Shift generation

Plans and permissions:

• Create, edit, and publish shift plans: Admin, Manager, or Team Lead role, or a custom role with Edit schedules set to Can edit all agents’ schedules
• A custom role also needs Team Lead access or higher, with no event type limits on Edit schedules.
• If Schedule generation shows a table of weeks, roles other than Admin need Manage optimizations set to Can manage optimizations instead.
• People with restricted sites can’t open shift plans.

Early access (Alpha): Shift generation is in early access, so it may still change, and we’d love your feedback. If you don’t see it, an admin can request access from Configure > Early access and send feedback from the same page. See Early access features.

Use shift generation to build your team’s shifts from your scheduling rules and forecast, so the hours people work follow demand. You generate shifts in a shift plan, review how well they cover your required staffing, and publish them. Then you build schedules for those shifts as usual.

To open it, go to Schedule > Schedule generation and select Plan shifts.

Note:

• Before you start, each person you’re planning for needs working hours or shift rules assigned for the time range you’re planning. People without rules are skipped. Assembled warns you before you create the plan, and you can select Manage rules in the warning to fix it.
• You need a forecast for the channels and queues you’re staffing. The review page compares the plan against it.
• Shift generation adds shift options to the shift rule form, such as shift timing and allowed work times. Review your rules before you generate or publish shifts.

How shift generation works

• Scheduling rules set the limits for each person, such as which days they can work and how many hours.
• Shifts are the hours a person works, such as Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Shift generation picks shifts within each person’s rules. A person can get one of the working hours patterns they already have, or new hours, which can differ from week to week.
• Schedules fill those shifts with activities, such as breaks, chat, and phone. After you publish shifts, you build schedules from Schedule generation as usual.
• You generate shifts and schedules separately, so you choose what to regenerate and when. If your team’s hours change often, create a new shift plan for the time range that changes, then regenerate schedules. If they stay the same, keep your shifts and regenerate only your schedules.
• A shift plan is a set of generated shifts. Assigned shifts are built for specific people, using the scheduling rules assigned to them. Unassigned shifts aren’t tied to a person yet, for coverage you still need to fill. For example, if new hires start next month, you can plan their shifts now and assign people later.
• To build shifts, Assembled uses your forecast to decide when you need people, each person’s scheduling rules to decide which shifts they can work, and the channels and queues they work to match people to needs.
• Nothing changes on your live schedule until you publish. Always review a shift plan before you publish it.

Create a shift plan

1. Go to Schedule > Schedule generation and select Plan shifts at the top of the page. You can also select Plan shifts from the three-dot menu on a week’s card, or at the top of Schedule > Shifts. If Schedule generation shows a table of weeks, find the Shift plans row and select Plan shifts under the week you want.
2. Under When should this shift plan be?, choose the time range these shifts apply to.
3. To plan shifts for people already on your team, select Add assigned shifts. Under Who are these shifts for?, choose All agents, Specific attributes, or Specific agents. Check the Rule summary, which shows how many rules apply and flags anyone who can’t get shifts because rules are missing, then select Save.
4. To add shifts that aren’t tied to a person yet, select Add unassigned shifts, then:
   1. Under Who are these shifts for?, filter by site, team, or skill. Under How many shifts do you need?, enter the number of shifts. Check the Rule summary, then select Next.
   2. Under What channels or queues will the unassigned agents work?, choose a channel and its queues. To add more, select Add channel/queue. Select Save.
5. Check the Summary, with Total shifts, Assigned, and Unassigned, then select Create shifts.

Assembled places unassigned shifts to cover the forecasts for the channels and queues you chose. Generation runs in the background and can take a few minutes for large teams, so you can leave the page and come back. When the plan shows Ready for review, open it from Schedule generation: under History, select Shifts. If Schedule generation shows a table of weeks, select View all shift plans.

Review a shift plan

The review page shows how well the plan covers your required staffing. To see the metrics and shifts for part of your team, filter by channel, site, queue, team, or skill. With no channel or queue selected, the metrics count every shift.

To export the plan as a CSV file, select Download.

Keep in mind: A person counts fully toward every channel and queue they work, so Efficiency and Fit can read high when people work several.

Edit a shift plan

You can edit a plan while it shows Ready for review.

1. In the table on the review page, select By person.
2. Select Edit.
3. For each person you want to change, open their pattern in the Shifts column and choose another pattern from this plan. The row previews the new shifts. If the person got one of their existing working hours patterns, the menu shows Select a shift pattern… instead of a pattern name.
4. Select Save to keep your changes, or Cancel to discard them.

If you leave the page with unsaved edits, Assembled asks whether to discard them. You can’t publish while you’re editing.

To give an unassigned shift to someone, choose a person in Assign agent… on its row in By person. The change is saved right away.

Publish the shifts

Important: For the dates in the plan, published shifts replace each person’s working hours. Their working hours aren’t deleted, and they apply again after those dates. Other scheduling rules don’t change.

1. On the review page, select Publish shifts.
2. Under Whose shifts do you want to publish?, choose Everyone or Specific agents.
3. Select Publish shifts.

The new shifts appear on the Staffing timeline. Only assigned shifts are published: unassigned shifts stay in the plan. To publish one later, assign a person to it, then publish the plan again.

Next, build schedules for these shifts from Schedule > Schedule generation.

Change shifts after you publish

You can’t edit a shift plan after you publish it. To change published shifts, either:

• Edit them on Schedule > Shifts, or in Configure > Scheduling rules under Working hours if your Schedule menu doesn’t have Shifts.
• Create a new shift plan for those dates.

Keep in mind: People who got the same generated pattern share it, so editing it on Schedule > Shifts changes it for everyone who has it.