Company Blog - ShiftPlanning.com

2 days ago Allena Rouse 2 Comments

Upcoming Scheduled Maintenance - 12am - 1am EST - Sunday, February 5th

ShiftPlanning is upgrading its hosting environment to make sure that we can scale to deliver the speed and up-time that our subscribers deserve. Previously, after experiencing some unscheduled downtime, we assuredly promised users that our team was making necessary changes to limit similar future occurances. Unfortunately, the process of switching may require the site to be taken offline momentarily. Any outage will last approximately less than an hour and will take place during the time that affects the fewest users.

Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions:

*How Long will you be down for?
We'll be offline between 12am-1am EST on Sunday, February 5th.

*Will any of my data be affected?
Rest assured that all of your data is safe, and will be just the way you left it when we go back online.

*Who can I contact for more information?
Feel free to contact our team at info@shiftplanning.com at anytime if you have any questions.

We apologize for any inconvenience the temporary outage may cause but are confident that the switch is of the best benefit to our users. Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated during this process!

4 days ago Allena Rouse 0 Comments

Step-by-Step Shift Trades in ShiftPlanning

In addition to being a schedule maker, ShiftPlanning has a built-in Trade Management system that allows employees to handle their shift swaps electronically. Managers facilitating these type of shift changes often wastes both time and money. With Shiftplanning, managers can quickly monitor and approve online tradeboard activity with minimal involvement. Employees enjoy the ability to collaborate with peers and handle drops and trades online as well. For a detailed introduction to shift trades in ShiftPlanning, please see the steps below:

Step 1: View the details of an upcoming shift

Once logged in to ShiftPlanning, staff can see "upcoming shifts" in the upper right hand corner of the dashboard. Next to each future shift, there will be a 'details' button where to option for trade requests can be found. Likewise, staff members can view 'my schedule' and access trade requests by clicking on any future shifts.

Step 2: Select Potential Covers

After choosing the shift to put up for trade, staff members have the option to select the colleagues they would like to trade with. The list of potential covers will only be those staff eligible to work the shift (already assigned to the position).

Step 3: Shift Trade Settings

ShiftPlanning allows for shift trades to either be the full responsibility of employees or to be managed entirely by the scheduler with two levels of approvals. Managers are able to approve the potential covers and/or finalize the trade.

Step 4: Shift Trade Requests

Within the 'requests' tab, managers can see the tranactions needing approval and accept or reject collaborators and/or finalize the trade. Employees can view their trade requests.

Step 5: Shifts Available for Pick-up

Upon logging into ShiftPlanning, employees can see on the dashboard if there are shifts available for them to pickup. They can also view available shifts from visiting the 'requests' tab and navigating to "shift trades".

Step 6: Dashboard Alerts

Managers can see needed approvals upon login to the application. Alerts are visible next to a yellow bar.

Step 7: Reporting

Clients can track activity around shift trades in the "Shift Exchanges" section of the reports tab. The report will show the number of given, requested, or granted trades for each employee.

Managers interested in Shift Trades can learn more in the video and tutorial here. How is your organization using shift trades?

Happy Scheduling!

2 weeks ago Allena Rouse 0 Comments

Tips & Tricks: Working with Wages in ShiftPlanning

ShiftPlanning aims to centralize the activity around schedule making, time-clocking, and related payroll processing. As part of this effort, we've recently rolled out Payroll-specific reporting. You can find payroll reports in the 'reports' tab of the application. In order to aid in payroll reporting, ShiftPlanning allows managers to add wage information to staff profiles.

Default Wage & Currency

After selecting the appropriate staff profile, visit 'edit details' to see the wage field. Wages can also be bulk uploaded as part of the staff import. Payroll settings (Found under account setting in the admin tab) offer the option to set a default currency from a list of the most common.

Position Specific Wages

In ShiftPlanning, the payroll options allow for managers to change the wage and assign paycards for each position offering great flexibility. Therefore, if someone is paid more for example for closing the store than the general shift, the manager can specify the differential. Position specific wages are set by visiting the 'payroll' section of the staff profile.

Rate Cards & Overtime

Rate cards allow for managers to assign different levels of pay based on day and time. For example, if weekend hours are time and a half, the manager simply has to change the rate card to "150%" for these hours (the default is 100%). This will make the pay 150% of the base wage set in the staff profile. Overtime rules allow managers to set changes based on the number of hours (i.e, 150% of base wage after 8hrs worked).

The Scheduler

With the employee schedule maker, ShiftPlanning provides inline information for costing data that updates in realtime. Therefore, managers can keep up with wages totals while putting the schedule together. Inline costing totals can be see in both the employee and positions views.

Reports

As mentioned above, ShiftPlanning makes use of schedule, timeclock, overtime data and more and with wages in place has payroll-ready reporting available.

Do you currently have employee wage information in ShiftPlanning? What other wage-related information would you like to see in the application?

Happy Scheduling!

