How to set up an on-call rotation for a small team
List who can respond for each location, decide the order they are contacted and how long to wait between them, and name a backup and an escalation owner. Publish the rotation a few weeks ahead, plan holidays as exceptions, and check for days no one covers.
Start with who covers what
Group your work by place: a branch, a service area, a building. For each, list the people who can respond. A small team may need one list. A team with several locations usually needs one per location, so a request reaches people who can get there.
Choose the order and the timing
Rank the people on call: first, second, third. Then decide how long each gets before the next person is contacted. Too short, and you wake two people for one request. Too long, and the caller waits.
DispatchMe starts at 5 minutes between people. Treat that as a starting point, and change it to match how fast your work needs an answer.
Name a backup and an escalation owner
Someone has to be the answer when no one on the list accepts: a backup who can step in, and an owner, often a manager, who hears about a request that is still unclaimed.
Rotate by week and plan the exceptions
Weekly rotations are easy to remember: one person leads each week, and the order turns. Plan holidays, vacations and swaps as exceptions instead of rebuilding the rotation. Publish several weeks ahead, so people can trade early.
Make answering easy
When a request arrives, the person on call should see what happened, where, and a way to say yes or no in one tap. If they say no, ask why, so the team knows. Everyone on the rotation should see who has taken it.
Look for gaps
Check each location for days with no one on call. A gap is easy to miss in a spreadsheet and obvious on a schedule that shows coverage by day.