"We are short-staffed" can mean three different things: not enough hours in the team, not enough people at the times you need them, or one person everything depends on. Only the first is fixed by adding a person at random. Checking takes a few minutes, before you spend money on a job post.
Multiply each shift's length by the people it needs and add up the week. Then add every person's weekly hour limit. If the first number is larger, no schedule can cover the week, whatever the arrangement. The builder prints this warning for you when it happens.
The numbers below are invented and were produced by the builder itself; the page's tests re-run them, so they cannot drift from the tool.
| Person | Wage | Weekly limit | Available |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maya | $24 | 40 h | Tue–Sat 9–19 |
| Jo | $20 | 36 h | Mon–Fri 9–19 |
| Priya | $18 | 24 h | Thu–Sun 10–20 |
| Sam | $15 | 20 h | Mon–Sat 9–19 |
The shop needs two people 9–2 and two people 2–7 on weekdays, three people 10–6 on Saturday and one person 10–4 on Sunday: 130 hours a week. The team's limits add up to 120 hours, so the answer to step 1 is already "no, not as it stands".
The builder fills 97 of the 130 hours and leaves 6 shifts open (33 hours): two Monday afternoon places, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, and one Saturday place. For each one it says why. Monday afternoon, for example: two people are free, but one would break the 10-hour rest rule and one is at their weekly limit. Sunday is only coverable by Priya, so if she is sick the shop is closed.
Adding a person to the list costs nothing. With one extra part-timer at $17 an hour, up to 30 hours, free any time, the week goes from 6 open shifts to 1 open shift (5 hours). The new person works 28 hours and total payroll rises from $1,904 to $2,380. The builder's own "what if we hired" test, which assumes an average wage of $19.25 and 40 hours, gives the same picture: 28 hours covered, 5 still open, about $545 more payroll a week. That is the price of those 28 hours, and the figure to compare with what the uncovered chairs would earn.
Two things to read off that result. The remaining gap is a Monday afternoon place: Maya and Priya do not work Mondays, so only Jo, Sam and the new person can. That suggests asking for Monday availability in the job post, not just hours. And it shows who the week depends on: with Maya out, 28 more hours go uncovered, more than anyone else.
Add up the hours your shifts require and compare them with the combined weekly hour limits of your current team. If the shifts need more than the team can give, hiring or cutting shifts is unavoidable. If the team has enough hours on paper but shifts still go uncovered, the problem is availability, not headcount, and a person with wider availability fixes it better than more hours do.
Overtime hours cost a premium, often time and a half, on top of the wage. A part-timer costs the wage but also carries hiring, training and payroll-tax costs. For a few short weeks overtime is usually cheaper; for a gap that repeats every week, a hire is. Test both by running the schedule with and without the extra person.
No. It applies the rest, hour and overtime rules you type in. It does not know your local scheduling-notice, break or minor-labor laws.