Available for the following Payroll plans: Standard, Premium
Available for the following user access levels: Full access
When managers and business owners create shifts, it can be beneficial to have rostering rules in place to prevent situations like overtime, fatigue management issues, or breaches of employment agreements. Roster warning rules let you apply specific criteria to rostered shifts and display a warning for any shift that matches the criteria.
Full access users can create and manage roster warning rules. Both full access users and restricted users with rostering access receive alerts within the roster when a rule is breached. This supports compliance and better shift management for improved workforce planning.
The Roster warnings feature has two main components, each with a distinct purpose:
- Roster warning rules: the business rules that, when met, trigger a warning for all affected shifts in the roster. Only full access users can create and manage these rules. There are four types of roster warning rule, explained below.
- Roster warnings: the result of a roster warning rule being triggered. These warnings are visible within the rostering page, and both full access users and restricted users with rostering access are notified when a rule is breached.
Important
Roster warning rules do not prevent an employee from being rostered. They highlight any issues associated with a shift so you can review them.
Create a roster warning rule
Some rules require an analysis of an employee's rostered shifts over a weekly period, such as when an employee works more than 30 hours in a week. The Roster warning rule period setting determines the start and end day of that weekly period.
Helpful Hint
By default, this setting copies the value from the Work week field on the Business details page. It applies to all roster warning rules and cannot be configured on a per-rule basis.
- Log into your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
- Navigate to Business > Payroll Settings > Pay Conditions > Roster Warning Rules.
- Click Add a rule on the right side of the page.
- This launches a new context panel containing the following fields:
- Roster warning rule name: a compulsory text field with a maximum length of 100 characters.
- Roster warning rule message: a compulsory text field with a maximum length of 100 characters. The message displays for any shift triggered by the rule, so keep it clear and concise for all roster users.
- Rule: a dropdown list with four pre-configured options. When you choose a rule, the relevant settings for that rule are displayed for further configuration, and these additional fields must be completed to save the warning. Detailed information about each rule is available in the Available roster warnings section below.
- Apply to locations: defaults to All, but you can select one or more specific locations where the roster warning rule should apply.
- Once all the fields are configured, click Save.
- Each roster warning rule is listed in the order it was created.
Available roster warnings
If you restrict hours by qualification, the rule is pre-populated with the following fields:
- Where the employee's qualification is one of: a dropdown list of qualifications set up in the business. You can select multiple qualifications.
- Roster employees for no more than: a compulsory free-text field for the maximum number of hours. Fractional values up to two decimal places are allowed.
In the roster, this rule triggers a warning for any employee who meets the following conditions:
- The employee has one or more of the selected qualifications assigned to them.
- The qualification(s) are still current (not expired).
- The shift is for a location included in the Apply to locations field.
- The employee's weekly rostered hours exceed the weekly hours set in the rule.
The Roster warning rule period setting defines when the week starts and ends for this rule. This rule does not count hours from shifts with a leave-based work type, such as Annual leave taken, toward the total hours considered for triggering.
If you restrict hours by employment type, the rule is pre-populated with the following fields:
- Where the employment type is one of: a dropdown list of applicable employment types, such as full-time or casual. You can select multiple employment types.
- Roster employees for no more than: a compulsory free-text field for the maximum number of hours. Fractional values up to two decimal places are allowed.
In the roster, this rule triggers a warning for any employee who meets the following conditions:
- The employee has the selected employment type, as defined in their Tax Declaration screen.
- The shift is for a location included in the Apply to locations field.
- The employee's weekly rostered hours exceed the weekly hours set in the rule.
Unlike the qualification rule, this rule does count shifts with a leave-based work type when totalling the rostered weekly hours for triggering.
When you select this option, the rule is pre-populated with the following fields:
- Where the employment type is one of: a dropdown list of applicable employment types, such as full-time or casual. You can select multiple employment types.
- A minimum X hours break must be provided before the next rostered shift: a compulsory free-text field for the minimum number of hours required for the break between shifts. Fractional values up to two decimal places are allowed.
- A checkbox lets you ignore additional shifts on the same day when determining the next rostered shift.
In the roster, this rule triggers a warning for any employee who meets the following conditions:
- The employee has the selected employment type, as defined in their Tax Declaration screen.
- The shift is for a location included in the Apply to locations field.
- The employee has a shift rostered (compared to the previous shift) with less than the specified break requirement set in the warning.
When you select this option, the rule is pre-populated with the following field:
- Display a warning where the pay category is: a dropdown list of pay categories set up in the business. You can select multiple pay categories. The dropdown separates system and custom pay categories from award pay categories (for businesses with installed awards).
In the roster, this rule triggers a warning for any employee whose shift:
- Is attached to a location included in the Apply to locations setting.
- When costed, is associated with the pay category listed in the roster warning rule.
- Is costed to include a combination of pay categories, for example ordinary hours and overtime. The warning triggers as long as one of the specified pay categories is associated with the shift.
The warning triggers even when Show shift cost is turned off. Restricted users without the View show costs permission also see the warning, but they do not see the actual costs associated with the shift.