Sector: retail
Staff scheduling for grocery retail
Long opening hours, Saturdays, apprentices, many part-timers and floaters between stores: in retail the roster has more rules than almost anywhere else. eutempus builds it automatically and checks it against those rules. You review the result and publish.
No obligation · 30 minutes · a conversation about your roster, not a presentation
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Saturdays in rotation
eutempus plans long Saturdays in rotation: anyone available on more than four days a week gets no two long Saturdays in a row.
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Apprentices and young workers
Separate daily limits for under-18s, no weekly hours beyond the contract and no working alone in areas that require supervision.
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Floaters between stores
Stores that share staff are planned together: nobody is booked twice, with an hour budget per store and travel time in between.
Why retail rosters take so much time
A grocery store is open from early morning to evening, Saturdays included. Every hour needs enough people at the checkout, in the deli, at the bakery counter and on the shelves, plus preparation in the morning and closing in the evening. Behind that is a team of full-timers and part-timers with different weekly hours, apprentices, and floaters who also help out in other stores.
Whoever builds this roster in a spreadsheet has to keep everything in mind at once: Who holds which qualification? Who is on leave? Who had the long Saturday last week? How many hours has the apprentice already worked this week?
How a store roster comes together in eutempus
- Create a template. Opening hours, shifts per area, minimum and desired staffing, preparation and closing times: set once, the template applies to every new week.
- Add your team. Contracts with weekly hours, qualifications, day patterns such as “mornings only”, availability, leave and sick leave.
- Optimise. One click, and the optimiser evaluates a vast number of possible assignments against all rules at once. You see the score and every remaining rule violation and can compare them with an earlier state.
- Publish. After a preview, one click publishes the roster in the app; optionally it also goes as a PDF per department by e-mail to chosen recipients. Only the people a change affects get a push notification.
Fair rosters the team stands behind
A roster is accepted when it is transparent and fair. eutempus respects day patterns such as “mornings only”, distributes Saturdays by rules that apply to everyone and can even out time balances over the weeks. Shift swaps and leave requests go through the employee app, with an automatic check that the other person is allowed to take the shift at all.
Several stores, one team
When stores share staff, eutempus plans them in one joint run. Every employee has a home store. Floaters help out in other stores when it would otherwise get tight, within the hour budget you set per store. If two shifts on the same day are in different stores, eutempus allows for the travel time in between.
Collective agreement and labour law
Built in are the 12-hour daily limit and the hour limits for young workers and maternity protection. eutempus checks the 11-hour rest period and flags shortfalls. Collective-agreement details such as the Saturday rotation, public-holiday credits or the number of working days per week are agreed with you during onboarding. We have summarised what the retail collective agreement means for the schedule. What the law requires of every roster in Austria is explained in our guide Staff scheduling in Austria.
What eutempus checks automatically
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Qualification per shift
Checkout, deli or bakery: only someone with the qualification the shift requires is scheduled.
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Minimum staffing per area
Minimum staffing per time window takes priority over every preference. If it cannot be reached, the roster shows the gap.
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Saturday rotation
No two long Saturdays in a row for anyone available on more than four days a week. You set free Saturdays per week as a target.
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At most 12 hours a day
The absolute daily limit of the Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz), for everyone.
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Rest between two shifts
eutempus flags less than 11 hours between two shifts within the roster as a rule violation.
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Young workers and apprentices
Daily limits for under-18s and for apprentices aged 18 and over; for under-18s, weekly hours at most as contracted.
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Maternity protection
At most 9 hours a day and 40 a week during the recorded period.
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Leave, sick leave, availability
eutempus takes leave, sick leave and the times someone is available into account in every assignment.
eutempus is not a substitute for legal advice. The rules model the statutory requirements in the form in which they are configured for your business.
“A weekly roster used to take me at least two hours. With eutempus it takes fifteen minutes, and the plan is better and fairer than before.”
Frequently asked questions
How does eutempus handle the Schwarz-Weiß rule?
The basic rule of the retail collective agreement is: whoever works on a Saturday after 1 pm has the following Saturday entirely off, with exceptions such as the four Saturdays before Christmas. For everyone available on more than four days a week, eutempus prevents two long Saturdays in a row, except in weeks with a Saturday setting of their own. eutempus does not force an entirely free following Saturday automatically: you set free, short or full Saturdays per week, and whether the "free" setting counts as a hard or a soft rule is set in the rule set during onboarding.
How does eutempus plan apprentices?
Employees under 18 have their own daily limits, and their weekly hours stay within the contract, with no planned extra hours. In areas where an apprentice may not work alone, eutempus makes sure a fully trained colleague is on duty too.
Does it work with several stores and shared floaters?
Yes. Stores that share staff are planned together in one run. Nobody is booked twice, floaters get an hour budget per store, and eutempus allows for travel time between two stores on the same day.
How do we move from spreadsheets to eutempus?
We take over employees, contracts, qualifications and time balances together with you. Your current weekly roster becomes the template, and a week of running in parallel shows you how the automatic roster compares.
Read on
See eutempus run on your own rules.
In 30 minutes we show you how a roster for your business comes together, with your opening hours, your qualifications, your collective agreement.
No obligation. 30 minutes. We look at your business and your rules instead of showing slides.