Open shifts and swaps

A shift that still needs people is open. Once its roster is published, workers who could legally work it see it in the employee app and can ask for it. You decide each claim, and each swap between two colleagues, in Approvals, with every rule's answer in front of you.

How a shift becomes open

A shift is open while it has fewer people than its Headcount. It also opens again when:

• you choose Record absence and find cover for someone who did not come; the people who could cover it are told;
• you approve leave and choose to take the person off their clashing shifts.

Workers only ever see open shifts in a published roster, and only the ones the scheduling rules allow them to work. A shift on a draft roster is invisible to them.

How workers claim a shift

In the employee app, workers open My work and look under Extra shifts. They choose Take this shift, and the app tells them their coordinator will confirm.

The claim then waits in Approvals. If Auto-approve clean claims is on in Group policies, a claim that passes every rule with no warning confirms itself; anything else still waits for you.

When someone asks by phone or in person, go to Approvals, choose Open-shift claims, then Record a claim for a worker. Pick the Shift and the Worker, and choose Submit.

Approve a claim

1. Go to Approvals and choose Open-shift claims. Show them By shift, so claims for the same shift sit together, or Oldest first.
2. Pick a claim. The pane shows the shift, the person's hours this week, the rule check (choose Show each rule to see every answer with its reason) and anyone listed under Also claimed by.
3. Write a Note if you want one. When there are warnings, the note is your reason for approving anyway and is required.
4. Choose Approve claim (or the approve button that counts the warnings) or Decline.

Approving puts the person on the shift, puts out a new version of the roster, and tells them. Once the shift is full, the other claims for it close, without a message to those workers. If a rule blocks the person, approving is switched off: decline it, or fix the shift first. Assigning someone from the schedule also closes the claims once the shift is full.

Approve a swap

A swap moves one person's shift to a colleague. You record it and decide it in Approvals, under Shift swaps.

1. Choose Record a swap offer, pick the Shift (an upcoming shift and the person on it) and choose Submit. The offer now waits for a colleague.
2. When a colleague agrees, pick the offer, choose Accept for a colleague, choose the Accepting worker and Submit. The rules check that colleague as the replacement.
3. The swap moves to Ready for your decision. The pane shows both people side by side with their hours, and the rule check for the one taking the shift.
4. Add a Note if you want (required when approving despite warnings), then choose Approve swap or Decline.

When you approve, the colleague gets the shift and the first person is taken off it. Both are told in the app, and the roster is published again as a new version.