How many guards do I need? Working out hours and shifts

Full-time work is 40 hours a week (Labour Code art. 189). The calculation has three steps:

1. Hours: for each post, write down the hours of cover for each day of the week and add them up.
2. Full-time equivalents (FTE): total hours ÷ 40.
3. Margin: multiply by a factor for leave, sickness and training — see how much margin.

Full-time equivalents are not people: 4.2 FTE may be five guards on different schedules. What that means for cost is covered in the guarding cost guide.

• Business hours, Monday–Friday 08:00–18:00: 5 × 10 = 50 hours → 1.25.
• Monday–Saturday 07:00–19:00: 6 × 12 = 72 hours → 1.8.
• Nights only, every day 22:00–06:00: 7 × 8 = 56 hours → 1.4. All of them are night hours, with a 25% premium (art. 150).
• Weekends, Friday 18:00 to Monday 08:00: 6 + 24 + 24 + 8 = 62 hours → 1.55. The 24 Sunday hours carry a 75% premium (art. 219).
• Out of hours (everything business hours do not cover): 168 − 50 = 118 hours → 2.95.
• 24/7: 168 hours → 4.2.

Business hours and “out of hours” add up to 168. If your own staff are there by day, guarding the rest of the week is almost three full-time equivalents — not one.

• 24/7 on 8-hour shifts: 3 × 7 = 21 shifts a week. Four guards on 5 shifts each cover 20; the 21st needs a fifth person.
• The 22:00–06:00 shift is night work from start to finish: 7 shifts × 8 = 56 premium hours a week.
• Longer shifts mean fewer handovers, but the hours stay at 168. Whether a roster complies with the working-time rules is for the employer to show — ask for it in writing.

The 46 out of 52 is an assumption for the calculation, not a statistic and not the statutory leave entitlement: it means six weeks a year when a guard is away on leave, sick or in training. Replace it with the figure your company gives you.

• 24/7: 4.2 × 1.13 ≈ 4.75 FTE.
• Out of hours: 2.95 × 1.13 ≈ 3.33.
• Business hours: 1.25 × 1.13 ≈ 1.41.

Handovers: if, hypothetically, every shift change has a 15-minute overlap for the briefing, a 24/7 post with three changes a day adds 3 × 15 × 7 = 315 minutes, or 5.25 hours a week — another 0.13 FTE.

Ask the company what margin it uses and how it got there. An offer with no margin means that one day the post will be empty, or someone will work a double shift.

Hypothetical example: two posts Monday–Friday 08:00–18:00 (2 × 50 = 100 hours) and one post for all the remaining hours (118 hours). Total 218 hours → 218 ÷ 40 = 5.45 FTE, or ≈ 6.16 with a 1.13 margin.

• Mark every entrance, cash point, reception or critical installation on a floor plan.
• For each point, write down the hours it must be staffed.
• Check which points a patrol could cover instead of a permanent post.

Hypothetical example: three neighbouring sites need cover every night 22:00–06:00. With a static post at each: 3 × 56 = 168 hours → 4.2 FTE. With one mobile patrol visiting them in turn: 56 hours → 1.4. The difference is paid for in time without a presence at each site.

Whether that gap is acceptable depends on the risk and the site layout. OVIT logs every patrol by checkpoint in the Guardly platform, so you see the cover you actually got. See our guarding services or request an offer with an hours calculation for your site.