ShiftPlanning News Feed

Keep Track of Employee Scheduling Changes with the Event Log

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:30:45 CDT

Here at ShiftPlanning, we want to provide managers with the tools and resources to stay on top of employee scheduling matters. Having business data and archives is one thing, but keeping the information readily available, organized, and up-to-date is another. Using a workforce management application that operates on a centralized platform means that business data can be kept in one place making it easier to keep track of business operations in an organized manner.

Every time an action occurs within the ShiftPlanning application, the application tracks it as a unique event and compiles this information in a detailed ‘Event Log’. This feature can be used to verify events for record keeping, or troubleshooting past events by seeing who did what and when. The ‘Event Log’ is only available to managers, who can make use of this centralized log service to report and track actions and events that have taken place, such as the creation of a shift, the deletion of a shift, or employees clocking in and out of shifts.

To see your ‘Event Log’, go to the ‘Admin’ tab. Under the heading ‘Account’, click ‘Event Log’. You will see a screen similar to the one shown below:

You can sort the data by date and/or employees, and can also group events. You can select a timeline from the dropdown menu, shown below, or manually enter a start and end date. Similarly, you can filter the data by selecting an employee from the rightmost drop down menu. The events are sorted by day and include the user affected, the time, the event and additional details.

At the end of the event, you may see a plus and a number, like the one below. Click on it to display other similar events that have been grouped together.

In front of some of the events, you may see two other icons:
Admin Event

Events that were done on behalf of a user. You can mouse-over the icon to find out who the admin was. Here is an example of what it would look like:

External Event

Events that did not happen on on www.shiftplanning.com. Typically this means that it happened from a mobile platform or our Data API. You can mouse-over the icon for more details. An example is shown below:

We hope the this feature makes it even easier for you to keep track of business actions. Please feel free to provide us with feedback, questions or concerns, or post your suggestions in our System Event Log forum.

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: How Do I Make The Work Schedule Start On Monday Rather Than Sunday?

Tue, 15 May 2012 14:31:04 CDT

What is the first day of the week: Monday or Sunday?

Our hardworking Wizard is here to answer all your "Ask the Wizard Questions" like this one!

The answer to this question has been debated since the beginning of time, and opinions vary all over the world. ShiftPlanning is a flexible workforce management application and allows you to decide exactly what day (Monday thru Sunday) to deem as the first day of your organization’s work week. With the power to select your own start day comes not only the option to change the calendar view of the work schedule, but also the ability to select the start day for overtime and payroll periods. The ShiftPlanning default for the first day of the calendar week is Sunday. Find out how to adjust start date below:

Go to the ‘Admin’ tab and click on ‘Account Settings’ listed under the subheading, ‘Account’. Under the subheading ‘Schedule Settings’, you can select the day you wish to be your ‘Start Day’ from the dropdown menu, shown below.

When you view your schedule in the week or month view, the day you select will appear in the first column. For example, if you choose Monday to be the start of the week, you will see the following month view:

Happy Scheduling!

Hamline University's Helpdesk Looks to ShiftPlanning for Help with Staff Scheduling

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:14:51 CDT

Hamline University’s ITS Helpdesk started in 2001 with 16 employees to act as a “middleman” between the full-time technicians and users. They are students’ first contact for assistance with technical issues and requests. Since the department’s single-focused beginning, it has grown to support a wide range of issues from users across the University community. The helpdesk staff pride themselves in being open for a wide range of hours, offering professional-level service and doing more with less.

At any given time, the Helpdesk has between 11 and 18 student workers, known as consultants, who use ShiftPlanning for their work schedule and time clock. Additionally, there are one to two coordinators, whether they are temporary and/or graduate student workers. There is also one full-time Director who manages the helpdesk’s staff scheduling using ShiftPlanning.

Being staffed almost entirely by student workers is the helpdesk’s largest challenge. This is a result of their constantly changing staff schedules (on a daily, weekly and semesterly basis). The helpdesk needs to be flexible with their staff, because academics are the students’ primary priority. For the first couple of weeks of every semester, the Helpdesk ends up rewriting the schedule over and over again to accommodate students who are adding and dropping courses. When an employee has to cram for a midterm, or has a test they forgot about, the helpdesk knows these are legitimate excuses to miss work. To accommodate for dynamic student schedules, they need all their employees to be flexible and be able to trade shifts effectively and at a moment’s notice. Having a buffer and a resilient workforce management software helps them deal with the challenges associated with hiring student workers.

Before they switched to ShiftPlanning, the Helpdesk used an Excel spreadsheet to create and manage their staff schedules. Once a week, an updated version of the schedule was sent to their staff email list and a copy was printed and hung behind the helpdesk. Creating schedules and dealing with shift trading was cumbersome and required more communication that necessary. There was no efficient or organized way to track whose shifts were up for grabs and who had taken which shift, other than marking on the paper copy of the schedule. This meant that staff had to physically look at the piece of paper for the most updated schedule, as the emailing back and forth was confusing. Supervisors were also expected to remember shift trades.

Since switching to ShiftPlanning less than a year ago, the Helpdesk has already reaped several benefits. The online scheduler has helped immensely with both their schedule communication and record-keeping. They no longer have to rely on the staff email list and staff are notified when staff schedules are published or if there are any changes to shifts, and can check the schedule at anytime, from anywhere. It is particularly useful as most of the staff have smartphones and/or computer access.

Staff communication and accountability has improved, particularly by leveraging our adaptable employee notification system. Employees are allowed to set their own notification settings, but they have no excuse to miss shifts. This has improved employee accountability and allowed the Helpdesk to monitor employee performance, tardiness and absences. Initially, they were worried about making employees take responsibility for their shifts, but ShiftPlanning has improved responsibility levels. Now that employees have an application that they enjoy using, they have been eager to learn the application and take advantage of it.

The Helpdesk also uses our time clock, which helps them double check that employees are accurately and honestly reporting shift hours on the official timesheets filled out by student workers. The time clock reports allow the Helpdesk to cross-reference employee hours prior to payroll processing, for extra security and accuracy. In addition to better record keeping and more robust archives with our reports, the Helpdesk has seen improvements in overall communication - about time clocking problems and otherwise.

“ShiftPlanning has helped immensely. The notifications have been particularly helpful. We absolutely recommend the work scheduler and in fact we already have... The ShiftPlanning team seemed like a committed, dependable group. They seem to be all about open communication, which we appreciate.” -Nicole Lorenz, Hamline University’s ITS Helpdesk

We’re happy to have helped the helpdesk make improvements in their staff scheduling processes and look forward to working with other departments within Hamline University.

Click here to read a full case study.

Happy Scheduling!

Keep Track Of Your Open Slots With ShiftPlanning's New 'Open Shift' Report

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:23:46 CDT

ShiftPlanning’s open shift feature is a powerful tool that allows managers to post open shifts using an internet browser. Employees are notified of the open shift via email or text and can then volunteer to work the open shift. For managers, tracking open shifts and their status(es) is crucial to ensuring the shifts are adequately filled. In order to help managers track open shifts, we have introduced the ‘Open Shifts’ report to the ever-expanding list of ShiftPlanning’s reporting options. As with all our reports, we offer several filter and view options.

Viewing Open Shift Reports
Go to the ‘Reports’’ tab and click on ‘Open Shifts’ under the ‘Schedule’ subheading. You will open the ‘Open Shifts’ Report window, like the one shown below:

Here, you can see a list of all the open shifts, listed by date. You will also see the position, start date, start time, end date, end time, slots and the names of the employees that have filled the open shifts. The slots refers to the number of open shifts that have been filled, as a fraction of the total number of available open shifts.

Filtering Open Shift Reports
When you are in the ‘Open Shift’ report window, you can select a predetermined timeline from the drop down menu, such as ‘This Week’ or ‘Tomorrow’, or you can manually enter specific ‘To’ and ‘From’ dates.

You can also filter the data by position, by selecting the desired position from the dropdown menu on the top right corner of the report window. Additionally, you can filter by ‘Partial’, ‘Empty’ or ‘Full’, as shown below.

By selecting ‘Partial’, you will only see shifts that are partially filled.

By selecting ‘Empty’, you will only see open shifts that are not filled at all.

Finally, by selecting ‘Full’, you will only see open shifts that have been filled in their entirety by staff.

Printing and Exporting
We offer both printing and exporting options for our ‘Open Shift’ reports. Print the report, as you view it (with the timeline and filter options applied) by clicking the ‘Print Report link in the upper right corner of the report window’. Alternatively, you can save the open shift report as a .csv file by clicking the ‘Save as CSV’ link.

The ShiftPlanning team hopes that you find our new ‘Open Shift Report’ feature valuable and put it to good use.

Happy Scheduling!

Communicate Your Brand within ShiftPlanning’s Employee Notifications

Thu, 10 May 2012 17:20:43 CDT

At ShiftPlanning, we have integrated an adaptable notification and employee communication system into our state-of-the-art workforce management software. Part of the communication platform is a client branded notification system that you can personalize to suit your business needs and seamlessly communicate more effectively with your employees and colleagues. Employee notifications are crucial to effective business communication, and the ability to communicate with employees and tend to other business management needs from one centralized platform is priceless.

With our branded employee notifications you can include your business logo on all notifications that go out. This will help improve communication to your staff and help them to immediately recognize why they're receiving these notifications, and differentiate between different emails. Having your company logo branding each email notification, you will create a more integrated experience for your employees.

To customize your notifications, you need to first upload a corporate logo, or any image you want to brand your notifications with. Go to the ‘Admin’ tab and click on ‘Overview’ under the ‘Account’ heading.

In the popup window, click on the ‘Choose File’ button on the far right, select your file and click ‘Choose’ to upload the file to your ShiftPlanning account.

Below is an example of a branded logo in action. The ShiftPlanning rocket logo is our custom account logo. If you upload your own company logo, it will appear where the ShiftPlanning rocket logo is.

We hope you customize and brand your employee notifications so your staff can easily distinguish between work and non-work related emails. Watch our video below if you would like to learn more about branded notifications.

Happy Scheduling!

Ask The Wizard: Do all web cameras work for the time clock?

Tue, 08 May 2012 20:56:30 CDT

To use ShiftPlanning's biometric time clock feature and webcam functionality you will both need an installed web camera and the Adobe Flash player installed on your web browser.

To prevent buddy-clocking and to provide an affordable biometric time clocking device a web-cam may be required for time-clocking. This in combination with the time clock locations ensures that you are both on location and who you say you are.

First, you need to enable the webcam feature and indicate that employees must use the webcam when they clock in and out of their shifts. Go to the ‘Admin’ tab and mark the check box next to the line ‘Employees must use webcam when they clock in & out’ under the ‘Time Clock Settings’ subheading. If this option is selected, managers will have the option to view the biometric timestamps left by their staff during punch times.

First Time Webcam Setup
The first time you use a webcam for time-clocking there are a few simple steps that need to be followed. First, go to the ‘Time Clock’ tab.
Allow Webcam Access
Select the radio button to allow ShiftPlanning access to your webcam. It is also recommend that you select the check-box to remember this for future time-clocks.

Select Your Webcam
Select your webcam from the drop down list. If you are unsure of which one is the right one you can always right click on the Flash Player and select "Choose Webcam" to select another. Most commonly it will be called 'USB Camera'. (You will only have to do this once)

Clocking In & Out With A Webcam
Once your webcam is set up, your webcam will automatically turn on when you click on the ‘Time Clock’ tab. To clock in, click the green ‘Capture’ button. The webcam will capture a picture and clock you into (or out of) your shift, simultaneously.

We hope our biometric time clock feature is a useful tool that strengthens and improves your business.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Helps UPMC's MARCO Group Schedule 24/7 Coverage for Clinical Trials

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:28:01 CDT

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is one of the leading nonprofit health systems in the United States. A $10 billion integrated global health enterprise headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, UPMC develops and delivers life changing medicine by harnessing the power of technology, translating science into cures and accelerating the pace of innovation worldwide. The Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh use the ShiftPlanning workforce management application to manage the schedule for Clinical Trials Research Assistants working for the Multidisciplinary Acute Care Research Organization (MACRO). In 2002, the Department of Critical Care Medicine (CCM) began a Clinical Trials Program (CTP) to coordinate all trials within the Department. The CTP streamlines screening and enrollment of ICU patients and began with three clinical research coordinators (CRC) for five studies.

Between 2002 and 2007, the CTP expanded and due to overlapping patient populations, coordinated more and more often with a similar program in the Department of Surgery. In 2008, the two Departments decided to join forces under a single entity called MACRO, to maximize collaboration, productivity and efficiency. A year later, the Department of Emergency Medicine also joined MACRO. Together, these three Departments have been unstoppable and jointly run MACRO as an internal clinical research organization with a focus on acute care research. A key service MACRO offers investigators in 24/7 screening and enrollment that is achieved through undergraduate students employed as Clinical Trials Research Assistants (CTRA). In 2009, their teamwork enabled the enrollment of 129 patients in trials and over 800 patients in observational trials.

They have 14 employees and they find it challenging to offer their 24 hour coverage, while accommodating the busy and often irregular schedules of undergraduate students. Many of the CTRA’s have complex availability that makes staff scheduling or giving consistent shifts nearly impossible. Previously, each CTRA would email their availability to the CTRA scheduler, who would then have to wade through all of the emails and employee availability information to create schedules in Google Calendar. The complexity and irregularity of many people’s work schedules resulted in numerous schedule conflicts. An application that integrates effective communication makes it easier to resolve these conflicts.

