MediloonA PTA (pharmacy technician) hands in their notice, and suddenly the rota is short many hours a week. The gap has to be covered by a team that is already stretched thin. Staff retention is therefore a leadership responsibility with direct consequences for staffing and day-to-day operations.
Pay still matters, but many owners are already at the limit of what they can afford. That makes everyday working life all the more important: how shifts are allocated, how quickly a leave request gets an answer and whether every hour worked actually counts.
This article explains why transparency and fairness in these three areas can make a difference to retention, how digital tools can help and where their limits lie.
Why staff retention in the pharmacy matters right now
According to the APOkix pharmacy business climate index published by IFH Köln in July 2025, 60 per cent of the owners surveyed feel the skills shortage strongly or very strongly. Rural pharmacies (64%) are affected more often than urban ones (54%). Only around one in ten (12%) feels that the shortage is easing.
The APOkix survey from March 2026 shows how hard it is to fill vacancies. In around half of all pharmacies (52%), the search for PTAs in the previous year was only partly successful or not successful at all. For licensed pharmacists, this applied to 42 per cent of the pharmacies that were recruiting.
An unfilled role often leaves the remaining team with additional tasks. Predictable working conditions and regular conversations can help identify pressure early.
There is little room to move on pay. In the March 2026 survey, 84 per cent of respondents said they felt forced to pay well above the collectively agreed rates, and almost two thirds (63%) said they could barely afford to do so any more. If you want to keep your staff, you need other levers as well.
What keeps pharmacy staff on board
In the March 2026 APOkix survey of 113 pharmacy owners, 92 per cent named appreciation and leadership style as extremely or very important for recruiting and retaining staff. Team and working atmosphere came next at 89 per cent, followed by base pay at 79 per cent. 77 per cent rated part-time models and flexible working hours as highly important.
Then there is a hurdle that affects every rota: 80 per cent of owners surveyed in March 2026 reported that many applicants did not want to work evenings or weekends. This reflects owners’ assessments, rather than a direct survey of applicants. How these shifts are shared out within the existing team therefore becomes an important question of fairness.
Three levels of commitment
An article in „Apotheke + Wirtschaft“ (a German pharmacy business journal) talks about employee retention, or commitment, and describes three levels, each of which builds loyalty in a different way:
Rational commitment Employees weigh up what they would lose and gain by moving on. Besides money, this includes the commute, how close they are to their children's nursery or school, and whether they can work at particular times. According to the article, employers who rely mainly on this risk losing staff as soon as a better-paid offer comes along.
Moral commitment This is based on a sense of owing the employer something, for example after the manager offered support during a difficult time or paid for expensive training. The article says that fair treatment also leads to this form of commitment.
Emotional commitment The third level the article describes is emotional attachment. In particular, it is strengthened by a positive working atmosphere, respectful and appreciative communication and individual support from the manager.
This has clear practical implications. Being able to work at particular times depends directly on how the rota is planned. And because the article explicitly names fair treatment as a retention factor, everyday decisions about shift allocation, leave and time tracking come into focus.
Transparent rotas: predictability as a retention factor
Resentment can build up when nobody knows why certain people keep being scheduled for evening shifts or out-of-hours duty. So fairness should not just happen, it should also be visible to the team.
Area | What can create mistrust | What can build trust |
|---|---|---|
Unpopular shifts | Allocation based on gut feeling | Known rules, visible over several weeks |
Rota changes | Last-minute and shouted across the room | Up-to-date rota that everyone can see |
Part-time preferences | One-off arrangements with no overview | Fixed hours recorded in the rota |
Staffing levels | Gaps only noticed on the day | Early warning when minimum staffing gets tight |
A digital rota makes all of this easier because everyone is working from the same version. Mediloon's shift planner runs in the browser, covers shifts, breaks, leave and tasks, and warns you when minimum staffing levels are at risk. If you have several branches, you plan each site separately, all within one account.
Leave requests: decide quickly and transparently
A request that sits on a slip of paper for days can look to employees like a lack of interest. Tension builds especially during the school holidays, when several parents need time off at once and the decision is not explained.
