Creating a work schedule: a step-by-step guide for employers

Every Monday, the same story. Who works when? Can Sofie swap with Pieter? And didn't Youssef ask to have Wednesday off? If you are an employer or HR manager, you probably recognise this. Creating a work schedule sounds simple, until you actually have to do it. Especially in Belgium, where the rules around working hours, notification periods and variable schedules are hardly straightforward.

In this guide, we walk you through the entire process: from the legal basics to practical tips you can apply tomorrow. Whether you are drawing up a staff schedule for the first time or want to improve your current planning, after this article you will know exactly where you stand.

Why a good work schedule is more than an Excel sheet

Let's be honest. Many employers start with a simple Excel file. Column A: the names. Row 1: the days of the week. That works. Until it doesn't.

A well-thought-out work schedule is more than an overview of who has to be present when. It has a direct impact on:

• Productivity: putting the right people in the right place at the right time
• Employee satisfaction: predictability and a fair distribution of unpopular shifts
• Legal compliance: because yes, the Belgian legislator has quite a bit to say about work schedules
• Payroll costs: overtime and premiums add up quickly with a poor schedule

And that's before we even mention the stress a chaotic schedule causes. For you, but certainly also for your team.

The legal basis: what Belgian law requires

Before you start planning, you need to know the limits you are allowed to work within. Belgian labour law is fairly clear on this, although the nuances are in the details.

Maximum working hours

The standard statutory working time in Belgium is 38 hours per week (since 2003). Per day, an employee may in principle work a maximum of 8 hours, and per week a maximum of 40 hours. Do you work with a 40-hour week? Then your employee is entitled to 12 compensatory rest days (ADV days) per year to respect the average of 38 hours. With a 39-hour week, that is 6 ADV days.

Please note: some Joint Committees apply a lower weekly working time. Always check the sectoral collective labour agreement (CLA) that applies to your company.

Mandatory rest periods and breaks

This is where things sometimes still go wrong in practice. The law prescribes that:

• Every employee is entitled to at least 11 consecutive hours of rest between two working days
• There is a weekly rest period of 24 consecutive hours (usually Sunday)
• When working more than 6 hours, a break of at least 15 minutes is mandatory

Those 11 hours between two shifts are something employers still tend to forget. If someone works until 11 p.m., that person may only start at 10 a.m. the next morning. Not at 7 a.m., and not at 8 a.m. either. Keep this in mind when drawing up a work schedule, especially with shift systems.

The work rules: the home base of your work schedule

Every work schedule you use must be included in your work rules. This applies to:

• Regular working-hours schedules (full-time and part-time)
• Schedules of successive shifts
• Flexible or flexitime schedules
• Variable part-time schedules

Are you changing a schedule that is not in your work rules? Then you must first amend the work rules through the legally prescribed procedure. That takes time, so plan ahead.

Fixed vs. variable schedule: which suits your business?

This is a choice that determines a lot. Not only for your planning, but also for your administrative obligations.

The fixed work schedule

With a fixed schedule, your employee works the same days and hours every week. Think of the classic 9-to-5 or a fixed shift pattern that alternates weekly.

Advantages:

• Easy to manage
• Less administration (the schedule is in the work rules, done)
• Clarity for your team

Disadvantages:

• Little flexibility when workload fluctuates
• Harder to respond to seasonal peaks or unexpected absences

The variable work schedule

With a variable schedule, the working days and/or working hours change from week to week. This is common in the hospitality, retail, logistics and care sectors.

Here things get a little more complex legally. For part-time employees with a variable schedule, specific rules apply:

• The schedule must be communicated to each employee individually at least 7 working days in advance
• The notification must be done in an appropriate, reliable and accessible manner (a WhatsApp message on Sunday evening is not enough)
• The work rules must contain all possible working-hours schedules, or at least the framework within which the variable schedules are drawn up

Those 7 working days are the statutory minimum period since November 2022. But be careful: through a sectoral CLA, this period can be shortened to a minimum of 3 working days. Conversely, your sector can also impose a longer period.

In the horticulture and cleaning sectors, for example, a notification period of 48 hours applies, and in the driving school sector it is 5 days.

Do you want to work with variable schedules? Then it is wise to have this properly included in your work rules. That way you avoid discussions afterwards.

Creating a work schedule in 7 steps

Right, we know the theory. Now the practice. How do you actually create a work schedule that is legally compliant and also workable?

Step 1: Map out your workforce

Start at the beginning. Make an overview of:

• How many employees you have (full-time, part-time, flexi-jobs, temp workers)
• What their contractual hours are
• Which roles and skills they have
• Any restrictions (no evening work, a fixed day off, medical reasons)

This sounds obvious, but many employers work with outdated or incomplete data. Take the time to bring this up to date.

