01The question
“Engagement fell at two of our nine sites. Is it the managers?”
02What people said
“We find out our shifts on WhatsApp the night before. You can’t plan anything.”Bar staff Invented excerpt
“Head office moves our labour target every week, and I rebuild the rota every time.”Site manager Invented excerpt
03What the systems recorded
- Median rota notice of 2 days at sites 4 and 7, and 12 to 16 days at the other seven.
- Shift changes in the final 48 hours at three times the rate elsewhere.
- Leavers over six months at twice the rate of the other sites.
- Labour targets revised weekly for those two sites only, against a stadium fixture list.
04What the procedure says
Rotas are published 14 days ahead.
05The other explanation, and why the evidence ruled it out
- The managers
- Both sites changed manager this year, and so did three sites whose scores held.
06The decision and its owner
Set the two sites’ labour targets three weeks out from the published fixtures, and publish their rotas ten days ahead.
OwnerThe operations director, with HR
07What they agreed to compare next
Notice and leavers at both sites next quarter, against the last.
Illustrative. A composite with invented details, written to show how an investigation runs.