Fill unassigned shifts using Shift Bidding

The Rostering module has a Shift Bidding feature that lets you create a shift that multiple employees can bid on. You can include start and end times, work types, classifications, and roles. You can also change these details if necessary. To use the Shift Bidding features, you will need to have them turned on via Roster Settings. To read further information on how to access Roster Settings, refer to this article.

Helpful Hint

A useful trick to copy individual shifts quickly is to hold the Shift key on your keyboard, click an existing shift, either published or unpublished, and then drag the field to the relevant day. The platform will copy the shift as unpublished.

Important

The Payroll platform does not cost bidding shifts and will display the shift cost as $0. This is because the platform assigns multiple employees to the shift, and only when an employee accepts the shift will the platform assign a cost to the shift.

Getting started

Creating a bidding group
  1. Log into your Payroll platform.
  2. Click the Roster menu.
  3. Click the Roster Actions button.
  4. Click the Bidding Groups button.
    Bidding_1.jpg
  5. Click the Add button.
    Bidding_2.jpg
  6. Complete the following fields:
    • Group name.
    • Employees.
    • Private.

    Helpful Hint

    Tick the private checkbox if you want to keep the bidding group private, i.e. only you can see it and use it.

  7. Click the Save button.
    Bidding_3.jpg
Creating a bidding shift
  1. Log into your Payroll platform.
  2. Click the Rostering menu.
  3. Click on the shift panel that represents the day that needs a bidding shift created.
    Bidding_4.jpg
  4. In the Create Shift panel, click the Shift Bidding tick box.
  5. In the Create Shift panel complete the following fields:
    • From time.
    • To time.

    Helpful Hint

    Click the Add Break button to add a break in.

    • Break start.
    • Break end.

    Helpful Hint

    Click the Minus button to delete an added break.

    • Location.
    • Qualifications.

    Helpful Hint

    The Qualifications field will only appear if an admin has enabled qualifications.

    • Bidding employees.

    Helpful Hint

    You can select any created Bidding Groups from within the Bidding Employee drop menu. Refer to the Glossary of Shift Availability Terms for further information on what recommended and other employees means.

    • Work type.

    Helpful Hint

    The Work Type field will only appear if an admin has enabled work types.

    • Role.

    Helpful Hint

    The Role field will only appear if an admin has enabled shift roles.

    • Note.
  6. Click the Save button.

    Helpful Hint

    When you add multiple users in the employee’s field, this will automatically create the same shift for the selected employees.

    Bidding_5.jpg

Editing data

Editing a bidding group
  1. Log into your Payroll platform.
  2. Click the Roster menu.
  3. Click the Roster Actions button.
  4. Click the Bidding Groups button.
    Bidding_1.jpg
  5. Click the Edit button.
    Bidding_6.jpg
  6. Make the required changes and click the Save button.
    Bidding_7.jpg
Editing a bidding shift

Important

You can only edit a bidding shift that has the status of unpublished.

  1. Log into your Payroll platform.
  2. Click the Rostering menu button.
  3. Click on the bidding shift that needs editing.

    Helpful Hint

    The purple icon shows a bidding shift, and the number within the purple circle shows the number of assigned bidding employees.

    Bidding_8.jpg
  4. Make the required changes and click the Save button.
    Bidding_9.jpg

Deleting data

Deleting a bidding group
  1. Log into your Payroll platform.
  2. Click the Roster menu.
  3. Click the Roster Actions button.
  4. Click the Bidding Groups button.
    Bidding_1.jpg
  5. Click the Delete button.
    Bidding_12.jpg
  6. Click the Delete button.
    Bidding_13.jpg
Deleting a bidding shift
  1. Log into your Payroll platform.
  2. Click the Rostering menu button.
  3. Click on the bidding shift that needs deleting.
    Bidding_8.jpg
  4. Click the Delete this Shift button.
    Bidding_10.jpg
  5. Click the Delete button.
    Bidding_11.jpg

Further Information

Glossary of shift availability terms
Function Definition Logic
Recommended Employees The platform defines an employee as recommended, if they fulfil all the criteria for that shift.

Employee recommended shift criteria is:

  • Available for the shift on the selected day.
  • Employees are in the correct shift location.
Other Employees The platform defines an employee as other, if they only partially meet the criteria for that shift.

Other employee criteria:

  • Available for the shift on the selected day.
  • Outside the required shift location.
Bidding Groups This is a pre-defined group of employees.

With bidding groups, only recommended employees within the group will be highlighted and can be assigned to a shift. For example, with the below bidding group "Weekend crew", not all the employees are defined as recommended - those employees are in a grey font - only the employees defined as recommended will be offered the shift.

Bidding shifts and cutoff times

Your business can configure, via the Rostering settings feature, a cutoff time where after such a time employees will not be able to action, i.e. either accept or decline, a bidding shift. Employees will no longer see the bidding shift in Swag:

  • Employees will no longer see the bidding shift in their employee platform.
  • If an employee attempts to action a bidding shift via the go-here link in the notification email, an error will appear on the screen advising the employee they can no longer action the bidding shift.
  • The bidding shifts will still be assigned against the employees in the roster however, the warning icon will appear on the shift tile. When clicking on the shift, the context panel will highlight that the bidding shift cutoff time has passed and therefore can no longer be treated as a bidding shift. At this time, the manager can convert the shift to an unassigned shift or reallocate it to just one employee.
Manager notifications for shift bidding
From the My Notifications screen, you can choose to receive the following email notifications:
  • When an employee you supervise accepts a biddable shift.
  • All pending biddable shifts.
  • When a biddable shift has not been accepted by the notification cutoff time. This notification is useful as it will highlight to the manager what bidding shifts need to be actioned by them immediately, i.e. follow up with the employees directly, to make sure there is someone working the shift.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please get in touch with us via support@yourpayroll.io.

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