Since they switched to ShiftPlanning, they have found that our application has vastly simplified getting each CTRA’s availability and viewing in a concise, simple format that ensures each employee is scheduled for shifts that are compatible with their availability and individual schedules. Shift trades and changes are also far simpler, particularly when conflicts are immediately brought to the schedulers attention. Using our easy-to-use work scheduler interface for them has cut down on the number of mass emails sent out when people need to swap shifts, which occurs less often with more effective communication and indication of employee availability. The Message Wall and ‘Ping’ feature also increase communication efficiency, particularly for relaying last minute or very important information.

”I would absolutely recommend ShiftPlanning! There are dramatically fewer scheduling issues. The ShiftPlanning team is accessible: they have always been ready to help with questions or concerns and having 24/7 support is a great feature.” -Peter Adams, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Critical Care Medicine

We are happy to help streamline and simplify the 24/7 scheduling process for the Department of Critical Care Medicine. Click here to read a full case study on the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Happy Scheduling!

May The Fourth Be With You... Scheduling the Galaxy!

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:17:16 CDT

May 4th is a fan generated day to celebrate Star Wars culture and honor the great Star Wars saga, where the day transforms just another spot on the calendar into the Jedi greeting, “May the Force be with you.” Today, we take a moment to enjoy the George Lucas-spawned space movie series because it is fun and who didn’t enjoy watching the kid from the backwaters of the galaxy overcome adversity and imperialistic bullies to make good with the help of the friends he made along the way. Some may be watching all the movies from start to finish, others will be adorned in Star Wars inspired outfits making a few bad Star Wars jokes... how are you celebrating Star Wars Day?

Taking a look at the amazing battles witnessed in all the Star Wars, one can only think - what organization! Between the array of storm troopers fulfilling different duties, the droids, the humans, the jedis and all the other characters along the way, each attack and battle required precision and organization. Wouldn’t a great scheduler and management application have really helped?

ShiftPlanning’s integrated workforce management software would have been great for the Empire (or the Rebel Alliance). Darth Vader definitely needed something to keep his troopers in line. With ShiftPlanning, he would have been able to create conflict-free, seamless schedules and communicated them efficiently to his storm troopers to make sure nothing fell through the cracks. To make things run even more smoothly, he could have assigned them to specific locations and positions across the galaxy. Though vacation time for the storm troopers was strictly out of the question, if they did have the opportunity, they could have easily asked for some time off. The Jedi could have made use of the new training module to keep Luke Skywalker up to date on all knight procedures.

Unfortunately, Darth and Luke had to go without ShiftPlanning, but that doesn’t mean you should too. From staff (or storm trooper) scheduling, to general business management, to payroll processing and everything in between, we’ve got the ‘Force’!

Happy Star Wars Day & Happy Scheduling!

Send Private Messages and Maintain Effective Workplace Communication With Our Inbox Feature

Thu, 03 May 2012 17:44:08 CDT

Effective email communication is a necessity of everyday life; in and out of the workplace. Our workplace communication software allows you to keep all your work related business in one centralized place, separating your work life from your personal life. With our workforce management software, you can stay connected with colleagues whenever necessary. Between our ‘Ping’ SMS notifications, public ‘Message Wall’ and private ‘Inbox’, we have all your bases covered.

ShiftPlanning offers its own messaging framework from within the program, to improve employee and intra-business communication. Once you sign into our application, you can send and receive private messages from within your ‘Inbox’. When you send a private message to someone, the system will post the message in their ‘Inbox’ and it will send out a copy by email to the address that user has listed in their ShiftPlanning profile. This tool allows you to communicate quickly and clearly, which is a valuable tool in your workplace. Email can be a big productivity tool, and sometimes only certain people need to be reached. In cases where not all employees need to be contacted, private messaging will streamline workplace communication, avoid confusing staff who are not involved and keep necessary employees in the loop.

Accessing Your Inbox
Sign into your ShiftPlanning profile and click on the ‘Inbox’ link in the upper left portion of the ‘Dashboard’ tab screen.

Composing and Sending a Message From Your Inbox
From your ‘Inbox’, you can compose a new message by clicking the ‘Compose New Message’ button at the top right of the ‘Inbox’ screen.

You can chose to send the message to users in a ‘Group’, to ‘Individuals’ or a combination of the two. To select a group, click the group name underneath the ‘Send To:’ list. To select a single individual, click his or her name underneath the ‘Individuals’ list. Hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key (on a PC), or the ‘Command’ key (on a Mac) to select more than one group or individual from the list.

Enter a ‘Subject’ for your message in the subject box, and compose your message in the ‘Message:’ text box. When you are satisfied with your message and are ready to send it to the specified recipients, click the ‘Send Message’ button at the bottom of the screen. Click ‘Cancel’ to cancel and delete the drafted message.

New messages appear in your ‘Inbox’ when they are sent. Click the subject of the message to view it.

Deleting or Replying to a Message
You can delete or reply to message by clicking on the desired message and then the ‘Delete’ or ‘Reply’ button, respectively. These two options are located in the upper right-hand corner of the message.

When you ‘Reply’ to a message, you have to choose who recieves the reply. Select recipients, type your reply message and click ‘Send’, as above.

Once your reply is sent, recipients will see the message in their ‘Inbox’ and there will be an alert on their ‘Dashboard’.

They will also receive an email of your message like the one shown below:

Watch our video below to learn more about how to send messages with our ‘Inbox’.

If you find yourself constantly communicating policy changes or alterations to your general business workflow, you could consider using our new ‘Training’ module feature. By creating a new training topic and selecting the specific employees the topic pertains to, those employees will be notified of the training topic and will be required to read and complete the tutorial. You, as a manager, will be able to keep track of who has read the training topic, and who has not. This is beneficial as you know your employees are not glancing over and ignoring important emails. Additionally, if you make updates to these training topics, employees are also notified of updates on their ‘Dashboard’. This means nothing goes unnoticed and any important information is conveyed to your employees.

We hope our extensive and integrated features help you run your business smoothly and efficiently.

Happy Scheduling!

FAQ: How Can I Manage Staff Removal in ShiftPlanning?

Wed, 02 May 2012 15:45:13 CDT

Up-to-date staff management and organized archives or records are important for any manager. Employees inevitably come and go, and as a manager, you will be faced with the need to say goodbye to some of your employees. In ShiftPlanning’s workforce management software, you have access to all your staff information and profiles. When the time comes to remove employees from the application, we offer the tools to do so. There are two options to remove an active employee: temporarily deactivate an employee or completely delete an employee.

The ‘Deactivate’ option disables the employee login and moves the staff member to the deactivated list. Deactivated staff members can be re-enabled and all information is maintained within the application including their staff profile and reporting history. The deactivation option is good for seasonal businesses, student workers or those that need to report retroactively.

The ‘Delete’ option also disables their login but allows their email address to be free for reuse. Deleted staff are no longer visualized within the application and this considered to be a final action.

To deactivate or delete a staff member, go to the ‘Staff’ tab and click on the desired employee. In the window that opens, there is a ‘Admin Actions’ heading. Under here, you will see the subheading: ‘Activation’ and ‘Delete’.

In order to deactivate the employee, click on the ‘Click here to Disable it.’ link beside the ‘Activation’ heading. You will see the below popup window - click ‘Ok’ to confirm the disabling action.

In order to delete the employee, click on the ‘Click here to permanently delete this employee’ link beside the ‘Delete’ heading. You will see the below popup window - click ‘Ok’ to confirm the deletion.

Deactivating and deleting employees from the ShiftPlanning account will ensure you stay organized and on top of staff management.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Helps The Dream Center Build Conflict Free Staff Schedules

Tue, 01 May 2012 16:59:39 CDT

17 years ago, the Los Angeles Dream Center was started to help the local L.A. community. The Dream Center, a volunteer driven organization that finds and fills the needs of individuals and families alike, was founded in 1994 and currently serves over 40,000 people each month. Services and programs offered include residential rehabilitation programs for teens and adults, a shelter for victims of human trafficking, a transitional shelter for homeless families, mobile hunger relief and medical programs, and a foster care intervention outreach program.

The Dream Center Discipleship program was formed approximately nine years ago by Mike Conner. From a handful of disciples, there are now over 200 disciples and three homes. The Dream Center Discipleship program is to help individuals with life-controlling issues. It is more than just getting off drugs and/or alcohol; it is about looking at lives and starting afresh. Staff work with disciples in their homes, through work therapy and by teaching classes. They are a faith-based program, but really desire to help individuals become part of society and their families in a healthy way that meets their physical and spiritual needs.

When creating staff schedules, they have to balance employees with different class schedules, work schedules and projects, between three different homes. Previously, all staff scheduling was done by hand, which was time consuming and confusing.

Since switching to ShiftPlanning, they have been able to keep clear records and create conflict-free schedules. Our well integrated and robust work scheduler identifies when there are shift conflicts and challenges for their numerous areas of responsibility. The Dream Center also plans to maximize the flexibility of our application and use our work scheduler for specific work projects in their work therapy program.

”It has really helped. The ShiftPlanning team is informative. It has really helped our staff and our volunteers off campus to communicate and to stay on top of their schedule. We are looking forward to using it in other arenas.” -Kerrie Goachee, Dream Center Discipleship

Click here to read a full case study on the Dream Center Discipleship.

Happy Scheduling!

Check Out ShiftPlanning’s Break Options For Staff Scheduling Plus Position Report

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:38:11 CDT

Here at ShiftPlanning, we are always looking for ways to improve and update our workforce management and staff scheduling software. We have introduced a new way to view your employee work information - by position. In addition, we have updated the break rules for your convenience and flexibility.

Break Rules
ShiftPlanning’s integrated break scheduling tool enables managers to schedule smarter by automatically setting the exact work hours and break times for each employee position and each schedule. ShiftPlanning allows for custom rules to be set for breaks on shifts. These rules can be set differently for each individual schedule and with different time parameters. Once break times are set up, they are automatically applied to yours work time reports and timesheets allowing data to be accurately used in payroll processing.

One of the requests that we’ve received around break rules was the 6.5 hours option. This is useful, for example, in the state of California we’re a break is required for a 6.5 hour shift. We have made the 6.5 option available for both minimum and maximum shift times.

Break rules work by asking for:
- Minimum shift time
- Maximum shift time
- Break amount
- Whether the break is paid or not.

First go to the ‘Admin’ tab and click on ‘Locations & Positions’ located under the ‘Account’ heading.

Now, find the location you want to manage break times for and click on ‘Manage Positions’ on the right of the location.

Click on ‘Create Break Rules’ to create break rules, or click on ‘Manage Break Rules’ to edit existing break rules for that given location.

A pop-up window will appear, like the one below. Here, you have the ability to set a minimum shift time, a maximum shift time, break length and whether the break is paid or not.

By clicking on the drop down menus, you can select from our array of options. The above example means that for shifts of 8 or more hours employees are given:
- 15 mins break time paid
- 1 hour break time non-paid
Not-paid breaks will be automatically deducted from the total number of hours an employee works.

With our break time handling, you will ensure that your business complies with state and federal employment regulations. Our robust break time rules and feature will automatically calculate accurate reporting and payroll, which will make our lives easier and more efficient.

Please watch our video below to learn more about break times:

Position Summary In Reports
We understand the importance of generating comprehensive reports at a moment’s notice, with tools to create reports with the data that you really need. We have introduced a new way to view employee work hours and reports. With our new ‘Position Summary’ report, you can view the number of hours scheduled by position and grouped by location.

To access the position summary, go to ‘Reports’ and click on ‘Position Summary’ listed under the ‘Schedule’ heading.

Select your desired timeline to view specific employee information and the data can be further filtered by locations and positions. Print and export options are also available in this ‘Position Summary’ feature. Our intuitive report features deliver the business data that you need, in the format that you prefer, so you can easily make everyday decisions for your business.

Note: This report will calculate hours for empty shifts.

We hope these updates will streamline your staff management and improve the scheduling process for your business.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Helps Beloit College's Museums Preserve History And Encourage Hands-On Education

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:13:00 CDT

Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin with approximately 1,300 undergraduate students. As the oldest continuously operated college in its state, this college houses two prestigious museums, the Wright Museum of Art and the Logan Museum of Anthropology. Beloit College was founded in 1846 and these two museums were established in 1892 and 1893, respectively. Today, Beloit is recognized for its longstanding commitment to curricular innovation, and its first-year initiatives and international education programs.

In 1892, Helen Brace Emerson donated her personal collection of art to Beloit College and created its first program in art appreciation. Today, the Write Museum houses approximately 4,500 objects, including European and American prints and paintings, college portraits, 19th century historic architecture photos, Soviet political propaganda posters and Asian decorative arts, icons and woodblock prints. The Logan Museum of Anthropology was founded in 1893 with a gift from Beloit College trustee Frank G. Logan of more than 3,000 artifacts that had been exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition. The museum’s collections have grown significantly over the years through additional gifts and purchases and through field expeditions by Beloit College faculty and students. Since it opened, the Logan Museum has focused on hands-on, educational use of collections. The Historical Memorial Hall built in 1869 to honor Beloit College and community members who died in the Civil War, is the museum’s home.

