🔓 Access level in Planday: Administrator, Schedule manager
🌐 Subscription plan: Plus, Pro
⏱️ Reading time: 3 min
For employees, see How to set your work availability in Planday.
What is Intelligent employee assignment
Intelligent employee assignment helps you fill open shifts faster by recommending the most suitable employee directly in the shift window.
When creating a new shift or editing an existing one, first specify the time and the required group or position. The employee selection list will then automatically prioritise the best-fit employee, who will appear at the top.
This feature builds on scheduling intelligence to help you assign shifts more efficiently and confidently, while supporting compliance and fair distribution of hours.
You can choose how the employee list is sorted using the Sort by menu in the Assigned to section.
No employee is assigned automatically. Schedule managers always have the final say on who to assign or switch to another recommendation option.
How shift assignment suggestions are made
Filtering the right staff - Only employees who meet the required department, employee group, and skill requirements are shown.
Smart ranking - Eligible employees are ranked based on different criteria depending on the sorting you choose. See Sorting options explained.
Clear explanations - Each employee includes a short note to explain the recommendation, so you always understand why an employee is suggested.
Full control - You can always override the suggestion and assign the shift to any eligible employee.
Sorting options explained
The assignment drawer includes a Sort by menu so you can decide how eligible employees are sorted. The employees shown in the list stay the same, only their order changes.
Basic Priority: Prioritises employees who have requested the shift or belong to the primary department.
Rule-Based Matching: Finds the best matches based on availability, contracted hours, working time rules, skills and approved leave. Employees who have registered their availability are generally ranked higher than those who have not.
Smart Recommendations: Learns from your scheduling patterns, rules and preferences to recommend the most suitable candidate on top.
Note:
You can switch between these options at any time without changing which employees are eligible for the shift.
Only employees who have explicitly marked their availability as Available will appear in the suggestion list.
Shift assignment status explained
The following statuses indicate an employee's eligibility and potential conflicts for a shift assignment:
🟢 Available with xx hours remaining: Indicates the employee is ready to be scheduled, such as:
The employee has indicated a positive availability to work
They have remaining contracted hours that can be filled
They belong to the primary department associated with the shift
They match the skills criteria of the shift
🟠 Caution: Signals a potential issue, such as:
The hours breaking a scheduling rule (e.g., "Will exceed contract rules by 2h").
The employee has indicated they are not available for the shift.
🔴 Critical conflict: Indicates a severe conflict, such as:
"Overlapping shift"
"Absent" when the employee is on an approved holiday or leave.
"Working time rules conflict"
Exceeding the contracted hours by a specific amount (e.g., "Will exceed contract by xx hours").
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PlandAI, PlanAI Intelligent shift assignment, ISA ML AI