3 weeks ago Allena Rouse 0 Comments

New SSL Settings for Work Schedule Application and Update to Customer Domains

ShiftPlanning is committed to providing our users with security and reliability they can trust. Since our launch, we have taken extensive measures at all levels to ensure that user data is safe within our system including: SSL security, encrypted user passwords, automatic timeout, hourly data backup and Admin control of employee settings. Managers also have access to download any of their data from the system at anytime. We've also been named a trusted app by TRUSTe's online privacy service. As part of this dedication, we've expanded the application in the twp following ways:

Default SSL Login

Managers now have the ability to enable Default SSL Login. The ShiftPlanning website requires user authentication to access the system. This requires data to travel back and forth between the servers hosting web applications and the clients and ShiftPlanning will encrypt this communication with SSL. So, you may be asking the question: why not default the "default SSL Login"? The answer is that heavy encryption causes slowed performance. So, given the performance trade-off, the ShiftPlanning team has made the setting optional. You can access 'login options' under the admin tab "account settings".

Customer Domains

You may have also noticed that upon login, you are now being directed to your customer domain (yourcompany.shiftplanning.com). We have domain specific features that are coming and will only by active from individual domains. The first of these will be an option for single sign-on (SSO). Other domain specific feature, will allow for more robust branding/white label opportunities as well as requested feature such as job boards and staff addition/account setup opportunities. Stay tuned for more news in this area!

Happy Scheduling!

4 weeks ago Allena Rouse 3 Comments

ShiftPlanning Adds New Requested Employee Scheduling Features

You spoken and we've heard! We have three new releases to announce that have each come from your feedback. The ShiftPlanning development team prides its self on being customer driven, so if you have any comments or concerns, please let us know. Also, feel free to check out our product roadmap at anytime. You can find out more about the new features below:

ShiftPlanning offers administrators and staff members a number of setting to allow for a flexible system. In the staff profile under notifications, users are able to specify how often they would like to receive ShiftPlanning-related updates. We now offer great control by allowing employees to select not only how often they receive certain notifications but also to select the preferred medium (E-mail or SMS) and set independent frequencies for each medium.

Over the past months, we've added quite a bit of functionality to the "add filters" section of the scheduler which you can learn more about here and here. Among the requested filters was the option to segment employees by skill. This works for example if you want to just look at the schedules of all spanish speaking staff members. Filter by staff is an even more powerful feature when combined with other filters like "open trade requests."

Along with schedule related features, the team has also worked on areas relevant to payroll. One of the most asked for payroll/paycard elements was that of daily overtime. States like California have employment rules that regulate how overtime is handled on a day to day basis (for example, hrs worked after 8hr in a day are overtime etc). ShiftPlanning's daily overtime feature. We allow the flexibility to create as many of these overtime rules as suits client needs. These rules are reflected in payroll-specific reporting. Daily overtime can be set from the admin tab under 'rate cards'.

What features are you most looking forward to? Are there payroll-related rules that your organization requires?

Happy Scheduling!

1 month ago Allena Rouse 0 Comments

Case Study Spotlight: Second Alarmers Association and Rescue Squad of Montgomery County

ShiftPlanning will be profiling our users as part of our "case study spotlight" series. If you'd like to have your business covered, please complete the questionnaire here and send to allena@shiftplanning.com. Completed case studies will be granted a free one month credit to their account. Please send any questions to info@shiftplanning.com

SSecond Alarmers Association and Rescue Squad of Montgomery County, Incorporated (SARS) was founded in 1938 and has grown to respond to over 12,000 emergency 911 incidents each year in its region. SARS provides life saving Emergency Medical and Rescue Services to the over 130,000 residents through Paramedic Units, Rescue Truck, Marine Unit, Bicycle Team and Two State Strike Teams. The team provides such outstanding care with the help of over 70 volunteers who are scheduled with the ShiftPlanning application.

Before ShiftPlanning, the SARS team was scheduling manually with pen and paper and sometimes excel. This was not an ideal solution as the many volunteers work across five stations and have variable availability. ShiftPlanning allowed for more flexible staff scheduling and the busy team has benefited from the application's notification system. ShiftPlanning has already made scheduling less of a hassle and now the team is starting to take advantage of our timeclock functionality as well.

The ShiftPlanning team is resourceful and eager to help when we encounter challenges. They provide high quality customer service. - David Tepper, Second Alarmers Association and Rescue Squad of Montgomery County

The ShiftPlanning team supports the outstanding service that the SARS team provides to its community.

You can see the full case study at shiftplanning.com/secondalarmersassociation.

Happy Scheduling!

1 month ago Allena Rouse 0 Comments

Case Study Spotlight: Life's So Sweet Chocolates

Opening in February of 2008 just in time for Valentine's Day, Life's So Sweet Chocolates has quickly grown into a local favorite. Depending on the time of the year, the shop maintains 7 to 8 staff members. With a multiplying team, the store's manager faced the growning pains of employee availability and turnover.

Before Shiftplanning, the owner of the chocolate shop was using paper and outlook for scheduling, which was not only time consuming but also not very effective as a solution. ShiftPlanning presented a clear opportunity to streamline scheduling and manage availability and vacation requests.

