This new feature will be rolling out to Deputy accounts in the future. If you would like to be involved in Alpha testing and think you are a good fit for this feature please complete this form and we will be in touch.

• What are shift plans?
  • When to use shift plans
  • When not to use shift plans
• Create a shift with a shift plan
  • Create an open shift with a shift plan
• Edit a shift with a shift plan
• Delete a shift with a shift plan
• Publish a shift with a shift plan
• Viewing shift plans in the schedule
  • View by Team member
  • View by Area
• Printing or exporting a schedule with shift plans
• Copying shifts with a shift plan
• Copy multiple shifts
• Save and load a schedule template with shift
• Approving a timesheet for a shift plan
• Team member experience with shift plans
• Summary of current shift plans limitations

 

What are shift plans?

Shift plans, also known as micro-scheduling, helps managers provide more direction to team members who work across different areas of the organisation in a single shift.

Managers can schedule a shift with multiple areas for the team member to work in without the team member needing to clock in and out of each area.

When to use shift plans

Shift plans might be useful for businesses:

• using any Deputy plan (except Timesheet and Attendance plans)
• where team members work across different areas of the business in a single shift
• where team members clock in and out once per day using the Deputy mobile apps
• who pay team members a single pay rate

When not to use shift plans

Shift plans are not suitable for businesses:

• using the Deputy Timesheet and Attendance plan as this does not include scheduling
• with team members who work in only one area per shift
• who ask their team members to clock in and out with the Deputy Kiosk for iPad or Deputy Timeclock for Android
• who pay team members multiple pay rates for working in different areas each day
• where managers want to create shift plans via Deputy mobile app (coming soon)

 

Create a shift with a shift plan

Area view in the schedule

To create a shift with a shift plan for your team member in Area view, you can click on the plus sign in the area of the schedule where you want to add the shift and select your team member's name from the drop down menu. This is the first area where the team member will start their shift. Note that the shift will have the default start time and shift length but you can edit this if you need.

Team member view in the schedule

To create a shift with a shift plan for your team member in Team member view, you can click on the plus sign in the teammember's row in of the schedule where you want to add the shift. The time and first area to work in will be suggested based on the past history of this team member.

 

In either scenario, once you have created a shift, if you wish to add another area where the team member will work click on the + icon to Add area.

You can select the next area where the team member will work from the drop-down menu.

You can continue to add new areas in the same way. If you add an area you wish to remove you can just click on the trash can icon on the right-hand side.

By default when first added, the length of time worked in each area is divided within the total shift length but you can adjust the start and finish time for each area using the drop-down menu or type the hours and minutes in the time field.

You can not leave any gaps of time between areas.

You can add up to 30 areas per shift.

You can add the rest of the shift information such as breaks and shift notes then click Save to save the shift to the schedule. 

 

Create an open shift with a shift plan

Managers can create an open shift or open shift with approval with a shift plan included so that the team member claiming the shift requesting the shift has a clear understanding of the areas they will be expected to work.

Edit a shift with a shift plan

Shifts with only one area allocated can be dragged and dropped in the schedule to change the date, time, team member or area details of the shift. However, shifts with more than one area allocated (shift plans shifts) can not be dragged and dropped in this way.

To edit the details of a shift with more than one area, please double-click on the shift to open it and you will be able to amend these shift details:

• team member
• area
• start and finish times
• meal breaks
• shift notes

Note: you are unable to amend the date of a shift with shift plans within shift details and since you also can not drag and drop the shift to another date then if you need to change the date of a shift with a shift plan you would need to delete it and create a new shift on the new date.

 

Delete a shift with shift plans

You can delete a shift with shift plans within the shift details by clicking on the three dots icon and selecting Delete shift.

You can also delete a shift by selecting it on the schedule and pressing Delete on your keyboard.

Note that if you are viewing the schedule via Area view then selecting and deleting the shift in one area will delete the shift for all areas.

 

Publish a shift with a shift plan

Shifts with a shift plan can be published in the same way as regular shifts. Scheduling managers can choose how to notify the team members the shift has been published or request shift confirmation.

One exception, however, is that when you publish a shift with multiple areas, it will be published for all work areas even if you choose to deselect the area during the publishing process.

