The Job Scheduler will simplify and shorten your scheduling process. As an administrator, you will be able to plan, dispatch, and oversee the execution of your schedule with ease. One of these capabilities is the ability to set users' unavailability. This generates a visual indication in your schedule, giving you an easy way of understanding who can be scheduled and who cannot. You can set your user’s unavailability in the dashboard, and even better, your users can set it directly from their mobile devices.
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Enabling Unavailability for Mobile Users
You have too many users, and it takes too long for you to add each one’s unavailability. Do you wish they could add it themselves? Here at Connecteam, we understand you. This is why we give you the option to allow users to set their own unavailability, directly from the mobile app.
Let’s take a look at how to set this up.
To set up unavailability in the mobile app follow these steps:
Click on the Job Scheduler feature on the left sidebar.
Click Access Schedule
Click on Settings > Mobile app tab.
Make sure Enable Availability is checked on
Then click on Save Changes
All done - from this point on, all your users will have the ability to mark their own unavailability from the mobile app!
Please note: If you wish to disable the unavailability, simply unmark the 'Enable Availability' option. When it's not marked, employees will not be able to add their unavailability.
Limiting Unavailability Changes Before the Date
To keep your schedule stable close to the shift date, you can stop users from changing their unavailability once a date is within a set window. When the window applies, users can still view their availability, but they cannot add, edit, or remove an unavailability for those dates. The window is set per schedule, so different schedules can use different limits.
To set the limit:
1. Go to the Job Schedule and enter the relevant schedule.
2. Click Settings, then open the Limitations tab.
3. Turn on Block users from making changes to their unavailability within.
4. Enter the amount of time, and select days, hours, or minutes.
5. Click Save Changes.
The limit is measured against the start of each date in the schedule's time zone. E.g. with a limit of two days, a user can't change unavailability for any date less than two days away.
Setting Unavailability on Behalf of My Users
Do you want to set unavailability on behalf of your users? No problem. To set your user’s unavailability, simply do the following:
Click on Access Schedule
Click on the Add button on the top right corner and select the option Add Unavailability
Add all the details of the user's unavailability: select the specific users, set the date, add a note, and choose if they will be unavailable all day, or only for specific hours.
Once you click on Save Unavailability, you will be able to view it on the schedule as follows:
If you prefer to work on the monthly view of the schedule, you can also easily manage unavailabilities from there. To switch to the monthly view click on "Week" and then click on "Month". Unavailabilities will appear on the monthly view as well, and you can add the unavailability by clicking on "Add", and then clicking on Add unavailability:
This is what unavailability looks like on the monthly view:
Deleting/Editing an Unavailability on Behalf of My Users
If you or your users made a mistake when adding their unavailability and wish to edit it, you will need to delete it completely and create it again. Simply hover over the unavailability on the schedule and a trash icon will appear. Click on it to delete it.
How Does Setting Unavailability Look For Users
Users can set their unavailability directly from their mobile app. They can choose a full day or just a couple of hours. To do this they should enter their Job Scheduler, and access the My Availability tab.
Note: If a user is already assigned a shift, they will not be able to mark themselves as unavailable. An indication will appear letting them know they have an overlapping shift
When a change limit is set for the schedule, users cannot change their unavailability for dates inside the window. If they try, they see a message titled Unavailability changes are locked, explaining that unavailability can't be changed within the set period of the selected date. Applies on both mobile app and dashboard.
💡Tip: Admins or owners can still schedule users at any time, even if they marked themselves as unavailable.
How to Check When Users Submitted Availability
You can see when users submit availability through the general Activity log, the Job Scheduler's Activity log, or the user profile's personal activity log.
General Activity Log - Click on the Activity tab on the sidebar to access the general activity log. This Activity Log will show you actions done on the platform over the past month.
Job Scheduler's Activity Log - Navigate to the Job Scheduler and select the relevant schedule. Click on the three dots at the top right of your schedule and select Activity.
User Profile - Go to the Users tab and click on a user. Go to the Activity tab to view all the user's activity.
Hiding unavailability from the dashboard and mobile admin view
For some, the schedule can get cluttered with a lot of unavailabilities which makes it harder to see what's going on. In that case, it's possible to toggle it off so it's no longer visible on both dashboard and mobile as an admin. On the admin dashboard, just click on view options, show more and then availability status.
This can also be done through the mobile admin dashboard by clicking on the eye icon at the top right and then toggling off availabilities (or work preferences).
Additional Resources on Unavailability
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