{"id":4775,"date":"2019-03-01T13:42:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T18:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/?p=4775"},"modified":"2019-02-27T13:44:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T18:44:59","slug":"did-you-know-you-can-plan-shifts-in-microsoft-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/?p=4775","title":{"rendered":"Did you know \u2026 you can plan Shifts in Microsoft Teams?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shifts, a schedule management tool that replaces StaffHub, can be used to plan shift schedules that team members can access from Teams. If you currently use StaffHub, be aware that it will be retired on 01 October 2019.<\/p>\n

While Microsoft bills Shifts as a tool for \u201cfrontline\u201d workers, this tool can be used for any scenario where responsibility is scheduled \u2013 on call rotations, manning the company booth at a convention, coordinating job share situations.<\/p>\n

Getting Started<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To access Shifts, click the not-quite-a-hamburger menu below the Teams function tiles and select \u201cShifts\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Select the Teams space in which you want to create the schedule \u2013 only Team Owners can create schedules, so some Teams spaces may be grayed out. You\u2019ll be asked to select a time zone for the schedule.<\/p>\n

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Schedules are organized by group \u2013 supply a name for the group. You may only have one group, but managing multiple call queues or ensuring coverage for multiple locations at a convention is easier with multiple schedule groups. To create additional groups, click \u201cAdd group\u201d below the schedule.<\/p>\n

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Across from the schedule name, click the \u201cAdd people to group\u201d icon.<\/p>\n

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You can add anyone from the organization but<\/em><\/strong> be aware that adding an individual to the schedule also adds them to the Teams space that holds your schedule. Similarly, you can denote any individual as an owner (thus allowed to create and update schedules) \u2013 they will become an owner in the Teams space.<\/p>\n

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Creating a Schedule<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To schedule someone for a shift, you can double-click in their row under the date you want to add or click the ellipses and select \u201cAdd shift\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Set the start and end time for the shift. You can add a color code to visualize the schedule. Notes are useful for denoting tasks that need to be completed during the shift.<\/p>\n

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If breaks will occur during the shift, click \u201cAdd activity\u201d and add the break period. Click \u201cSave\u201d to save the scheduled shift (Share saves it and<\/em> shares it with the rest of the Team. I won\u2019t share the schedule until I\u2019ve finished it.)<\/p>\n

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Once a shift has been added, it can be re-used. The most recently added shifts will appear when you click the ellipsis, and you can enter the start<\/em> time to find other shifts.<\/p>\n

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Shifts has several views that ensure adequate coverage is maintained. In \u201cDay\u201d view, you can click the little stopwatch icon to display the number of people scheduled for each 30-minute block. You can switch from \u2018People\u2019 view to \u2018Shift\u2019 view to see how the shifts line up and how many individuals are assigned to each shift.<\/p>\n

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Once you have completed the schedule, share it with your Team by clicking the \u201cShare with team\u201d button.<\/p>\n

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If you generally maintain the same schedule week to week, you can copy a schedule instead of re-entering the same information every week. Click on the \u201cCopy\u201d icon.<\/p>\n

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Select the schedule to copy and the week to which the schedule will be copied. You can include all of the notes, time off requests, activities, and open shifts. Or you can exclude some of those from being copied by unchecking the corresponding box.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Schedule Adjustment Requests<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once the schedule has been shared with the Team, members can see the schedule in Shifts. Team members can request time off or schedule adjustments using the requests menu.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Click on \u201cAdd request\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After selecting the date(s) or time for the time off request and selecting a reason, click \u201cSend request\u201d. The request will be queued for Team Owner approval.<\/p>\n

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Requestors can view the status of their request<\/p>\n

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And Team Owners will see the requests in an approval queue.<\/p>\n

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Once a request for time off is approved, the appropriate time will be blocked off so you don\u2019t inadvertently schedule over someone\u2019s vacation.<\/p>\n

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Team members can also trade shifts using the requests feature. These changes are *first* queued the person assigned to the other shift to accept or reject the request. If the requestee approves the swap, the change is queued for Owner approval.<\/p>\n

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Open Shifts<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to individually scheduled shifts, Owners can create \u201copen\u201d shifts \u2013 a shift that anyone can request to work.<\/p>\n

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Team members can select the shift, view any notes associated with the shift, and request it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Team owners will see how many people have requested a shift and can schedule an individual for the open shift. Click on the shift, select the individual to whom the shift should be assigned, and click \u201cApprove\u201d.<\/p>\n

** If you change the times of an open shift, any pending requests will be declined automatically when the schedule changes are shared with the Team.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shifts Customization<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The list of time off request reasons can be customized. Click the inverted caret next to the Team name and select \u201cSettings\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You can remove any categories that are inappropriate for your organization and click \u201cAdd custom option\u201d to add a new category.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

API Access<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A preview of programmatic access to Shifts should be released early in 2019. API access will be available through Microsoft Graph, and documentation will be available at https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/graph\/api\/user-getmembergroups?view=graph-rest-beta<\/a> when the API preview is made public. This will allow existing resource management tools to integrate with Shifts. Look for more information when the API is released.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shifts, a schedule management tool that replaces StaffHub, can be used to plan shift schedules that team members can access from Teams. If you currently use StaffHub, be aware that it will be retired on 01 October 2019. While Microsoft bills Shifts as a tool for \u201cfrontline\u201d workers, this tool can be used for any …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[677],"tags":[675,691,729,762,666,686,761],"class_list":["post-4775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-office-365","tag-did-you-know","tag-microsoft-office","tag-microsoft-office-365","tag-microsoft-shifts","tag-microsoft-teams","tag-ms-teams","tag-staffhub"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4801,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4775\/revisions\/4801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}