Three things help most: clear deadlines, a known rule for overlapping requests and a prompt answer. The article Managing leave requests digitally explains how to run the process without paper. In Mediloon's shift planner, leave requests come with a staffing check.
Fair time tracking: every hour counts
Anyone who regularly stays late because a delivery arrives late or the queue at the dispensing counter never ends wants that time to be noticed. If actual working hours are only estimated or incompletely reflected in month-end records, trust can suffer.
Transparent time records give managers and staff a shared basis. Conversations about differences between scheduled and actual hours, and about reducing workload, can then be based on records rather than memory. A positive time difference does not automatically establish entitlement to overtime pay: applicable employment and collective agreements and the circumstances of the additional work matter. It is important that employees can also see their own hours and that any corrections remain traceable.
In Mediloon's shift planner, scheduled time and clocked time appear side by side in a single row, and recorded hours can be exported as a CSV file for further payroll processing. A separate article describes what an employee app for pharmacies offers the team. The exact features depend on your configuration.
Questions about recording working time, overtime and handling employee data involve employment law and data protection law. This article provides general information only. The final assessment rests with your pharmacy and your legal advisers.
Where digital tools help, and where they don't
Software gives you an overview and can take admin work off your hands. It cannot replace appreciation. An owner from Künzell told Apotheke Adhoc that it is often the little things that matter: asking how the weekend went on a Monday, bringing in cake after a tough out-of-hours shift, knowing when people's birthdays are.
Digital tools can free up time for exactly that. When less time goes on paperwork, phone calls and double-checking figures, there is more time to talk. The overview article on staff management for pharmacies shows how rotas, working hours, leave and tasks come together in one place.
Five steps to clear, transparent rules for your team
Take stock Ask your team what feels unfair or stressful in day-to-day work, for example around weekend shifts or leave.
Set the rules and explain them Decide how unpopular shifts and overlapping leave requests are handled, and make sure everyone knows the rules.
Make the rota visible to everyone A shared, up-to-date rota means everyone is working from the same version.
Record hours transparently Make sure actual working time is fully recorded and employees can see their own hours.
Review regularly After a few months, check together whether the allocation is seen as fair.
Frequently asked questions
Is a digital tool worth it for a small team?
In a small team, every absence has a big impact. That is exactly where a shared rota helps you spot gaps early and allocate shifts transparently.
Won't the team see time tracking as a form of control?
That depends heavily on how you introduce it. Explain the purpose and scope of recording, access rights, correction procedures and retention. Employees should be able to view their own hours. Where a works council exists, observe its co-determination rights, particularly under Section 87(1) of the Works Constitution Act.
How do I explain a rejected leave request?
Under Section 7(1) of the Federal Leave Act, employees’ leave preferences must be considered. Urgent operational needs or other employees’ leave preferences with social priority may take precedence. A staffing check does not replace this assessment. Explain a legally valid reason clearly and explore alternatives together.
Conclusion
Many pharmacies have limited room to move on pay. That makes predictability, transparent decisions and time records in which every hour counts all the more important.
Digital tools are no substitute for appreciative leadership, but they can give it an organisational framework. In Mediloon's shift planner, you can see shifts, leave requests and both scheduled and clocked hours in one place.
Information as of 6 November 2026.
Sources
Fachkräftemangel beschäftigt Apotheken weiterhin stark – IFH Köln, 28.07.2025
Mehrheit der Apothekerschaft befürwortet Teilzeitarbeit im Kampf gegen den Fachkräftemangel – IFH Köln, 23.03.2026
Fluchtursachen von PTAs erfolgreich bekämpfen – apotheke-wirtschaft.de, Ausgabe 08/2024
„Vollzeitkräfte sind erstrebenswert“ – Apotheke Adhoc
About Mediloon
Mediloon is a Leipzig-based healthtech company building digital infrastructure for German pharmacies — including E-Rezept integration, pharmacy apps, Click & Collect, Botendienst coordination, and the Medi AI assistant. This article is part of Mediloon's pharmacy digitalisation guide series. It is intended as general operational and regulatory information. For specific questions on employment law or data protection relating to digital staff management, consult a qualified legal advisor.