Allow team members to see others' shifts and request a swap or offer a shift to a co-worker. Please note, to enable shift swap or offer a shift in a location, you must be either a Location Manager or System Administrator.
In this article, we will cover:
- What is shift offer?
- What is shift swap?
- How to enable shift swap and/or shift offers
- Approve or decline a swap as a manager
- How to swap or offer shifts as a team member
What is shift offer?
Shift offer enables a team member who can't work their scheduled shift to offer it to other available and qualified team members. If the shift is claimed, the team member will be free to not report to work. If not, the team member remains responsible to work their shift.
Note: Shift offers do not require a manager's approval but they will be notified when a shift offer has been accepted.
Location Managers and System Administrators can enable or disable the shift offer functionality for their team members by Location.
What is shift swap?
Shift swap allows a team member to request one or more of their suitably qualified colleagues work one of their shifts and, in exchange, work one of their colleague's future scheduled shifts.
Depending on your preference you can require that a manager approve the swap, or you can allow swaps to go through automatically, which makes this a great way to reduce your administrative burden.
How to enable shift swap and/or shift offers
Given that the shift swap functionality relies on team members being able to see each others' shifts, it can only be enabled if team members are permitted to view others’ schedules.
The shift offers function will work regardless of whether employees are permitted to view each others' schedules. Employees who are not eligible to accept an offered shift will not appear in the list of employees available to offer the shift to.
It is possible to enable and use the shift swap/ shift offer functionality on both the Deputy web application and our mobile (iOS and Android) apps.
Enable shift swap or offer via the web application:
To configure this setting, go to Locations and click on Edit Settings for the Location you wish to configure.
Select Scheduling from the left-hand side menu and scroll down to the Swaps and offers section. Here you can toggle on or off the options regarding:
- Swap shifts - Team members can swap shifts with each other if they both have the appropriate training
- Manager approval for shift swaps - Option for managers to approve shift swaps.
- Offer shifts - Team members can offer their shift to co-workers that are qualified and available. Manager approval is not required but will be notified when the shift has been accepted.
Note: Co-worker schedule visibility must be set to Allow all to use the Swap shifts feature. This setting does not affect the Offer shifts feature.
Don't forget to click Save before you close the window.
Enable shift swap or offer via the Deputy mobile app:
Tap on Schedule and then the Location drop-down at the top of the screen.
Tap on Edit to edit the settings and select the Location you wish to edit.
Tap on Scheduling Settings. On the next screen you can configure:
- Employees permission to view each other's schedules (must be set to Allow All to enable shift swap)
- Enable/disable employees to swap shifts
- Enable/disable employees to offer shifts
If you wish to use the option to require managers to approve shift swaps please set this on the web application.
Don't forget to tap Save before you leave the screen.
How to approve or decline a swap as a manager
Once you have enabled the ability for team members to swap or offer shifts, then your team members are able to login to Deputy and click or tap on shifts they can't work and swap or offer them to suitable co-workers.
If you have turned on Manager approval for shift swaps then after the co-worker has accepted a shift swap, their manager will need to approve this swap.
Note: if you have not turned on Manager approval for swift swaps then the swapped shifts will appear in the schedule without manager approval as soon as the coworker has claimed the swap on offer.
As a manager, you can approve or decline swaps via either the Deputy web application or your Deputy mobile app.
Approve/Decline shift swap via the web application:
Managers can see Swap Shifts to be approved on their dashboard.
Click on the drop-down expander to see more information and click on the information to go directly to the schedule.
You can see the shift with swap approval pending in the schedule is marked SWAP.
When you click on the swap shift link in the Dashboard or the SWAP shift in the schedule you will be taken to the Swap Shift modal which will provide you with the information you need to approve or decline the shift swap.
When you Approve or Decline the Shift Swap the relevant team members will be notified of your action and the schedule will be updated accordingly.
Approve/Decline shift swap via the Deputy mobile application:
The process for approving or declining shift swap requests on the Deputy mobile app is very similar to the web application.
Review shifts for swap approval from the manager's Home tab.
You will be taken to the Swap Shift screen which will provide you with the information you need to approve or decline the shift swap.
When you Approve or Decline the shift swap the relevant team members will be notified of your action and the schedule will be updated accordingly.
How to swap or offer shifts to co-workers
Once enabled, your team members can swap or offer shifts to each other via Deputy on the web application or mobile app.
For more information on swapping or offering shifts please read How to swap or offer your shift to a co-worker.