Create different types of Shifts

When planning a shift, you have two types of shifts that you can choose from: a scheduled shift and an open shift.

Learn more about the several aspects that go into planning a shift in our Helpcenter article Setup Shifts.  

Open shift

When an employee is unable to take a shift or you need to plan a shift for a certain time/location/working area but you are unsure about which employee to assign it to, you can schedule an open shift. To add an open shift, you have two options:

• Click on (+) ADD SHIFT
• Hover your mouse over any day and click on the (+) icon

In the open plan dialog box, follow the next steps:

• Enter all the information in the card: start time, end time, break duration (if any)
• Choose the location, working area, role and, optionally, the tags
• On Employee, keep it as "Open shift"
• Add the number of slots that are needed for this specific shift, meaning that you might need more than one person to work the role and time you have scheduled
• After you are done entering all the details, click on SAVE

The shift will then appear under "Open shifts" above the employee specific shift plan.

Note: It is not possible to publish open shifts. Your shift will stay unpublished, but can be edited to be converted into a scheduled shift as soon as you have found someone to take over the shift.

Scheduled shift

If you already want to assign shifts to employees, create a scheduled shift. To add a scheduled shift, you have two options:

• Click on (+) ADD SHIFT
• Click on the (+) button next to the employee on the corresponding day. Note: you can add multiple shifts for one employee on the same day. 

In the shift plan dialogue, fill in the information corresponding to:

• The needed components: start time, end time, location and role
• The general components: tags and working areas

To make this even easier for you, Shiftplan will give you employee recommendations based on the days, location and role you chose in the add shift dialogue box. 

• The employee's working schedule is synced with Shiftplan, so the recommended employees that match the time, day and location will appear under "Matching role/ location". The Role that matches is highlighted with the colour of the role. The employee recommendation dropdown also indicates the days on which an employee works through green dots (Week starting Monday format)
• The employees that match the location, but not the time, will appear under "Everyone else".
• You can also use the search bar to find a specific employee and add multiple employees, if desired.

This feature helps save a lot of time when planning a shift. You no longer have to memorize every single employee's preferred days and special skills, you simply need to keep the employee profiles and work schedules updated and Shiftplan will support you with recommendations right when you need it the most - while planning shifts!

Add a personalized note

You can add a personalized note with both a scheduled and an open shift. This can be helpful when announcing special needs, such as notifying an employee about a special event taking place during their working time, which they need to take into account.

This feature helps reduce communication gaps between manager and employee. It also simplifies the way of receiving information as an employee, as the note appears right as the employee opens the shift in Shiftplan feature on their mobile app. They know right away what needs to be done without having to contact their manager over a secondary communication device or other applications.