Deputy customers, who use staffing agencies or other similar businesses, to address staffing shortages or to augment staffing needs can use this feature to automatically send staff requests to agencies and get shared shifts filled.
- Who can benefit from this feature?
- Setup you Deputy account for agency staff scheduling
- Deputy customers
- Staffing agencies
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Who can benefit from this feature?
This article is intended for two types of audiences:
- Deputy customers who use staff from agencies or other businesses
- Staffing agencies who provide staff to their clients or businesses
Deputy customers
Many Deputy customers use staff from external sources such as staffing agencies or labour hire companies, marketplaces, community groups or other local businesses.
At this stage, this feature will help only those customers who use either staffing agencies or other local businesses. If you are using marketplaces or local community groups, this may not help you. Please reach out, if you would like to find more.
Staffing agencies
Any staffing agency can use this feature as long as your clients use the Deputy platform.
If your clients do not use the Deputy platform, this feature will not help you.
Setup your Deputy account for agency staff scheduling
To enable this feature for your account, please fill out this form.
Set up and configuration is enabled by Deputy, both for Deputy customers and agencies.
As part of the set up, Deputy will require details of staffing agencies so that they can be configured in your Deputy account.
Deputy customers using agency staff scheduling
How do I access this feature?
Once this feature is enabled and your agencies are configured in your Deputy account, you will be able to access this feature from Schedule tab.
How do I send staff requests to agencies?
To send staff requests to agencies:
1. Click on Schedule and then create a new Open Shift.
2. Toggle ON the Agency Shift option and select the name of the Agency you want to send the staff request to.
2. You can add any Notes that you want to share with the Agency and then Save the open shift.
3. Once the shift is saved, publish the shift as usual.
Note: you can create multiple agency shifts and then publish them all at once if required.
Once agency shifts are published, these instantly are shared with concerned staffing agencies.
What information about the shift is shared with agencies?
The following information is shared with agencies:
- Shift date
- Shift start time
- Shift end time
- Location
- Area
- Training requirements
- Any notes added to shifts
How do you understand agency responses to the shift request?
Once your agencies accept or decline your staff requests, your agency shifts will immediately be updated.
The following are the different statuses you will see on the agency shift:
- Pending - displays when you publish an agency shift and you are waiting for the agency to act on it.
- Accepted - displays when the agency has just accepted the shift but hasn't provided staff or worker details
- Filled - displays when the agency has accepted the shift and provided the contractor's name and contact number.
- Declined - displays when the agency has declined the shift.
Note: For Filled shifts, you will be able to see staff details on Schedule tab or on when you open the shift.
What other actions can you take once agencies respond?
You can take the following actions on any agency shift:
1. Delete shift - You can delete the agency shift, before or after response from the agency. Deleted shifts will be removed from your schedule tab and from the agency portal.
Note: agencies will not be notified of any deletion, shifts will simply disappear from their portal.
2. Assign to other agencies: You can assign any declined, pending, accepted or filled shift to any other agency. You will need to republish the shift, if you reassign the shift to another agency.
Note: agencies will not be notified of any reassignment, shifts will simply disappear from their portal.
Staffing agencies
How do you know Deputy customers have requested staff?
You will be notified by email once your Deputy customers have requested staff. Alternatively, you can log in to Deputy and check for any new requests.
How do you access the feature?
Once configured, simply login to Deputy using the credentials provided.
Click on your name in the top right corner and then click on Shared Shifts (beta)
You will see three tabs for Shifts:
- New - This will list all staff requested from your agency that haven't yet been actioned.
- Accepted - This will list all accepted and filled shifts.
- Declined - This will list all declined shifts.
What actions can you take on requested shifts?
You can take the following actions:
1. New tab - You can accept or decline shifts. While accepting, you can also provide contractor staff details such as name and contact number.
Once accepted or declined, the shift will move to either the Accepted or Declined tab.
2. Accepted tab - You can decline previously accepted shifts. Once declined, the shift will move to Declined tab.
To decline an accepted shift, select the concerned shift and click Decline.
3. Declined tab - You can accept previously declined shifts. Once accepted, the shift will move to the Accepted tab.
To accept a declined shift, select the concerned shift and click Accept.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
FAQs from Deputy customers
Can staffing agencies access shifts assigned internally or to other agencies? What other information staffing agencies can access?
Staffing agencies do not have access to any shifts or data other than shifts specifically shared by you.
Staffing agencies do not access your Deputy account. Staffing agencies are provided with their own Deputy account, which will have only shifts shared by you.,
Can we assign one agency shift to multiple agencies at the same time?
No, this is not supported at this stage. You can send staff requests to only one agency at a time.
Are there any additional costs involved?
No, this feature is free at this stage.
Agency staff are not added to your account, this means there are no additional subscription costs involved.
Can this feature be used to schedule staff from marketplaces or apps or other community forums?
No. At this stage, this feature can be used to schedule staff only from agencies or other local businesses.
We would love to use this feature. How do we enable it for our account?
Please fill out this form and we will reach out to you.
FAQs from staffing agencies
Are there any costs involved?
No, this feature is free at this stage.
We want to use it for other Deputy customers, how can we configure this?
Please fill out this form and we will reach out to you.
We want to use this feature for our clients that are not on the Deputy platform. Can we do this?
No, this feature is only supported for clients that are Deputy customers.