A no call, no show is when an employee misses a scheduled shift without any notice or contact. When it happens, your first job is keeping the floor covered, and your second is a fair, documented follow-up. This guide walks you through both.
Key takeaways
A no call, no show is when someone misses a shift with no notice. Cover the floor first, then run a fair, documented follow-up.
In the UK there is no at-will firing. Handle repeat no-shows through a clear policy and a fair process aligned with the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.
A written no call, no show policy plus a reliable rota process is the most effective way to reduce absences and keep shifts covered.
Deputy helps you fill gaps fast, keep attendance records for manager review, and support your compliance workflows.
The minutes after a missed shift set the tone for everything that follows. Work through these three steps in order, and you protect both the shift and any later action you might need to take.
Try to reach the employee first
Cover the open shift without burning out the rest of your team
Record what happened so any follow-up is fair
Try to reach the employee first
Before you assume the worst, try to make contact. Call and message the person, and if you can’t reach them and you have genuine welfare concerns, consider contacting their emergency contact in line with your workplace policies and privacy obligations. Genuine emergencies do happen, and a quick check protects you from acting on a wrong assumption. Keeping team messaging in one place makes this faster, so you're not hunting through personal numbers under pressure.
Cover the open shift without burning out the rest of your team
Once you know the gap is real, fill it. Offer the shift to available, trained staff rather than pushing your most reliable people into overtime. Deputy's open shift feature lets you offer the shift to any available, appropriately trained employee at that location, and shift swapping and the mobile app mean people can pick it up from their phones in seconds.
This matters because the manual scramble is where time and goodwill get lost. Businesses using Deputy report up to a 50% reduction in time spent on rota management, which frees you to solve the coverage problem instead of doing rota admin.
On Deputy you can cap people's work to 40 hours a week and make sure everybody gets at least some sort of a break during the week. But with the previous process it was all manual and time consuming.
Wasib Awan, Box Office Manager, Winter Wonderland Hyde Park
Record what happened so any follow-up is fair
Log the absence, your contact attempts, and the outcome for manager review. Consistent records support a fair process if the same person misses shifts again, and they help you treat everyone the same way. Deputy's reporting keeps this history in one place so nothing depends on memory.
No call, no show vs job abandonment: what's the difference?
A no call, no show is a single missed shift with no notice. Job abandonment is commonly used to describe situations where an employee stops attending work without explanation and appears to have no intention of returning. Repeated, unexplained absence may, depending on the employee's contract, start to look like abandonment.
In the UK this is not automatic. Whether an absence counts as abandonment depends on the wording of the contract and on following a fair process. You still need to attempt contact, give the person a chance to explain, and document each step before you treat the role as abandoned. Deputy is designed to support compliance workflows but does not provide legal advice or guarantee compliance. Customers remain responsible for configuring the platform appropriately and complying with applicable laws and regulations.
What no-shows really cost your shift team
No-shows are expensive long before anyone leaves. Unplanned absence is a nationwide drain: the Office for National Statistics recorded 148.9 million working days lost to sickness across the UK in 2024. When repeat absences push staff out the door, replacing them is costly: Personnel Today reports that losing an employee can cost between £11,200 and £74,900 once recruitment, lost productivity, and training are included, and turnover also drags down morale and customer satisfaction.
The pressure is uneven across sectors. Deputy's UK Big Shift Report 2026 found that hospitality turnover is the most volatile of the major shift sectors, spiking above 13% in early 2024 before settling into a typical 6% to 7% monthly range. Every no-show in a sector like that raises the stakes on coverage.
Morale can slip quietly, too. According to Deputy's UK 2026 Shift Pulse Report, roughly two-thirds of UK shift workers now finish a shift feeling happy, with more people slipping into a neutral "just coping" middle. That disengaged middle can be a silent precursor to absenteeism, so reliable scheduling can support both coverage and staff retention.
Create and clearly define a no call, no show policy
One of the best ways to deal with no-shows is a specific written policy. It explains the consequences of failing to show up without notice and sets the expectations everyone works to. Here's what a clear policy should cover.
Fair consequences and a clear warning process
Notice rules and how to report an absence
Benefits, holiday, and leave requests
Alignment with UK employment law
Set fair consequences and a clear warning process
Set out what happens after a no-show, and apply it consistently. Many teams use a verbal warning followed by written warnings, or a points-based system that gives people a chance to improve, which also helps when you're managing a regularly absent employee. Because the UK has no at-will dismissal, your process should align with the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures and treat similar cases the same way.
Spell out notice rules and how to report an absence
Tell people exactly how and when to call in: who to contact, by what time, and through which channel. Cover timekeeping requirements, expected hours, and pay periods. Clear rules remove the "I didn't know who to tell" excuse and make genuine emergencies easier to handle. It helps to fold these into a wider absence management policy so every type of absence is covered.
Cover benefits, holiday, and leave requests
Explain your annual leave and holiday rules, your pension and other benefits, and how to request leave in advance. When people can book time off easily and see it approved, they're far less likely to simply not turn up. Deputy makes it straightforward to request leave and manage holiday in one place.
Align your policy with UK employment law
UK managers don't have at-will dismissal, so a fair, documented process is what protects you. Follow the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures and the guidance on dismissal at gov.uk, because an unfair or inconsistent process can create unfair dismissal risk. Employment law continues to evolve, so it’s important to monitor current government guidance when reviewing your absence and scheduling policies.
Deputy is designed to support compliance workflows but does not provide legal advice or guarantee compliance. Customers remain responsible for configuring the platform appropriately and complying with applicable laws and regulations.
