Employee Schedule Patterns and Work Patterns

What Are Schedule Patterns?

Schedule patterns (also called work patterns) define recurring shift cycles for employees. Instead of manually scheduling the same shifts every week, you define a pattern once and assign it to employees. The pattern then repeats automatically.

Types of Patterns

Fixed Patterns

A fixed pattern repeats the same schedule every cycle. For example:

• Monday to Friday, 9-5: A simple 7-day cycle with 5 working days and 2 days off
• Monday to Thursday, 10 hours: A 7-day cycle with 4 working days

Rotating Patterns

A rotating pattern has a longer cycle that shifts over time. For example:

• 2-week rotation: Work week A, then week B, repeating every 14 days
• 4-on, 4-off: Work 4 days, off 4 days, in an 8-day cycle

Creating a Pattern

1. Navigate to Settings > Schedule Patterns
2. Click New Pattern
3. Configure:
   • Pattern Name: A descriptive name (e.g., "Standard Mon-Fri" or "2-Week Rotation")
   • Pattern Type: Fixed or Rotating
   • Cycle Length: How many days the pattern spans before repeating
   • Working Days: Mark which days in the cycle are working days
   • Shift Template: Select the shift template that applies to working days
4. Click Save

CrewHR automatically calculates the hours per week based on the pattern length and shift template.

Assigning Patterns to Employees

During Employee Creation

When adding a new employee, select one or more schedule patterns from the available options.

After Creation

1. Go to Employees and select the employee
2. Open the Schedule Patterns tab
3. Add or remove pattern assignments

From the Employee List

You can also edit pattern assignments using inline editing on the employees table.

How Patterns Affect Scheduling

When creating a draft schedule with Respect Schedule Patterns enabled:

• The schedule builder generates shifts based on each employee's assigned pattern
• Working days get shifts according to the pattern's shift template
• Non-working days are left empty
• The pattern aligns with the employee's start date and repeats from there

Viewing Pattern Usage

On the Schedule Patterns settings page, each pattern shows how many employees are currently assigned to it. This helps you understand which patterns are most used.

Examples

Standard 5-Day Week

• Cycle: 7 days
• Working days: Days 1-5 (Mon-Fri)
• Shift: 9:00-17:00 (8 hours)
• Hours per week: 40

4-Day Compressed Week

• Cycle: 7 days
• Working days: Days 1-4 (Mon-Thu)
• Shift: 08:00-18:30 (10 hours)
• Hours per week: 40

2-Week Rotation

• Cycle: 14 days
• Week 1: Mon, Tue, Wed on / Thu, Fri off
• Week 2: Mon, Tue off / Wed, Thu, Fri on
• Shift: 07:00-19:00 (12 hours)

Tips

• Start with your most common schedule: Create a pattern for your standard work week first
• Name patterns clearly: Use names your team already uses so patterns are easy to identify
• Assign patterns before building schedules: Having patterns assigned makes the schedule builder much faster