Vacant Shift Claiming is a feature which publishes vacant shifts out to employees and allows employees to claim one or more of these vacant shifts. This feature can be turned on via Settings. Read more about enabling Vacant Shift Claiming here.
You can allow eligible staff to claim vacant shifts on a first-come-first-served basis with no approvals required, or you can have more control over the claiming process by requiring a manager to approve any offers to pick up a vacant shift.
For those who require manager approval for shift replacements, the process is similar. Learn more about Shift Replacements here.
How It Works
Manager approval for vacant shift claims allows employees to offer to cover a vacant shift. When an employee offers to cover, their manager will be notified that an offer has been made and they can then review this offer in the mobile app.
Managers can view all their vacant shifts on the Vacant Shift Claims mobile page.
Turning on Manager Approvals for Vacant Shift Claims
Manager approval is optional and by default is turned off. To turn on these settings, go to Settings > All Settings > Rosters > Vacant shift claiming.
Note: You must enable vacant shift claiming to turn on manager approvals.
Once enabled, make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update Settings
How Managers View Vacant Shift Claims
Once you've enabled manager approvals, managers can open the mobile app and navigate to Overview.
If manager approval is also turned on for shift replacements, go to the first link "Manage replacements & claims."
If manager approval is only turned on for vacant shift claims, go to the first link "Manage vacant shift claims"
This will take you to the Manage shift coverage page with a tab called "Vacant Shift Claims". If manager approval is also turned on for shift replacements, managers will see a tab for reviewing shift replacements.
How Employees Offer to Cover Vacant Shifts
Employees can navigate to Shifts > Pick up shifts on mobile to view any available vacant shifts. From there they can Offer to Cover.
Vacant shifts and shift replacements are indicated by different statuses
When an employee offers to cover a vacant shift, they will see the status of the shift update to "Offer Pending" on Pick up shifts.
Canceling Offer to Cover a Vacant Shift
If the employee would like to cancel their offer, they can click on the shift which will take them to a page where they can Cancel Offer.
How Managers Review Offers to Cover a Vacant Shift
When an employee puts in an offer to cover a vacant shift, a manager will see that the vacant shift requires review via the Needs Approval status.
A manager can choose to remind all staff about the vacant shift, or approve the employee who offered to cover.
If multiple employees offered to cover the shift, the manager will see these employees listed under Other Applicants.
Once a manager approves an employee to cover a vacant shift, the vacant shift is removed from the Manage shift coverage page, and the employee will see the vacant shift under their Shifts > My shifts page.
How Notifications Are Sent to Managers and Employees
The following will trigger a notification to a manager:
An employee offers to cover a vacant shift
An employee cancels their offer to cover a vacant shift
The following will trigger a notification to an employee:
A manager chooses to "remind staff" about a vacant shift
A manager approves the employee's offer to cover a vacant shift
the employee will be notified of the approval
other employees who offered but weren't selected are notified they were not selected