Shifts Market: managing the assignment of free shifts
Control the assignment of open slots by moving from a 'first come, first served' system to an application and selection process.
By default, when a free shift is published, the first team member to apply gets it automatically. It's simple, but not always optimal: you don't have a say in who takes what.
The Shifts Market changes this logic. With this option, team members can apply to available shifts, but it's you who decides who to assign them to. Ideal for better controlling fairness, required skills or the distribution of hours.
Enable the Shifts Market
Go to Settings → Schedules → Free shifts → Settings and turn on the option Shift Market.
Once enabled, team members see the available shifts on their app but can no longer take them directly: they have to apply.
View the applications
Go to Schedules → Shifts Market.
The page lists the open shifts. Each row shows: the Day, the number of Shifts, the Date, the Hours, the Duration, the Detail (section and skills as tags), the number of Applicants, the date of the Last applicant and the Status (for example "Open shift pending"). A filter at the top right lets you display shifts according to their status: Pending, Assigned, Completed or Deleted.
The green Process button opens the shift and the list of its applicants. There you see the team members who applied along with the useful information (skills, hours already scheduled), then you assign the shift to the candidate of your choice. The other candidates are automatically informed that the shift has been assigned.
Extras: comment when booking
When applying to a free shift, you can ask team members to add a comment (motivation, confirmed availability, etc.). This option is configured in the free shifts settings.
Shifts Market vs free shift notifications
The Shifts Market manages assignment: team members apply, you choose.
Free shift notifications (accessible in Team → Free shift notifications) are a complementary tool: you send a targeted alert to a group of team members to inform them that a slot is available, without necessarily going through the Shifts Market's application process.
The two work together and complement each other depending on your organization.