Beloit College is dedicated to employing college students on work study, which makes the staff scheduling process significantly more complicated. Each student’s work schedule is based on their availability between classes, extracurricular activities and personal needs. On top of that, schedules are further complicated with irregularities like exams, field trips, illnesses and breaks, which means schedules can change even at a moment’s notice.

Before ShiftPlanning, the museums were juggling 22 student employees on a single Google Calendar. Students would fill out a paper form indicating their availability, and this could be compiled into a master “availability sheet” comprised of all the students and hours needing staff would be created. Then, on Google Calendar, time slots would be created and student hours would be totaled to keep a fair number of hours and to avoid exceeding the maximum number of work hours for each student. When a student could not work their allocated shift, they needed to email other employees and find a shift trade. Once they decided on a shift trade, they had to email the manager so she could confirm and change the master Google Calendar. This was time consuming and required more communication than necessary.

Since switching to ShiftPlanning, the staff have found a significant reduction in the number of glitches. They have also found ShiftPlanning to be cleaner and easier to use, saving both paper and time in the process. Staff and students find the application to be very efficient, and agree that ShiftPlanning keeps everyone up on their schedule. The automatic communication of schedules and the Message Wall to post reminders have ensured that all student workers are aware of the schedule and the shifts they are working. With more accurate staff scheduling, managers spend less time trying to find replacements for shifts or filling open shifts.

”I would highly recommend ShiftPlanning to anyone who has a lot of staff with differing schedules and needs. I love its versatility and ease of use. The work scheduler tutorial information online is very helpful and so is the staff. Thanks, Ryan, for all your patience!” - Becky Moffett, Beloit College Museums

The ShiftPlanning team appreciates the work done at the Beloit College museums and their dedication to preserving history and hiring student employees. We are delighted to help them with their staff scheduling process and needs. Click here to read a full case study on Beloit College.

Happy Scheduling!

FAQ: How do I add several clock times at once?

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:31:21 CDT

Our robust and flexible online time clock allows you to add multiple clock times at once, saving you valuable time and effort. If you have a backlog of clock times to process, you can upload a .xls or .csv file with the information instead of manually entering them one by one.

To import multiple clock times at once, go to the ‘Time Clock’ tab. Click on ‘Upload Time Sheet’, then ‘Choose File’. Select your file and click ‘Upload’ to upload the file to our application. Imported timesheets will automatically be sent to management for approval before they are added into your confirmed work-time.

ShiftPlanning allows timesheets to be uploaded in both .xls, and .csv format. Please make sure that the spelling for the ‘Name’ and ‘Schedule’ are matched exactly in the system otherwise they will not save. Please see the following format for the exact way to structure including the exact column names and order:

Watch our video below to learn more about importing clock times with our online time clock.

Happy Scheduling!

Recover Cleared Schedules with ShiftPlanning’s New Schedule Restore Feature

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:02:59 CDT

Making mistakes, like accidentally deleting shifts, is inevitable when regularly creating staff schedules. The ability to undo, bring back or restore cleared data is a lifeline to many users. It is immensely reassuring to know that you can always undo your mistakes or recover cleared shifts you previously thought were unnecessary. An easily available undo and restore feature creates a sense of scheduling simplicity because the user always knows schedule information is recoverable. Schedule data that is regularly backed up and accessible gives users a recovery buffer, making the staff scheduling process more robust.

ShiftPlanning previously released the ‘Undo’ feature to our staff scheduler, however, this feature allowed users to restore deleted shifts or schedules within a seven second period. To improve upon this, we have extended undo options with the new ‘Schedule Restore’ feature, which allows cleared schedules (with two or more shifts) from within the past four weeks to be brought back in their entirety. The menu appears as an easy-to-read and organized list, from most recent to least recent schedules. To restore a schedule, you simply need to click on the desired date.

Step-by-step Guide to Restore Schedules
Go to the ‘Schedule’ tab and click on the ‘Action / Settings’ gear icon. The new ‘Schedule Restore’ feature will appear on the drop down menu shown below.

When you click on ‘Schedule Restore’, a list of past events will appear, like this:

From the list, select the shifts you want to restore, and the complete shifts will reappear on your schedule. If there are no shifts in your history, you will see ‘No History Found’ instead of a list of shifts, indicating that you have not cleared any shifts within the last four weeks.

Our new feature will help you undo and avoid the consequences of inadvertent mistakes and gives you access to weeks of cleared schedule information. We hope this new ‘Schedule Restore’ feature serves as a safety net and adds confidence to your staff scheduling process.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Introduces New Mobile App For Employee Scheduling

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:59:01 CDT

ShiftPlanning’s new mobile application incorporates the key employee scheduling and time clock functionality found in the web-based application allowing managers to take care of workforce management needs right from a smartphone. The improved application has an easy-to-use interface that maintains a lightweight feel despite being feature heavy. From the new application, managers can add and assign staff, update the employee schedule, manage timesheets and more. Employees are able to view schedules, use communication lines (Message Wall and Inbox), clock in and out of shifts, see the employee database, and edit profile settings. The app is available to all managers and staff alike at no extra charge to a regular ShiftPlanning subscription and can be accessed by visiting http://www.shiftplanning.com/app from your smartphone, where you will be prompted to login:

Once you login, you will be brought to the Dashboard, shown below. Here, you have access to all your upcoming shifts, message inbox, employee details (including skills and positions) and can log out of the application by clicking on the icons aligned at the top of your screen.

When you click the ‘menu’ link on the upper left corner, a list of tabs will appear on left. Here, you can access the ‘Time Clock’, ‘Schedule’, ‘Requests’, ‘Staff’ and ‘Reports’ tabs.

In the ‘Time Clock’ tab, shown below, you can clock in/out of shifts, see your timesheet and manually add clock times. The clock in and clock out process is the same as on any other electronic device - you can clock in and out of shifts, add notes and select a schedule. As a manager, you can also manage timesheets. By clicking on a shift, you can approve, edit or delete shifts. You, and your employees, can also manually add clock times, just like when you access the ShiftPlanning application from your computer.

In the ‘Schedule’ tab of our mobile application, you can view the schedule by day or month, but will be automatically brought to the present day’s schedule. You can easily scroll left and right to access past and future dates.

You can also see all your employees’ profiles in the ‘Staff’ tab, in two view options: gallery or list. When you click on any of the employees, you will be presented with an overview of their profile, the ability to edit their details and change their password. From our mobile application, you have the ability to add employees and use our ‘Fast Assignment’ feature.

Our ‘Reports Tab’ allows you to review timesheets and all payroll processing.

We hope the new mobile application benefits both employees and management staff by making it even easier to keep up with business needs from anywhere, at anytime! Please feel free to let us know of any feedback, questions or concerns in the comments below or by emailing info@shiftplanning.com.

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning Announces New Online Employee Training Tools

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:32:36 CDT

ShiftPlanning is proud to announce a useful new section of our application that will help you with the employee training process. Our new ‘Training’ tab gives managers the ability to share the most up-to-date tutorials and training modules with employees. The ‘Training’ module allows employees to easily see what topics have been completed, while allowing managers to concurrently keep tabs on training progress. The ‘Training’ module is an easy way to share content with staff, which not only streamlines the staff training process but also saves time and resources on efforts such as communicating policy changes, making company announcements, and much more!

The ‘Training’ tab can be activated within ‘Account Settings’ found in the ‘Admin’ tab. By navigating to the ‘Staff Settings’ section, you’ll see the option ‘Staff Training Module Enabled *Beta'. Selecting the check-box will activate the module.

Within the ‘Training’ module, users will find two primary units: sections and topics. Topics lie within sections, which act as folders that are used to keep your topics organized. When you first click on the ‘Training’ tab, you will see the below overview screen. You will see a full list of all existing sections and topics (topics under their respective sections) and a note that indicates your training progress.

For managers, the ‘Training’ module is an easier way to share training content with staff, streamlining your employee training process. It gives you the power and flexibility to write, edit and update training modules, knowing that your information is always secure.

You have the ability to attach ShiftPlanning tutorials to your training topics and specify which employees are required to complete each tutorial topic. This means that you can keep all your tutorial modules in one place, and still simplify your employees’ lives by only providing them with the tutorials they need. This addition to our application will save you time and effort over traditional methods, and keeps your training tutorials organized and centralized. To learn more and read a step-by-step manager-specific guide, view our training for managers tutorial.

For employees, the ‘Training’ module is an easy and accessible way to work through training topics. Employees can keep track of their training progress, ensuring that they don’t miss or repeat topics.

They can work through the training topics anytime, from any web-based device, allowing them to learn at their own pace, on their own schedule. This flexibility makes the training process easier for employees, particularly new employees that are still getting accustomed to their new environment. Employees are also more likely to retain training information in a self-paced environment. Keeping these training topics available and accessible will make the training process effective, and useful for future reference. To read more about the training process for our employees, read our training for employees tutorial.

We hope that our new training section will help to expedite training processes and look forward to any feedback. Currently, the Training module is in beta and we gladly welcome any comments, questions or concerns. Within the 'Training' tab, you'll see a ‘share feedback’
link that will allow comments to be addressed in the 'Training' forum.

As always, account-specific concerns can be directed to info@shiftplanning.com.

Happy Scheduling!

FAQ: What Do The Shift Icons in the Staff Schedule Mean?

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:41:09 CDT

Have you ever wondered what the icons on each shift represent? Noticed them but haven’t quite figured out what they mean? Well, the shift icons are there to help you to quickly and easily get an overview of key shift information about all your published shifts. Our staff schedule maker allows you to schedule smarter by letting you work with the most up-to-date information in an easy-to-read format. When you hover your mouse over individual shifts, various shift icons will appear giving you signals about the shift at a glance. Below is a list of the icons and an explanation of what they indicate:

Glasses:

This icon shows that the employee has logged in since the shift has posted

Check:

This icon shows that the shift has been approved and confirmed.

Envelope:

This icon lets you know that assigned staff has been notified of the shift

Lock:

This icon signals that the shifts have been published

Duplicate Squares:

This icon indicates that the shift is part of a recurring shift series.

Car:

This icon indicates a shift that is associated with a remote site location.

Swap Arrows:

This icon signals that a shift trade has been initiated.

Parentheses:

This icon shows how many shifts are filled out of how many are available. For example, ‘0/1’ indicates that 0 shifts are filled out of a total of 1.

The envelope and glasses icons can be found in the visual and to list views. The lock icon can be found not only in the visual and list views but also in employee and position view while in week mode.

We hope these shift icons help you expedite your staff scheduling process and give you a greater (and quicker!) overview of your shift schedules.

Happy Scheduling!

Save Management Time With ShiftPlanning's New Online TimeSheet Feature

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:30:10 CDT

At ShiftPlanning, we know that manually approving online timesheets can be cumbersome and time consuming. In fact, bulk timesheet approval was among our most requested features. Given our client driven development ethos, we have added this valuable time saver and hope that it will help you streamline the timesheet management process.

In the ‘Manage Timesheets’ window under the ‘Time Clock’ tab, you can now select and take action on multiple timeclock entries.

When you select one or more clock entries, the bulk action menu will appear in the top right corner of the window.

A ‘Check-All’ option lives in the bulk action menu. When you check that box or have manually selected your desired timesheet entries, you will have options to ‘Approve’, ‘Unapprove’ or ‘Delete’ the selected entries.

When you choose an action (e.g. to approve selected shifts), you will be asked to confirm that you want to complete the action, in a popup window.

Online timesheets are now able to be approved at the blink of an eye. One of the most powerful aspects to this feature is the fact that bulk approvals can be combined with the various filters (location, employee, skills, etc) available in ‘managed timesheets’. We hope this feature is a major timesaver for our users and are very open to any additional feedback. Feel free to let us know your thoughts by commenting below or contacting us at info@shiftplanning.com.

Happy Scheduling!

The Infostrada Sports Group uses ShiftPlanning’s Intuitive Staff Scheduler to Cope With the Fast Paced Sports Industry

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:26:14 CDT

Based in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, the Infostrada Sports Group offers innovative and unique services to the extremely extensive and growing sports industry. They are active in monetizing sports rights, producing, distributing and publicizing sports content. On top of that, they consult their partners in how to get the most out of their owned rights. The Infostrada Sports Group is one of the few companies in the world that can provide this multitude of services.

Cross media exploitation is a core component of all Infostrada Sports Group’s services. They partner with broadcasters, event organizers, sports federations, sports clubs, media agencies, brands, sports marketing agencies, publishers, rights agencies, advertising agencies and more. Coordinating staff schedules with partner schedules, sporting events and more can get overwhelming and rather difficult in this fast paced and dynamic industry. Using a robust staff scheduler is not only ideal, but necessary for a business like Infostrada.

Their Statistics Department is one of their largest departments. They cover over a hundred different sports, the majority of it live, and deliver data to their clients. Around the turn of the century, Infostrada had about a dozen employees. Now, the Statistic Department alone is comprised of around 60 full-time staff and 80 part-time student employees. Until 2009, they relied on Excel based scheduling to deal with the ever changing and flexible world of sports. They would rely on their part-time employees to submit their monthly availability, updated a master sheet and then manually emailed staff to inform them of their upcoming shifts.

