When we first tell people about 7shifts, one of the first things they ask is “So, employees can take/trade shifts online?” and we’re used to telling them “It’s coming”. Well, it’s here!

How this works

Any employee can login and view their schedule. When they look at their schedule, they will see a button below their shift that says “give away”.

Once they click on that, they will be prompted to put it into the Shift Pool for another employee to take (the employee is still assigned to this shift if no one takes it).

Now that Andree Carpentier has given away her shift, all other employee will be notified that there is a shift up for grabs. By default, it will notify employees via SMS and Email.

If the employees would like to disable either one of the notifications (SMS or email), they can do so in their settings area.

It’s also important to note that if you’re using schedule types for your company, only employees belonging to that schedule type will be notified that a shift is up for grabs.

Now that Andree Carpentier has put her shift in the Shift Pool, other employees can take it by logging into the system and clicking on “Shift Pool”.

In the screenshot above, Jordan Boesch is the logged in user. If he wants to take Andree Carpentier’s shift, he can do so by clicking “take shift”. After he does that, he will see a message that the request was sent to the manager for approval.

The employer or supervisor can choose whether shift pool requests require approval or not by going to their settings. By default, all must shifts must be approved by a supervisor or employer.

You are probably wondering how you (the employer) will know that you need to approve a shift. It’s easy. Once you login to your account, go to settings and then click “company”.
You should see the following options:

Simply include each email address you would like the Shift Pool notifications to go to. If no emails are provided and Shift Pool is enabled, the emails will go to the account creator. When an employer or supervisor is logged in and under the employer area, they will also see a notification that there are shift changes that require their approval.

Now, it is up to a supervisor or employer to approve or decline a shift change.

If it is approved, both employees are notified. Andree Carpentier is notified that someone had taken her shift and Jordan Boesch is notified that the shift is approved. If the shift is declined, only Jordan Boesch is notified and Andree Carpentier’s shift stays in the Shift Pool.

Going forward

Since 7shifts is a one-shift-per-day system at the moment, you can only take someone’s shift if you already don’t have a shift for that day. The next feature we will be adding is multiple shifts per day. This will enable a more flexible Shift Pool that will include trading.

Until then, we hope you find the Shift Pool refreshing!