🟡 This feature is optional and disabled by default. To activate it for your workspace, contact Planday Support.
🔓 Access level in Planday: Administrator, Schedule manager
🌐 Subscription plan: Pro
ℹ️ Important read: Scheduling explained; Schedule - FAQs and troubleshooting
⏱️ Reading time: 3 min
✅ Required steps: Scheduling with Positions and Sections
What are Skills?
The Skills function in Planday requires employees on the schedule to have specific qualifications or certifications for certain shifts, ensuring that only qualified staff are eligible.
Employee groups define an employee's job role.
Positions and Sections define where and what type of work is done.
Skills define the qualifications or certifications needed for a shift.
For example, you can use Skills to track qualifications such as first aid training, a forklift licence, or HACCP certification. If a shift requires a specific Skill, managers can only assign employees who have that Skill to the shift. If an Open shift has a required Skill, only employees with that Skill can request the shift.
Additionally, you can assign an expiration or time limit to skills to monitor active qualifications. Once a Skill expires, an employee cannot be assigned to shifts requiring that skill until their qualification details are updated.
How to set up and manage Skills
Skills may already be enabled for your workspace as part of your onboarding. If not, you can contact Planday Support to have the feature enabled.
Go to Planday web > Settings > People > Skills > Create
Enter a name for the Skill. This name will be visible on the Schedule.
Add any optional information:
Time-limited: Add an expiry date for qualifications that need to be renewed.
Seniority: Record the employee's experience level for the Skill.
Employee group: Link the Skill to the relevant employee groups.
Category/description: Add information to help organise and identify the Skill.
Click Save.
Once created, you can edit, assign employees to, or delete this skill from this page.
How to assign Skills to employees
As an admin, you can assign Skills to multiple employees from the Skills page or assign a Skill to an individual employee by editing their profile.
Option 1: From the Skills page
Find the Skill you want to assign.
Click the Add icon next to the Skill.
You can see which employees already have the Skill and assign it to other employees.
Option 2: From the employee profile
Go to Planday web > People > Employees.
Select the employee and click Edit.
Go to Employment > Skills.
Click Add and select the Skill.
How to use Skills on the Schedule
Note: Skills can be linked to an employee, a shift, or a Position. Where the Skill is added affects how it is used when scheduling employees.
Before you can use Skills on shifts, make sure you are using Positions view.
Show Skills on the Schedule
Enable viewing Skills on the schedule if it isn’t already on.
Open the Schedule and switch to Positions view.
Go to View settings > Turn on Skills.
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Add a Skill to a Position
This makes the skill a requirement for all shifts under a position.
Go to Schedule > Positions view > Manage Positions and Sections to edit, or click Edit Position from the schedule on the relevant position.
Add the relevant Skill to the Position and press Save.
Add a required Skill to a shift on Planday web
When creating or editing a shift:
Go to the Skills section.
Select a Skill from the dropdown.
Click Save.
Only employees who match the required Employee group and have the required Skill can be assigned to the shift.
You can also use Schedule filters to find employees by Skill.
Add a required Skill to a shift from the Planday app
If Skills are enabled on your workspace, Schedule Admins can assign them directly to shifts using the Planday app.
Open the Planday app, go to the Schedule, and create a new shift or open an existing one for editing.
Navigate to More options and choose a Group or position if the Skill is associated with a specific position.
Go to the Skills selection area and pick the required Skill for the shift.
Note: You need an up-to-date Planday app version 10.37 or later to assign Skills via the app.
Read next:
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