Step 2: Determine your staffing needs per time slot

Not every moment of the day requires the same amount of staff. Analyse your coverage:

• Which days and hours are the busiest?
• When are the peak moments (the lunch peak in hospitality, Monday morning in the office)?
• How many people do you need at a minimum to guarantee service?

Create a base schedule: the minimum and maximum number of employees per day and per time slot. That is your starting point.

Step 3: Gather availability and preferences

Ask your employees about their availability in good time. The earlier you do this, the easier the puzzle becomes. Set a deadline: for example, two weeks before the start of the scheduling period.

Be realistic. You can't please everyone. But by taking preferences into account, you increase engagement and reduce the number of change requests afterwards.

Step 4: Create the schedule (and respect the law)

Now you actually draw up the staff schedule. Take into account:

• The statutory working time (38 hours per week, max 8 hours per day)
• The mandatory rest periods (11 hours between shifts, 24 hours weekly rest)
• The notification period (7 working days for variable schedules)
• The rules from your Joint Committee
• A fair distribution of evening and weekend shifts

Many employers start in Excel. That is fine for a small team. Create columns per day, rows per employee, and use colours for different shift types. An Excel template is free to find and more than enough for 5 employees.

Is your team growing? Then Excel quickly becomes a source of errors. You can keep managing this yourself, or link staff scheduling to your payroll administration. At Recruit, for example, staff scheduling and pay sit in the same system, so shifts automatically feed into the payroll calculation. That saves double work and reduces the risk of errors.

Step 5: Communicate the schedule on time

A schedule that no one has seen is not a schedule. Make sure your planning is:

• Shared on time (at least 7 working days in advance for variable schedules)
• Recorded in writing (physically posted at the workplace and shared digitally)
• Kept (mandatory until 1 year after the end of the validity period)

The law requires a written and dated notice per employee for variable schedules. Digital communication (email, planning software) is allowed, but must be reliable and accessible. A message in a WhatsApp group that not everyone is part of does not meet this requirement.

Step 6: Build in flexibility

The perfect schedule does not exist. There is always someone sick, someone who has to swap, or an unexpected peak in the work. Prepare for this:

• Keep a list of on-call employees or temp workers
• Make clear agreements about swap procedures (who decides, by what time at the latest, written confirmation)
• Don't plan for 100% coverage. A buffer of 5-10% is not a luxury but a necessity

Step 7: Evaluate and improve

After every scheduling period: look back. Were there structurally too many or too few people scheduled? Did certain complaints keep coming back? Was the distribution fair?

The best work schedules evolve along with your company. What worked last year may be outdated this year.

Common mistakes when creating a work schedule

Some mistakes we see coming back time and again. These are the most common:

1. Ignoring the 11-hour rule Especially with shift systems: the mandatory 11 hours of rest between two shifts gets forgotten. That can lead to penalties during an inspection by the social inspection services.

2. Communicating variable schedules too late The notification period of 7 working days is not a suggestion. If you communicate the schedule too late, the employee can refuse to come and work. Without consequences.

3. Not taking the Joint Committee into account Your sector may apply stricter rules than the general legislation. A work schedule that complies with the labour law, but not with the sectoral CLA, is still in breach.

4. Communicating verbally "But I did say so" is not proof. Work schedules must be recorded in writing and kept. Otherwise, in the event of disputes or inspections, you have nothing to fall back on.

5. Always giving the unpopular shifts to the same people Not only demotivating, it can also lead to complaints about discrimination or unequal treatment. Aim for a rotation or a transparent system.

Specific situations: part-time, shifts and weekend work

Not every company runs on office hours. Depending on your sector and workforce, you will face particular situations.

Part-time employees

With part-time work, the work schedule must clearly state which days and hours the employee works. With a fixed part-time schedule, this must be in the employment contract and the work rules. With a variable schedule, the notification rules we discussed earlier apply.

Important: a part-time employee may in principle not work less than one third of a full-time position. And each work period must last at least 3 hours. Are you planning a shift of 2 hours? That is not allowed, unless your sector explicitly deviates from this through a CLA.

Shift work

With two- or three-shift systems, you operate with alternating shifts. The schedule must then contain all possible shift patterns in the work rules. The rotation of shifts and the rest period between two shifts deserve extra attention. Also don't forget that night work and shift work give rise to extra premiums in many Joint Committees.

Weekend work and Sunday work

Working on Sunday is in principle prohibited in Belgium, with a whole series of exceptions (hospitality, healthcare, retail under conditions, continuous work). If you do have people work on Sunday, you must include this in your work schedule and in the work rules. The employee is then entitled to compensatory rest.

