Open Shift Opportunities and Bids

Snap Schedule 365 offers you an advanced feature for open shift opportunities, which allows schedulers to create a list of employees who will automatically be contacted by the system and offered a specified shift assignment.  Snap Schedule 365 can contact your employees via voice call, text message, email, and app message (for employees using ERA). Using open shift opportunities can save you time and speed up the process of filling gaps in your schedule, for example in a scenario when an employee calls out sick and will not be able to work their assigned shift.  To restrict employee access to open shifts opportunities, configure the open shift bidding policy in the Employee Access Settings.

Use the Shift Coverage Planner to determine whether additional open shifts opportunities are required for each position. Then, you can use the Daily View by Shift, the Calendar View by Shift, or the Shift View to create an open shift opportunity for a certain employee position.

Managing Open Shift Opportunity Rules

The first step is to define the rules which will be the basis of the open shift opportunity that you create.  

1. Click Manage and then Configurable Rules.
2. To add a new rule, select Open Shift Opportunity from the dropdown menu in the toolbar, and then click .
3. To edit an existing rule, double-click the desired entry. Alternatively, you can click an entry and then click .
4. To delete an existing rule, click the desired entry and then click .

Constructing an Open Shift Opportunity Rule

• Rule Name: A unique name for the selection rule (required).

You can look for employees:

• Who are available to work this shift
• Who have no other shift assignments on this date
• Whose work hours (including this shift) will not exceed daily limits
• Whose work hours (including this shift) will not exceed work period limits
• Whose home location is the same as this shift location
• Who are authorized to work at this shift's location

Even with the included capabilities of the selection rule feature, you may require a custom selection rule that is specifically tailored to your unique application. For a fee, Business Management Systems can develop these custom selection rules for you.

Managing Open Shift Opportunities

Once you have an open shift opportunity rule(s) in place, you are ready to schedule an open shift opportunity to be offered to your employees.  You can use the Daily View by Shift, the Calendar View by Shift, or the Shift View to do this. Refer to the Open Shift View for instructions on how to create an open shift opportunity in that view.

Creating a New Open Shift Opportunity:

1. Right click on a cell for the date and shift you would like to schedule an open shift opportunity, and select Open Shift / Call Out, then select either Create an open shift for employee bidding... or Call out employees in a prescribed order...
1. If you are calling out employees in a prescribed order, the Fulfillment Method drop-down will indicate Callout. Select Assist... to set the start date and time for the opportunity, then click OK.
1. Set the candidate response time (the amount of time to wait between contacting each employee if no response is received).
2. If you are creating an open shift for employee bidding, the Fulfillment Method drop-down will indicate Shift Bidding. Select Assist... to set the bid open date and time, and the bid close date and time for the opportunity. Then click OK.
2. Choose an Employee Selection Rule from the dropdown menu, and click Next.
3. Uncheck the box if you do not want the automation engine to contact employees automatically.
4. Enter the employee requirements for the selected open shift (e.g. number of required employees, allowed positions, required skills, etc.).  You can also adjust the shift times and enter any notes related to the opportunity.
5. Click Generate. The list of candidate employees who will be contacted by Snap Schedule 365 will be displayed. If you need to adjust the requirements, switch back to the Open Shifts tab to do so.  If you agree with the list displayed, click OK. If you are using the automation engine for the open shift opportunity, Snap Schedule 365 will begin contacting employees in the candidate list on the date and time specified in the opportunity.
1. The Contact Method for an employee can be adjusted in their employee profile contact info.

Managing Existing (Scheduled) Open Shift Opportunities:

1. From the Daily View by Shift, Calendar View by Shift or Shift View, double click an open shift opportunity.
1. You can also find this list by clicking on the link in the Scheduler Dashboard or on the Activities menu by selecting Open Shift Opportunities. Double-click the desired entry, or select an entry and then click .
2. Edit the requirements of the opportunity, or switch to the Candidate Employees tab to view the current status of the automated offering process for each employee.
1. To manually edit the state of the opportunity for that employee, i.e. whether they have been contacted, whether they have accepted or rejected the shift, etc., select an employee in the list, then click Details... In the window that opens, switch to the Activities tab to view the employee's activity history for this opportunity. Click Edit Activity... or select  New Activity... to add a new activity for this employee.
3. Select the Current Status tab to view the current status of the opportunity or to change the scheduled Automation process.

NOTES:

1. Once the number of required employees for the shift has been reached, the automated process will stop for the current Open Shift Opportunity.
2. When an employee is marked as having Rejected the shift, the system will begin contacting the next employee in the list.

Managing Existing (Unscheduled) Open Shift Opportunities

If you have previously created an open shift opportunity but not scheduled the automation to contact employees:

1. On the Summary view, double-click on an opportunity to edit it.
2. Select the Current Status tab, and check the box to schedule automation, making selections for date and time at which you would like the automation to start contacting employees.
1. This can also be done by selecting Open Shift Opportunities from the Activities menu.

NOTE: To delete an existing open shift opportunity, use the Open Shift View.

Handling Open Shift Opportunity bids

Once the posting is created, qualified employees can use the remote access application to view the open shift posting and bid on the open shift opportunity. The scheduler can then review, approve, and reject these open shift opportunity bids from either the Scheduler Dashboard, the Daily View by Shift, the Calendar View by Shift, the Shift View, the Open Shift View, or the Open Shift Opportunities list under the Activities menu.

1. Double-click an open shift opportunity to view it.
2. Select the Candidates tab to view the list of qualified employees who were offered the open shift opportunity.
• To add a new open shift opportunity bid or edit an existing bid, double-click an entry in the list, then select Details... and select the Activities tab.
1. To add a new bid, select New Activity... and choose an Activity from the drop-down menu (e.g. Accepted / Bid Submitted), also entering any notes if desired.
2. To edit an existing bid, select an entry from the list and click Edit Activity... and choose an Activity from the drop-down menu, also entering any notes if desired.
• To approve a bid, double-click the entry in the list that you want to approve, then select the Activities tab.
1. Select Assign Shift, and review the details of the shift, entering any notes of desired. Then click OK.
2. When a bid is approved, the approved employee will now be automatically assigned to the shift assignment for the open shift opportunity, and the State will indicate Assigned. Click OK.
• To reject a bid, double-click an entry in the list, then select the Activities tab.
1. Select New Activity... and choose Reject from the Activitiy drop-down menu, also entering any notes if desired.
2. When a bid is rejected, the open shift opportunity will remain open to qualified employees. However, the rejected employee's open shift list will display a  and no shift assignment is generated for that employee.

Tip: The handling of Open Shift Opportunity Bids can also be done more quickly and with fewer steps via the Open Shift View.

1. Once the number of required employees for the shift has been reached, the automated process will stop for the current Open Shift Opportunity.
2. When an employee is marked as having Rejected the shift, the system will begin contacting the next employee in the list.
3. To delete an existing open shift opportunity, click the desired entry from the list of Open Shift Opportunities, and then click .