Shift Replacement lets employees resolve schedule changes between themselves in two ways: an Offer Shift, a one-way handoff to a qualified teammate, or a Swap Shift, a two-way trade where both employees stay scheduled. Either way, you may want the final say before the schedule changes.
You can require your approval on each request type separately. This guide covers how to require approval for offers and for swaps, and how to review each request.
Why Require Admin Approval for Shift Replacement
Adding the admin approval to the Shift Replacement process will give you as a manager complete control of schedule changes.
By approving replacements requests you make sure:
Employees are working the number of hours or shifts you intended for them and are not exceeding their daily or weekly limit, entering into overtime and costing your company extra money.
You can also ensure your shifts are balanced for example declining a shift swap if an employee has less experience than the person they are replacing - perhaps changing the overall dynamic of the shift.
Ultimately using shift replacement approval means you'll never be caught off guard and always know who will be working and when.
How to Require Admin Approval
Each request type has its own approval setting in the General tab, directly beneath the toggle that enables it:
Access the Job Scheduler, then click Settings.
Open the General tab.
To review one-way handoffs, under Enable shift offer requests check Shift offer requests require admin approval.
To review two-way trades, under Enable shift swap requests check Swap requests require admin approval.
Click Save Changes.
When a type requires approval, its requests appear in the Job Scheduler as pending approval, and only approved requests take effect. You can enable approval for one type without the other.
Pro tip: to be notified each time a request is sent, enable shift replacement notifications in the Schedule settings Notifications tab.
How to Approve or Decline Requests
Both offer and swap requests reach you the same way once the receiving employee accepts: a pending request appears under the shift in the schedule and in the Requests tab.
You can act on a request from either place:
From the shift: click the pending request symbol under the shift, then approve or decline and save.
From the Requests tab: open the tab, select the request, then approve or decline.
Before you decide, you can see how the request affects each employee’s hours and shifts, including hours before and after and a calendar view. If approving would push an employee over their weekly hours or shift limit, it is flagged in red. For a swap, both employees keep their hours; for an offer, the receiving employee gains the shift and the original employee is released from it once approved.
How to Approve Shift Replacements From the Shift Itself
In the schedule view a pending request will appear under the shift itself with a "pending replace symbol." To approve or decline the request simply click on the symbol and the request itself will open. Click approve or decline and save changes.
Note that you will be able to see a calendar view of exactly how approving the shift will effect each employee, including the hours before and after.
How to Approve Shift Replacements From the Requests Tab
Another way to view all requests and manage shift replacement is from the Request Tab. Lets go over how to do this step by step
Click on the Request Tab on the top right of the Job Schedule.
Click on Shift Replacements Tab - on the left you can see the pending request and request history.
By clicking on a request you can see who initiated the shift replacement and how will it affect both employees.
Finally you can either approve or decline the request.
How to Prevent Exceeding Limitations
If you want to ensure that all employees are working the number of hours you intend for them to work and don't work too much, you have full control over it.
Before approving or declining a request, you can see the number of hours and shifts they had before and after the request would be approved, as well as a calendar view of each employees. Moreover, if approving a request will cause an employee to exceeds their weekly limit it will be marked and red and note will appear at the bottom
In the example below, we can see that if we approve Theresa and Leslie's replacement request, Leslie will be over her weekly hours and the weekly number of shifts limit.
Pro tip: The limitations are based on the limitations you set on the job schedule settings. Take a look at how these look below, and to learn more click here
How Does Shift Replacement Look for My Employees
Now, thats you have learned how to approve requests lets go over the experience your employees have when requesting to swap a shift.
Step 1: An Employee Requests a Shift Replacement and it is Approved by the other Employee
To request a shift users will navigate to the request replacement button inside the shift, they will choose another qualified user to request from and send the request.
Immediately they will be notified that the request is pending approval.
In the example below we can see the Shift Replacement request for both users.
We see Sarah asked Michael to replace her shift and on the bottom, we see that Michael approved and the request is now pending admin approval.
Step 2: Admin Approves the Request
Once the employee requested to switch shift approves the request, it goes to the admin for approval. Once the admin approves the users are notified. Only then is the original shift removed from the employee and given to the other.
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