Shifts had quite an eventful 2023, with a main focus on improving the product and your user experience. Embracing the wisdom of famous martial artist Bruce Lee, who said, "Running water never goes stale, so just keep on flowing," we aimed to consistently enhance and add features to ensure your experience with Shifts never becomes stagnant. Here are some of the significant updates we made in the last year:
1. Managers can now clock in and clock out on behalf of employees
There may be instances when employees forget to clock in or clock out. Managers can simply view the Who's Working and No Show tab from the Shifts dashboard and choose the clock-in or clock-out option. This ensures employee time records are accurate for payroll.
2. Team messaging (Open Beta)
Employees can now communicate with other employees right from the Shifts app. This keeps all official conversations in one place.
Managers or shift administrators have the option to make it so employees can only reply to the messages sent to them. Managers can create channels to communicate with larger groups in the organization. Images and videos can also be attached to messages.
Plus, make your conversations fun and visual by adding reactions to messages. Express how you feel by choosing from an array of emojis.
Learn more about team messaging.
3. General audit log
Find a complete list of user actions in Shifts with the audit log feature. The centralized audit log gives shift administrators a better idea of all employee tasks. It also helps in managing security breaches and provides protection from potential legal liabilities.
4. Access level customizations
Viewing different schedules
While previously, managers could only view the schedules they were assigned, now administrators can choose to allow managers to view all schedules. Managers can only make modifications to the schedules they control.
Time off permission
There are now two access levels for time off requests. Managers can submit time off requests and they will not be auto-approved.
5. More filter options
Shift swapping
Employees now have an option to filter the shift they want to swap with by a date range or by a specific employee. This gives them a better picture of the available shifts and helps them make an informed decision about how they want to swap shifts and with whom.
Time off
You can now filter the time off requests by a date range. You can also sort the requests based on the date of submission or by the date of time off. This makes searching for particular time off requests much easier.
6. Adding notes
Shift drop
This enhancement allows both the employee and employer to add comments to shift drop requests. Notifications are sent out for every comment so everyone stays informed. This can help add more context to employees' requests.
Clock in
Employees can now add notes when they clock in, and employers can view these notes when reviewing the timesheets. This gives employers more information about the shifts. For instance, if one employee has clocked in late, a note explaining the reason can help the employer get more clarity about the clocked hours.
7. Overtime rules
You can now set overtime rules for individual days rather than setting a common rule for all days of the week. Set individual overtime costs by day, week, seventh consecutive day, and individual holidays. This level of customization ensures that the employees are always fairly compensated when working overtime.
8. Kiosk for multiple schedules
Organizations now have the choice to set up a kiosk for multiple schedules. Employees from multiple schedules can use the kiosk to clock in and clock out.
Looking ahead
In 2023, we implemented several updates to enhance the user experience. We will continue to introduce more features and improvements this year, making the process of creating shifts simpler than ever before. Here are some of the updates that we have planned for this year:
Auto-scheduling
Shift differential
Holiday pay
Time off accrual
Wishing everyone a wonderful 2024!
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