Rostering Officer
Rostering officers build and maintain the staff rosters that put the right people on shift at the right time.
- Median salary*
- $70,200
3.8%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 7,700
0.0%vs last year
- Projected growth*
- +3%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Moderate
- automation risk
- Average hours*
- 38/wk
−2h vs all jobs
- Shortage status*
- Not in shortage
national
They work inside a workforce management system, usually in a central scheduling or HR team, for organisations that run long hours or around the clock: hospitals, aged care, transport, warehousing and construction. Where a workforce planner forecasts how many staff will be needed months ahead, a rostering officer fills the shifts that already exist, balancing availability, leave, budget and award rules day by day.
How much do rostering officers earn?
The median full-time salary for a rostering officer is $70,200 per annum, before tax, up $14,600 since 2018.
Pay moves most with the sector and the agreement you work under rather than with the job title itself. Health, aged care and public sector employers usually pay against an enterprise agreement with defined bands, while smaller private operations may offer a flat salary that does not change with the roster you carry. Experience, the size of the roster you manage and any supervisory responsibility are the other things that shift the figure.
What does a rostering officer do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Building and publishing rosters for ward, depot or site teams, often a fortnight or four weeks at a time
- Filling vacant shifts by calling staff, offering overtime or arranging agency cover
- Checking draft rosters against awards, enterprise agreements and fatigue rules before they go out
- Handling leave requests, shift swaps and availability changes from managers and staff
- Keeping the workforce management system accurate, including timekeeping and payroll data
What skills do rostering officers need?
Employers look for operations management, process improvement, regulatory compliance, backed by UKG Workforce Dimensions fluency and strong written communication.
Specialist skills
- Operations management
- Process improvement
- Regulatory compliance
Software and tools
- UKG Workforce Dimensions
- Deputy
- Humanforce
- Microsoft Excel
- RosterOn
General skills
- Written communication
- Attention to detail
- Problem solving
- Time and deadline management
- Stakeholder management
Is the job growing?
About 7,700 people work as rostering officers in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 3% over the decade to 2035. That's modest growth: demand is steady rather than booming.
How do you become a rostering officer?
Here's the path most rostering officers take, step by step.
- 1Start with a qualification in business, HR or administration
A certificate III or IV in business or human resource management is a common entry point, and a diploma or degree opens doors at the larger health and public sector employers. There is no single required course, so employers tend to weigh any hands-on scheduling experience alongside it.
- 2Learn a workforce management system by name
Most advertised roles ask for experience in one of Deputy, UKG Workforce Dimensions, Humanforce or RosterOn, since rosters are built, published and amended inside these tools. Short courses exist, and a few weeks of use in an admin role is often enough to talk about it credibly.
- 3Get in through a scheduling-heavy job
Administration, reception, ward clerk and call centre roles in 24-hour operations all involve rosters, and internal moves into the rostering team are common. This route also gives you the operational context, such as which shifts are hardest to fill, that a course cannot teach.
- 4Learn the rules that govern rosters
Awards, enterprise agreements and fatigue management rules set limits on consecutive shifts, breaks and penalty rates, and the Fair Work Commission publishes the material you need. This part is usually learned on the job rather than in a classroom, and it is what separates a roster that works from one that creates a payroll problem.
- 5Study further if you want to move into HR or planning
A diploma or degree in human resource management or business supports moves into HR advising, HR administration or workforce planning. Employers generally expect the qualification before the step up, so it is worth planning while you are still rostering.
Ready to apply as a rostering officer?
Whether you're working toward becoming a rostering officer or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a rostering officer move to?
Moving into HR Advisor typically comes with the biggest pay rise, worth $32,200 a year more on average.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR Advisor Rostering officers understand staffing demands and can advise on HR matters with further study. | +$32,200 | 39% | reskill |
| Recruiter Rostering officers understand staffing needs and can move into recruitment with additional training. | +$32,200 | 19% | reskill |
| Workforce Planner Rostering officers build shift schedules, a foundation for forecasting and planning future workforce needs. | +$26,000 | 10% | reskill |
| HR Business Partner Rostering officers with HR experience can progress to business partnering with further training. | +$26,000 | 29% | reskill |
| HR Administrator Rostering officers have administrative and scheduling skills that transfer to HR administration roles. | +$6,600 | 35% | reskill |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as a rostering officer?
The typical rostering officer is 40 years old; 73% are women, 81% work full-time, and full-timers average 38 hours a week.
- 40
- Median age
- 73%
- Female share
- 81%
- Full-time
- −2h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a rostering officer?
The week has a steady rhythm, with the heaviest pressure landing when a roster is due to be published and when an unexpected absence arrives an hour before a shift starts. Much of the work is puzzle solving against fixed limits, which suits people who like their problems concrete and their systems tidy. It also means the job is visible: a good roster goes unnoticed, and a bad one is raised with you quickly.
