Overtime and plus and minus hours are almost unavoidable in the hospitality industry. Due to fluctuating demand, flexible contracts and seasonal influences, employees often work more or fewer hours than agreed. That’s why it’s essential to clearly see, within your hospitality staff planning, which employees have accumulated plus or minus hours.
However, many hospitality businesses lack a clear overview of overtime and minus hours. Although working hours are recorded, they are not actively used in staff scheduling. As a result, overtime builds up unnoticed, while minus hours remain unresolved. This leads to unbalanced schedules, higher labour costs and employees who consistently work too many or too few hours.
Because workload in hospitality changes constantly, having insight into plus and minus hours — and actively managing them — is crucial.
Why insight into plus and minus hours matters in hospitality
Clear insight into plus and minus hours is essential for a healthy and efficient hospitality operation. Accurate time tracking helps you plan more effectively and prevents issues such as:
Unnecessary labour costs due to overtime
Unequal workload distribution among employees
Increased risk of fatigue and employee absence
With a clear overview of plus and minus hours, you maintain balance within your team and stay in control of your labour planning.
Efficient staff scheduling with plus and minus hours
By actively using plus and minus hours while scheduling, you can plan more intelligently. If an employee has built up significant overtime, you can schedule fewer shifts temporarily. If someone has minus hours, you can assign additional shifts where possible.
In the schedule above, you can see each employee’s plus or minus hours directly next to their shifts. While planning, you immediately see who is already over their contracted hours and who still needs hours. This makes it easy to adjust the schedule on the spot, without checking separate overviews or calculations.
To avoid large plus or minus hour balances, it also helps to plan as close as possible to contracted hours each week. By spreading hours more evenly and adjusting early when it gets busy or quiet, you prevent overtime or shortages from building up over time.
Keeping overtime under control in staff scheduling
Effective staff scheduling and time tracking in hospitality create clarity, stability and a better-performing team.
John Meijerink
Hospitality entrepreneur – Paviljoen Lutterzand
Co-owner Tiemdo BV
Do you know today which employees have plus or minus hours? With Tiemdo staff planning, you can see plus and minus hours instantly — highlighted in green and red directly in the weekly schedule.
Staff scheduling doesn’t have to be expensive! Planning and time tracking with Tiemdo costs only €2.00 per employee. Still using Excel? Try Tiemdo free for 1 month. Already using a planning system? Save over 50% on your planning costs with Tiemdo.