As their company grew, they realized that the Excel-based scheduling had become extremely inefficient and time consuming. Additionally, it was hard to get a good overview of the staff schedule. Between the lack of schedule visualization and the increasing confusion coordinating staff availability, the Infostrada Sports Group searched for a staff scheduler that would save time and, more importantly, reduce the amount of communication during the planning process.

After searching and trying out a few scheduling applications, they made the switch to ShiftPlanning. They were impressed with our responsive team and our open reception to feedback. The Infostrada Sports Group has found that our staff scheduler has drastically reduced the time of their scheduling procedure. With tools like our Message Wall, communication is effective, accurate and kept to a minimum with our automated shift notification tools, with staff receiving an email notification when schedules are published.

”We could not even imagine how are scheduling would work without ShiftPlanning.” - Joost Hamilton, Live Coordinator at the Infostrada Sports Group

They have also found our shift trade system particularly useful, also eliminating unnecessary back and forth communication as management can remove themselves from the shift trade process. The detailed business archives, reports and data overviews automatically generated with our workforce management software have also helped Infostrada gain greater business insight and more effective general management.

We are excited to help the Infostrada Sports Group scale up and grow their business effectively and easily with our effective and easy-to-use staff scheduler. You can read a full case study here.

Happy Scheduling!

Are workforce management tools keeping up with the times?

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:30:08 CDT

As society progresses, we demand better and more efficient workforce management tools to complete our business tasks. Shifts like the new tablet era are making big changes to our lifestyle and our world. For example, New York City is looking to update their payphones and replace them with 32-inch tablets that are waterproof, dust-proof and regularly cleaned. The city plans to release these “smart screens” with Internet access next month inside 250 old phone booths throughout the city. The free touch-screen technology will provide users with local information, nearby restaurant information, retail details and more - all in multiple languages. Meanwhile, a recent Forrester study has shown that the introduction of the tablet into our lives has decreased our use of most devices significantly. Laptop usage has decreased, 35%; print books usage has decreased 32%; desktop computer usage has decreased 30% - just to name a few. However, online video usage has increased by 20%. This is somewhat reflective of how “tuned in” we are with the Internet, and shows how tablet ownership is changing the amount of time people spend with different devices and media resources.

Our need to stay tuned in to the online world, and our dependence on up-to-date electronic technology is rapidly increasing. Applying that to our everyday workforce management, and you see our daily need for online workforce management tools. The mechanical time clock was invented in 1888, and since then, companies have used a wide variety of tools and updated technologies to refine this process. While there are companies that use traditional time clocks, in today’s world, the most effective time clocks have evolved to necessitate Internet access, on top or our constant demand for timeliness, accuracy and ease of use in every aspect of business. This concept drives our need for effecient workforce management tools.

With the extensive workforce management tools available today, there are no excuses for inaccurate business reports, time card calculations or payroll process. ShiftPlanning offers an intuitive and easy-to-use workforce management software application that solves your business problems. The application is easily accessible from any electronic device with wi-fi capabilities, and at any time. You can access our application on your tablet device by going to shiftplanning.com/app/ipad. Make sure you are keeping up with society as it becomes more and more dependent on online resources, and make the change to our web-based workforce management software.

Happy Scheduling!

Avoid Repetition with ShiftPlanning’s File Sharing Feature

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:55:13 CDT

Simple file sharing within a business is imperative, especially with society’s growing need to have information and files at our fingertips. Emailing updated files back and forth and saving them on your computer is repetitive and can lead to chaos and confusion. It becomes increasingly complicated when working with multiple individuals, who may not be working with the most recent version of a document. Sometimes files are too large to send over the Internet, and it is a hassle to use external hard drives or USB devices. Whether you are collaborating on PowerPoint presentations, business spreadsheets, images and logos, or general word documents, our file management process is simple and allows you to securely share important files with your staff.

ShiftPlanning’s file sharing feature gives you greater control over your shared files and makes the file sharing process easy and up-to-date. Avoid confusion and repetition, and instead share the most recent and relevant files. Our integrated file sharing tools streamline the way you collaborate and communicate with your employees, in an easy, accessible and cost effective manner. The files you upload are safe and secure, and also backed up like the rest of your business data. When you share a file or document, your employees will see and be able to download the files straight from the Dashboard. With our integrated and multifaceted workforce management software, you and your employees can collaborate and work together from one centralized platform.

To share files, first go to the ‘Admin’ tab. Scroll down to the ‘Files’ heading on the left column and you will see two links: ‘List Files’ and ‘Upload New’.

To upload a new file, click the ‘Upload Files’ link. Click the ‘Choose file’ button and select the file you wish to share with your employees. You may upload the following file types: .swf, .jpg, .gif, .bmp, .png, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf, .txt, .xml, .xsl, .css, .zip, .rar, .avi, .mpeg, .wmv, .mpg, .mov, .mp3, .wav, .psd.

Your file will be listed in the current files listing and other users will be able to see it and download it. If you no longer want to have the file hosted in your ShiftPlanning account, you can delete it by clicking the delete ‘X’ button located on the right of the file.

Here, you can also see the file size, the date and time it was uploaded and the number of times it has been downloaded.

File sharing with your employees is easy, secure and manageable with our workforce management software. Our centralized platform means that you can address all your business needs from one place, keeping your business and paperwork organized.

Watch our video tutorial below to learn more about sharing files:

Happy Scheduling!

Expedite Your Staff Scheduling Process With Automatically Recurring Shifts

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:47:30 CDT

Creating regular shift schedules can be repetitive and time consuming if you have to re-create the schedule each week. The ability to set recurring shifts greatly expedites the scheduling process, making your staff scheduling process hassle-free. You can set shift information once and have them repeat up to three years in the future. We also give you several options with your recurring shifts, so you can still customize them to suit your needs.

To get started, go to the ‘Schedule’ tab and click on the shift you want to repeat. This ‘Shift Edit’ window will appear, like below:

Click on the ‘Never Repeats’ link on the bottom left hand corner, which will bring up the ‘Repeat Shift’ options on the right hand side of the pop-up window.

Here you can open the drop down menu under ‘Set Shifts to Repeat:’ and select your desired recurring interval.

Once you have selected the recurring interval, select an end date for the recurring shift. When you click on the calendar icon, you can select the year from the drop down box, scroll left and right for your desired month and finally click on the specific day of the month you want the end the recurring shift.

Once you have selected the end date, you have the option to set the shift to recur with or without the designated employees. If you select the ‘Shift Time Only’ option, only the shift times will be repeated. If you select the ‘With Employees’ option, the shift will be set to recur in the future with the current employee details that you have set up for that shift. This would include open shift rules.

When you are satisfied with your recurring shift settings, click the green ‘Set to Repeat!’ button.

Deleting Recurring Shifts
Deleting recurring shifts is quick and easy. Simply click the shift you want to delete to open the ‘Shift Edit’ popup window. If you click the trash can icon on the bottom right, you will see three options, shown below. Once you select your desired option, click ‘Delete’.

Editing Recurring Shifts
To make edits to your recurring shifts, click on the shift to open the ‘Shift Edit’ window.

When you click on the ‘Repeats’ button on the bottom left corner of the window, you will see the ‘Update Series’ area will appear on the right.

In the drop down menu under ‘Update:’, you have three update options. Make your selection based on what changes you want to make to the selected recurring shift. Then select the information that you would like to include in the update (i.e. position; start/end time; title, notes, locations; type & staff needed (open); and/or scheduled employees (if closed)). Once you have made your selections, click the green ‘Update Series!’ button.

We hope that these recurring shift tools will save you time and allow you to create flawless staff schedules.

Happy Scheduling!

FAQ: What web browsers does ShiftPlanning's online scheduling application support?

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:47:42 CDT

ShiftPlanning’s application is available on any electronic device with Internet access, making it extremely convenient, secure and easy-to-use. Our web-based employee scheduling software is available on and compatible with any platform with a web browser and Internet connection: Mac, Windows and Linux are all supported. ShiftPlanning supports all of the latest web browsers. Our application has been tested and known to work in:
- Internet Explorer 7+
- Google Chrome 4+
- Firefox 3+
- Safari 4+

However for the best experience, we recommend using Chrome, Firefox or Safari as Internet Explorer still lags behind these browsers in performance and features. In the instance that your browser is not supported (e.g. you do not have a modern version of your browser installed), you will see a message notification on your dashboard upon login.

For users who prefer not using a browser to access our application or do not have access to a compatible modern browser, ShiftPlanning offers a desktop employee scheduling application. You can download a desktop version of our application that incorporates all of the functionality of our web-based application, and allows you to take care of all your scheduling needs right from within the application without needing to open a web-browser. Our desktop application is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, and is free for our users. All that you need is Internet access and one of the following operating systems:
- Windows XP SP3+
- Windows 7
- Apple Mac OSX 10.6.X (Snow Leopard)
- Apple Mac OSX 10.7 (Lion)
- Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

If you experience any problems with using ShiftPlanning in your browser, please make sure you are running on the latest version of your browser. If you are still experiencing difficulties or have any additional questions about our downloadable desktop version, feel free to let us know at info@shiftplanning.com.

Happy Scheduling!

The Four Winds Coffee & Tea Creates a Safe Space For College Students with ShiftPlanning’s Time Saving Staff Scheduler

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:43:24 CDT

Open since 2009, the Four Winds Coffee & Tea is part of a non-profit organization called the Christ Center, which opened in 2004. Located in Grand Junction, Colorado, the Christ Center’s mission is to offer college students a safe and fun place to socialize. The Four Winds Coffee & Tea offers a locally roasted cup of coffee and gives students a place to hang out and help sustain the Christ Center mission. They spice things up with deals and specials, and host free events like swing dancing lessons last month. With coffee, freshly baked food, free wi-fi and an abundance of study spaces, the Four Winds Coffee & Tea is not only an awesome coffee shop, but also provides students with accessible resources and events, and a welcoming environment.

The Four Winds Coffee & Tea grew from one employee when the coffee shop opened, to the present eight, of which the majority are college students. Balancing busy lives, dynamic class schedules and holidays is difficult to keep up with. They also provide an opportunity for local community members to serve the students, fostering a great sense of community. Previously, they physically wrote out staff schedules, which sometimes took hours. Open from 6am till midnight during the week and 8am till midnight on Saturdays, they have four or more daily shifts to fill with their small staff group and community volunteers. With one director to manage the coffee shop duties and the staff scheduling, they found their pen and paper scheduling method to be time consuming and difficult to manage.

Since they have switched to ShiftPlanning, they have seen vast improvements in their staff scheduling process and communication. In particular, the Four Winds Coffee & Tea have found our availability tools particularly useful, as they are able to see who is available for each shift time, allocate them to the shift and be done. And even with only eight employees, our ‘Message Wall’ is still an extremely useful means of employee communication. Any staff member can sign into their profile and post a public message which is immediately visible to all other employees. The integration of communication lines into the staff scheduler has made the director and her employees’ lives much easier and more organized.

As a nonprofit, money and time are things they cherish and try to use as wisely as they can. Instead of the director working extra hours to cut payroll costs, switching to ShiftPlanning allows them to keep staff scheduling time to a minimum. Using an efficient and time-saving staff scheduling software helps the Four Winds Coffee & Tea spend more time focusing on the student customers.

”The work scheduler ShiftPlanning is much more time effective. For me, that’s great. I would recommend ShiftPlanning, yes! It is an easy way to manage scheduling and a great way to communicate with all employees at one time. I love ShiftPlanning.” -Karen Lidberg, Four Winds Coffee & Tea

The Four Winds Coffee & Tea provides a safe and comfortable space for college students is important for any college. They are welcoming and focus on creating a sense of community and do so in a fun and exciting way. ShiftPlanning is happy to provide our staff scheduler and be a part of a giving organization like the Four Winds Coffee & Tea.

Click here to read a full case study on the Four Winds Coffee & Tea.

Happy Scheduling!

How Does the Easter Bunny Do It All In One Night? Effective & Flexible Scheduling!

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:37:40 CDT

The Easter Bunny is on a tight schedule...how will he manage?

The ShiftPlanning Wizard is to the rescue! ...AND dressed in theme!

For many years, the Easter Bunny struggled with managing a dynamic and ever-changing holiday schedule. All of our holiday figures have many tasks to check off their to do lists, and they are bound to run into some scheduling challenges. Some tasks take a little longer than expected, the Easter Bunny might get lost on an easter egg delivery... the curveballs are endless.

Beyond those on holiday duty, flexibility is important for any business, and being able to successfully deal with last minute changes or unexpected events will significantly help a business thrive. Schedules change, emergencies happen and things don’t always go according to plan. Our accessible, alterable and flexible scheduler can make day-to-day operations run smoothly and without many hiccups. Flexibility, though it greatly helps build greater job satisfaction, is an often overlooked aspect of a well-functioning schedule.

Just like helping the Easter Bunny with the holiday rush, ShiftPlanning’s staff scheduling software can give employees some leeway making scheduler’s lives easier. By offering staff flexibility, you can lower conflicts, recover from unexpected changes quickly and reduce turnover. Our application is not only an accessible and robust online staff scheduling and shift trading system to organize our staff schedules but also an important communication software. You or your employees can easily contact one another from any web-based device to communicate any unexpected shift conflicts or changes. When shift trades occur, all involved parties will be notified to ensure that the trade is not overlooked. Between our intuitive workforce management platform, up-to-date scheduler, accessible application and multiple means of communication, flexibility is a worry of the past.

