24/7 Shift Coverage FTE Calculator

How it works

Hours to cover = posts × hours/day × days/week × 52.18; net hours per FTE = contract × 52.18 − (leave + sick + training days) × (contract ÷ 5); FTE = hours to cover ÷ net hours per FTE; relief factor = contract hours ÷ net hours

A single post staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week is 168 hours a week — 4.2 people on 40-hour contracts before anyone takes a holiday, falls ill or attends training. The relief factor converts contracted hours into hours actually spent on post: with about six weeks of leave and public holidays, a week or two of sickness and a few training days, each employee delivers around 1,750 of 2,087 contracted hours, a factor near 1.19. That lifts a 24/7 post to roughly five FTE, which is why security, control rooms, plants and hospital wards run four or five crews per position. The same arithmetic sizes any partial pattern — a 16 × 5 help desk, a 12 × 7 reception — and shows the true cost of adding “just one more” always-on role.

Worked example

Three posts around the clock need 504 hours a week (26,300 a year). A 40-hour FTE loses 42 days to leave, sickness and training, delivering 1,751 net hours, so the relief factor is 1.19 and 15.0 FTE are needed — 5 per post, 16 people once rounded up — each working about 2.8 twelve-hour shifts a week on average.

Frequently asked questions