Overview

Giving your team schedule flexibility can go a long way to keeping them happy. When I Work offers several features to take the scheduling burden off you and empower your users.

User availability preferences and time off

The availability feature allows your users to let you know when they prefer to work and when they prefer not to work. When you build the schedule, you can take user’s preferences into account to give them shifts that they prefer. However, you can schedule shifts that conflict with user’s availability preferences as you see fit.

Encourage your users to set their availability from their computers, iOS devices, and Android devices.

By default, availability is enabled for your workplace. You can disable or enable availability from the Scheduling Settings.

When your users would like or need time off from work, they can submit time off requests in When I Work. You can require manager approval for time off requests and require advance notice.

Let your users know that they can request time off from their computers, iOS devices, and Android devices.

By default, the time off requests feature is enabled for your workplace. You can disable or enable time off requests from the General Settings.

Open scheduling (OpenShifts)

Schedule OpenShifts to give your users the flexibility to pick up shifts that work best for them. When you publish an OpenShift, all eligible users are notified that they can pick it up. When I Work determines whether users are qualified for shifts based on their assigned positions. If you rely heavily on OpenShifts, consider using schedule templates to quickly populate the schedule with OpenShifts.

If you schedule OpenShifts, encourage your users to pick up OpenShifts from their computers, iOS devices, and Android devices.

Shift coverage

Shift coverage provides flexible scheduling options to increase user’s accountability for their schedule and help ensure all of the shifts you need covered are filled.  The shift coverage options include:

• Shift release – reassigns a user’s shift to an OpenShift
• Shift drop – gives the user’s shift to an eligible coworker
• Shift swap – trades the user’s shift with an eligible coworker

Users can release, swap and drop shifts from a computer, an iOS device or Android device.

By default, shift coverage is enabled for your workplace and require manager approval. You can customize shift coverage options from the Scheduling Settings.

Shift replacement

If a user is unable to work a shift, you can use the find replacement feature to offer the shift to eligible users. The users are automatically notified and the first user to pick up the shift gets it.