You can allow employees to give up shifts to other employees in your organization, and configure rules for offering those shifts. This article explains what a shift offer is, how to configure an offer for your organization, employees' eligibility, and how to approve offer requests.
How shift offers work
When an employee can't make it to a scheduled shift, they can give up their shift to another employee who doesn't have a scheduled shift and is eligible for the offered shifts, like schedules and positions that match. To configure the shift offer, you'll need the Administrator access level or the Manage account and other settings permission. To configure shift offer settings:
- Navigate to the Settings menu in the top-right corner.
- Select Preferences under Schedule.
- In the Shift Offer section, enable or disable the settings based on your requirements:
- Allow employees to offer shifts: This enables employees across the organization to offer shifts.
- Shift offer requires manager approval: If enabled, managers must approve all offer requests in this organization. If disabled, shifts are offered as soon as another employee accepts the request.
- Restrict offers when employees' schedule constraints are exceeded: Limit shift offers that exceed scheduling rules based on each employee's schedule constraints.
- Click Save.
Eligibility conditions for shift offer
When employees offer shifts to others, the listed employees are based on the following eligibility criteria:
- Matching schedule and position: A shift can be offered only to employees who are assigned to the same schedule and position required for that shift. Employees who are not assigned to the required schedule or position are not listed.
- No overlapping shifts: A shift can be offered only if accepting it does not overlap with the employee’s existing published shifts. If accepting the shift would create a scheduling overlap, those employees are not listed.
Approve offer requests
When your organization has enabled manager approval for shift offers, the request must be approved for a shift exchange. To approve an offer request, you'll need the Administrator access level or the Approve swap, offer, and drop requests permission.
On web
- Go to Schedule > Requests.
- Click the Offer tab, then select the request that requires your approval.
- Enter your Comment (Optional).
- Select Approve or Deny based on your preference.
On mobile
- Open the Zoho Shifts mobile app.
- Tap Requests at the bottom of the screen.
- Select the Offer tab at the top of the request page.
- Tap on the request that requires your approval.
- Enter your Comments (optional).
- Select Accept or Decline based on your preference.
If approved, the shift is assigned to the employee who has accepted the offer request. If declined, the employee who originally had the shift assigned to them retains it.