Flexitime: an alternative to the classic schedule

More and more employers work with flexitime. Here you define a core period (for example 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) during which everyone must be present, and a margin within which employees choose for themselves when they start and stop.

This system offers the best of both worlds: structure for the employer, flexibility for the employee. But rules apply here too. You need a CLA or an amendment to the work rules, and you must provide a system of time registration.

For office environments, this is often a better solution than a rigid 9-to-5 schedule. Especially if you want to compete on the labour market to attract talent.

Tools and methods for creating a work schedule

The manual approach: Excel or Google Sheets

Still the most popular method among small companies. And rightly so: it is free, flexible, and everyone knows it.

A good Excel work schedule contains:

• Rows per employee
• Columns per day (or per shift)
• Colours per type of shift (morning, afternoon, evening)
• A counter that tracks the total number of hours per employee
• A flag when the maximum hours are exceeded

The downside? With more than 10-15 employees, it becomes unmanageable. Errors creep in. And the link with payroll and hours registration is missing.

Planning software

There are dozens of tools available: from simple scheduling apps to full workforce management platforms. When choosing, pay attention to:

• Integration with your payroll (so that hours worked flow through automatically)
• Ease of use (your employees need to be able to work with it too)
• Compliance with Belgian legislation (not every foreign tool knows our rules)
• Costs versus benefits

With more than 15 years of experience in Belgian payroll, at Recruit we see the consequences of systems that are not aligned with each other on a daily basis: errors in the payroll calculation, missed Dimona declarations (Dimona is the immediate employment declaration), disputes about hours worked. An integrated approach, where planning and payroll sit in the same system, prevents these problems.

Self-scheduling: the employee in the driver's seat

A newer trend where employees choose their own shifts within certain frameworks. This works especially well for teams where most roles are interchangeable (retail, hospitality, call centres).

The employer sets the rules: minimum coverage, maximum hours, mandatory attendance moments. The employees fill in the rest themselves. That increases autonomy and considerably reduces the number of swap requests.

Frequently asked questions about work schedules

Can an employer change the work schedule unilaterally?

No, not just like that. A work schedule that is included in the work rules or the employment contract cannot be changed unilaterally. With a fixed schedule, you need the employee's consent, or you follow the procedure to amend the work rules. With variable schedules, you may adjust the schedule, but only if you respect the notification period.

How far in advance do I have to announce a work schedule?

For variable part-time schedules: at least 7 working days, unless a sectoral CLA provides for a different period (minimum 3 working days). For fixed schedules that are in the work rules, there is no separate weekly notification obligation.

What if an employee refuses to work according to the schedule?

If the schedule has been communicated correctly and on time and complies with the work rules, then the employee is obliged to follow it. Refusal can be grounds for a sanction. But if the schedule was communicated too late or is not in the work rules, the employee has the right to refuse.

Do I have to keep work schedules?

Yes. The notice with the individual work schedules must be kept, on paper or digitally, at the place where the work rules can be consulted. The retention period runs until 1 year after the end of the validity period.

What about overtime in a variable schedule?

With a variable schedule based on an average weekly working time, the question is whether the average over the reference period (usually a quarter) is respected. Hours above the contractual average at the end of the reference period can be considered overtime. You can read more about this in our article on overtime and premiums in Belgium.

Do different rules apply to flexi-jobbers or students?

Yes. Flexi-jobbers and students have specific regulations around working time and contract type. The work schedule must still be kept correctly, among other things for the Dimona declaration.

In short

Creating a work schedule is more than sliding names into boxes. It touches on labour law, employee satisfaction and the operational strength of your company. The basic principles are not complicated, but the details make the difference.

Remember the key points:

• Know the legal limits: 38 hours per week, 11 hours of rest between shifts, a 15-minute break after 6 hours
• Include your work schedules in the work rules
• Communicate variable schedules at least 7 working days in advance
• Build in flexibility, but document everything in writing
• Always check the rules of your Joint Committee, because they can deviate from the general law

The effort you put into a good staff schedule pays off twice over. In less stress, fewer errors and a team that knows where it stands.

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How Recruit helps you

Staff scheduling, hours registration and payroll in one tool? That is exactly what Recruit offers.

With Recruit:

• Contracts in less than 60 seconds: create trial and temp contracts without hassle
• Automatic payroll calculation: correct pay according to current legislation and your Joint Committee
• Dimona and social documents: we handle all declarations, you focus on your business
• 24/7 personal support: always a dedicated contact who knows your company
• No fixed monthly costs: pay only for what you use

Try Recruit or get in touch with our HR experts for tailored advice.

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The information in this article is purely informative and does not replace professional legal or accounting advice. Labour law changes regularly. Always consult the current legislation or contact an HR expert for advice tailored to your situation.