What people like
- The puzzle usually has a solution. A shift needs covering and there are a dozen ways to do it, from an overtime offer to a swap between two staff who both want the change. Finding the one that suits everyone is the satisfying part of the day.
- You see how a workplace actually runs. Rostering sits across every department, so you learn which teams are stretched, how demand moves through the week and where the operational pressure really sits. That view is useful if you later move into workforce planning or HR.
- Systems work suits people who like order. A clean roster, accurate timekeeping data and no unexplained gaps at payroll give a clear finish to a task. If spreadsheets and rules appeal to you, the daily work has a natural shape.
- There is real variety in the phone call. No two absences arrive the same way, and each one is a short problem to solve with a real person on the other end. Some rostering officers find that contact the best part of the role.
What people find hard
- Early calls when someone cannot come in. Absences rarely arrive at a convenient time, and a 6am call means the day starts by rearranging cover rather than working through the roster you had planned. It is a recurring part of the job, not an occasional interruption.
- You are often the bearer of a no. Leave requests, preferred shifts and swaps all compete, and you cannot approve them all. Being the person who explains why one request was approved and another was not wears on some people.
- The rules limit the neat solution. Award conditions, fatigue limits and budget caps regularly rule out the arrangement everyone would prefer. The work is finding out what is actually permissible, which can feel slow when a manager wants a quick answer.
- Errors are noticed, good work is not. A missed shift or an over-payment surfaces immediately, while a month of rosters that ran smoothly passes without comment. That asymmetry takes some getting used to.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ rostering officers?
Health Care and Social Assistance employs the largest share of rostering officers, followed by Public Administration and Safety.
Top employing industries
- 1Health Care and Social Assistance
- 2Public Administration and Safety
- 3Transport, Postal and Warehousing
- 4Construction
- 5Administrative and Support Services
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Bachelor degree | 38% | |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 24% | |
| Certificate III/IV | 20% | |
| Postgraduate | 10% | |
| Other | 8% |
Will AI replace rostering officers?
Rostering officers sit in the middle of the range: workforce management software already generates draft rosters from demand forecasts and flags award or fatigue breaches before publication, which removes a good deal of manual spreadsheet work. What it does not do is decide whose leave request gets approved when two nurses want the same week off, or explain a knock-back to someone who has already rearranged their childcare. The judgement and the conversations stay with the person building the roster.
Share of typical working time by exposure level
- Building and publishing rosters in Deputy, UKG or RosterOnThe system assembles a draft from demand and availability, but you still adjust the edges where the forecast did not account for a training day or a visiting contractor.30%moderate
- Filling vacant shifts and arranging coverCalling through the list at 6am is a conversation about who can realistically get to the site, which is a long way from anything a system can settle.25%low
- Working through leave requests, swaps and availability with managers and staffTwo staff wanting the same week off is resolved by weighing circumstances and knock-on effects, and then explaining the decision to the person who missed out.25%low
- Checking draft rosters against awards, enterprise agreements and fatigue rulesSoftware already flags most breaches of maximum shift length and minimum breaks, so this task is increasingly reviewing exceptions rather than reading every line.20%high
Common questions about becoming a rostering officer
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much do rostering officers earn?
Rostering officers earn a median of $70,200 per year before tax. Pay varies most with the sector and the enterprise agreement you work under, and the size of the roster you manage matters more than years served.
How do you become a rostering officer?
Most people enter through a business, HR or administration qualification, or through an admin role in a hospital, depot or call centre that already runs rosters. Experience with a workforce management system such as Deputy, UKG or Humanforce is the qualification employers ask about most often.
Are rostering officers in demand?
Rostering officers are currently not in shortage, and employment is projected to grow 3% over the decade to 2035. Demand is tied to organisations that run long or round-the-clock hours, so health care and transport are where most of the advertised roles sit.
Will AI replace rostering officers?
AI and automation already handle part of this job, with workforce management systems suggesting shift patterns from historical demand and flagging rostering rules that a draft would breach. Someone still has to decide between competing requests and explain the outcome to a manager or a nurse on the ward, and that judgement is not automated.
What can a rostering officer move into?
The common moves are into workforce planning, where pay is about $26,000 more than for rostering officers, or into broader HR work such as HR advising, at about $32,200 more. Planning builds directly on the scheduling you already do, while HR advising draws on your knowledge of awards and leave but usually needs further study. HR administration is a smaller step, at about $6,600 more, and a common way to build generalist experience first.
Related roles
- Workforce Planner
- HR Advisor
- HR Administrator
- HR Business Partner
- Recruiter
- Airline Customer Service Agent
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