply the same approach in similar situations.

For example, if several employees request the same bank holiday weekend off, you could consider who worked it previously when deciding who gets priority. Simply giving the time off to whoever asks first could repeatedly disadvantage employees who aren’t able to make their requests as early.

Whatever approach you use, explain your decision so employees understand how you’ve reached it.

5. Consider rest and individual employee needs

Think about how each shift fits with the hours an employee works before and after it. A late finish followed by an early start could leave someone without enough rest, while a run of longer or night shifts may be particularly tiring and affect the quality of their work.

You’ll also need to account for any agreed flexible working arrangements and reasonable adjustments as you plan shifts. This might mean changing someone’s working hours or considering accessibility when deciding which times or locations they work.

For employees working a repeating shift pattern, look at how their shifts and rest periods are spread across the full rota period, rather than checking each shift separately. This is particularly important with patterns that include nights or longer shifts, where working hours and rest can vary from one day to the next.

6. Give employees as much notice as possible

For employees with changing schedules, knowing when they’ll be working can make it much easier to plan life outside work. Unfortunately, nearly six in 10 workers with variable hour contracts receive less than a week’s notice of their shifts, according to the Living Wage Foundation.

Give your employees as much notice as you reasonably can, and try to publish rotas on a consistent schedule so they know when to expect them. If you need to change a shift after publishing the rota, tell the employee promptly rather than relying on them to notice the change themselves.

With Breathe Rota, Time and Attendance, employees can check their shifts and see updates in one place, so it’s clear when something has changed.

7. Manage rota changes fairly

Even the best-planned rota will sometimes need to change. An employee might call in sick or need to swap a shift because their circumstances have changed and they’re now unavailable. Your business might also need different cover than you originally planned.

Have a consistent process for dealing with changes. For example, make it clear how employees should request a shift swap and who needs to approve it. If you need someone to cover an unfilled shift, avoid repeatedly turning to the same employees simply because you know they’re likely to say yes.

Once you’ve agreed to a change, update the rota so everyone knows who’s working. With Breathe Rota, Time and Attendance, you can make changes in one place and give employees access to the latest version of their shifts.

8. Check the rota before you share it

Before you publish your rota, take a final look at it from both an employee and business perspective. Check:

• Are less desirable shifts fairly distributed?

• Have you followed contracted and agreed working arrangements?

• Do employees have enough rest between shifts?

• Have you accounted for approved leave?

• Does every shift have enough cover?

• Are the right roles and skills available?

• Is there a clear reason for any differences in how employees have been treated?

Breathe Rota, Time and Attendance gives you a visual view of the working week, making it easier to spot clashes or staffing problems before you publish. You can also see the likely cost of your rota and copy an existing rota to adjust for the next working period.

Make fair rota planning easier with Breathe

A fair rota depends on having a clear picture of what your business needs and how each shift affects your employees. Breathe Rota, Time and Attendance gives you one place to bring that information together. Use Breathe to:

• Make informed rota decisions: Plan shifts with the employee and business information you need in front of you.

• Check the week before publishing: Get a clear view of how your rota fits together and make changes where needed.

• Give employees better visibility: Make it easy for your team to see when they’re working and stay up to date with changes.

• Keep accurate working records: Compare planned shifts with approved hours before they reach payroll.

Fairness still comes down to the decisions you make. Breathe gives you a clearer way to plan those decisions and put them into practice. Make rota planning brilliantly simple by trying Breathe Rota, Time and Attendance.

FAQs about fair work rotas

How do you make a fair rota?

You make a fair rota by balancing what your employees need with the shifts your business needs covered. Consider availability and agreed working arrangements when allocating shifts. Try to use a consistent approach when people want the same shifts, and avoid repeatedly giving less popular hours to the same employees.

Is it fair for an employer to change a rota at short notice?

Changing a rota at short notice may seem unfair to employees, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Sickness or an unexpected change in business needs can affect planned shifts. As a best practice, employers should aim to give employees as much notice as possible, and always check their individual contracts before changing agreed working hours.

How many hours should employees have between shifts?

Most adult workers should have at least 11 consecutive hours of rest between shifts under the Working Time Regulations 1998. Different rules apply to younger workers, who are generally entitled to 12 hours’ daily rest.

Can employees request particular shifts?

Yes, employees can request to work particular shifts, but employers don’t have to agree to every preference. Employees can also make a statutory flexible working request to change when they work. If you agree to a new working arrangement, you’ll need to reflect it when planning future rotas.

How should night shifts, and other unpopular shifts, be divided fairly?

Employers can divide unpopular shifts using a consistent approach that reflects employees’ contracted hours and agreed working arrangements. Look at how these shifts are shared over several rota periods. Remember that a fair allocation doesn’t necessarily mean giving every employee exactly the same number.

What is a rolling rota?

A rolling rota is a work schedule that repeats over a set period, with employees moving through an agreed pattern of shifts. For example, one employee might work early shifts one week and late shifts the next, before the pattern starts again.

What is the fairest shift pattern?

The fairest shift pattern is one that works for your employees while providing the cover your business needs. No single shift pattern is automatically fairer than another. But fixed or rotating shifts can both work well when you allocate them consistently and consider individual working arrangements.