HS: Shift Approvals

Overview

When employees pick up House shifts or shifts which have been released by other employees, as a manager, you will need to approve these transactions. This article will cover the details of this page.

If there are shift transactions waiting for manager approval, you will see the Tasks modal upon logging into your account along with the various types of actions that need to be addressed. For shift transactions, it will read Employees with a shift release or swap with the number of transactions that need to be approved or denied. Selecting this option will automatically navigate you to the approvals page.

You will not see released or swapped shifts in the 'Tasks' modal until they are ready for manager approval.

Fig.1 - Tasks modal

Alternatively, the shift approvals page can be accessed by navigating to Home > Shift Approvals.

Fig.2 - Navigation

The Shift Approvals page will display each pending transaction as its own card which clearly labels the following:

• A - Type of transaction

• B - Original Owner of the Shift

• C - Date and Time of the Shift

• D - Job Code

• E - Location Assigned to the Job Code

• F - Schedule Information

• G - Filters

• H - Collapse/Expand

Fig.3 - Shift approvals page [select image to enlarge]

A - Type of Transaction

This column lists the type of traction that is being requested:

• Swap: Employees who are trading shifts within the same work week
• Release: An employee has released a shift and another employee is requesting to pick it up

B - Original Owner of the Shift

This column displays the original shift owner. When a text bubble is present, you can hover your mouse over it to view an employee's reason for initiating the transaction. To view more information about an employee, select the name.

Fig.4 - Original shift owner

After selecting the name, a pop-up window will display things like their contact information, hire date, tenure, skill level, projected hours including the shift, as well as other information. 

Fig.5 - Employee information

C - Date and Time of the Shift

This column displays the date and time of the shift in question. Selecting the shift's date will display all of the other shifts of the same schedule that overlap it, so you can view which employees will be working with one another if the transaction is approved. It should be noted that clicking a swapped shift's date will display the overlapping shifts of the initiator's shift.

Fig.6 - Overlapping shifts [select image to enlarge]

D - Job Code

This column displays the job code of the shift being requested. 
Please note: Shift swap requests will not display the job in the collapsed view, as it is required that users are assigned the same job code in order to make the request.

E - Location Assigned to the Job Code

This column displays the location assigned to the job code in the shift. 
Please note: Locations will only display if it is assigned to the shift. If no location is assigned, it will not display. 

F - Schedule Information

Selecting the Schedules button will display the shifts assigned to the employees who are making the request. This is helpful when making the decision to approve or deny the request.

Fig.7 - Schedule information for employees requesting to swap [select image to enlarge]

G - Filters

A page of multiple pending transactions can be filtered by Schedule, Job and/or Employee by using the drop-down at the top.

Fig.8 - Filters

H - Collapse/Expand

Selecting the Collapse/Expand icon will allow you to expand each card to see all the details of the request. The expanded cards for swaps and releases vary slightly.

For Release cards, all employees who picked up the shift will appear along with any reason they gave when the pickup was initiated. The employees listed are sorted by the requested date (i.e. who picked the shift up first?), but by selecting the arrows of each column, you can sort the content of the card by the column's data. Once an employee is selected, additional information will be provided displaying the impact on the employee's schedule and the cost of the potential change. The option to Approve or Deny the request will also display.

Fig.9 - Release card [select image to enlarge]

Additionally, the following information will display for each employee looking to work the shift:

• Picked Up - The date/time the shift was picked up
• Rate - The hourly rate of the employee picking the shift up
• Tenure - How long the employee has been working for the store. This is based on the Hire Date found in the Staff tab. The length of employment will determine the display of the column:
  • Less than a month - Weeks are used (e.g. 1 Week, 2 Weeks, 3 Weeks, etc.)
  • Less than a year - Months are used (e.g. 1 Month, 2 Month, 3 Months, etc.)
  • Over a year - Single decimals are used (e.g. 1.2 years)
• Skill Level - The Skill Level the employee is for Job he/she is attempting to pick up
• Proj Hrs - The number of hours the employee would be projected to work for the week if the shift is approved
  • For sites without timecard punches, this column will display the scheduled hours for the week including the pending transaction
  • For sites with timecard punches, this column will display the actual hours from the start of the week to the current day plus the remaining scheduled hours (including the pending transaction) for the remainder of the week
• Alerts - When the pending transaction would cause a violation, a warning icon will display. The icons are as follows:
  • DBL - The employee would be scheduled for a double if the pending transaction is approved
  • OT - The employee would be scheduled for overtime if the pending transaction is approved
  • RTR - Right to Rest - The shift violates the Employee Threshold of hours between another shift. Employee Thresholds must be configured
  • S - Spread of Hours - Only for sites on the Week 40 [NY Standard] OT rule
    • If day spread of hours > 10 hours, add $9.70 in special pay
    • Spread of Hours is defined as: the length of the interval between the beginning and end of an employee's workday. The spread of hours for any day includes working time plus time off for meals plus intervals off duty
      • Example 1: 7 a.m. – 10 a.m., 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. = 6 hours worked but a 15 hour spread
      • Example 2: 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m., 4 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. = 9½ hours worked but a 10½ hour spread
      • Example 3: 8 a.m. – 6:15 p.m. = 10.25 hours worked

The Swap card only displays the information pertinent to the two employees requesting to swap. The main difference is that the original shift displays for both users since they have agreed to work each other's shift. 

Fig.10 - Swap card [select image to enlarge]