With a young staff, the manager aims to teach gear employees with experience they can take as they graduate college and move on to career positions. ShiftPlanning has aided in teaching efforts as the program allows for staff members to take responsibilty and become a part of the scheduling process. As a web-based employee scheduling solution, ShiftPlanning is available at anytime via internet connected devices such as pcs, netbooks, tablets, and phones. This is especially beneficial to a younger employee-base who is always used to being 'connected'. The manager describes ShiftPlanning as:

an easy to use, accessible system that works to solve the employee scheduling problems
- Darlynne Overbaugh, Life's So Sweet Chocolates

ShiftPlanning hopes to remain easy-to-use and accessible to organizations of all sizes including small businesses like Life's So Sweets Chocolates.

You can see the full case study at shiftplanning.com/lifessosweetchocolates.

Happy Scheduling!

1 month ago Ryan Fyfe 2 Comments

Employee Scheduling on the Go: The ShiftPlanning Tablet App

The ShiftPlanning team is happy to introduce our tablet application as part of several mobile implementations of our software. As a cloud-based software, ShiftPlanning has been dedicated from the start to giving staff and managers access to their schedules anytime anywhere. You can find out more about the new app below:

How to access the app?

You can access the application simply by navigating to shiftplanning.com/app/ipad/ on your tablet device.

What features will I have access to on my tablet?

Dashboard:
Send messages to the team, see upcoming shifts & more.
Schedule:
The scheduler is richly featured and allows for shift creation in each of the four main views. Like the web application, managers have access to the 'shift edit' window which will allows them to set needed shift details.
Time Clock:
Staff has the ability to clock times (given appropriate admin settings) while schedulers can approve timesheets on the move.
Staff:
Within the tablet app, managers are capable of viewing staff and their information, updating profiles, adding staff, and assigning positions and skills.
Reporting:
The reporting tab currently gives managers read access to payroll specific reporting for scheduled, confirmed, and clocked hours.

How much does this cost?
The tablet app comes free with a regular ShiftPlanning subscription.

What if I have additional questions?
As always, we look forward to your feedback and you can send any questions, comments, or concerns to info@shiftplanning.com

Happy Scheduling!

2 months ago Allena Rouse 0 Comments

Case Study Spotlight: Temple University EMS

Temple University Emergency Medical Services (TUEMS) is a recognized student-run organization that provides Basic Life Support to the area around Temple's Main Campus. The students who participate in TUEMS are certified EMTs who also undergo training at the Temple University Hospital Emergency Department and through the International Police Mountain Bike Association. Each staff member is scheduled for 16hrs of service per month and the team as a whole has responded to more than 670 incidents with an average response time of 2 minutes 14 seconds. The Temple University EMS has grown since its 2005 founding from 8 to 47 staff members. Previously scheduling by email and excel, they faced the common scheduling issues of many other student based organizations.

The student staff members have responded positively to ShiftPlanning and enjoy being able to see their work schedule in real time from anywhere they are connected to the internet. They also benefit from being able to enter and change their availablity, so they can meet their commitment at a time that is most convenient in the ever-changing and often packed schedule of a student. Staff members have described the scheduling software as "cool."

Getting the students more involved in scheduling processes and having flexible permissions that allow for multiple schedulers, have allowed the EMS managers to save time and focus on other areas of operations the help them to serve the university and save resources of the Philadelphia Fire Department Medics.

ShiftPlanning team is awesome. Keep up the good work. - Matthew Santiago (Captain of Operations) - Temple University Emergency Medical Services

The ShiftPlanning team believes the service the EMS provides to the Temple community is "awesome" as well, and we're glad to be of help.

You can see the full case study at shiftplanning.com/templeuniversityems.

Happy Scheduling!

2 months ago Allena Rouse 0 Comments

Case Study Series: Windham County Sheriff's Department

The Windham County Sheriff's department is a constituent part of their Vermont community and requires 36 sworn officers and additional civilian staff to fulfill the various community needs the department supports. As an emergency responding agency, the sheriff's department wears a wide range of hats which can sometimes make scheduling a daunting task. Moreover, as a public-facing organization, it is of the utmost importance that hours are allocated fairly and overtime limited.

Prior to ShiftPlanning, the sheriff's department was using paper and sometimes excel for their employee scheduling needs. Given the inconsistant nature of law enforcement scheduling, the department needed a flexible schedule maker that would allow them instant access to the vital information needed to make the best judgements on resource allocation.

For supervisors, the Shiftplannign platform allows the team to better manage overtime and conflicts as well as have a centralized location for storing staff information, coordinating vacation, and managing the movement of their cruiser fleet saving the organization transportation costs. For employees, having access to the schedule anywhere anytime saved time previously spent on trying to contact supervisors to verify the schedule or request time off.

ShiftPlanning has impacted our organization positively in several ways - Corporal Mark Anderson, Windham County Sheriff's Department

The ShiftPlanning team is a proud supporter of the services the Windham County Sheriff's Department provides to their community.

You can see the full case study at shiftplanning.com/windhamcounty.

Happy Scheduling!