Attendance, shift and leave process for Cohort learning businesses: session hours, timesheets and cover for live cohorts
Cohort mentors are paid for sessions held, reviews done and office hours kept. A clean record of hours, with cover when someone is unwell, protects both the learner experience and the pay run.
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Share your requirementsWhy attendance, shift and leave process matters in cohort learning businesses
In a cohort business the working day is not nine to six. A mentor may teach Saturday mornings, review assignments late evening and hold office hours on Tuesdays. Hours are written in chat threads or remembered. When a mentor is unwell, cover is arranged through personal messages, and nobody knows whether the replacement was paid or the learners were told.
A light timesheet fixes the record. Each mentor logs sessions, reviews and office hours against the cohort, a coordinator approves it within a few days and pay follows the same sheet. A cover list, with the people who have taught the session before, keeps a missed live class rare. Leave is requested against the calendar, not on the day.
How to set it up
1. Use one timesheet for all mentors
Date, cohort, session or task, hours and a note. Mentors fill it in the same week, and it is the only record used for pay.
2. Approve hours within a few days
A coordinator checks the sheet against the session calendar and signs off. Queries are raised while memory is fresh.
3. Publish the cohort calendar early
Mentors see their sessions weeks ahead and can flag clashes with other work or planned leave before dates are sold.
4. Keep a named cover list
For each session type, two or three people who have taught it, with the order in which they are asked. A cover session is logged like any other.
5. Handle leave against the calendar
Mentors request leave when they see the calendar. Short-notice illness has a simple rule: tell the coordinator, who triggers cover.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Check the last cohort's timesheets against the session calendar and note the mismatches.
- Count how many live sessions in the past quarter were covered at short notice.
- Ask the coordinator how long hours approval waits on average.
- Note whether mentors with several providers have told you about their other commitments.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach attendance, shift and leave process in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Use a simple log by task and date, approved by a coordinator. The aim is one record that matches the session calendar. Avoid tracking minutes of presence unless your pay model needs it.
They message the coordinator early, the coordinator calls the first name on the cover list and learners are told. Log the cover session so the replacement is paid and the original is not.
That depends on how they are engaged. Confirm with a qualified professional what applies to each type of arrangement, and write the rule for requests and cover in plain language for everyone.