This guide is written for users with an access level of supervisor and above and will cover:
What are Open shifts with approval?
- Approve open shifts requested by team members.
- Approve shifts based on team members' attributes. You can select from a list of team members, based on the cost of the shift, hours worked this week or those that were the earliest to request the shift.
Create Open shifts with approval
On the Schedule page, you can drag the Open Shift into the area and day you want to create the shift.
Alternatively, you can click the + icon in the area you want to create a new shift.
In the pop-up that appears, click the Who is Working? box and select Open Shift from the dropdown list. In the same window, fill in the rest of the details of the shift such as start, break and finish times, as well as any notes to the team member that takes the shift.
Select the Require approval check box so that the scheduling manager will need to approve the team member that claims the shift before it will be assigned to them.
If you don't select this box then the open shift will go to the first recommended team member that is able to claim it.
When you are finished, click Save.
Ensure that you publish your schedule when you are finished. Select the Push notifications option if you want to alert your team members to the open shift.
Viewing Open shifts on the Schedule
Open Shifts display in the schedule as:
- Open Shifts (not requiring approval) will display OPEN
- Open shifts requiring approval (but without any requests yet) will have an icon next to OPEN
- Open Shifts with requests already against them will say how many people have submitted requests for that shift
as shown below:
Pro Tip: copy the one shift to make another by selecting ‘Copy’ on the shift you want to copy and dragging to the appropriate slot on the schedule.
Pro Tip: If you have notifications turned on when publishing shifts and team members have push notifications enables in their Deputy mobile app then team members will be alerted when an Open Shift appears on the schedule, allowing them to claim the shift.
Team member can request, accept or withdraw Open shifts
Team members can request and accept open shifts via their email or mobile application.
Open Shift Requests allows team members to express interest in an Open Shift. Managers can view who has requested to pick up the Open Shift and select to approve a team member to work the shift.
How to request an Open shift with approval via Deputy website
To do this via web browser, you can log into Deputy at once.deputy.com
Then, navigate to the Me tab. In the Calendar section, the Open Shift will appear on the relevant day on the calendar.
Note: You are also able to see open shifts by clicking on the Schedule page.
After clicking on the Open shift, a pop-up window will open.
If the manager has set the Open shift up to require a manager approval on who claims the shift, then you can click Request Shift.
Now, your shift request, along with other team members requests for the open shift will await approval by the manager who will select a team member to take the shift.
This system does not rely on first in, first served.
You can withdraw the shift request again if you need to by clicking Withdraw Shift.
How to request an Open shift via Deputy app
If you have notifications turned on for your Deputy app you will receive a notification whenever there is a new Open shift.
In the Deputy app and tap the Home tab. On this screen tap Available Shifts then tap on the Open Shift you want to claim.
If the manager has set the Open shift up to require a manager approval on who claims the shift, then you can click Request Shift.
Now, your shift request, along with other team members requests for the open shift will await approval by the manager who will select a team member to take the shift.
This system does not rely on first in, first served.
You can withdraw the shift request again if you need to by clicking Withdraw Shift.
Approving an Open Shift
Creating an Open Shift with Approval means that the manager will need to approve a team member from those that have requested to work the shift.
You can click on Open shifts that are either unfilled or have requests and need attention from the Me dashboard.
You can also see Open shifts directly in the schedule.
The manager needs to click on the relevant Open shift in the schedule. It will show how many team members have made requests for that shift.
In the window that opens, you can see which team members have requested to work the open shift. You can sort the team members by:
- first to respond
- alphabetical
- cost of shift
You can also see the hours the team member is already scheduled this week.
You can also cancel the shift if necessary. In this instance, the team members will be notified by push notification that the shift has now been cancelled.
Once you have selected a team member to work the open shift, click on Confirm.
You can see the approval in the Shift history under Shift Actions.
Once you have confirmed who will be working the Open Shift, it will notify team members based on the notification settings created for the shift.
For further information on notifications when publishing, read about Publishing Shifts.
The approved team member will be notified that they have the shift. The other team members who requested the same shift will be notified that someone else has been assigned the shift (but they won’t be told who).
Example email of a shift that has been approved
Example email of a shift that has been given to another team member
Open shifts and manager notifications
Open shifts that do not require approval and go to the first team member to claim them will trigger a manager notification to inform which team member has claimed the shift. If you'd like to know more about which manager received the notification read more in FAQs for manager notifications.
Due to the fact that Open shifts with approval are not automatically being assigned to the first team member that requests them, managers will not be notified when team member requests to work an Open shift with approval.
Managers still have the ability to view Open shifts requests requiring approval in the dashboard.
If you would like to be notified that an Open Shift hasn’t been filled, you can set up an Un-filled Open Shift extension to send a notification to managers that an Open Shift has not been filled.
You can read more about Notifications and Extensions.