Create work schedules – Personio

Working schedules form the foundation of effective time management and attendance tracking in any organization. They define the days and hours employees are expected to work, ensuring clarity for both employees and employers.

Whether it’s a fixed schedule, a multi-week rotation, or a flexible arrangement, working schedules help align individual availability with company needs. Work schedules also establish the basis for correct attendance tracking, and for the calculation of prorated leave entitlement for part-time employees.

Note:
We're transitioning to our new attendance policies system. Some steps, navigation paths, or settings may not match what you see in your account. For more information on the new Attendance policies, read this article.

Different types of work schedules

In Personio, you can set up three types of schedules: fixed, multi-week, or flexible. Have a look at the table to understand their differences:

	Fixed schedule	Multi-week schedule	Flexible schedule
Use-case scenarios	Employees with a fixed weekly schedule.	Employees with a recurring weekly schedule. For example: the employee has every second Friday off.	Employees with a fixed weekly days count but flexible days hours. For example: part-time employees, working students, flexi time.
Work days	Fixed number of days. The schedule defines the days the employee works on.		Fixed number of days. The employee and their supervisor define which days of the week to work on.
Hours per day/week	Fixed and defined by the days and hours entered in the work schedule. If the employee’s weekly hours change, you need to create/assign a new work schedule.		Uses the Weekly hours attribute in the employee profile. This means you can assign the same schedule to employees with different weekly hours.
Work hours	The schedule defines work hours. If the employee’s work hours change, you need to create/assign a new work schedule.		The employee and their supervisor define final work hours.
Managing the schedule	If anything changes, the Administrator needs to edit the work schedule.		After the initial assignment by the Administrator, the employee and supervisor can change working days and times, as long as the employee works as many days as defined by the schedule.
Default working schedule	Can be set as default working schedule.	Can’t be set as default working schedule.

Before you start

Regardless of which type of schedule you’re creating, the following applies:

To create work schedules, you need Account configuration > Attendance permissions.
- In addition, to successfully set up flexible time schedules, we recommend you are an Administrator.
Employees can record attendance and overtime (if enabled) on any day at any time, regardless of their start and end times. While you can't change that, set up an approval workflow using the Start time is earlier or later than working schedule condition to review these time entries.
Start and end times also impact the calculation of hourly time off. Any hourly time off requested beyond the defined start and end times don't count towards the time off calculation.
Once you create a work schedule of a certain type, you can’t change it to a different type.

Create a fixed work schedule

To create a new work schedule, follow these steps:

Go to Settings.
In the Time off & attendance section, click Attendance.
Click Add to open the creation window.
Enter a self-descriptive name for the schedule. For example: "Full-time; 40 hours; Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri with time tracking".
Set working days, times, and hours.
Fill out all the work schedule settings, described in detail in our dedicated article.
Save the changes to create the work schedule.

Create a multi-week work schedule

When calculating overtime, attendance, target hours, and time off, the system considers the work schedule and number of hours you set for each different week. To create a multi-week work schedule, follow these steps:

Go to Settings.
In the Time off & attendance section, click Attendance.
Click Add to open the creation window.
Enter a self-descriptive name for the schedule. For example: "Full-time; 36 hours; Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri with every second Friday off."
Set working days, times, and hours.
Click Add week to add up to of four weeks.
Fill out all the work schedule settings, described in detail in our dedicated article.
Save the changes to create the work schedule.

Create a flexible work schedule

Follow the steps in our dedicated article.

Create a work schedule for overnight workers

You can create overnight work schedules with fixed start and end times. This allows you to accurately reflect the real working hours of night shift employees, for example, Monday to Friday, 22:00–06:00. Personio saves the end time with a +1 label to indicate the shift ends the following day.

Reasons to use a fixed overnight work schedule:

Personio attributes target hours to the day the shift starts. This ensures that tracked hours match target hours, avoiding unintended overtime or deficit hours.
When employees request a full day or half-day off, they're effectively requesting the overnight shift off. The system reduces the correct day's target hours and calculates daily hours accurately.

Learn more about overnight time tracking.

Create the right work schedule

Employees on fixed overnight shifts:

Create a fixed work schedule with defined start and end times, for example, Monday to Friday, 22:00–06:00 (+1). This works for both standard fixed schedules and multi-week work schedules.

Employees on rotating shifts:

Nothing changes for overnight employees on rotating schedules. A target hours-only fixed schedule (for example, Monday to Friday, eight hours per day) continues to work as before. Daily targets remain consistent regardless of whether an employee works a day or night shift.

Employees on flexible schedules:

You can create a flexible schedule for overnight workers if needed. Employees submit their own working times, the same way daytime workers on flexible schedules do.

Next steps

If you don’t have one already, set your default work schedule.
Assign the work schedule to your employees.