Fill unassigned shifts using Shift Bidding

Shift Bidding is a rostering feature that allows managers to assign an open (unassigned) shift to a group of employees. The first employee that accepts the shift will then be assigned to the shift and the roster will update accordingly.

Shift bidding is not available by default in a business. This will need to be activated by a full access user. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.

Creating a bidding shift

Create a shift as per the normal process. Instructions can be found here. The only difference is you will now see a "Shift Bidding" checkbox to the right of the Employee section in the shift context panel:

Ticking this checkbox will then allow you to select a group of employees in the 'Employee' field. The 'Employee' field will change to 'Bidding Employees' and the employee list will break down into the following section:

• Recommended Employees: Employees are defined as 'recommended' if they fulfil all the criteria of that shift.
• Other Employees: Employees are defined as 'other' if they are not recommended.  
• Bidding Groups: This is a pre-defined group of employees. Instructions on how to create a bidding group are below. With bidding groups, only recommended employees within the group will be highlighted and can be assigned to a shift. For example, with the below bidding group "Weekend crew", not all the employees are defined as recommended - those employees are in a grey font - only the employees defined as recommended will be offered the shift:
  
  
  

You may also see a scenario where you select a bidding group, but within that bidding group there are employees who are already rostered to work for the same period as the biddable shift. In this case, the system will show the following warning:

The system will not automatically remove the employee from the bidding group even if they have a conflicting shift, for the reason that it remains the users choice if they want that employee to be able to bid for the new shift, which can be done by leaving their name within the 'bidding employees' field or if they want the employee to work the original shift, which can be done by manually removing their name from the 'bidding employees' field. 

A bidding shift will be displayed in the roster as follows:

We draw your attention to the following:

1. Bidding shifts are not costed. They will display as $0. This is because multiple employees are assigned to the shift. Only when an employee accepts the shift will it have a costing associated to it.  
2. The  label indicates it is a bidding shift and the number within the purple circle indicates how many bidding employees are attached to that shift.

How do bidding employees action a bidding shift?

When you publish the bidding shift, a notification will be sent to all bidding employees as per the normal process. Bidding employees will know there is a bidding shift as the notification will make this clear - this has been done this way so that the employee knows to action this ASAP if they want to work the shift. An example email sent to a bidding employee is as follows:

An employee can action a bidding shift through various methods:

1. By clicking on the "go here" link contained within the email notification (the link will appear if the employee has not been provided with employee portal access);
2. Via the employee portal, if they have access. The link in the email notification will say "log in to the employee portal"; or
3. Via Swag, if the employee has employee portal access and they have downloaded the Swag app.

Actioning via the "go here" link

The employee will be given the option of accepting or declining the shift as follows:

Actioning via the Employee Portal

The employee will be given the option of accepting or declining the shift from the employee calendar as follows:

Actioning via Swag

The employee will be given the option of accepting or declining the shift as follows:

When an employee declines a bidding shift, they will be removed from the bidding shift in the roster.

When an employee accepts a bidding shift:

1. All other bidding employees will be removed from the bidding shift in the roster;
2. The shift will be assigned to the employee as a normal shift;
3. The shift will be costed; and
4. All other bidding employees (yet to action the bidding shift) will be notified they are no longer able to bid on the shift.   

Creating a bidding group

The benefit of creating bidding groups is that you then don't have to individually attach employees to a bidding shift. You can create different bidding groups according to different requirements, for example you can create a group for employees who can work weekends or employees who can do night shift, etc.  

To create a bidding group, click on Roster actions > Bidding groups (from the Rostering screen):

 

The Bidding Groups context panel will appear on the screen, as follows:

From this context panel, you can:

1. Search for existing bidding groups;
2. Add a new bidding group;
3. Delete an existing bidding group;
4. Edit an existing bidding group.

To add a new bidding group, click on "Add". The Create Bidding Group context panel will appear where you will need to complete the following fields:

• Group Name: This will be the name of the bidding group. If this group is made public we recommend you name it something that all users will understand. 
• Employees: From the dropdown list, select all the employees you want contained within this group. You can also start typing an employee name to filter the dropdown list by that search. N.B. When you add an employee to the list, their name will be shaded in the dropdown list. Clicking on their name again from the dropdown list will actually remove them from the Employees field.  
  
• Private: Tick the checkbox here if you want to keep this bidding group private, i.e. only you can see it and use it. 

Then click on "Save".

Bidding Shifts and Cutoff Times

The business will configure, via the Rostering settings screen, a cutoff time where after such time employees will not be able to action, i.e. either accept or decline, a bidding shift.

The following actions will occur after the cutoff time:

1. Employees will no longer see the bidding shift in Swag;
2. Employees will no longer see the bidding shift in their employee portal;
3. If an employee attempts to action a bidding shift via the "go here" link in the notification email, an error will appear on the screen advising the employee they can no longer action the bidding shift;
4. The bidding shifts will still be assigned against the employees in the roster however the warning icon will appear on the shift tile. When clicking on the shift, the context panel will highlight that the bidding shift cutoff time has passed and therefore can no longer be treated as a bidding shift. At this time, the manager can convert the shift to an unassigned shift or reallocate to just one
   employee.  
   

Manager Notifications for Shift Bidding

From the My Notifications screen, you can choose to receive the following email notifications:

1. When an employee you supervise accepts a biddable shift;
2. All pending biddable shifts;
3. When a biddable shift has not been accepted by the notification cutoff time. This notification is useful as it will highlight to the manager what bidding shifts need to be actioned by them immediately, i.e. follow up with the employees directly, to ensure there is someone working the shift. 

If you have any questions or suggestions, please get in touch with us via support@yourpayroll.com.au.

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