Employee scheduling for restaurants & cafés
Food and beverage teams in Saudi Arabia live and die by peak-hour coverage and split shifts. The trick is covering lunch and dinner rushes without overstaffing the quiet middle — fairly, across front-of-house and kitchen.
Checked against the official text on
Cover the rushes, not the lulls
Set higher coverage for lunch and dinner and lower for the quiet hours. Split shifts let you staff both peaks without paying for the gap.
Balance front-of-house and kitchen
Each area has its own rhythm and roles. Schedule them with separate coverage targets so neither is short when it matters.
Keep it fair through the week
Weekend and evening peaks are the hardest slots — rotate them so the same staff are not always on the busiest shifts. Rosterna balances weekends and nights automatically.
Plan Ramadan on its own
Ramadan changes both demand and hours. Under Article 98 of the Labour Law, actual working hours for Muslims in Ramadan are reduced to no more than 6 hours a day or 36 hours a week, and for many restaurants the rush moves to after iftar and late into the night.
Build Ramadan as its own pattern: shorter shifts, more people after iftar and fewer in the afternoon. In Rosterna the need is set per date, so Ramadan shifts can be staffed on Ramadan dates only. Our Ramadan working-hours guide covers the rules in detail.
Sources
This is a general explanation, not legal advice. The official text is the reference and can change.
Frequently asked questions
How do I schedule split shifts for a restaurant?
Define separate coverage for the lunch and dinner peaks and let staff work both with a break between. Rosterna supports split shifts and fixed days off.
How do I keep weekend shifts fair?
Rotate the busy weekend and evening slots across the team. Rosterna counts each person’s weekends and nights and carries the count into next month.
Does Rosterna work for cafés and small restaurants?
Yes — F&B teams start with a 45-day free trial, and the engine handles peak coverage, split shifts and fair rotation.
Let Rosterna build your next roster for you.