Minimum Shop Staff Needed
Work out the minimum headcount and contract mix to keep a shop staffed, with every step of the maths shown — not a black-box number.
About this tool
This gives a transparent, simplified estimate — not a full rota. It assumes: staff are needed for 30 minutes before opening (to prepare the shop) and 15 minutes after closing (to close down), on top of the opening hours you enter; a 20-minute-or-longer break only needs covering on days where the working day, including that 45 minutes, is over 6 hours; each employee works across at most 5 days a week (to leave the standard 2 days off); and enough extra headcount-hours are added to cover everyone's 5.6 weeks (28 days) of statutory annual leave across the year. "Lone working not allowed" is treated as a business policy choice here, not a general legal requirement — it's only a legal must for retail in specific risk-assessed circumstances. Actual rotas will always need a manager's judgement on top of this.