How To Create a Shift Swap Policy For Your Restaurant

Despite your best scheduling efforts, there will always be imperfections, and conflicts will arise.

In order to keep scheduling flexible for employees – yet still ensure each shift is fully staffed – your restaurant can offer a shift swap policy.

Key Takeaways

• Shift swapping lets employees trade or give away shifts so you stay staffed.
• What your policy must cover: Eligibility, approval rules, deadlines, and overtime/compliance guardrails.
• What can go wrong: Unclear rules, no approvals, and swaps that accidentally create overtime.
• How to keep it simple: Use a tool like 7shifts to document swaps, route approvals, and notify the team.

What is Shift Swapping?

Shift swapping is when an employee trades, gives away, or picks up a shift so the schedule stays covered. In most restaurants, swaps only count once they’re documented and approved (if your policy requires it).

• Goal: Keep shifts staffed without managers rebuilding the schedule from scratch.
• The schedule should show the final, approved worker—not a “maybe.”

Types of shift swaps

Type	What it means	Common manager check
Direct swap	Two employees trade shifts	Same role/skills, no overtime created.
Shift giveaway	Employee drops a shift; someone else takes it.	Coverage + qualifications.
Open shift pickup	A shift is posted to a pool; staff claim it.	Hours limits, labor budget, compliance.
Cross-role coverage	Swap happens across roles for cross-trained staff.	Training/certifications (and who’s allowed to work what).

Shift swap example

Maria is scheduled for Friday dinner, but something comes up. She posts the shift, David picks it up, and the manager approves it after checking role eligibility and overtime.

Benefits of a Shift Swap Policy for Restaurants

Shift swapping keeps schedules stable, even when life happens. Employees get flexibility and you keep shifts covered without going over your payroll budget.

• For the restaurant: Coverage stays intact and labor stays predictable.
• For employees: They can solve scheduling conflicts without begging a manager to rebuild the schedule.

Employees get flexibility and autonomy

As restaurants continue to find and retain staff, one thing is certain – employees want to feel valued at their place of work. Like in any industry, restaurant workers need a healthy work-life balance and a guarantee that their employer will respect that.

Restaurant work is demanding and people have personal lives. A clear shift swap policy gives employees room to breathe when plans change. When your team feels respected and supported, they’re more likely to stick around.

Recommended Reading: 9 Steps On How to Schedule Employees Effectively

Fewer no-shows and understaffed shifts

No-shows are an inevitability in restaurants, but thanks to shift swaps, they don’t have to be disastrous. When employees can find coverage early, the floor stays staffed and guests have a better experience. For employees, this adds less pressure to their lives and assures them that their team will cover them if anything outside of work comes up.

Less last-minute work for managers

Managers already have enough to juggle during service. The news carries implications for fair workweek violations, adjusting on-call scheduling, and the guest experience during a given shift.

A clean shift swap workflow turns a scramble of calling into a quick decision. All they need to do is press a button when a shift swap request comes their way.

A more rigid shift swap policy that makes it difficult (or impossible) to swap shifts and makes the entire process a burden on employees and management – the latter of whom needs to scramble to find a replacement if someone is a no-show.

Stronger team camaraderie

The benefits of trust in the workplace are remarkable, with employees who feel a sense of trust at their job feeling more engaged and energetic, experiencing less stress, and taking fewer sick days.

When coworkers help each other out, trust builds. Whether it’s a family emergency or last-minute dinner plans, employees can create an aura of support (and the restaurant) by supporting one another in these moments.

5 Shift Swap Mistakes Restaurants Make

Shift swapping only works when the rules are clear and the process is visible to everyone.

1. No clear shift swap rules

If rules live in someone’s head, people will guess. That’s how you end up with surprise shift changes and missed coverage.
Fix: Write the rules down and put them where the team actually looks.

2. Relying on texts and group chats

Lack of a clear process and channel for surfacing shift swaps can overwhelm the employee requesting the trade, their manager, and any employees who are contacted. Texts get buried, and you lose a clean record of who agreed to what.
Fix: Use one official channel (ideally your scheduling app) for every swap request.

3. No manager approval process

A shift swapping policy that requires continuous, substantial effort from managers is a poor shift swapping policy. It takes time away from other, more pressing tasks in the restaurant.

Unsupervised swaps can create skill gaps or put the wrong person in the wrong station. They also make it harder to enforce accountability.

Instead, use a shift trading tool that managers can set and forget. Once the guidelines of the swap are set, employees should be empowered to use technology to manage their own shift trades within the rules so that all managers have to do is press “approve” when a request comes their way.
Fix: Require approvals or auto-approve only the swaps that meet your rules.

4. Ignoring overtime and compliance

A small swap can push someone into overtime, or into a Fair Workweek problem if schedules change too late. Those costs add up fast.
Fix: Build overtime and compliance checks into the approval step.

5. Overwhelming managers with manual approvals

If approvals require too much work, swaps slow down and staff stop using the formal process. Then you’re back to last-minute chaos.
Fix: Use tools and rules so managers only handle exceptions.

Recommended Reading: 10 Common Employee Scheduling Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

What to Include in a Restaurant Shift Swap Policy

A shift trading policy needs to be crystal-clear so that all employees can understand and follow it. If it takes a whole meeting to explain, it’s too complicated.

Policy rule	Why it matters
Official channel	Keeps swaps documented and prevents “he said, she said.”
Role eligibility	Prevents skill gaps (and safety/compliance issues).
Overtime limits	Protects labor budget and wage-law compliance.
Request deadline	Avoids last-minute coverage scrambles.
Approval rules	Ensures the schedule reflects reality—and stays enforceable.