As the web’s most easy-to-use workforce management software, ShiftPlanning is so intuitive that it could be implemented at the Holiday Headquarters. If you have questions on how we can help improve your business operations, please feel free to let us know at info@shiftplanning.com.

Happy Scheduling & Happy Easter!

Generate Workforce Management Reports for Better Business Insights

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:16:46 CDT

Generating and reviewing workforce management reports is important to running a successful business. It is essential to keep good, detailed report archives for business reviews and it saves time and effort to keep these records organized and in a single place. We understand that it is also necessary to have access to your reports at a moment’s notice, from anywhere. It is for this reason that we designed our intuitive online scheduling program with an integrated, real time report tool that generates reports based on the data you need. The reports are exact, accurate and detailed and give you customizing options. ShiftPlanning offers efficient report tools that are well integrated into our workforce management software, keeping all your data secure, backed up, organized and accessible.

From your ShiftPlanning account, you can access and review schedule, timesheet, employee and payroll related reports. You can check and generate workforce management reports on schedule summaries, shift exchanges, schedule hours, timesheet attendance, employee statistics, payroll data, and more. When you open a report, you will see several filter options (time, date, location, position, employee or skills), and all reports are ready to print or export at any time.

To use reports, go to the ‘Reports’ tab and you will see the screen below. There are several types of reports that you can generate to keep track of staff, scheduling, payroll and other information. The most common reports are listed on the main screen, along with a short explanation for each. You can select a report from the ‘Reports’ list on the left-hand side of your screen.

For example, if you click ‘Schedule Summary’, you will see a screen similar to the one below.

You can choose one of our ‘Timeline’ options or enter specific dates, in the top left corner of the window. All timeline options are held when switching between different reports. This makes reporting significantly faster when switching between report types with different options and staff selected.

You can also filter the reports by location, position or employee by clicking on any of the options from the dropdown menu in the top right corner.

You have the option to print or export each report by clicking the options ‘Print Report’ or ‘Save as a .CSV’ on the top right. Choosing the ‘Save as a .CSV’ option will save the report in a .csv format to your computer.

If you need to generate a workforce management report that is not available, just contact us with your request. We are always looking for client input as we continuously work to improve our interface and usability.

Happy Scheduling!

FAQ: Where Can I Find Guides and Tutorials?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:50:29 CDT

In our ongoing effort to deliver performance and a responsive experience for our users, ShiftPlanning offers free guides and tutorials that are available 24/7. They are part of our support system which provides you with resources to help guide you through our application, answer any immediate questions and provide you with resources to refresh your memory or learn more about any part of our workforce management software.

You can access these topics through the ShiftPlanning application itself. When you sign into your account, you will be brought to the ‘Dashboard’ tab. On the left navigation bar, click on ‘Support’ which will bring you to the screen below. Here, you can click on any of the topics listed to read more about each topic, or search for a topic or keyword.

Quick Search
ShiftPlanning has a powerful search tool, incorporated in the application. It is a great shortcut for any user that has the ability to fetch information from every alley of the ShiftPlanning application platform instantly. From anywhere in the application, you can hover your mouse over the red space by your profile picture icon on the right, top corner and the below search box will appear. Here, you can quickly and easily search for tutorials and user guides to find immediate help.

This intuitive search tool will save you time and will easily locate the information you need.

Community Forum
Alternatively, you can see all guide and tutorial topics in our forum. Our community forums give you a chance to voice your opinions on what we should be developing as well as to ask questions about our application or simply to discuss workforce related topics with like-minded individuals. Don't be shy; we are very active with our community and would love to hear your ideas!

We hope that you find the answers you seek with our 24/7 support, search tools, forums, guides and tutorials. ShiftPlanning is happy to provide the resources to make your scheduling and employee management process easier and faster.

Happy Scheduling!

Team Expansion Successfully Organizes Major Events With Our Online Scheduler

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:37:08 CDT

Organizing major events can be frantic and overwhelming, especially when hundreds of individuals from all over the country, and world, are coming to take part. Team Expansion host and organize events as part of their mission to connect churches and individuals with the vision, coaching, resources and tools to accelerate the fulfillment of making the Bible and its message available to people all over the world. They began as a prayer movement on the campus of the then-Kentucky Christian College in 1978. Team Expansion has embarked upon a journey where they believe they will be able to find partners to help them reach further than ever before. Team Expansion participates with several organizations including a campaign, U4theU was first launched at the 2011 North American Christian Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. In his keynote address, convention President, Dudley Rutherford, asked churches and individuals to get serious about unreached peoples and cities.

Team Expansion began with two volunteers, and currently have over 340 full-time adult employees who are joined by hundreds of volunteers. They serve in 46 countries in 70 distinct projects. On top of their regular routines, Team Expansion is involved in many events and activities, which are integrated into their calendars. When they stage a major event such as the convention in Cincinnati, it gets crazy. Employees and volunteers fly in from all over the country, and almost fifty countries overseas. With so many participants, it is impossible for Team Expansion to meet with all employees and volunteers in advance to discuss scheduling. With hundreds of haphazard emails flying back and forth, just creating more confusion, Team Expansion sought an effective, online scheduling solution.

Staying organized and promoting a functional team dynamic is difficult and there are bound to be hiccups along the way. Eliminating schedule related issues from the list of management headaches helps events run smoothly and makes the experience much more enjoyable for all individuals involved. Since they have switched to ShiftPlanning, organizing events has become much easier for Team Expansion. Working with the online scheduler, they can easily keep track of open shifts and know exactly how many more volunteers or staff are needed for any given shift. All scheduling information is in one place and is always up-to-date. Team Expansion no longer needs to worry about missing emails about shift changes or availability or forgetting to send reminders to staff about shift times. This process is automated with the ShiftPlanning online scheduling application, allowing staff to set their own availability, trade shifts, be reminded of shift times and more.

”We have found the ShiftPlanning team to be very responsive. We are grateful for the customer-centered approach that the staff takes at ShiftPlanning...ShiftPlanning lets us see the forest AND the trees.” - Doug Lucas, Team Expansion

Overall, ShiftPlanning’s staff scheduler allows Team Expansion to be significantly more organized to serve our constituents. Our flexible tools allow every user type, whether they are event organizers, full-time staff or volunteers, to access the staff schedule. The customizable interface allows Team Expansion to fulfill their event scheduling and organizational needs in an intuitive and timely manner.

Click here to learn more about Team Expansion.

Happy Scheduling!

Control Your Employees’ Access Settings with Our Employee Management Software

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:42:59 CDT

ShiftPlanning gives managers access to control a wide variety of settings and permission levels to customize the way you and your employees use our workforce management software. As a manager, you have complete control over the application, your settings and your employees. We understand that every business requires slightly different settings and has different preferences when it comes to employee permission levels. For example, some organizations want to restrict employees to clock in an out of shifts in real time and removing their ability to manually enter previous shift times; while others want to round employee clock in / out times to penalize them for arriving late or leaving early from their shifts. We allow you to create an application environment that best suits your employee management needs by giving you the ability to assign staff privileges.

Our staff settings options give you control over what is viewable to employees within their ShiftPlanning account profiles. While reports are already limited to employee specific information with each profile with employee permissions, managers can choose to disallow reports in their entirety. Sometimes it is important to limit your staff permission levels for privacy reasons or to monitor / limit their activity, and our employee management software gives you the option to customize your staff settings.

Employees can view reports
We give you the options to allow employees to see their own reports, such as schedule summaries or timesheets. If this is unchecked, your employees will not be able to view any reports.

Employees can edit their profile
You can also allow your staff to edit their own profiles to ensure that their staff information is always accurate and up-to-date. They have ability to edit their email address, home address, phone number, email and more. If this is unchecked, they will not have access to change any of their personal information.

Employees can view staff gallery
here, you can allow your employees to see the staff gallery, which will give them the opportunity to familiarize themselves with their fellow colleagues. If this is unchecked, they will not be able to see any other staff names or profile pictures.

Employees can view staff contact details (staff gallery must be checked)
You can allow your employees to not only see the names of their colleagues, but also have access to view their colleagues’ ShiftPlanning profiles. This gives your staff access to other employees’ contact information, allowing them to deal with any pertinent issues among themselves, leaving you out as the middleman.

Employees can send private messages
Here, you can give your employees permission to send private messages to one another from the ShiftPlanning application itself, saving valuable time. They will be able to send private messages to all staff and management staff. If this is unchecked, your employees will be unable to send private messages, but will still have access to the public message wall.

Employees can view “Who’s on now”
Lastly, you can give your staff the ability to see who is currently scheduled for a shift in what we call “Who’s on now”. This is visible on their Dashboard, which is the first screen that appears when they sign into their account. If this option is unchecked, your employees will not be able to see who is scheduled for the current shift.

To access your staff settings, click on the ‘Admin’ tab and then the ‘Account Settings’ link in the left navigation.

Scroll down to the subheading ‘Staff Settings’ where you will see the above mentioned list of items and check boxes.

Any item that you check will be applied to all your employees.

With 24/7 access to our employee management software, you can manage these settings at any time, from anywhere, giving you complete control over your staff and their permission levels.

Watch the video below to learn more about ‘Staff Settings’:

Happy Scheduling!

ShiftPlanning's Workforce Management Software Now Supports Single Sign-On (SSO)

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:59:47 CDT

With our latest release, ShiftPlanning now supports Secure Assertion Markup Language (SAML), which allows us to provide Single Sign-on (SSO). Single Sign On can improve security through centralizing access and removing the need for individual users to manage multiple individual passwords. Single Sign On also reduces costs related to user administration in both the cases of onboarding and offboarding.

Some Key benefits to using SAML in Your Organization

Directory integration - Since SAML does not use passwords to sign users in, it makes it easy to integrate with an enterprise’s directory and let users sign in with their network password. Directory integration is achieved indirectly through the identity provider who typically offers extensive functionality in this area.
Elimination of user passwords - Security is increased since users do not have to remember multiple passwords and also prevents unwanted entities from stealing passwords and gaining unauthorized access.
Centralizing access control - SAML forces users to always authenticate in one place – at the identity provider – which makes it possible to enforce multi-factor authentication and monitor all sign-in activity for enterprise apps.
Increased productivity - SAML provides users one-click access via single sign-on which saves times and energy on behalf of each user and for the enterprise as a whole.

Configuring Single Sign-on (SSO) in ShiftPlanning

Users with access to the 'admin' tab of the application will see "Single Sign-On" in the left navigation under 'Integration'.

To get started with configuration, make sure the "SAML Enabled" checkbox is clicked. To enable SSO for Shiftplanning, the administrator will need a SAML Issuer URL and a X.509 Certificate found from their SAML server. These two pieces of information will need to be entered in their respective fields and are required for ShiftPlanning to communicate with your SAML server. (*Some SAML servers may also request a Consumer Service URL (ACS) which is found on the right-hand side of the 'single sign-on' section of the admin tab).

Once SSO is configured, users will be redirected to the SAML server for authentication upon login. Users identities can be stored either on the SAML server or validated by an identity provider such as Active Directory or LDAP. After authentication, users will be redirected to ShiftPlanning for application use.

ShiftPlanning & OneLogin Partnership

Though a partnership with OneLogin, ShiftPlanning has joined top notch cloud services like Zendesk, Yammer, and Salesforce who already have a place in its directory. A SAML server can either be built in-house or offered from a service provider. OneLogin is a leading provider of identity & access management for enterprise web apps. As part of our relationship with OneLogin, their team has extended a special offer to ShiftPlanning customers:

If you're not already a OneLogin subscriber, you can use OneLogin for free with ShiftPlanning plus directory integration.

More information on signing up with OneLogin can be found here.

Happy Scheduling!

FAQ: How Do I Copy Staff Schedules?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:01:41 CDT

ShiftPlanning’s robust employee scheduling and workforce management software makes everything you do faster and more efficient. Our “Copy Schedule” feature is used to speed up the staff scheduling process, for any size scheduling challenge. Re-creating schedules can be time consuming, especially if you have complicated schedules, multiple locations or a large staff group. It is time consuming and mundane to create the same schedule over and over again. ShiftPlanning’s “Copy Schedule” feature will eliminate the hassles associated with managing and creating employee schedules and allows you to create shifts quickly and accurately. You can add employees to any schedule and keep your scheduling process running as efficiently as possible.

Copy Schedules with the ‘Schedule Copy’ Feature
Copying your schedules is easy and requires far fewer steps, and can be done in a fraction of the time that you would normally need to manually create each schedule. Firstly, go to the ‘Schedule’ tab and find the date and show the period, whether by day, week or month, that you want to copy to. To copy a schedule to that selected period, click on the ‘Action / Settings’ gear shaped icon, shown below, and click on ‘Schedule Copy’ that will appear the drop down menu.

You will see the screen below:

You can select the ‘From’ date. This goes up to the day that is just before the date that you will be copying to. If you want to change the end date, click cancel and navigate to that date on the schedule and click the ‘Schedule Copy’ option again.

You can then select if you want to ‘Copy shift times only’ or ‘Copy shift times and employee assignments’ which will copy the associated employees with the shifts. To complete the copying process, click ‘Copy Shifts’.

