Google Docs Employee Schedule Template: Create an 8 Hour Shift Schedule for 5 Days a Week

Thanks to computers, the days of creating employee work schedules with pen and paper are over. And thanks to the Internet, there are also easier ways to distribute schedules to staff. Cloud-based spreadsheets, such as Google Docs employee schedule template, are one obvious method for creating staff schedules.

If you’ve never used spreadsheets to create a schedule, we’ll be showing you the basics. Here’s how to create a basic 8-hour shift schedule for 5 days a week in a spreadsheet.

Creating an 8-hour shift schedule in Excel or Sheets

The most popular tool for creating spreadsheets over the years has been Microsoft’s Excel program. However, not everyone has access to it, since Microsoft Office is not available for free. There are, however, many excellent alternatives free of charge.

Probably the best free alternative at the moment is Google Docs’ Sheets. One of the main advantages over other spreadsheet programs is the fact that Google Docs works entirely in the cloud. Everything that you create is already stored online and therefore easier to distribute.

If you have Microsoft Excel, you can create the schedule in that program. However, it would still be a better option to transfer the spreadsheet into Google Docs, because it makes sharing and distributing the schedule with your staff much easier.

Using a Google Docs employee schedule template

Another great thing about Google Docs is that it offers many ready-made templates to choose from, especially when it comes to business documents. To save time on creating an employee schedule template from scratch, there’s an excellent schedule template that Google Docs offers, which you can easily customize to fit your needs.

To use the Google Docs employee schedule template, go to your Google Drive, click the “New” button, and then go to Google Sheets > From a template.

Scroll through the General Template Gallery, find the “Personal” section and select the “Schedule” template.

To set the correct week for which you want to create your employee schedule, click on the date cell (C2) and set the correct date.

The easiest way to then create a schedule an 8-hour shift daily shift for your employees is to simply select the cells for that time period and then fill them so that it’s clear from when and until when they will be working.

Select the block you’ve created for Monday and then copy and paste that block into the corresponding cells for the rest of the workweek.

Your filled Google docs employee schedule template should now look something like this:

Distributing the Google Docs Schedule to Employees

To send the new weekly schedule to your employee, click the “Share” button and enter that employee’s email address.

Make sure to check the permissions before you send the email link to your employee. You want the schedule to be read-only so that the employee is not able to edit their shifts.

Creating a staff schedule using employee scheduling software

Using Microsoft Excel or Google Docs employee schedule template to create and distribute schedules is certainly a serious step up compared to pen and paper. However, there are more specialized and advanced options available. Cloud-based employee scheduling platforms have revolutionized the process and made it easier than ever to create and distribute accurate work schedules to employees.

To see just how easy it is to use employee scheduling software, let’s create an 8-hour shift schedule for 5 days a week using Humanity employee scheduling software.

First, find the employee you want to schedule and click on the date you want to create a shift for in order to initiate the process.

Simply set the working hours (10 am – 6 pm) and click “Create Shift.”

Now click on the newly created shift to edit it.

Click on “Repeat Options,” set the frequency you want (Mon – Fri), when you want the repeat option to end (July 16) and then click on “Set to Repeat!” and save the shift changes.

In just a few clicks, you have created an 8-hour employee shift schedule for 5 days a week.

Clicking the “Publish” button up top will automatically send the new schedule to your employee via email and SMS.

Using an employee scheduling software, you can create and distribute a weekly employee work schedule in about five clicks and no more than 15 seconds. Moreover, you can upgrade your scheduling process further by proactively planning for upcoming business demands.

Welcome to the future!