The technology employees should use

The first thing your restaurant should specify is how shifts should be offered up, accepted, and approved for a trade. Pick one official method for shift swaps (like your scheduling app). If it’s not in the system, it’s not a swap.

Recommended Reading: Five Signs You Need to Switch from Excel to Scheduling Software

Role eligibility rules

Employees should know whether or not they are eligible to accept a shift trade opportunity based on their roles and expertise. Spell out who can cover what. For example, in your restaurant, all bartenders might be able to fill in for servers, but servers may not be able to do the same for bartenders unless they’re allowed to be behind the bar. The criteria for who is able to accept which roles and why means only those qualified are accepting these opportunities.

Overtime and hour restrictions

Let’s say a line cook working a six-hour shift on Friday wants to trade with someone working a five-hour shift on Thursday. This might not seem like a big deal, but it could mean that extra hour causes the second employee to go into overtime for the week.

If this is not caught come payroll time, the restaurant might find itself violating overtime law. If it happens too often, the restaurant might pay higher-than-needed fees for overtime work rather than keeping labor costs low. Set a rule for how overtime swaps are handled (like auto-decline or manager exception).

Time windows for swap requests

To avoid last-minute scrambles, set a clear deadline (like 24-48 hours before the shift). This will spare their peers and the restaurant any added stress – except in cases of emergency. Also clarify that employees own their original shift until the swap is approved.

Manager approval requirements

Decide what needs approval and what doesn’t. Then define who can approve and how fast employees should expect an answer. For example, same-role swaps that don’t cause overtime can be auto-approved, while cross-role swaps require manager review.

Shift Swap Policy Checklist

• Put shift swap rules in writing.
• Choose one official channel for swaps.
• Set a request deadline (example: 24–48 hours).
• Define role eligibility and training requirements.
• Decide when manager approval is required.
• Add overtime and compliance checks.
• Make sure approved swaps update the schedule.
• Notify the employees impacted by the change.
• Review swap trends to spot scheduling problems.
• Remind staff about the shift pool during busy seasons.

How to Set Up Shift Swaps in 7shifts

7shifts helps your restaurant keep swaps organized, documented, and visible to the whole team.

Step 1: Get employee feedback

Before you lock in the shift swap policy, ask the team what they need. You’ll get better buy-in and fewer headaches down the road.

Using 7shifts, you can make an announcement that the restaurant is considering creating or adjusting a shift swap policy and you’d like to hear what staff thinks of the idea and what should be incorporated. Individual employees can then message employers one-on-one to provide candid and helpful feedback that will help the restaurant build a policy that works for everyone.

Step 2: Enable shift pool and trading

Admins can turn on Shift Pool in 7shifts so employees can offer up shifts or request trades. It’s also here where you can specify whether or not shift trades need approval from those with manager permissions.
This gives everyone one place to look.

Step 3: Have employees start trading

From this point, your employees can start offering up and accepting shift trades on desktop or mobile.

Learn more about the shift swapping process on mobile with this article.

Recipients of shift trade requests can accept or reject a request, after which the requesting employee will receive a notification of the request. If the trade is rejected, they can immediately look for another shift swap opportunity.

Step 4: Monitor requests and approve

If you decide you’d like to approve any shift swaps before they occur, it only involves one extra step.

When a shift manager is alerted about a swap request, they just need to press “Approve” or “Decline.”

Over time, you may find you’re getting frequent shift swap requests from a few team members, or even too many from your team at large. If this is the case, it’s worth talking to those team members to see if adjustments might need to be made to their schedules.
If there’s no outstanding issues, consider reminding employees that shift swaps are the exception – not the rule – when it comes to scheduling, as they make predictable scheduling more difficult for you and your other employees. You can use your reports to quickly identify the employees who are most likely to engage in these trades and discuss with them directly.

Step 5: Watch for labor compliance and overtime situations

One of the major reasons for monitoring shift swaps is to ensure there are no violations of labor compliance laws or unnecessary overtime expenses. When reviewing these requests, you can easily review these conflicts to determine if the swap should move forward.

 

 

 

Should you choose to allow swaps without approval, remember to double check for unplanned overtime expenses when doing restaurant payroll to see if employees are costing you labor fees with shift trades.

Step 6: Communicate schedule changes

The next step is to let your team know about schedule changes as they come up. If you need to share news of a swap with your team, head over to the announcements tool to craft an alert. You can even filter to only alert those scheduled on a certain day so that only relevant staff are notified of the swap.

Step 7: Remind employees about the shift pool during busy or holiday periods

One final reminder: swaps can be your greatest asset when you’re facing potentially understaffed shifts. This trend can be seasonal – especially in the summer and during the holidays. When these times come around, you should remind your team that shift swapping is allowed and recommended. It might save you from a no call, no show. And make sure you have the perfect holiday work schedule in place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can employees swap shifts?

Yes, if your restaurant allows it and you have a clear process. Most restaurants require swaps to be documented and approved to protect coverage and compliance.

What is an example of a shift swap?

A server scheduled Friday dinner trades with another server scheduled Saturday brunch, and a manager approves the change. The schedule updates so everyone sees the correct roster.

Can my boss force me to switch shifts?

Employers can generally change schedules with notice, but forcing a direct swap between employees usually requires agreement. Some locations with Fair Workweek rules may require advance notice and predictability pay for late changes.

Do shift swaps need manager approval?

It depends on your policy, but many restaurants require approval to prevent overtime and skill gaps. If you allow auto-approvals, set strict rules so only safe swaps go through.