Copy Shifts with the Schedule Wizard
The Schedule Wizard allows schedulers to automatically assign shifts to eligible employees and complete staff schedules within seconds. Select past timelines and schedules to use as a template to auto-fill with new staff assignments. To access the Schedule Wizard, click on “Schedule Wizard” on the drop down menu that appears when you click on the “Action / Settings” gear shaped icon, as shown above. You will see the following pop-up window:

Here, you can select dates for the timeline by following the same process as above. You can also select one of three wizard method options, which gives you control over the copying process. You can choose to copy the selected schedule with the staff assigned to each shift, only replacing staff when a conflict is found. Alternatively, you can also replace all staff with new assignments and obey conflict checks, or randomize staff assignments and ignore conflict checks. Finally, you are able to check the option to assign staff to open / empty shifts if there is a shortage of staff, even if it results in a schedule conflict.

The schedule that is generated it run against our conflict avoidance system to eliminate as many conflicts as possible, creating a conflict-free schedule for you.

Copy Shifts With Hotkey Shortcuts
Hotkeys are keyboard shortcuts that allow users to increase work speed. ShiftPlanning's hotkeys help users save time in navigating the employee scheduler and switching between the various date ranges and views. We have a couple of shortcuts that allows you to copy shifts even faster.

- Click & Drag Shift To Desired Date
- c: To Copy

This tool allows you to copy staff schedules, making your overall scheduling process faster, more accurate and generally smoother. We hope you find this useful!

Happy Scheduling!

Staff Scheduler Helps Wardenburg Center Promote Community Health

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:51:17 CDT

Established in 1988, Community Health serves as the public health division of the Wardenburg Health Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder. They help students develop necessary skills to make informed choices about health and well-being both at school and beyond is priceless. Three years ago, they began the process of integrating three small departments with specific focuses into one single department with a comprehensive public health mission to educate students about health issues that have an impact on persistence and completion in school. This integration process has been challenging, particularly because it requires more cooperation and communication among workers. The work flow has become exponentially more complex now that they are working with several small departments and juggle the schedules of staff of varying commitment levels.

Despite expanding from a single employee to thirty employees, comprised of student employees, professional staff, interns and volunteers, Community Health has made an effort to maintain staff involvement and input. Juggling changing student schedules that change each semester, have breaks, midterms and last minute deadlines, is always a challenge. Keeping track of staff schedules, classes, workshops, meetings and impending tasks was difficult and overwhelming, particularly when using pen and paper based scheduling. On top of that, Community Health’s work entails providing presentations and other health related activities to a 30,000 person campus. Catering to students of the University of Colorado, Community Health are forced to manage a very variable and dynamic staff schedule between different classrooms, presentation areas and student groups. ShiftPlanning’s software allows management to create different staff positions for more coordinated and organized schedules while also allowing the users to use remote site locations in their shift schedules. This helps organizations like Community Health who need to schedule shifts and events outside of their primary locations.

Since Community Health switched to ShiftPlanning, they have seen significant improvements across the board, including their time efficiency. Acknowledging the very constrained fiscal environment that they work in, the staff at Community Health have improved their scheduling system by leaps and bounds, saving them valuable time. Student workers can log in to their personal ShiftPlanning accounts and check their schedules from anywhere, at any time, which is essential. Communication, which is especially important in organizations with busy staff, has improved incredibly and all staff now have the ability to respond to presentation requests, shift changes and more.

”ShiftPlanning really saved me and therefore all of us... [they] have preserved my sanity and made this all possible. I would absolutely recommend the employee schedule maker ShiftPlanning to others. The ShiftPlanning team is helpful and creative. OMG, ShiftPlanning has made it possible to do scheduling.” -Lee Scriggins, Community Health, Wardenburg Health Center

Through workshops, classes and one-on-one conversations, their trained staff and volunteers address stress, sleep, body image, sexual health, tobacco use, relationship wellness, alcohol toxicity, food and society and how to help others effectively. The ShiftPlanning team is delighted to provide our service to organizations that promote health and wellbeing and create a safe community like Community Health.

Click here to read the full case study on Community Health, Wardenburg Health Center.

Happy Scheduling!

Get Employees Involved in Scheduling to Improve Staff Communication

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:16:17 CDT

Employee input and effective staff communication is critical to running a successful and efficient business. From an employee’s perspective, there is nothing more frustrating than having a manager create schedule without any employee input. With employee involvement in the scheduling process, you can gain valuable feedback on shift hours and scheduling as well as create conflict free staff schedules. Furthermore, you will make the employees feel like they are being heard, respected and they will consequently be more likely to accept the schedule and shifts they are working, complain less and be more present and positive at work. Employee input is particularly important in businesses where management staff are not working on a shift schedule, as there may be kinks or issues that would normally fly under the radar.

Although it is impossible to keep everyone happy at all times, you should make employee input a priority when it comes to creating a staff schedule. Employee input is critical, as is avoiding a dictatorial position when creating schedules. If your employees feel like they have no say in the matter and cannot voice their opinions, they will grow to resent you and this will ultimately reflect poorly on your business. Providing the resources for easy and effective staff communication as well as encouraging employee input will raise morale and productivity, while lowering absenteeism, generating a greater and more desirable workplace. Employees will feel more involved in the staff scheduling process, which creates a greater sense of community that will be visible to your customers and clients.

Staff scheduling software like the one that ShiftPlanning offers gives you the opportunity to seek out employee opinions and suggestions on a regular basis and find ways to improve the staff scheduling process. It pays to be conscientious and thoughtful when creating your schedule. With our application, you will avoid scrambling to fill in for absent employees and dealing with other staff scheduling headaches. Effective communication of employee availability means that you will have less shift trades to approve and there will be fewer misunderstandings with the work schedule. This is all possible with our multifaceted workforce management software.

ShiftPlanning’s online staff scheduling software provides you with the necessary tools to communicate effectively with your employees and enables you to create schedules based on employee input. Your employees can indicate their weekly availability through their personal profiles, and this enables you, as a manager, to create conflict free schedules. Giving employees the freedom and responsibility of shift trading and filling open shifts is possible with our application, and this gives them power that they seek in their personal shift schedule. ShiftPlanning’s workforce management software encourages and enables employee input from all angles of staff scheduling, helping you create an effective and enjoyable workplace.

Happy Scheduling!

Customize Our Online Time Clock Software to Improve Employee Clocking Behavior

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:40:39 CDT

Accurate time clocking and employee timeliness are important factors to a successful and smooth-running business. A key way to better clock behavior and employee attendence is to provide an incentive for timeliness by penalizing your employees for arriving late or leaving early. Automatically rounding clock in/out times to shorten an employee’s paid hours will improve your staff clock behavior as employees will gain no benefit from trying to ‘ride the clock’ to jump them up over the next time increment. Penalizing employees for their lack of timeliness will encourage more attentiveness and promptness, building a healthy work environment and boosting your business productivity.

ShiftPlanning’s online time clock software accurately tracks and calculates employee work hours giving you peace of mind. We give you complete control to customize clock time rounding rules, lock clocking in/out to certain locations, only enable clock in/out within a certain number of minutes of shift start/end time and more. ShiftPlanning’s workforce management software has two settings are applied within the online time clock software at the time of employee clock in / out. These two settings round the clock in and clock out times up or down, respectively, to the nearest desired increment of time (e.g. 5mins, 10mins, etc.).

For example, if an employee is meant to start their shift at 9am and you have the clock in set to round up to the nearest 15 minutes, and they arrive late to their shift (say 9:03am), their clock in time will automatically be rounded up to 9:15am. Thus, they have essentially lost a quarter of an hour from their pay and their ‘late’ presence is clearly noted in your Time Sheet attendance report. If these settings are enabled we will communicate to staff at clock in/out time what their 'actual' clock-time will be on their timesheet based on the current time and rounding rule set by management.

To see the ‘Round Clock Times’ settings, go to the ‘Admin’ tab and click ‘Account Settings’ on the left hand side. Scroll down to ‘Time Clock Settings’ where you will see the following list:

Here, you can customize your time clock options and settings. For example, if you have staff that frequently come late or leave early, you can now adjust the round clock in and clock out times to deflect this.

From an employee’s perspective, we have tried to make this communication as clear as possible within our online time clock software. When staff clock in and out of their shifts, we provide full visibility of what is going on. We let them know that management has set clock in and out times to round up or down, respectively. The new rounded clock in or clock out time will also be visible. For example, below the employee clocked out at 11:53 and this clock out time was rounded down to the nearest 15 minutes, thus clock out will now report as 11:45.

As a manager, it is important to monitor employee attendance and ShiftPlanning’s integrated online time clock software gives you greater control over your customizable time clock settings. Provide incentives for your employees with restricted clocking settings and improve your employees’ attendance and work ethic.

Watch the video below to learn more about rounding clock in and clock out times.

Happy Scheduling!

FAQ: As A Manager, How Do I Handle Vacation Requests?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:29:29 CDT

Keeping track of and managing vacation requests can be troublesome, especially for larger organizations. With many other tasks on your mind, remembering vacation requests when creating staff schedules on top of the responsibility of granting vacation time to employees can be challenging. Having a vacation planner like the integrated vacation system in ShiftPlanning’s human resource management software removes the headaches involved in managing multiple employees’ vacation requests and schedules. A vacation planner gives the employee a sense of control and responsibility as they are part of the process. Well integrated into our multifaceted application means that vacation requests are processed faster and all involved parties are notified instantly.

When an employee requests vacation time through the ShiftPlanning workforce and human resource management software, users with management access will receive a notification email. Vacation requests that require attention will also appear on the Dashboard, visible so they are not missed. Schedulers, Supervisors and Managers have access to the Vacation Management section of the Vacation Request system. This section is used to approve or deny vacation requests from employees.

To get started, go to the ‘Requests’ tab and click ‘Vacation’ as shown below.

The ’Vacation Management’ section will display any pending employee vacation requests, future vacation requests and past vacation requests in a list. To approve or reject vacation time, click the appropriate link next to the request. You will see the following screen if you approve the vacation request and there are resulting schedule conflicts.

You can also click the ‘Show Details’ link to view any notes that the employee included with the vacation request.

Once the vacation time is approved or denied, the employee will receive a notification email regarding the status of the vacation request.

The ’Awaiting Approval’ section shows any approvals that you have personally that need approval.

The ’Upcoming time off:’ section shows any upcoming time off that you have personally.

Under the 'Schedule time off:' section you can schedule time off for any employee. Just select the desired employee, choose the ‘From’ date, choose the ‘To’ date, add any ‘Comments’ and click ‘Submit Request’. Now, you can Approve or Reject this request in the ‘Vacation Management’ section, as described above.

Viewing Vacations in the Scheduler
To see the all vacation requests in the scheduler, you can click the ‘Click Here to view/manage all approved Vacation Requests’ link the ‘Vacation’ section of the ‘Requests Tab’. Alternatively, go the ‘Schedule’ tab and check ‘Vacation Schedule’. In the 'Vacation' view, you can visualize which employees are spending time off in a calendar format.

From here, you can manage approved vacation requests. When you click on an employee’s name, the following pop-up will appear where you are able to see the details of the vacation request and, if necessary, delete the vacation request by clicking the ‘Remove’ link.

Our integrated vacation system helps you approve vacation requests and create conflict-free staff schedules with the most up-to-date employee availability information. The ShiftPlanning team hopes our workforce and human resource management software makes your vacation request system smoother and faster.

Happy Scheduling!

Loyola University Chicago Uses ShiftPlanning to Manage Dynamic Student Schedules

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:51:29 CDT

The Loyola University Chicago Digital Media Services (DMS) manages and maintains a number of multimedia and digital media computer labs and services across two campuses. Between the Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses, there are only a handful of full-time staff that manage approximately 65 student workers. Expanding greatly since the group began in 2007 with 25 student workers, their weekly schedules have becoming increasingly complicated to organize. Accommodating constantly changing student schedules that are prone to last minute availability changes can be a challenge for management staff. On top of that, DMS staff schedules change on a week-to-week basis and they need a system that allows them to make custom schedules for specific locations as well as track when schedule requests are made.

Before ShiftPlanning, staff schedules were created and shared on a spreadsheet, paper based system. To communicate availability, shift trades and open shifts, DMS staff constantly sent emails back and forth or posted on discussion boards. Instead of using two disconnected modes of communication, the ShiftPlanning staff scheduling software allows all communication to take place in one centralized location, eliminating the chance of staff missing any notifications or shift changes. Between our public message wall, our private inbox and our ‘Ping’ system, DMS staff can stay connected at all times. The ShiftPlanning employee staff schedule is always up-to-date and allows DMS student workers to check the shift schedule at all hours of the day, from anywhere.

When unexpected, last minute changes arise, there are associated hassles with making smooth employee shift trades as well as communicating those changes to staff, particularly when the majority of employees are students. ShiftPlanning makes this process as easy and convenient as possible. Juggling dynamic student schedules is now hassle-free as DMS student workers can request shift trades and pick up open shifts, with management staff absent from the process until the final approval stage. Full-time staff can now spend time they would normally spend on coordinating staff schedules, on other more important tasks.

