🔓 Access level in Planday: Administrator, Schedule manager

⏱️ Reading time: 4 min.

ℹ️ Important read: Scheduling explained.

✅ Required steps: Shifts in Planday.

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What is an Open shift?

In Planday, you can create shifts without assigning them to specific employees, known as Open shifts. These are useful when you want staff to request shifts themselves rather than assigning shifts yourself as a manager.

How to create Open shifts in the Schedule?

To create an Open shift, follow the same steps as making a regular shift but leave it unassigned.

In the Employee view, create an Open shift in the top row of the Schedule. If you create the shift in an employee's row, select "Open shift" from the employee drop-down menu. In the Groups or Positions view, Open shifts are the default way to create shifts.

Once created, Open shifts appear highlighted in red. Only employees in the relevant Employee group can request them or those matching the requirements of the position, and they remain open until approved by an admin or Schedule manager.

Employees will automatically receive push notification alerts for available open shifts if they meet the conditions, like availability, no conflicting shifts, or being in the right employee group.

Swaps, Hand over and Sell shifts

Employees can swap, hand over, or sell shifts with colleagues in the same Employee group and Department. The shift stays assigned until a colleague and a manager confirm the change.

Swap – Exchange shifts with a colleague, agreeing to take each other's shifts.
Hand over – Transfer a shift directly to another colleague with mutual agreement.
Sell – Offer a shift for sale, appearing as an Open shift for colleagues to request. Shifts for sale appear in yellow on the schedule.

Employees must confirm the swap or handover between each other first before it reaches a manager for approval.

Set notifications for shift approvals (optional)

By default, Planday notifies you, the manager, of each shift request, ensuring no action is taken without your approval. To customise how staff can swap or book shifts, or when your confirmation is needed, go to Settings > Schedule > Swap and Availability > Swap settings.

To always require manager approval for open shifts, swaps, or handovers, set a high number (e.g., 50000) in the fields. For no manager approval, enter 0 in these fields.

How to approve open shifts and swap requests

To approve open shifts or swaps, go to Schedule > Pending requests. You can also access this directly from the Pending actions widget on your dashboard.

Switch between Swap requests tab for swaps and handovers or Shift requests tab for shifts on sale or open shift requests. Use the department filter if needed.

Swap Requests: Click the pencil icon to edit. You can assign a Shift type and either approve or reject the request.
Shift Requests: In the Assigned employee column, click Assign employee to select an employee from the list of applicants, then confirm.

Note:

The employee who requested the shift first will be at the top of the list.

When you assign an open shift to an employee, you can still see others who requested it, marked with a blue icon. This is useful for last-minute changes.

How to manage shift requests in the Planday app

You can handle pending actions in the app under the Requests widget on the Overview screen.

To allow Swap requests

Tap on Swap & handovers, select the request, and approve or reject it.

To Approve shifts put up for sale

Tap Shift requests on the Overview screen. Select the request, tap Employee to choose from those who applied or another available employee, and assign the shift.

To Approve Open shift requests

Tap Shift requests, select the Open shift request, and choose an employee from the list of applicants. Confirm by saving the new settings.

Setup notifications based on shift requests

Go to Settings > Your organisation > Notifications to choose who gets notified for Swap approvals, Handovers, or Open Shift requests.

Learn more about setting notifications on shift changes or requests here.

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Open shifts, Shift requests and Shift swaps for Schedule managers