Schedule efficiency calculator
A roster can have the right total hours and still be wrong in every interval. Paste the requirement and the roster for a day or a week and this calculator scores how well they fit, shows where the surplus is and where the shortfalls are, and counts what they cost in hours.
1 − (over + under) ÷ required. 100% means every interval matches.
- Rostered, needed
- Rostered, surplus
- Shortfall
- Required
- Coverage
- 103.4%
- Over-staffed
- 19.0 h
- Under-staffed
- 8.5 h
- Intervals short
- 10 of 24
- Required hours
- 305.5 h
- Rostered hours
- 316.0 h
Rostered hours ÷ required hours.
Agent-hours above the requirement.
Agent-hours below it.
Worst: 12:30, 4 short.
Show the working
- 24 intervals of 30 minutes: required 305.5 agent-hours, rostered 316.0.
- Coverage = 316.0 ÷ 305.5 = 103.4%.
- Interval by interval, the roster is over by 19.0 h and under by 8.5 h.
- Fit = 1 − (19.0 + 8.5) ÷ 305.5 = 91.0%.
Rosters that fit the curve are what a scheduler is for. Pebble WFM builds the roster against the requirement and publishes it. Free month, no card needed.
How schedule efficiency is calculated
Coverage is the simplest measure: rostered agent-hours divided by required agent-hours. It tells you whether the roster is big enough in total, and nothing else. A roster with 20 agents too many in the morning and 20 too few in the afternoon has perfect coverage.
Fit penalises both directions interval by interval: 1 minus the sum of the absolute gaps divided by the required hours. A perfect roster scores 100 per cent; the example above scores much less, because every misplaced agent-hour counts once as surplus and once as shortfall.
The over- and under-staffed hours are the two halves of that gap, and they carry different costs. Surplus hours are paid for nothing, and can often be moved into training or coaching. Shortfall hours are service level failures, and the worst interval tells you where the roster breaks first.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good schedule efficiency?
- Fit above 90 per cent is good for a centre with flexible shifts; 80 to 90 is common; below 80 usually means the shift patterns do not match the curve, which is a contract or shift design problem rather than a rostering one.
- Is this the same as schedule adherence?
- No. Adherence measures whether agents follow the roster. Efficiency measures whether the roster follows the requirement. A centre can have perfect adherence to a poor roster.
- Where do I get the requirement per interval?
- From the week planner on this site, or from your workforce management tool's requirement report. The rostered figures come from the schedule, counting agents in a productive state; if your roster shows scheduled shifts rather than availability, apply shrinkage first.
- Should I worry more about surplus or shortfall?
- Shortfall costs service level and is visible to customers; surplus costs money and is visible to finance. Most centres tolerate a little surplus to protect against shortfall, which is why coverage is usually slightly above 100 per cent and why fit, not coverage, is the number to manage.
Stop doing this one interval at a time
Pebble WFM forecasts your demand, computes the staffing requirement for every interval, builds the roster and publishes it, with self-service for agents and a copilot that can do what a planner can. Explore a sample organisation on day one.