Available Shifts & Cover Requests

“Available Shifts” displays a list of shifts you can take due to your skills and skill set. This list displays

• The date of the shift.
• The start and end times.
• The staff member requesting cover (or whether it is an extra shift available).
• The skills required.
• The venue (if you happen to work at multiple venues).
• Further details (whether the shift clashes with your requested holiday or nights/hours off).

The page shows the first 25 available shifts by default, with an option to view more. You can also set it to show only the shifts available at the home location by default. This is useful if staff can feasibly work across a large area but only look for shifts primarily at their home location.

Another viewing option allows you to  'hide' a shift if you are not interested. This keeps the available shifts list smaller and allows staff to see the shifts they might be interested in. You can choose to ignore shifts you are uninterested in by clicking the thumbs-down button next to the available shift.

Extra Shifts vs Offered Shifts

Extra shifts are first come, first served. You can restrict how many extra shifts staff members can take, but there is no manual control over who takes each shift as long as they can work at that venue and have the right skills assigned. They must also meet all of their contract requirements/limits.

To take or accept a shift, a staff member must click the “Take” button in the final column. This will now be added to their main shift list.

‘Offered’ shifts allow staff to show interest in the shift. A manager can then assign the shift to one of those staff members.

To offer to work, a staff member can click the Offer button and confirm they are happy to work that shift if chosen.

Staff can only take/offer to work a shift if it is for a skill that they have assigned to them and it does not break any of the rules setup for taking shifts or on their assigned contract. For example, they can’t take a shift if they are already working or if it will breach their working hours limits etc.

My Shifts, alongside Available Shifts

Staff can toggle viewing their own shifts alongside the available shifts on the available shifts page. This option is at the top of the actions menu.

It allows staff to see the shifts they have already committed to when viewing other shifts they might wish to work.

Shift Acknowledgement or Confirmation Process

These two options allow you to require staff to acknowledge or confirm their shifts when they are assigned to them, or changes are made to their times or venues.

This option is set either on the contract (so staff with a certain contract need to acknowledge or confirm their shifts) or on a venue (so all shifts at a venue need to be confirmed or acknowledged).

Acknowledging shifts can be completed in bulk, and staff members do not have a way to reject them. It is simply a project for them to confirm they are aware of the shift and its details.

Confirmation requires staff to accept each shift. They also have the option to reject the shift, which will return it to an unassigned status (you can choose which one within the venue’s settings).

There is a Shift Rejected trigger event that you can use to receive notifications when a shift has been rejected.

Shift Details

You can also see more information about the available shifts by clicking the 'info' button. In addition to the information on the available shifts page, the shift details page includes information about who you will be working with, details about when and where to arrive, and the event and shift history.

This page will also include the option to directly offer to work this shift or let the system know you are not interested in it.

Cover Requests

This page shows a list of shifts that have requested cover. You can immediately assign a staff member to a shift or view the 'Who could cover?' page.

Under the Who Could Cover? page is a list of those who might be able to cover that particular shift based on their current hour and contract settings. This does not mean they can or will. You can send a message here to ask staff if they are available for a shift.

We recommend that you don't simply work down the list, calling people as colleagues at the top who will then receive a large amount of requests. The best thing is to pick someone you have recently covered or randomly work around the list.

REMEMBER, If you find someone then get them to take the shift on the site before the shift starts.