DMS juggle student workers between multiple locations, which can be confusing and cumbersome when creating weekly shift schedules. ShiftPlanning’s customizable staff scheduling software allows managers to coordinate multiple locations from a single account. Furthermore, our employee management software encourages employee involvement, resulting in more conflict free schedules. DMS student workers can indicate their weekly availability and any changes to their regular schedule all from the ShiftPlanning application. DMS has significantly minimized shift errors and there are fewer questions and issues regarding schedule-related issues since it is clear and structured, for both full-time staff and student workers.

”I would very much recommend ShiftPlanning: the team appears to be quite responsible to requests from clients regarding change and open to making modifications to their work schedule maker.” - Adam Smeets, Loyola University

The ShiftPlanning team enjoys working with a dynamic and involved team like DMS. We are glad to contribute to making your staff and student scheduling process easier and appreciate hearing feedback and ideas.

Click here to read a full case study on the Loyola University Chicago Digital Media Services.

Happy Scheduling!

Backup Your Business Data with Secure Workforce Management Software

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:58:00 CDT

Keeping track of your employee details, schedule archives, past timesheets and general business information is imperative for businesses both large and small. Company data is a valuable business asset, thus, you need to take precautionary measures to ensure that you this asset is both protected and accessible at all times. Thefts or leaks can see your business data fall into the wrong hands or viruses can corrupt files leaving it useless. Keeping paper records or multiple files on your computer of company data comes with many risks and data can be lost far too easily. If your data is only on your computer and the hard drive fails or is damaged, your business data is lost. Or in the case of keeping data in paper form: it could be easily lost, thrown out, incorrectly filed, or be ruined in a disaster event like a fire.

ShiftPlanning uses the latest web technologies to deliver a robust and intuitive workforce management software with automatic data backup, while adhering to strict security standards to ensure that your business data is secure and accessible 24/7. Whether you want to download company data, employee data, all schedule information, or each individual schedule, you can do so from ShiftPlanning’s workforce management software.

We have taken measures at every level to ensure your business data is safe and that users are protected. You are free to access and download your data at any time as we keep your data backed up hourly and highly available. We understand the importance of keeping data backed up and secure, so we backup our data in multiple locations to ensure that your data is safe and can be restored within minutes. ShiftPlanning’s reliable data backup system keeps your valuable company data safe, and our centralized platform ensures that data from all aspects of your business is accessible from a single location.

To download or export your data, which is available in both .csv and .xls format, go to the ‘Admin’ tab and click on the sub-section ‘Download Your Data’.

Here you can download all your company data, your employee data and all schedule information. Simply select the data you wish to download and click the corresponding .csv or .xls link. If you need to restore information or if you are looking to pull data from your account that is not listed, please send your request to us at info@shiftplanning.com.

Check out this video to learn more about data export and backup with ShiftPlanning.

Our data center is located in Fremont, California and is monitored at all times to ensure that the servers are always safe and your data is always available. We hope that our data backup support and security measures gives you peace of mind and helps rid of unnecessary backup procedures, computer files and/or paperwork.

Happy Scheduling!

There is More to Employee Communication Than Just Talk

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:07:19 CDT

Studies have shown that businesses with effective internal communication are more likely to provide significant return and are more likely to have higher levels of employee engagement and lower turnover rates. Facilitating strong and open communication among employees, between all levels of staff, is important regardless of business industry or size. The key to strong employee communication is planning, effective implementation and follow-up. Good employee communication will boost employee productivity, increase morale and ultimately improve your bottom-line. ShiftPlanning’s multifaceted application incorporates employee communication into the employee management software, encouraging staff to communicate both publicly and privately with one another.

Whether you need to communicate shift changes, ask questions, discuss ideas, share files, or grab an employee’s attention, ShiftPlanning’s staff scheduling software provides a safe and secure communication platform, available at anytime, from anywhere. Our employee scheduling and management program provides your business with a way to overcome your communication challenges. Among our various communication lines, the public ‘Message Wall’ allows employees to communicate better and keeps your business’s progress on track to build a quality relationship between employees. It is public, so all messages posted to the Message Wall will be visible to all employees. In addition to the Message Wall, you are also able to send messages privately through our inbox feature or ‘Ping’ one another to quickly alert staff members via e-mail or SMS.

Message Wall
Posting on the public Message Wall or leaving a comment is easy. When you log in to the ShiftPlanning application, you will see the ‘Dashboard’. Here, you can click in the box that says ‘Write New Message’, shown below.

The following pop-up screen will appear, where you can type your message. When you have finished typing your message, click ‘Save Message’ and your message will be posted to the Message Wall.

When posting a message, for the first time, you also have the option to go into the Full Mode which is a common title/message format. You can lock or stick the message to the top of the Message Board with the 'Lock Post At Top'.

To comment on a message, click in the box that says “Write a Comment” as shown below:

The following pop-up screen will appear, where you can type your comment. To post your comment, press ‘Save Comment’.

ShiftPlanning wants to provide you with the resources to boost employee communication within your business, with our integrated communication system. It is robust and secure and will help your and your staff communicate faster, more easily and more effectively.

Happy Scheduling!

FAQ: Can I manually change the time clock after an employee has already clocked out?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:04:08 CDT

Yes, ShiftPlanning gives managers control over employee time clocking. Our web-based time clock software expedites the process of timesheet management by gathering real time data from employee work hours and consolidating the information into an accessible format. We understand the importance of accurate time clocking, so manager have access to update timesheets as necessary at any point of the process.

Should there be any mistakes or errors in an employees’ time clock, you can manually edit their ‘clock in’ and ‘clock out’ times. To do this, go to the ‘Time Clock’ tab and under ‘Management’, click ‘Manage Timsheets’. These timesheets gather all the data from the time clock software, showing you when employees clock in and clock out of their shifts.

To approve a timesheet, click the green check. Click the edit icon (center of the image shown below) to manage your employees’ time sheets as well as adjust clock in and clock out times. And to delete a timesheet, click the red ‘X’.

Once you click the edit icon, you will see the below screen beside your list of timesheets. Here, you have the ability to edit clock in and clock out times, change shift dates, update the position, and add notes to the shift.

Watch the video below to learn more about managing time sheets.

Happy Scheduling!

Improved Staff Scheduling Helps The California Wildlife Center Nurture & Protect Our Planet

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:45:00 CDT

At ShiftPlanning, we believe in the work that non-profit organizations do in our local communities and around the world, and one way we like to give back is to offer ShiftPlanning for free for organizations with unpaid volunteers. Our ongoing goal is to help non-profit organizations with staff scheduling as we know that scheduling volunteers is one of the most challenging tasks for management staff.

The California Wildlife Center is a non-profit organization that operates a wildlife rehabilitation facility, providing care and medical treatment to thousands of injured, sick and orphaned wild animals every year. They are committed to creating a healthy, sustainable planet that values all life, and achieve this by taking responsibility for the protection of all native wildlife through rehabilitation, education and conservation. The California Wildlife Center provides a service free of charge to the public, and receive no state or federal funding. ShiftPlanning is proud to serve a selfless organization that gives back so much to the local community, native wildlife and planet.

Managing six employees and almost 100 volunteers in various locations, this non-profit relied heavily on self-scheduling, but desired a way that ensures they have the necessary number of individuals for each shift. For many years, they used pen and paper to organize and track shift schedules, but it was a constant issue to keep track of shifts and fill open shifts and they found this method to be cumbersome and ineffective. ShiftPlanning helps to automatically eliminate unnecessary and unexpected volunteer shortages. Last minute changes are no longer a panic-frenzy as ShiftPlanning is designed to immediately locate replacement volunteers with our integrated SMS messaging system that places volunteers and staff with instant notice of schedule changes. Time spent juggling volunteer schedules was time that the California Wildlife Center wanted to better spend focusing on more critical operations.

Since they have switched to ShiftPlanning’s workforce management software, their staff scheduling process has become much easier:

“We would recommend ShiftPlanning and we found the team to be very helpful with our questions and concerns. This is a HUGE improvement.” -Cindy Reyes, Executive Director of California Wildlife Center.

Their staff were trained to use the application most effectively and, now, filling open shifts and coordinating staff availability is accessible for all, easy-to-use and saves them time and valuable paper. With 24/7 access to the schedule, trading shifts and more, as opposed to the pen-and-paper method, shift coverage has improved dramatically while still giving staff control over the schedule. From both an employer and employee’s perspective, ShiftPlanning’s web-based staff scheduler has been a positive change.

ShiftPlanning’s application is flexible and can cater towards dynamic organizations with numerous staff and variable locations. The California Wildlife Center has found the use of remote site locations to be extremely valuable, as they juggle staff between multiple locations, depending on wildlife needs. Maintaining communication among staff is key, particularly when dealing with several remote sites locations, and the ‘Message Wall’, has been useful for staff communication and spreading the word on upcoming events and needs in their various animal care programs.

ShiftPlanning commends and thanks the California Wildlife Center for all the work that they do, and the past 14 years of service. Click here to read their full case study. We look forward to continuing our relationships with non-profit organizations like the California Wildlife Center and giving them more time to focus on their causes through less time spent scheduling.

Happy Scheduling!

Socialize Staff Scheduling by Connecting with Facebook

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:21:11 CST

ShiftPlanning is now offering our users the chance to socialize staff scheduling by integrating our employee management software with other applications including the popular social media website, Facebook. ShiftPlanning allows businesses to mingle the processes of scheduling, staff management and time clocking (clocking in and out of shifts) with Facebook. Whether you are uploading employee information, updating your own information or updating your Facebook status, ShiftPlanning makes it easy for you to keep well connected with your employees, customers and social circles.

Connecting Facebook and ShiftPlanning Profiles
In order to sync Facebook and ShiftPlanning profiles, users can use the Setup Wizard or click the ‘Facebook’ link under their staff profile image within their personal ShiftPlanning profile.

When you click the ‘Facebook’ link, you will see the following screen, where you can click ‘Connect Facebook’:

Click ‘Allow’ below the pop-up screen shown below, to allow ShiftPlanning to access your Facebook profile.

Adding Employees With Facebook for Fast Staff Scheduling
Easily add employees to your staff list through Facebook to expedite the process of building an extensive staff list and begin your staff scheduling process. When you are under the ‘Staff’ tab and click ‘Add Employees’, you will have the option to add employees via several external sources.

Click on the ‘Facebook’ icon, enter your Facebook log in information and you will be presented with a list of your Facebook friends on the right. Select the desired individuals and click ‘Save Employees’ to add them to your ShiftPlanning staff list. It is important to note that ShiftPlanning does not have access to their e-mail addresses, so invitations must be sent to the necessary employees or e-mail addresses can be manually added to our employee management software.

Updating Your Facebook Profile Through ShiftPlanning
With our new release, employees are able to update their personal Facebook status directly from the ShiftPlanning application. By linking Facebook with the ShiftPlanning application, employees can sync relevant information, such as their profile picture, and, furthermore, have the option of signing into ShiftPlanning with either their Facebook or ShiftPlanning log in information.

Once your Facebook account has been linked to your ShiftPlanning employee profile, you can update your Facebook status by simply selecting from several options from the drop down menus shown below:

Your Facebook status will automatically be updated. Below is an example of what will appear on Facebook:

We hope this addition to our employee scheduling software helps create a fun and social atmosphere within your business. Combining Facebook with your staff scheduling process will make your life easier and ensure you and your employees are well connected.

Happy Scheduling!

Meet the Wizard Guide: Workforce Management Software Gets Even Easier

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:33:13 CST

ShiftPlanning has released a large overhaul of our previous setup system in addition to making vast improvements to our in-app training process. As part of this release, we have enhanced our social integrations, updated the ‘Add Employee’ & ‘Fast Assignment’ sections of the staff tab, and improved our Dashboard. You can learn more about this exciting new release below:

The Wizard Guide
ShiftPlanning’s employee scheduling software is already intuitive and easy-to-understand, but our new Wizard Guide is available to ensure that our application is accessible to all employees and management staff. The Setup Wizard guides initial account setup; it also keeps track of what has been completed and what still requires attention, allowing you to leave the Setup Wizard at any time and continue working from where you left off. After collecting key details for the initial setup, the Wizard Guide shows users some of ShiftPlanning’s most useful features.

Dashboard 2.0
Say hello to your dedicated account rep! The new dashboard gives managers access to full contact information as well as the ability to request a demo or ask for assistance directly in the application.

In addition to the being introduced to their customer care rep, users will also be able to see the progress made on the Setup Wizard described above and can restart the guide to revisit any sections at anytime. In this section, users can see their training process progress on the completion bar.

Furthermore, dashboard alerts (notifications), Who’s On Now, Message Wall & Upcoming Shifts have all gotten a more user friendly makeover. See some of the updates below:

Add Employees
The improved ‘Add Employees’ makes it easy to add staff to ShiftPlanning. Contacts can be automatically imported from e-mail accounts (We support over 100 providers!) and social networks, or staff can be imported via csv. To connect a Facebook, Google Apps, or email account simply click on one of the icons under "add from contacts." Click the "Import .csv File" to upload from a spreadsheet. Alternatively, staff can be added manually using the form on the left. For each employee, we only require a name. We recommend adding an e-mail address as well which will allow ShiftPlanning to send account activation e-mails and notifications

Assign Positions
Once staff have been added into ShiftPlanning, they must be assigned to positions to be scheduled on shifts. Properly assigning staff to positions also helps to avoid scheduling conflicts and allow events such as shift trades to happen only with other staff who are also eligible to work on that specific position. Managers can assign positions to staff by navigating to ‘assign positions’ (formerly “fast assignment”) in the staff tab.

