In short
What this page covers
- Staff both peaks, not the day
- Put a name against every class
- Reception covered from unlock to close
- Trainers, instructors and desk staff on one rota
For gyms
Rota software for gyms, built around the peaks
Cover the six o'clock rush and the after-work rush, put a name against every class on the timetable, and let the hours count themselves. Free, for as many staff and clubs as you have.
Where the time goes
What actually goes wrong on a gym rota
These are the everyday situations that turn a rota into a source of mistakes, phone calls and needless cost.
01
Two rushes, and a long empty middle
From six to nine the car park is full. From five to nine it is full again. In between you have three people on the floor watching two members on the treadmills. Staff the day flat and you pay for the quiet hours twice over while the desk is still two deep at half seven.
02
A spin class with no instructor is a refund
Fourteen people booked, bikes set, nobody at the front. That is not a gap on the rota, it is fourteen apologies, a stack of credits back and a few members quietly deciding the class timetable is not reliable.
03
The desk cannot be left, not for ten minutes
Somebody has to be there while the doors are open: tags that will not scan, a tour, a direct debit that failed. The moment your one receptionist takes a break, the duty manager is off the floor and on the desk, and nobody is watching the gym.
04
Everyone works a different week
A trainer with their own clients at seven in the morning. An instructor booked for two classes on a Tuesday. A duty manager on a proper shift. None of them fit the same pattern, so nobody has ever seen them on one page.
05
January arrives whether you have staffed it or not
Sign-ups triple, every class fills, the inductions stack up, and you are working it out in the last week of December from a spreadsheet built for November. By the time the rota catches up it is February and half of them have stopped coming.
06
Half your desk team is at university
Great staff, cheap hours, and an availability that changes with term dates and exams. It arrives as texts, over weeks, and lands in a group chat where three people have already swapped the same Saturday.
How InShift fixes it
A rota built for a business with two peaks and a timetable to fill. Everything below is in the free account, with no cap on people or clubs.
Solution 1
Staff both peaks, not the day
Build shifts around the hours the club is actually full. Two on the desk from six to nine, one through the middle, two again from five. You can see the cover before you publish, not when the queue reaches the door.
Solution 2
Put a name against every class
The class goes on the rota as a shift at the time it runs, with the instructor on it. An empty Thursday spin slot is then something you can see three weeks out, in the quiet, instead of at ten past six with a room full of people.
Solution 3
Reception covered from unlock to close
Lay the desk out across the whole opening day and the gaps show up as gaps. The handover at one o'clock either exists or it does not, and you find out on the rota rather than from the duty manager who got stuck covering it.
Solution 4
Trainers, instructors and desk staff on one rota
Different roles, different rates, different patterns, one screen. A trainer goes on for the blocks they are actually in the building, an instructor for their classes, a receptionist for their shift. You can finally see who is on the floor at half six.
Solution 5
Swaps and open shifts without the group chat
A receptionist offers a Saturday in the app and a colleague picks it up, and you tap approve. When someone calls off, post it as an open shift and the whole team gets it at once. The first person free takes it.
Solution 6
Hours ready for payroll
Hours add up as the rota is worked, each person at their own hourly rate. Export the lot to Excel for whoever does your payroll. No retyping, no month-end surprise.
A day on the rota in a gym
A club open 06:00 to 22:00, with the peaks from six to nine and from five to nine. Note that the people stack up at both ends and thin out in the middle, and that the desk is never empty while the doors are open.
| Time | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 05:45-14:00 | Duty manager | Unlocks, alarm off, on the floor for the six o'clock rush |
| 06:00-11:00 | Receptionist | Second on the desk through the morning peak, then inductions |
| 10:30-18:30 | Receptionist | Carries the quiet middle on their own, straight through lunch |
| 13:45-22:15 | Duty manager | Takes the handover, closes up, sets the alarm |
| 17:00-22:00 | Receptionist | Student part-timer: the four hours the evening actually needs |
| 17:45-21:00 | Class instructor | Spin at six, body pump at half seven, off once the studio is clear |
Try it without an account
Three free tools that need no sign-up and no email. Build a rota or add up hours right now, and move to an account when the team has to see it.
Frequently asked questions
How many staff do I need for a gym open 06:00 to 22:00?▾
Work from the hours, not the heads. Sixteen opening hours plus a bit either side is roughly seventeen, and the desk is never empty, so that is seventeen staffed hours before you have done anything clever. Add a second person for the two peaks, about seven hours, and you are at twenty-four desk hours a day, near enough 165 a week. At an average of 25 hours each, because a lot of them are part-timers, that is six or seven people on the desk alone, with duty managers, instructors and trainers on top. Put your own opening hours and your own peaks into the rota and you will see your number rather than this one.
Can I put my class timetable on the rota?▾
Yes, and it is the point. Each class is a shift at the time it runs with the instructor named on it, so the timetable and the rota are the same thing rather than two documents that disagree. A slot with nobody on it is visible weeks ahead, and when you fill it the instructor gets a push notification.
What about personal trainers who work their own hours?▾
Put them on for the blocks they are genuinely in the building, on their own rate, without forcing them onto a fixed pattern. They see the same rota as everyone else, and you get the thing you actually wanted: knowing who is on the gym floor at half six in the morning, and being able to ask the trainer who is already in to cover an induction.
How does the team see the rota?▾
They install the InShift app on their phone and enter a six digit code you give them. That is the whole setup, no email address and no password to forget. It matters with a young desk team and self-employed trainers: nobody has a work email, everybody has a phone, and a change reaches all of them as a push notification.
Can I run more than one club on one account?▾
Yes, and there is no limit on how many. Each club is a location with its own staff, its own timetable and its own opening hours. You see everything, a club manager sees only their own, and an instructor who teaches at two sites has one rota with both on it.
Is it actually free, or free until it is not?▾
Free. All the features, as many staff and clubs as you like, no card and no trial clock ticking. We are not going to pretend otherwise on a page whose whole point is that you can trust the rota.