What's covered in this guide?
Shift Replacements saves time finding an available staff member for a shift by offering a shift to all or a select group of employees.
You can manage the entire shift replacement process or allow employees to manage finding cover for their own shifts.
How it works
The shift replacement feature allows employees to request a replacement for their shift OR a manager can initiate a shift replacement on an employee's behalf.
When an employee requests a replacement, managers are given the option to:
Decline the request, or;
Offer the shift to some staff, or,
Offer the shift to all suitable employees
Turn on Shift Replacements
The shift replacement feature is optional, by default it is turned off. To turn on the shift replacement feature, follow the below steps:
Log in to Workforce.com in a web browser at my.workforce.com
Navigate to Settings > Schedule > Enable shift replacements
Select enable shift replacements
(optional) if you would like managers to approve shift replacement requests, select shift replacements require manager approval
(optional) if you would like employees to be able to choose who they send their shift replacement requests to, select shift replacements can be chosen by staff
How employees can offer a shift for claiming
Through the employee's schedule, they can select the shift they are unable to work, followed by the 'Request a replacement' button:
If 'recipients of shift replacements can be chosen by staff' is enabled within settings, staff can select to offer to specific team members:
If 'shift replacements require manager approval' is enabled, staff will be prompted to provide a reason for the replacement request and will be given an estimated wage loss for losing the shift. Once they've selected Confirm, a request to the manager to authorise the shift replacement:
Note: If an employee requests a shift replacement within 3 days of the scheduled start time, it will be offered to all eligible staff by default.
How managers can offer an existing shift for claiming
Desktop
If you need to offer an existing shift to staff for claiming, you can do so by navigating to the rota and clicking the 3 dot icon and selecting Request Replacement from the dropdown menu:
Next, select which method you'd like to offer the shift:
Offer to All Staff will prompt you to confirm:
Offer to Certain Staff will allow you to select specific employees:
Note: If you close out of this modal before confirming which staff to send the replacement request to, the request will be not be created.
If you do not close the modal but leave the page (ie., close the window/page), the shift swap request will be created and must be managed from the Shift Claiming page, where it can be sent to staff in the same way by selecting "Offer to Staff".
Mobile
Managers can initiate a shift replacement on behalf of an employee. To do so, go to Shifts > Team Rota.
Click on the respective shift and select the 'Request replacement' button:
Managers will have the choice to offer the shift to all available team members or specific team members. However, if a manager requests a shift replacement on an employee's behalf a shift replacement within 3 days of the scheduled start time, it will be offered to all eligible staff by default.
How employees can claim a shift replacement request
Employees claim vacant shifts on their mobile app. Employees will be notified of an available vacant shift via a push notification on their mobile phone.
Shift replacement requests will appear in Pick up shifts:
Employees will be taken to the Shifts section of the app (within the bottom menu) and will land within the tab Pick up shifts. This displays shift replacement requests for that week on a daily basis. Each day shows the number of requests available. To view requests for the upcoming week, staff can click on Next Week at the top.
To view details of a shift replacement request, staff can select the dropdown arrow on a specific day. Here employees can view details of the shift, including:
start time
finish time
total shift hours
pay
team
location
They must select Offer to Cover button to offer to claim the shift, which will ask the employee to confirm the action:
If your organisation has manager approvals enabled a manager will now have the ability to approve the shift claim offer before the shift will be added to the employee's mobile app.
If manager approvals are disabled, the shift will be added to employee's mobile app immediately.
Manage shift replacement requests on mobile
Approve applicants
Navigate to Manage replacements & claims within the app:
Select the Replacement Requests tab at the top and click into the shift:
Scroll to review applicants and select Approve:
Remind Staff
Once offered, you can select the Remind Staff button which will send a reminder to all staff that there is an available replacement request:
Manage shift replacement requests on desktop
Approve applicants
Within the Rota, select Tools > Shift Claiming:
A new window will pop up taking you to the Shift Claiming dashboard. Click Select Replacement button for the desired shift:
Select the desired employee who's offered to cover the shift and click Update Rota:
Remind staff
Within the Rota, select Tools > Shift Claiming:
A new window will pop up taking you to the Shift Claiming dashboard. Click Remind Staff:
Controlling Permissions
When enabling shift replacements, admins and managers are offered two other options:
These settings will permit the following combinations of features:
| Shift replacements cannot be chosen by staff ⛔️ | Shift replacements can be chosen by staff |
Manager Approval ✅ | Managers and employees can submit replacement requests.
Only managers can choose who to send requests to.
A manager must select which cover offer to accept. | Managers and employees can submit replacement requests.
Managers and employees can choose who to send requests to.
A manager must select which cover offer to accept. |
No Manager Approval ❎ | Managers and employees can submit replacement requests.
Only managers can choose who to send requests to.
Employees can claim shifts offered to certain staff immediately, but a manager must select which cover offer to accept for a request offered to a whole team. | Managers and employees can submit replacement requests.
Managers and employees can choose who to send requests to.
Employees can claim shifts immediately, without approval. |
FAQs and Troubleshooting
FAQs and Troubleshooting
How will I know if a shift claim conflicts with my organisation's scheduling rules?
Employees will not be able to claim shifts that would've caused warnings or blockings to a similar roster/schedule. Any validations set to 'warn' will be visible on the offers to cover.
What is a good fit?
A good fit is someone who is:
available,
works in the same team,
and will cost the same (or less)
Can employees claim shifts in team/s they're not in?
No, employees can only claim shifts in teams that they are in.
Can employees offer shifts outside their team?
Employees can only offer shifts within teams they have been assigned to.
Can employees find their own replacement?
Yes. You can enable this feature by navigating to Settings > Schedule > Shift replacements can be chosen by staff.
Why am I not receiving notifications?
To receive notifications you need to be a Team Manager in your employee settings, and be assigned to the relevant teams. Check that you haven’t turned notifications off for the Workforce.com App.
If a Team Manager hasn't logged into or used the app in the last 14 days, they will receive email notifications of shift replacement requests instead of app push notifications.
What if I don’t want my staff to access this feature?
You can turn the feature off in settings if you prefer to manually manage swaps between your staff.