To enable shift swapping, select 'Employees can swap shifts that have been assigned to them'.
This setting is located in Payroll Settings > Rostering:
Once the above has been enabled, the shift swap workflow is as follows:
Step 1:
Sunny Stone receives a notification for a new shift that has been assigned to her.
Step 2:
Sunny can either accept, decline or swap the shift. The shift is on a very special day for her so she chooses to swap the shift with another employee. To do this, Sunny clicks on ‘Swap’:
Sunny chooses, from a drop down list of recommended employees, the employee she wants to swap the shift with and then enters a comment for Rosy to see. Recommended employees are those that:
- can work at the location, ie location assigned in the file
- are able to work, ie not rostered elsewhere, unavailable or on approved leave
- employee has the work type and/or higher classification (if these have been assigned in the shift)
Step 3:
Rosy is notified that there is a shift swap that she needs to action. She logs into her employee dashboard to view the details of the shift:
Step 4:
Rosy decides to accept the swap. Once she clicks on ‘Accept Swap’, the shift status updates to ‘Awaiting Approval’:
Step 5:
Sunny’s manager, Sandra, receives a notification of a pending shift swap that requires approval. Sandra logs into the roster and clicks on the swap shifts icon to view the details of the swap:
Step 6:
Sandra reviews the details and is happy to approve the swap. She clicks on ‘Approve’. Sunny and Rosy receive a notification confirming the swap has been approved and the shift is automatically reassigned in the roster to Rosy.
Managers can still control the process by:
- Knowing who has swapped their shift and to whom;
- Approving the shift swap before it is applied to the roster; and
- Tracking shift swaps over periods of time using the Shift Swapping Report.
Notifications
There are 2 notification settings that managers can switch on to receive email alerts:
- A daily reminder that notifies the manager of all pending shift swaps – this details the shift date, the employee initiating the swap and who it is being swapped with;
- An instant notification for when a shift swap requires manager approval
More information about configuring notifications can be found is the following article: Manager/Administrator Email Notification Configuration
Swap Cut Off Period
At a business level, you can set the cut off period where an employee can no longer swap a shift. If the setting prescribes that a shift can be swapped up to 48 hours before the shift commences, employees will be prevented from swapping a shift the day before the shift commences.
This can be done via the Payroll Settings -> Rostering page:"
Manager Approval
Another business level setting is choosing what level of manager approval will apply regarding shift swapping. The options are:
- No manager approval required at all: In this scenario, when an employee accepts a shift swap the shift will automatically be reassigned in the roster to the employee who accepted the swap.
- Manager approval only required where the swapped shift cost is higher than the original shift cost: In this scenario, the manager will be notified only when the shift cost, as a result of the swap, becomes higher than the original shift cost. If this is the case, the manager will need to approve the swap before it is confirmed. Otherwise, if the swapped shift cost is equal to or lower than the original shift cost, the shift will automatically be reassigned in the roster to the employee who accepted the swap.
- Swapped shifts always require manager approval: In this scenario, when an employee accepts a shift swap the shift will need to be approved by the manager before it is reassigned in the roster to the employee who accepted the swap.
These approval settings are configured via Payroll Settings > Rostering:
Manager Rejection
When a manager rejects a shift swap, they will need to enter a reason:
Both employees will then be notified and the shift will remain assigned in the roster to the original employee.