Assigning your employees to their weekly shifts can be a hassle, and we know there's nothing you want more than to get it over with and publish that schedule. However, like all things in life, there can always be last-minute changes and constraints. Here at Connecteam, we wanted to spare the phone calls, chat messages, or rejected shifts streaming in from your employees. By enabling the shift replacements capability, employees can swap shifts between themselves with any other qualified users. Leaving you the admin out of it! This might not be the solution for everyone though. If you are an admin who would prefer to approve any schedule changes then using the shift replacement approval is the solution for you!
In this article we will go over:
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 Enable Shift Replacement With Admin Approval
To utilize the shift replacement capability with the admin approval:
Access the Job Schedule
Click
"Settings"
Go to "Mobile App" and Enable Shift replacement requests
Once you enable the shift replacement the admin approval will pop up, enable "Replacements requires admin approval"
Click on "Save Changes" on the bottom right
Pro Tip: If you want to be notified every time a request is sent then make sure to enable shift replacement notifications in the job schedule settings under the notifications tab to avoid missing out.
The Admin Perspective: How to Approve Shift Replacements
When employees swap shifts and the, shift replacement is enabled the request is automatically send for approval. The requests appear in the job schedule underneath the original shift itself, and in the requests tab. Take a look at how this looks below:
There are two ways to approve requests: either from the shift itself, or from the request tab. Now let's get started!
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 a user asked Stephanie to replace her shift and on the bottom, we see that Stephanie 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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