Create rules to handle shift trade requests

Administrators can save time by handling the validation of all or most agent shift trade requests automatically. Define when a shift trade request should be automatically approved, when it should be automatically denied and when it should be handled manually using the settings available on the Shift trade request tab of the workflow control set.

Set up different rules for different groups of agents by creating more than one workflow control set. Always select the workflow control set you want to work with before making any changes.

Some rules in this view relates to the shift trade bulletin board. The bulletin board is a way for agents to post shifts or days off that they don't want and set up conditions for what they want instead. When another agent responds to a post on the bulletin board, this results in a shift trade request. The same validations will be used for bulletin board shift trade requests as for other shift trade requests.

NOTE There are additional validations for shift trade requests available for configuration under Options > System settings > Shift trade request settings. Those validations are global, that is they apply to all agents who have the permissions to do shift trade requests, regardless of which workflow control set they belong to. See Set up validations for shift trade requests for more information.

If agents in different offices with different open hours can trade shifts, you can validate the shift trades to ensure no shifts end up outside of the sites' open hours. The open hours are set in Requests tool.

IMPORTANT Always select the workflow control set you want to work with before making any changes.

Prerequisites

You have the Options > Shift trade request permission.

Page location

Client > Options > Scheduling > Workflow control set > Shift trade requests tab

Procedures

Open a period for shift trade requests

Agents can only trade shifts on dates within the open period.

Set the Open period relative to the current date.

EXAMPLE If you set from 1 to 14, agents can send shift trade requests for tomorrow and 14 days forward.
Click Apply to save the changes.

Define which validations to use for shift trade requests

Decide which validations to do for each shift trade request.

Define the Maximum consecutive days without day off to ensure that agents cannot perform a shift trade which would cause them to have too many workdays without having a scheduled day off or an empty, unscheduled day.

NOTE The validation of this rule needs to be enabled on the global Shift trade request settings page in Options.
Enter a Tolerance for matching contract time to control how much the schedule period contract time can differ from the schedule period target time after the trade.

IMPORTANT The tolerance for matching contract time for shift trades is in addition to any tolerance on the agents' contracts.
In the Matching skills section, you choose which skills that must match for agents to be able to trade shifts with each other. Select the skills that must match and click the arrow button to move them. If a skill is on the list of matching skills, both agents must have that skill to be able to trade shifts, regardless of what activities that are scheduled for the agents on that day. The agents' possibility to trade shifts is not affected by the skills that they have which are not on the list of matching skills.

EXAMPLE Skills A, B, and C are on the list of matching skills and the rest of the skills are not. Agent 1 (skills A, B, D, and E) wants to trade shifts with agent 2 (skills A, B, and C). They cannot trade shifts, because skill C is on the list of matching skills, and agent 1 does not have skill C but agent 2 does. Agent 1 can only trade shifts with other agents who have skills A and B and who do not have skill C.
Click Apply to save the changes.

Enable automatic approval of shift trade requests

Enable automatic approval of shift trade requests to minimize manual work and give the agents quicker feedback. If the shift trade is accepted by the other agent and passes all validations, the schedule will be automatically updated.

Select the Auto grant check box to automatically approve all shift trade requests that pass all validations.
Click Apply to save the changes.

Configure the shift trade bulletin board

Agents can post shifts or days off that they don't want on the shift trade bulletin board and set up conditions for what they want instead. They can trade both regular shifts, days off and empty days (useful for hourly employees). Agents who check the bulletin board will only see posts where the given conditions match what they have in their schedule.

Select the Anonymous bulletin board check box to make all shift trades via the shift trade bulletin board anonymous. This means the agents will not know who they are trading with.
Select the First come first served bulletin board check box for the first person to respond to the posted shift to get the trade (if the request also passes the validations). If this setting is not enabled, the agent who posts their shift will get a shift trade request from everyone who responds to the posted shift. The agent who posted their shift can then choose which request to accept.
Click Apply to save the changes.