Overview
Schedules and job sites are powerful tools to help you schedule your team. In this article, we’ll examine both features and help you decide when to use them.
- A schedule is a way to group employees. You add shifts to a schedule.
- A job site is an optional way to identify a specific location where a shift takes place. When you add a shift to a schedule, you can assign a job site to the shift to let the employee know where to go.
Schedules
At the most basic level, a schedule is a way to group employees. A schedule might represent a physical place of business, a department, a geographic region, or a group of employees that you want to manage independently within When I Work.
By default, each When I Work account has a single schedule. You might want to set up additional schedules if you:
- Have a business that operates out of different physical locations.
- Want to build separate schedules for different teams or departments.
- Want team leads/managers to build the schedules for their teams.
If multiple schedules are right for your business, you can set up schedules from your computer, iPhone, or Android phone.
Job sites
A job site identifies a location where shifts take place. You can use job sites for shifts that take place off-site from your normal place of business, or to designate specific locations inside your place of business. Job sites are optional; shifts without job sites take place at the normal schedule location.
Use job sites if you:
- Need to schedule shifts off-site from your normal place of business. For example, a catering company might have a job site for each event space where it provides services.
- Want to let employees know where to go at your place of business. For example, a large restaurant might have job sites for different dining areas (as long as servers don’t require special skills to work those rooms; if different skills are required make positions instead).
You can add job sites from your computer, iPhone, or Android phone.
Examples
This table contains our recommendations for some common scenarios.
| I need to… | Schedule employees at two different stores. |
| Recommendation | Make a schedule for each store. |
| I need to… | Schedule shifts that take place at clients’ homes. |
| Recommendation | Make a job site for each client and assign to shifts. |
| I need to… | Let supervisors schedule their teams independently. |
| Recommendation | Make a schedule for each team. |
| I need to… | Let employees know where they’re working in the warehouse (no skill requirements). |
| Recommendation | Make a job site for each area of the warehouse and assign to shifts. |
| I need to… | Let employees know where they’re working in the warehouse (different skills required). |
| Recommendation | Make a position for each warehouse skill, and assign employees and shifts with them to make sure you’ve scheduled the right employees for the job. |
| I need to… | Recommendation |
| Schedule employees at two different stores. | Make a schedule for each store. |
| Schedule shifts that take place at clients’ homes. | Make a job site for each client and assign to shifts. |
| Let supervisors schedule their teams independently. | Make a schedule for each team. |
| Let employees know where they’re working in the warehouse (no skill requirements). | Make a job site for each area of the warehouse and assign to shifts. |
| Let employees know where they’re working in the warehouse (different skills required). | Make a position for each warehouse skill, and assign employees and shifts with them to make sure you’ve scheduled the right employees for the job. |