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Work shift scheduling


TeeJay

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Hi all,

 

As part of a recent company wide update to Office 365, I'm looking if there is a way to have a work rota that is viewable online by workers who aren't permanent within the company, and which ideally would allow a viewer to 'pencil' in availability for a shift.

 

The aim would be to be able to create a rota for upcoming shows, have slot available for various departments and then publish it so that both permanent and ad-hoc workers would be able to view it online and see what shifts they are booked for, and to be able to 'request' to work on upcoming shifts that still have slots available which would then be confirmed by a relevant member of the team.

 

The classic version of Artifax used to have a module that did this (missing from the current version). Microsoft have an app called Shift that looks like it would come close to this for permanent members of staff but it doesn't allow for guest viewers (and I'm not certain whether it would be scaleable for a large number of freelancers)

 

Hope I'm making sense and interested to know what others are using to schedule their staff

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Hi all,

 

As part of a recent company wide update to Office 365, I'm looking if there is a way to have a work rota that is viewable online by workers who aren't permanent within the company, and which ideally would allow a viewer to 'pencil' in availability for a shift.

 

The aim would be to be able to create a rota for upcoming shows, have slot available for various departments and then publish it so that both permanent and ad-hoc workers would be able to view it online and see what shifts they are booked for, and to be able to 'request' to work on upcoming shifts that still have slots available which would then be confirmed by a relevant member of the team.

 

The classic version of Artifax used to have a module that did this (missing from the current version). Microsoft have an app called Shift that looks like it would come close to this for permanent members of staff but it doesn't allow for guest viewers (and I'm not certain whether it would be scaleable for a large number of freelancers)

 

Hope I'm making sense and interested to know what others are using to schedule their staff

'Google docs' and less successfully 'Trello'.

 

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We use TeamTrack which was custom written for the events and production industry. I can heavily recommend it, you can give a calendar feed to Freelancers and send out Availability requests via Email or SMS for a particular shift or period. We also use it for producing production documents for events as well as assisting with producing our CDM RAMS packs for events.

 

Well worth the investment - https://teamtrack.uk

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(Speaking as a freelancer, rather than as a manager:)

 

One of the venues I work at uses a product named "When I Work". It's primarily accessed via web-browser (iOS and Android apps exist); and workers can set their availability, request "open" shifts and to swap assigned ones, and get a calendar-feed of their shift assignments. While I can't speak for the management features, as a worker it seems to work okay.

I wouldn't recommend Microsoft Teams + Shifts if you have freelancers or casuals: another of the organisations I do work for has transitioned to using it for the tech rotas and, whilst it is an improvement than the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet-based solution used previously, it has its drawbacks. Notably, the app seems to make the assumption everyone is a full-time employee: it's not possible to, as a worker, directly indicate when you're not available; instead having to make "time-off requests", each of which then needs to be "approved" by a line-manager before it appears on the shift-calendar. Having to manually "approve" every "request" probably wouldn't scale well with lots of freelancers. Another downside is that the resultant work-shift-calendar is only exportable to a (static) Excel spreadsheet (and only by someone in a management role). This means that having a webpage (or dropbox or whatever) where staff can quickly check shifts would require someone manually exporting and uploading the spreadsheet after each schedule alteration. (Assigned shifts also don't appear in Microsoft Outlook's calendar, despite Shifts and Outlook both being part of Microsoft's office suite.)

 

I have another client/employer that uses a mix of Microsoft Excel and Google Calendar. Sometimes the shifts listed on both even match!

 

If you have freelancers who also do work for other employers, have you asked them what their other employers use?

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