How can coworking, franchise and Multi-Location businesses cover absence?

It is nine on a Saturday morning at a coworking centre. The community manager has a fever. The only other person on the roster is a housekeeping attendant who cannot operate the booking system. Five members have meeting rooms booked. A new tenant is due for a tour at eleven. The centre head, forty minutes away, is on a call with the landlord. By noon, two bookings have clashed and one visitor has waited twenty minutes at the door.

Chains of small sites meet this problem weekly: coworking centres, serviced floors, restaurant outlets, salons, stores, tuition centres and clinics. Each site runs thin, so one absence shows to the customer. The answer comes first. Owners' next questions follow.

Decide, for each role at each site, the minimum number of people who must be present and what happens when the number falls short. Then give the manager three tools: a float pool, a buddy branch and a written authority to move people. Without these, cover depends on who happens to be reachable.

• Float pool. Two or three trained people who are based at no single site and move to where the gap is. They suit chains with several branches in one city. Pay their travel and give them a standard kit and login.
• Buddy branch. Pair nearby branches so that each can lend a person for a day. The loan is recorded and repaid in kind.
• Cross-trained staff. At each site, at least one person beyond the role-holder knows the key tasks: opening, booking, billing, the till, the appointment book, patient registration.

ROLE: front desk / community manager / cashier / stylist / counsellor / receptionist.
MINIMUM ON DUTY AT OPEN, MIDDAY AND CLOSE: ____.
WHO COVERS FIRST: named person or float pool.
WHO COVERS SECOND: buddy branch contact and phone.
WHO CAN APPROVE A MOVE: branch manager / area manager.
NOTICE EXPECTED FROM THE ABSENT PERSON: how and by what time.
WHAT THE COVERING PERSON GETS: travel, extra hours recorded, time off in lieu.
WHAT TO DO IF NO COVER IS FOUND: shorten hours, close a counter, move bookings, tell customers.
RECORD: date, who moved, from where, for how long.

Planned leave, festival weeks, examination weeks for centres with students, and school-holiday periods can be seen months ahead. Collect leave dates on fixed days, such as the first of each quarter. Put the plan on a calendar head office can open. Where two people from the same site want the same week, the manager decides early, not on the day. Unplanned absence then needs only a thin fallback.

• Coworking and serviced floors. The key-holder and the person who can reset an access card controller must never be the same single person. Keep a spare booking-system login for the float.
• Restaurant outlets. Cross-train a commis to run the tandoor or fryer station, and a cashier to take over the pass during the dinner rush. Keep the allergen sheet at every station.
• Salons. When a stylist is out, the front desk must be able to move the appointment book entries, offer a colleague who works with the same colour range, and warn customers before they arrive.
• Retail stores. A second keyholder for opening and cash-up. The cash counter should not be left to a trainee on the first day of a sale.
• Clinics and labs. Only a person with the right registration may take a sample or sign a report, so the cover list should name those who qualify, branch by branch.

Pull a month of attendance from the muster for each branch. Group absences by weekday and shift. Look for three patterns. Mondays after a long closing shift on Sunday. The day after a festival. Late shifts at a site far from public transport. If absence clusters, the cause is the roster, not the people. Moving a closing shift or adding a taxi allowance for late exits can cost less than the lost bookings.

1. 1

   Count absences by branch and weekday

   One sheet, one month. Do not name individuals in the first look.

2. 2

   Mark the pattern

   Mondays, festival days, late shifts, one manager's staff.

3. 3

   Speak to the branch manager

   Ask what they see. Often the manager already knows.

4. 4

   Change one thing

   A roster tweak, a transport rule, a second person at the desk. Measure again in a month.

• May we ask a colleague to step in at short notice? Ask; never assume. Record the request, the travel, and the compensation, and confirm the position on extra hours with a qualified professional.
• Some tasks need a licence or registration. What then? Keep a roster of who may do which task, and do not move anyone into a role they are not trained or permitted to do.
• What do we do when a franchisee's outlet is short? The brand can share a call list of trained people and a loan routine between outlets, but arrangements between owners are theirs to make.

The attendance and leave routine for coworking providers and the shift and cover routine for restaurant franchises show the details. For the wider picture, read the sector overview.