In the left navigation section (above the “staff list”), "unassigned" can be clicked to reveal staff that still require position assignments. Next to the staff name, locations and positions are listed. To assign staff, click on the applicable check boxes. Staff can also be assign ‘by position’ or ‘by skill’, using the respective link in the bottom of “Staff List.”

Social Integration
ShiftPlanning allows organizations to socialize the processes of scheduling and clocking through integrations with Google Apps, Facebook and more. In the new ‘Add Employees’ described above, managers can add staff from their social network to quickly and easily populate their profile and start building the schedule. With this new release, all users have the option to automatically update their Facebook statuses directly from the ShiftPlanning application.

First, a user needs to connect their Facebook and ShiftPlanning profiles. This can be done during the Setup Wizard or at any time by clicking the “Facebook” link under the staff profile image. Connecting a Facebook profile gives users the option to sync relevant information such as your photo and can also allow for login to the ShiftPlanning system using your Facebook credentials.

Once Facebook has been connected, simply choose from several options from the drop down menus shown below:

And your Facebook status will automatically be updated with each relevant event:

Single Sign-On - SAML
ShiftPlanning now supports Single Sign-on, a feature that allows users to enter one name and password in order to access multiple applications. Along with single sign-on, ShiftPlanning will be giving managers the option to disable password login. Therefore, if a manager were to disable a user from for example, Google Apps, that user would also no longer be able to access a connected ShiftPlanning. Single Sign On can improve security through centralizing access and removing the need for individual users to manage multiple individual passwords. ShiftPlanning uses SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) for Single Sign-On. To enable SSO, visit the admin tab and navigate to the integration section. There you’ll have access to the required information.

We hope our improvements make it easier to navigate and manage your scheduling processes.

Happy Scheduling!

The Increasing Importance of Mobile Employee Scheduling Software

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:56:12 CST

Smartphone popularity is on the rise and as a result, using web-based staff scheduling software is becoming increasingly important for businesses. ShiftPlanning’s cloud-based scheduling application allows users to have 24/7 full mobile access to staff information, schedules, communication lines and more. This makes scheduling more employee integrated and less time consuming reducing many of the hassles that are associated with less efficient scheduling methods.

A recent sample study showed that nearly half (46%) of U.S. adults use smartphones as of February 2012 - an 11% increase in smartphone users since May 2011. Furthermore, the report found that nearly all major demographic groups show considerable increases in smartphone growth from last year. With more and more staff using smartphones, there are great benefits to using mobile employee scheduling like the ShiftPlanning application.

ShiftPlanning works with web-enabled smartphones meaning users can have access to staff schedules from anywhere at any time which is important in our connected society. The mobile applications allow managers and staff to get the latest on the schedule and take care of workforce management needs no matter where they are. Whether staff want to check the schedule, managers need to publish a quick update or send a quick note, it can all be done straight from a mobile device. Field or remote staff can even Clock-in and Clock-out of shifts when accessing ShiftPlanning’s Timeclock feature from a smartphone or tablet. The best part about all of our mobile apps is that they come at no extra charge to a regular ShiftPlanning subscription!

As the need for advanced mobile capabilities grow in the business environment, ShiftPlanning will continue to strengthen our mobile applications alongside. In fact, our development team is working on upgrades to expand the usability and functionality of our existing apps currently. You can access the Shiftplanning mobile applications by visiting http://www.shiftplanning.com/mobile and the tablet app here.

Happy Scheduling!

Wizard makes ShiftPlanning's Employee Scheduling Software Even More Intuitive!

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:42:29 CST

ShiftPlanning continues to strive to be the web's most easy-to-use workforce management software. As part of this effort, we have enlisted the Wizard himself to aid in our new setup guide. With features like multiple views, drag & drop, and more, ShiftPlanning's employee scheduling software is already intuitive; however, the Wizard guide will be available to make sure new profiles are setup properly and to introduce users to important modules. Also coming in this release are enhanced social integrations, an update to fast assignment, and a new and improved Dashboard! Unfortunately, the process of rolling out this release may require the site to be taken offline momentarily. Any outage will last approximately less than an hour and will take place during the time that affects the fewest users.

Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions about scheduled maintenace:

*How Long will you be down for?
We'll be offline between 2am-3am EST on Tuesday, March 6th.

*Will any of my data be affected?
Rest assured that all of your data is safe, and will be just the way you left it when we go back online.

*Who can I contact for more information?
Feel free to contact our team at info@shiftplanning.com at anytime if you have any questions.

We apologize for any inconvenience a temporary outage may cause but are confident that the new release will be a great benefit to our users. Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated during this process!

FAQ: How do I synchronize my ShiftPlanning staff schedule with other calendar applications?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:00:35 CST

It is important for employees to always have access to the most up-to-date staff schedules, wherever they are. ShiftPlanning is a web-based application which means you have access to your schedule whenever you are connected to the Internet; but what happens when you're not connected?

ShiftPlanning’s Calendar Synchronization option allows you to sync your ShiftPlanning work schedule with 3rd party applications such as Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar, and more. Calendar Sync works by providing users with a unique URL they can access with their mail client. The URL provides the employees’ schedule in an iCal format (.ics), that can be accessed through all of the popular Calendar Clients, and can also be downloaded as a file itself. Once you have setup your client to access ShiftPlanning’s staff schedule software, you will have 24/7 access your work schedule, as well as having the advantage of being able to see it alongside your other events and appointments.

To get your employee schedule calendar synchronization information, begin by clicking on the ‘Schedule’ tab, and then the Action / Settings gear shaped icon.

Select the option Calendar Sync, which will bring up a list of staff schedules.

Click on the icon to the left of the desired schedule.

Clicking on that will bring up a unique Calendar Sync URL, as shown below.

Copy the schedule sync URL and proceed below.

Setup your calendar client
Once you have your Calendar URL, you need to configure that with your mail client. Here are a few links for how to do that in a few of the most popular clients:
- Apple iCal- Auto-Refresh Option to Every Hour
- Outlook
- Google Calendar
- Mozilla Thunderbird / Lightning
- Yahoo Calendar

iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch
We have found that the easiest way to synchronize ShiftPlanning's employee schedules to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is to simply e-mail yourself the appropriate URL so that it can be opened on your device. Once you click on the link from your device it will automatically ask you if you want to subscribe to the calendar.
Alternatively you can follow the below steps on your device:
- Enter "Settings" from the main-screen
- Select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
- Select “Add Account…”
- Select "Other"
- Select "Add Subscribed Calendar"
- Enter the ShiftPlanning Calendar Sync URL

Important:
Please be aware that these synchronizations are currently only one-way from ShiftPlanning to your 3rd party application. When you first setup Calendar Sync with your calendar client it will fetch your work schedule as it sits currently. Each client has different options for how often they will re-fetch the calendar. Some clients, such as Google Calendar, don't have this option. If your client does have the option to set the update frequency we recommend setting it to hourly to make sure you are up-to-date and also to lower overhead on our service.

Check out the video below to learn more about calendar synchronization options:

Hope this helps you keep up-to-date with your changing staff schedule and your employees stay connected at all times!

Happy Scheduling!

Case Study Spotlight: In Play Inc in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:58:43 CST

ShiftPlanning will be profiling our users as part of our "case study spotlight" series. If you'd like to have your business covered, please complete the questionnaire here and send to allena@shiftplanning.com. Completed case studies will be granted a free one month credit to their account. Please send any questions to info@shiftplanning.com

Open since 2003, In Play is a family entertainment center with a variety of arcade and ticket games, a huge indoor playground, glow in the dark mini golf, a rock climbing wall, bear making, Webkinz and great food. They host birthday parties and corporate events, and offer families a place to play throughout the year. A family run business with 10-15 employees, In Play has two locations and a variety of roles that sometimes complicate staff scheduling.

Prior to ShiftPlanning, In Play relied on paper schedules and phone communication to plan and organize staff schedules. With constantly changing staff requirements, based on customer sign ups, schedules were often changed last minute complicating the process even further. Managers would spend far too much time scheduling staff for shifts, taking away from other responsibilities and duties.

Since switching to ShiftPlanning, In Play has cut down on the number of shift trade requests as employees are able to mark their own availability and communicating shift changes has become much more efficient with several communication methods available on the ShiftPlanning application. The total hours scheduled for the week listed beside each staff name has proved useful for managers to keep track of hours worked and ensure that they are dividing work hours evenly among staff.

I think everyone finds the schedule much easier now. -Talisa, In Play Inc.

The ShiftPlanning team is happy to simplify the lives of family run businesses like In Play, and make the staff scheduling process easier and more accurate!

Click here to see the full Case Study on In Play.

Happy Scheduling!

Employee Pinging: Fast and Easy Staff Communication

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:26:11 CST

The employee ping feature allows you to instantly send an employee a message via e-mail & SMS (if SMS texting is enabled for that user). This action allows you to contact your employees quickly, or alert them of something important. For example, you might need to send a quick reminder to an employee that they are running late for a shift. ShiftPlanning makes this staff communication fast and simple.

To ‘Ping’ an employee:
Go to the home ‘Dashboard’ tab and scroll down to the section ‘Who’s On Now’.
Alternatively, you can click on the ‘Staff’ tab, select an employee and click ‘Ping’ located under the Permissions link of an employee’s profile.

When you click on the ‘Ping’ button, you will see the following pop-up:

Here, you can type in your desired message, press 'Send' and your employee will receive your message. It is a great way to maintain good staff communication and ensure your company runs smoothly.

To learn more about the 'Ping' function, watch the YouTube video below.

Happy Scheduling!

Staff Management: Maintain and Manage Staff Profiles

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:17:59 CST

ShiftPlanning's employee management software allows you to manage and maintain staff profiles, giving you access to their profiles and information as well as the ability to customize their permission settings, pay rates, skills, schedules and more. As a manager, this part of the application saves you time and keeps all related staff information in one, convenient place making staff management simple.

All staff management takes place under ShiftPlanning's ‘Staff’ tab. When you click this tab, you will be presented with a group listing of all of your employees which may be viewed either in ‘Gallery’ form or ‘List’ form. Here you are able to manage all staff profiles.

In this area of ShiftPlanning, you have access to view employee statuses: ‘All Staff’, ‘Not Activated’ or ‘Disabled’ employees. You also have filter options to view employees at specific locations.

You can view and edit information of individual staff members, by clicking 'Overview' or ‘Edit Details’ respectively. By clicking on an employee, you will be taken to their staff profile page. Here you have access to their contact information and details, statistics, upcoming shifts, status, availability, permissions and more, strengthening your staff management capabilities.

There are several subsections that make up an employee’s profile:
- Statistics: Here, you can find the statistics of total shifts, late, total hours, absent and karma score.

- Admin Actions: You can see the status, activation and delete sections:
• The status of the employee is whether or not the user has signed in and activated their account. If this is a new employee, you also have the option to manually activate their account.
• The activation indicates whether or not the employee is activated. If they are activated, you can deactivate them and vice versa. This is important as ShiftPlanning calculates your pay bracket based on the number of active employees in any given month. The staff member will no longer be able to log in if they have been deactivated.
• Under the delete section, you have access to permanently delete the employee.

- Fast Assignment: Here, you can also quickly see and assign Positions, Skills and Notes to an employee.

- Approvers: Here, you can view an employee's immediate Scheduler, Supervisor or Manager that can approve their shifts.

- Upcoming Shifts: Here, you can see an employee’s upcoming shifts and click on ‘Details’ for more details on a given shift.

- Recent Shifts: Similar to ‘Upcoming Shifts’, here, you can see any recent shifts an employee has had.

- Availability: Here, you have access to set an employee’s weekly availability and enter any availability irregularities.

- Permissions: Here, you can grant permissions on a schedule by schedule basis or you can change the user between the four permission levels (Employee, Scheduler, Supervisor or Manager).

- Employee Payroll: Assign base rates and rate cards to an employee.

Check out the video below to learn more about staff management!

Happy Scheduling!

Save Time With Hotkeys: Navigation & Scheduling Keyboard Shortcuts

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:13:51 CST

Hotkeys are keyboard shortcuts that allow users of the ShiftPlanning application to accelerate work speed. These hotkeys can be used in the ‘Schedule’ section of the application, saving you time when navigating the schedule and switching between date ranges and view options. You can also easily access copy and print functions with hotkeys.

Quickly Explore Date Ranges

&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • Ctrl + Up: Go To Previous Date Range
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • Ctrl + Left: Go To Previous Date Range
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • Ctrl + Down: Go To Next Date Range
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • Ctrl + Right: Go To Next Date Range

Easily Change Date View

&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • t: View Today
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • w: View Week
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • m: View Month
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • y: View Year
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • d: View Day

Control Scheduler Views

&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • e: Employee View
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • p: Position View
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • v: Visual View
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • l: List View

Access Scheduler Icon Menus

&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • p: Open Print Menu
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • a: Open Action Menu

Copy Shifts

&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • Click & Drag Shift To Desired Date
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp • c: To Copy

We hope these navigation and scheduling keyboard shortcuts save you time!

Happy Scheduling!