When a staff member goes on parental leave, extended sick leave, or another absence lasting months rather than days, it is tempting to simply remove them from the roster template until they are back. This can sometimes cause more work than it saves.
The roster template is where a staff member's working pattern lives day to day, which days they work, what site and role they sit under, and how their shifts repeat across the cycle. Removing them from the template loses all of that, and it has to be rebuilt from scratch when they return.
⚠️ Note: An extended absence changes who covers the shifts. It should not change whether the staff member still has a place on the template.
On their return, there is no record left of their site, their role, or the shape of their week, and all roster shifts need to be recreated by hand. If the absence spans a public holiday period or a template correction, the rebuilt roster template can easily end up slightly different from the one they actually had.
Short absences, a few weeks or less
Leave the staff member's shifts on the template and mark them unassigned for the period they are away.
Reassign the unassigned shifts to available staff as needed, or open them up as a shift bid.
Extended absences, parental leave or several months at a time
Keep the staff member on the template rather than removing them.
Allocate their shifts to casual staff a week/period at a time, rather than reassigning the whole absence in one block.
Review the allocation each week/period alongside the usual roster and timesheet cycle, so cover stays current without committing casual staff to months of shifts up front.
Before reinstating a staff member's shifts, confirm their working pattern record is still accurate. A pattern that has not been reviewed in months is a common source of leave balance errors once they are back on the timesheet, since it is the working pattern that leave balance deductions are calculated against. Reviewing and Adjusting a Users Working Pattern covers how to check and update it.
Once the pattern is confirmed, reassign their shifts on the template and they flow through to the next roster period in the usual way.
Keep the staff member on the roster template through the whole absence, marked unassigned or covered by casuals.
We do not recommend deleting them from the template. Rebuilding a roster template from memory is where mistakes creep in.
Confirm the working pattern is current when someone returns from an extended period away, is recommended best practice.