Open shifts

An open shift is a shift with nobody assigned to it. Only Auto Schedule creates open shifts, and only at a location that allows them: a place it finds no eligible person for becomes a shift the team can claim. You cannot add an open shift by hand.

Set it up#

1. 1

   Allow open shifts for the location

   Go to Locations, open the location, then select Scheduling. In the card Open shifts, tick Allow claimable open shifts. It is off by default. Select Save at the top of the page.

   Save stores everything this tab shows, not only the tick. If the tab was never saved before, check the opening hours and the default break first: what the form shows is stored with it.

   

2. 2

   Run Auto Schedule

   On Schedules, an admin, or a manager who may change the schedule, selects Auto Schedule (Auto-schedule as drafts in draft mode) and accepts the proposal. A place nobody is eligible for becomes an open shift at the locations that allow it. At the other locations it is counted under Unfilled.

   With the toolbar switch on Published, the button reads Accept & Apply: the open shifts can be claimed at once and are announced. Set to Draft, it reads Accept & Stage as drafts: the open shifts are drafts, and nobody can claim them until the week is published. See Auto-schedule a week and Drafts and publishing.

3. 3

   Find them in the week

   Admins and managers see a row named Open shifts under the week grid, with one dashed block per open shift. On the Dashboard, the Coverage & risk card says how many of today's shifts are still open.

Assign, change or withdraw an open shift#

Admins can do this at every location. Managers need Allow managers to edit schedules switched on by an admin, and can do it only at their own locations. Select the dashed block to open the shift.

• Assign it. Choose a person under Employee and save. The shift is theirs and is no longer open.
• Change it. Save without choosing a person, and the shift stays open.
• Withdraw it. Set Status to Cancelled and save. A published open shift cannot be deleted. Only a draft has Discard draft. Nobody is notified when an open shift is cancelled, so tell the team yourself if they were counting on it.

A manager who wants an open shift for themselves claims it, like everyone else.

Unticking Allow claimable open shifts only stops new open shifts. Those that exist stay claimable until someone is assigned, the shift is cancelled or it has started.

Claim an open shift#

In the appOn the web

When there is something to claim, the Schedule tab shows a banner with the number of open shifts, and Home offers Grab a shift under Quick Actions. Both open Open Shifts. Tap Claim on a shift, then confirm.

You see only the open shifts of locations you are assigned to. The first person to claim a shift keeps it. There is no approval step: the shift is yours at once, with the status Confirmed.

A claimed shift cannot be handed back. If you cannot work it after all, ask a coworker to take it with a shift swap, or talk to your manager.

Who is told#

• Open shift available goes to the active people assigned to the location who have the employee role, in the app and as a push by default. Someone who declared they cannot work any of the new open shifts is left out, unless the location allows claiming while unavailable. Managers and admins are not sent it. They find open shifts in the same places.
• Open shift claimed goes to the admin or manager who accepted the Auto Schedule run that created the shift, in the app and as a push by default.

When a claim is refused#

A claim is refused when:

• the shift has already started, was cancelled, or someone else claimed it first,
• you have approved leave at that time,
• you already have a published shift that overlaps it,
• you declared yourself unavailable at that time.

A day you declared nothing for counts as available, unless your company has switched on Treat undeclared days as unavailable.

To let people claim shifts that their own availability rules out, tick Allow claiming while unavailable in the card Shift Swaps on the same tab of the location. It is off by default and also applies to accepting swaps.

The phone app names the reason for a refusal. If the web only says the shift could not be picked up, check your leave and your availability for that time.

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