 

Viewing shift plan in the schedule

Managers can view shift plans in the schedule in two different views on the Deputy website.

Note: Managers can not create or view shift plans via the Depty mobile app (coming soon).

View by Team member

When viewing the schedule in a Team member view, shifts with a shift plan will show the number of areas planned for that Team member's shift instead of showing the name of the Area. The shift will be coloured with the colour of the first area of work (if you have used colours to differentiate your areas).

View by Area

When viewing a shift with a shift plan in the schedule in an Area view, each area of work will be displayed individually however you can see that it displays a link icon in the top right hand of the shift.

 

Printing or exporting a schedule with shift plans

When printing or exporting the schedule to excel, shift plans will be represented in a similar way to the Schedule Team member view or Area view.

The below examples show:

• a shift with a shift plan in Area view exported to Excel

• the same shift in Team memneber view printed to PDF

Read more about printing and exporting your schedule.

 

Copying shifts with a shift plan

Single shifts with a shift plan can be copied within the schedule using the C and V keyboard shortcuts or clicking the copy-and-paste icons on the shift. Note that the entire shift will be copied to the new date.

 

Copy multiple shifts

Shifts with shift plans will be copied over the same as regular shifts when copying day, week, 2 week or 4 week schedules to other periods in the schedule.

 

Save and load a schedule template with shift plans

Shifts with shift plans will be copied over the same as regular shifts when saving and loading schedule templates in the schedule.

 

Approving a timesheet for a shift plan

The approval of a timesheet with a shift plan is only available within the new Timesheet experience.

Managers will be able to perform the following functions on Timesheets with shift plans on the Deputy website.

View and approve a timesheet with multiple areas worked as scheduled

Managers can view timesheets where a team member has worked in multiple areas:

• The areas worked will be displayed on the timesheet summary page when you hover over the Areas.
• When you click on the timesheet summary a more detailed timesheet will be displayed with the areas and times worked as well as breaks and clock in out events, comments and pay rates applied.

Managers can approve the timesheet from either the detail or summary view by clicking on Approve, Approve and next or clicking the Approval tick icon on the  timesheet summary view.

 

Add or delete an Area within a worked timesheet

Managers may add or delete areas to a timesheet during the approval process. 

Click to open the timesheet you wish to edit.

Click on Add area to add a new area to the timesheet or click on the trash can icon to delete an area.

In this example, the team member was scheduled to work in areas 'Manager' then 'Main Room' until 1pm but during timesheet approval, the manager nows that the team member stayed back to complete some Admin and so adds the 'Admin' area to Ben's timesheet. 

When adding or deleting areas to timesheets as a manager, the recorded start and finish shift times are maintained however managers can also adjust times if needed.

Note:

• all areas added to a single timesheet must be located within the same time zone
• a maximum of 30 areas can be added to a single timesheet

 

Edit the start and end times for multiple areas in worked timesheets

During the timesheet approval process, managers can edit the start and end time of each area.

Click to open the timesheet you wish to edit.

Click on the start or finish time of the area you wish to edit and select the new time from the menu or type a specific time using your keyboard.

Note:

• when adjusting times, you can not leave any time gaps between any worked areas.
• If you need to adjust the start time of the shift, please adjust the start time of the first worked area
• If you need to adjust the finish time for shift, please adjust the finish time of the last worked area.

 

View timesheet history events 

Click on the ... icon on the far right of the timesheet summary and select View history to see the history of the timesheet.

In this example, you can see the details of the shift scheduled by Ed Kinglsey and the clock in and out events of Frank Wren's shift

 

Team member experience with shift plans

Read more about how team members will view and manage shifts with a shift plan.

 

Ongoing Development for Shift Plans

Following major features will be available to support Shift Plans in the next few months

Managers Experiences:

• Find replacement
• Manage Shift Plans schedules in Mobile Apps
• Import Shift Plans via file

Employee Experiences:

• Swap/Offer my shifts
• Clock in/out in Kiosk Time Clock Apps

We are keen to hear your feedback and willing to build this feature suite together with you.  If you are interested to help shape our roadmap,  feel free to fill in the form and we will contact you shortly.