Case Study
Supervisors Post Shifts For Staff

One of the scenarios for ShiftController can be that supervisors post shifts and then staff can go in and pick from those shifts. Supervisors then approve indicating that the shift picked up is confirmed.

Initial Setup

Let's consider an example with a single calendar named Barista. Supervisors will be posting shifts in this calendar and staff members will be able to pick from those shifts.

Configure Supervisor Accounts

By default, all WordPress users with Administrator rights have full access to ShiftController. So, if your supervisors already have administrator accounts in WordPress, there is nothing more to configure at the moment. Otherwise, you can create a simple WordPress account for a supervisor, then make them a Manager for one or more calendars in ShiftController.

• Create a new WordPress user in wp-admin, Users, Add New. In this example we will create supervisor.

• Go to ShiftController, Administration, Calendars, Barista, Managers, Add New. Choose the user you need, then click Add To Managers.

  

  This user has become a manager of this calendar now.

  

Supervisor Post Shifts

Now any user who is a Manager for a calendar in ShiftController can create shifts in this calendar.

A Manager goes to ShiftController, Schedule, + Shift, choose Calendar, Date and Time, and choose Open Shift that means an employee is not assigned yet.

So now we have a new open shift for Barista position.

Request Shift Pickup

Managers of the calendar can assign employees for open shifts. But in this case study we are interested in enabling staff members to pick such open shifts themselves. For this we need the Shift Pickup functionality which is a part of ShiftController Pro premium add-on.

To enable shift pickup for staff members, we will need to post a Pickup Request for this shift. Pickup requests are also available for assigned shifts too, not only for open shifts. It is useful when we want to change employee for an already scheduled shift. Anyway, in this example we will post a Pickup Request for our new open shift.

Go to ShiftController, Schedule, click on the shift, then choose Request Pickup.

Now in the schedule view we can see that this shift has a pickup request, it is marked with a yellow icon.

Configure Employee Accounts

Employee is a type of entity within ShiftController which represents a staff member. By default, a ShiftController Employee is not related to any Wordpress user (i.e. person). For example, if you just want to configure your company schedule and don't want your employees log in and see their shifts. But if you would like to empower the staff to view and even manage their schedule, like picking shifts, you will need to link ShiftController employee to Wordpress user. This link means that a certain Wordpress user is now associated with ShiftController employee, and so they can see, modify (if allowed) and get notifications about their shifts (i.e. shifts of this particular ShiftController employee entity).

In this example, we'll link George ShiftController employee to george WordPress user.

Go to ShiftController, Administration, George, Link To User Account.

In the next screen choose a user account and click Link To This Account.

Now George ShiftController employee becomes linked to george WordPress user. george can log in to WordPress and see their schedule, and if configured properly, can pick open shifts.

Staff Members Pick Shifts

Now as we have shifts with pickup requests, staff members can log in and pick those shifts.

After a staff member picks up a shift, this staff member becomes assigned to the shift.

Notes

There are a number of system settings that affect the flow of picking up shifts.

Calendar Permissions

If you want to enable employees to pick shifts, you will need to mark this in the calendar's permissions.

Go to ShiftController, Administration, Calendars, Barista, Permissions, turn on Calendar Employee, Pick Up Others Shifts.

Automatic Pickup Requests For Open Shifts

By default, you will need to explicitely create a pickup request for an open shift to make it available for employees to pick up. Although, there is an option to automatically register a pickup request for new open shifts.

Go to ShiftController, Administration, Shift Pickup Request, turn on Automatically Create Pickup Request For Open Published Shift.

Managers Confirm Shift Pickup

If you want that managers should confirm shift pickup by employee. First create an open shift in Draft state, then register Pickup Request for this shift. In calendar permissions allow View Open Draft Shifts for employees. So these open draft shifts will be visible to calendar employees. Then after an employee picks a shift, the shift will remain in the Draft state. Then a manager can review and finally publish the shift.

About ShiftController

ShiftController is staff scheduling and rostering, rota planning plugin for WordPress for any business that needs to manage and schedule employees. All you need is a website with WordPress to start keeping your staff scheduling under control anywhere at anytime online!