This article is written for users with an access level of Supervisor, Location Manager or System Administrator and will cover:
- What is availability and unavailability?
- Do I enter availability or unavailability?
- Adding your team member's availability and unavailability
- Changing or deleting availability and unavailability
- Blocking employees from submitting availability and unavailability
- Allow team members to claim or request open shifts if unavailable
- Viewing team member availability and unavailability in the schedule
- FAQs
What is availability and unavailability?
Availability and unavailability can be used to let scheduling managers know when they are available to work. Unavailability appears on the schedule so that a manager or scheduler is aware when the team member is not able to work.
Availability and unavailability do not require a manager's approval, and managers can override what has been submitted by adding a shift. If the manager chooses to override unavailability with a shift, they will get a warning that the team member marked themselves as unavailable, and the team member will get a notification that a shift was added.
You should discuss your policies around adding unavailability to ensure they follow company guidelines or policies. Generally, most businesses require approval for time off, such as leave, paid time off or vacation.
If your team member is unable to enter their availability or unavailability themselves, then managers also have the ability to enter it for them.
Do I enter availability or unavailability?
By default, Deputy assumes every team member is available all day, until the specific availability or unavailability information is entered.
When entering this information, whether you choose to enter availability OR unavailability is a personal preference. However, you only need to enter one or the other for each day. If you enter availability for a part of the day, then Deputy assumes you are unavailable for the rest of the day.
For example:
- Susan's availability has been entered as 10am til 4pm on Tuesdays. Deputy then assumes she is unavailable before 10am and after 4pm on Tuesday.
- Ned's unavailability has been entered as 4pm til midnight on Saturday. Deputy then assumes Ned is available to work any time on Saturday up until 4pm.
Adding your team member's availability and unavailability
Via the Deputy website
On the People page, click on the team member you wish to add availability or unavailability for.
Click on the Availability section from the left-hand side panel and click on Add availability.
Note: you will see that by default, the team member will initially display as being available all day, every week.
Select whether you want to enter the date and time period as Available or Unavailable. You should only choose one or the other, there's no need to enter both.
In the example below, we are demonstrating entering unavailability, but the process is the same for both availability and unavailability.
Click on Unavailable.
Select:
- The date you want the availability or unavailability to begin
-
Whether you need to enter a full day or a particular time period during the day of availability or unavailability
- If you deselect the All day check box you will need to enter a start and end time
-
Repeat frequency:
- doesn't repeat
- every week
- every 2 weeks
- every 4 weeks
- every month on a specific date
- every month on a specific day of the week
- Select which days of the week it occurs on
- Select whether the recurring event has no end date. If you select Ends on, then you need to specify a date using the date picker.
- Add an optional comment
Then click Save.
Via the Deputy mobile app
Tap the People icon to go to the list of team members and tap the team member's name, then tap Availability.
Tap on the + icon.
Note: You can tap on the day of the week in the list you wish to enter availability information for, however, this will just edit the recurring availability information and will not allow you to enter a one-off availability. If you are entering a one-off availability or unavailability you must tap the + icon to add it.
In the example below, we are demonstrating entering availability, but the process is the same for both availability and unavailability.
Select whether you want to enter the date and time period as Available or Unavailable. You should only choose one or the other, there's no need to enter both.
Tap to select:
- The date you want the availability or unavailability to begin
-
Whether you need to enter a full day or a particular time period during the day of availability or unavailability
- If you deselect the All day toggle, you will need to enter a start and end time
-
Repeat frequency:
- doesn't repeat
- every week
- every 2 weeks
- every 4 weeks
- every month on a specific date
- every month on a specific day of the week
- Which days of the week it occurs on
- Whether the recurring event has no end date. If you select Ends on, then you need to specify a date using the date picker.
- Add an optional comment.
Then tap Save.
You can see the newly added availability displayed in the list.
Changing or deleting employee availability and unavailability
Edit existing availability and unavailability
To edit a team member's existing availability, simply click Edit (or tap on the existing availability or unavailability information as entered in the mobile app), make the changes required and click or tap Save.
To delete unavailability
To delete a team member's existing availability, simply click Edit (or tap on the existing availability or unavailability information as entered in the mobile app) and click Delete.
Note: you will not be asked "Are you sure?", it will just delete.
Block team members from submitting availability and unavailability
System Administrators can turn off the ability to submit availability for all Employees in their business. This will restrict employees from submitting new unavailability or editing existing Unavailabilities.
Managers with scheduling permissions, such as Supervisors, Location Managers or System Administrators, can still create availability and unavailability requests on behalf of team members.
To block team members from submitting availability and unavailability
1. On the Deputy website, click the drop-down in the top right-hand corner and click Business settings.
2. On the Leave tab, unselect Allow Team members to submit Unavailability and click Apply Changes.
Allow team members to claim or request open shifts if unavailable
Location Managers and System Administrators can enable an option to allow for team members who have set themselves as unavailable to still be recommended for open shifts or team member-initiated swaps and offers.
This setting can be enabled by location and defaults to off until you enable it.
On the Location tab, click on Edit settings for the location you wish to enable. Select the Scheduling tab on the left-hand side list, then toggle on Allow team members to claim or request open shifts if unavailable.
Click Save.
Viewing team member unavailability in the schedule
Managers can view team members' availability and unavailability in the schedule in two ways:
In the team member list
On the web, if you hover over the team member list of the left-hand panel in the Schedule, the team members' Availability will be displayed.
In the below example, Katie has entered:
- unavailable from 12am until 3pm on Wednesdays
- available from 9am til 5pm on Thursdays
and it displays as follows:
In the Time off section in the schedule
Click to expand the Time off section in the Schedule.
Using the same example from above, Katie's unavailability from 12am until 3pm on Wednesdays is displayed.
Using the same example from above, Katie's availability from 9am to 5pm on Thursdays is displayed as being unavailable from 12am to 9am and then 5pm to 11:59pm on Thursdays.
You can click on the unavailability tile in Time off on the schedule to go straight to the team member's availability and unavailability settings in their profile.
When selecting a team member for a shift
When creating a shift or filling an open or empty shift and selecting a team member, managers will be able to see whether the team member has set themselves as available or unavailable.
If they choose to schedule a team member marked as unavailable, they will receive a warning but can still click Schedule anyway if they need to schedule the team member for that shift.
FAQs
How can my team add their own unavailability?
Please direct your team members to this article How to let your manager know you're available or unavailable to work on a specific date.
Why can I see availability and unavailability on the same day?
Occasionally, you might see a situation on the web or mobile app where there is availability AND unavailability on the same day.
This will occur where there are upcoming changes to the team member's availability.
In the example below, the team member is currently available all day on Tuesday, but from Tuesday 29th April onwards, they are unavailable every Tuesday from 3pm til 11pm.
What historical unavailability can I see?
Only future unavailability is shown in the list views. Unavailability in the past is removed from the list automatically, but will still display on the day in past schedules.
Why can't I add unavailability?
It's possible for managers to completely put a block on specific dates to stop team members from requesting leave or setting unavailability on those dates. In this case, team members will get a warning message when they try to set unavailability.
System Administrators can also completely block all users with employee access in their organisation from adding availability and unavailability.