Overview

Getting started

Configuring eligibility

Configuring permissions

Agent workflow

Overview

The Shift Swap feature allows agents to request a swap with their eligible colleagues. Based on configurations, Assembled will prompt agents with eligible shifts they could request to swap. Swaps happen during a two-part approval process:

1. Requested agent is prompted to approve the request of the requesting agent

2. Once the requested agent approves, a reviewer (indicated by the requesting agent) will also be prompted to approve

If both the requested agent and the reviewer approve, the shifts will be exchanged. 

Admins can configure:

1. Permissions: Which agents have access to shift swaps

2. Eligibility: Which agents are allowed to swap with each other

In addition to the configurable criteria, Assembled will only allow shifts to be swapped if:

1. The shifts are of the exact same length

2. The shifts are in the future

3. The shifts have schedules (Assembled will not swap working hours that don't yet have scheduled events)

Getting started

We recommend configuring eligibility prior to turning on the permission for any agents (in order to avoid premature swap requests). 

Configuring eligibility

To manage shift swaps effectively, Admins should configure eligibility via Shift Swap Rules. These rules determine which shifts a requesting agent can see and swap with.

Admins can configure whether agents should be allowed to swap with other agents where:

• The scheduled events have the desired degree of overlap
• The sites or teams have the desired degree of overlap
• The channels or queues have the desired degree of overlap
• The skills have the desired degree of overlap

See the images below for specific explanations of "Exact" vs. "Partial" matches for each of these variables:

Outcome: Requesting agents will see eligible shifts to swap with that meet the criteria of what's been configured under Rules for a company. Note, eligibility configurations apply to all agents who have access to shift swaps. 

Assembled recommendation: We recommend defaulting to "Partial match" for Scheduled events, and "Ignore" for all other dimensions unless there are constraints specific to your organization. This will ensure that agents are only swapping shifts with schedules that they're qualified to work. 

Configuring permissions

Under Company Settings > Roles and permissions, Admins can adjust:

1. Access to requests

2. Ability to approve

Assembled recommendations: 

By default, Standard and Basic roles have "No access" to shift swaps, since we recommend companies configure eligibility (see section above) before allowing access to agents. After configuring eligibility, we recommend giving agents "View, approve, and deny only their own" permission, meaning agents can approve or deny only shift swap requests made to them, as well as make requests of others.

By default, Admin and Manager roles have "Can approve and deny all" level access, which we recommend keeping. Note that Admins and Managers with this permission are able to approve any swap requests, not just those made of their teams. 

Restricted sites

Shift swap permissions respect restricted site configurations:

• Requesters (agents) in a restricted site can only see eligible shifts from other agents in their same restricted site
• Reviewers (managers) in a restricted site can only see and respond to swap requests made by agents in their same restricted site

Agent workflow

Once eligibility and permissions are enabled, agents will be able to request a shift swap via My Schedule page, using the button in the top right corner.

This will initiate the following request process:

1. The requesting agent will select who should review their request, once it's approved by the receiving /  requested agent (anyone who has permission to approve will show up in this dropdown list).

2. Then they'll select one of their own shifts they'd like to swap. Assembled will detect shifts based on contiguous events with <1 gaps in between. These shifts must be in the future and may not have started it.

3. Assembled will then show a list of eligible shifts of other agents for the requesting agent to choose from. The requesting agent must select one of these eligible shifts to request a swap.

4. Once submitted, the selected agent will receive an email notification of the request to swap.

5. The requested agent will be able to approve or deny the swap request on the Shift swap requests page.

6. If approved, the request will then move to the reviewer who was selected by the initial requesting agent. The reviewer will receive an email notification, and will be able to approve or deny the swap request on the Shift swap requests page.

7. If either the requested agent or the reviewer deny the request, the requesting agent will receive an email notifying them of the denial and the shift will not be swapped. The agent could then request to swap with a different eligible shift, if they would like to.

8. If both the requested agent and the reviewer approve the request, the requesting agent will receive an email notifying them of the approval, and the shift will be swapped. Once a shift is swapped, it may not be swapped again (for either agent).

FAQ

Will everything on the schedule be swapped, including 1-1s not relevant to the swapping agent?

Yes - the entire schedule will be copied and pasted between the two agents. Reviewing managers should take care to either avoid swapping shifts that have agent-specific events, or to manually correct them after swapping.