Work Settings

This setting helps manage employee fatigue by showing a warning on the roster when an employee is rostered for shifts that are too close together (i.e., when the first shift ends and the next one starts within a set period). 

It reviews the time between shifts across all operations, rosters, and calendar days. By setting a minimum number of hours, you can ensure employees have adequate rest before their next shift.

The image below displays a fatigue warning for shifts on Monday and Thursday, which occurs because these shifts start within 12 hours of the previous shifts ending, even over multiple days. This warning is caused by the 'Minimum hours between shifts' setting.  

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• To increase the rest period between shifts to ensure your employees are well rested
• For specific award or legislative requirements, as your rest period may be different
• The rest period is not required for your business needs

To update the minimum hours between shifts:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Platform Settings > Work Settings. 
2. Locate the 'Minimum hours between shifts' setting and update the hours in the field. 
3. To save your changes, select Save from the taskbar.

The maximum shift duration is an important setting that manages 2 key functions related to rostering shifts and employee clocking.

• For rostering - This setting establishes the maximum allowable length for a shift. If a shift exceeds this duration, it will trigger an error, preventing it from being published.

  
   

• For employee clocking - This setting sets the maximum time an employee can clock out of a shift. 
  • For example, if the 'Maximum shift duration' is set as 12 hours. 
  • Employee A has a rostered shift 6 am - 4 pm. 
    • This employee has a clocking window from 6 am - 6 pm (as dictated by the 12-hour maximum shift duration).
    • However, if Employee A tried to clock out after 6 pm (outside of the clocking window), they would be unable to 'clock out' and instead could only clock into a new shift.

  Please note: When determining the maximum shift length that suits your business, aim to find a balance. Consider the longest shift time you want an employee to be rostered for and the maximum time frame you want employees to clock in during busy periods when working late.

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• Working additional hours over the Christmas period.
• For sleepover shifts, you can roster and clock into just 1 shift. 
• Reduce the cap on how long the shift duration is (e.g. set a maximum of 5 hours).

To update the maximum shift duration:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Platform Settings > Work Settings. 
2. Locate the 'Maximum shift duration' setting and specify the number of hours. 
3. To save your changes, select Save from the taskbar.
    

Offering shifts is an alternative way to add shifts and build your roster; it can be very useful when you need to fill or replace shifts quickly.

The key difference when offering shifts is that employees must accept or decline offers. The 'Shift offers expire' setting allows you to customise how long an offer is valid for before it expires. By default, this is set as 8 hours. 

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• To allow your employees more time to respond to offers.
• So you can send shift offers weeks/months in advance for large events.
• If you mostly use offers to fill shifts, reduce the expiry to better cycle through your preferred employees.

  For further reading on updating this setting or using shift offers, please refer to our article Offer shifts & create Bulk Shifts.

The 'Allow employees to view coworkers rostered during their shift' setting enables the coworker view feature for your employees. This feature shows employees who they will be working with on each shift, providing visibility of their colleagues, and can be accessed directly from the Employee App.

Once enabled, employees will only see coworkers whose shifts overlap with their own. Depending on your preference, this can include either coworkers on the same roster or all employees working in the same operation during the same shift.

  Please note: Once enabled, this setting applies to all employees and all shifts and can not be customised per operation.

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• Supports visibility for arranging shift swaps, which are organised and outside of foundU

• Improves teamwork by helping staff plan with their shift partners

• Builds confidence and safety, especially for new team members

To enable coworker view for your employees:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Platform Settings > Work Settings. 
2. Locate the 'Allow employees to view coworkers rostered during their shift' setting and select Yes. Once selected, additional fields will become available.
3. You can customise the information shown to employees by choosing from these options:
   • Coworker visibility - Select if the employee should view only coworkers on the same roster as their shift or all employees working for the operation.
   • Coworker information to display -  Choose whether the employee sees only coworkers' names or also their shift times. 
4. To save your changes, select Save from the taskbar.

Setting a budget for your employee labour costs can help you manage your wage costs effectively. You have the flexibility to set individual budgets for each roster; this can be done for an entire week or per day.

The 'Prevent publishing when over budget' setting allows you to take further control over your rostering by preventing your admins from publishing a roster when it exceeds the set budget. 

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• Ensures managers stop and think about wages when creating and publishing rosters.
• Allowing your senior managers to review costs prior to publishing a roster. 
• To reduce your labour and wage costs. 

  For further reading on updating this setting or adding a roster budget, please refer to our article, Roster Budget. 

A manager's job is never-ending, and communication from employees about shifts can be one of the hardest to manage.

To help ease the load, you can allow employees to cancel shifts directly from their employee app and notify the rostering manager. Additionally, you can set a minimum notice period in hours to ensure that you have sufficient time to reallocate the shift to another employee.

If you are looking to use this setting, we advise that you also enable the 'Create declined, expired and cancelled individual shift offers as new unassigned shifts' setting, which is located in the main menu > Platform Settings > System Settings.

When used in combination, your platform will automatically create a new unassigned shift each time your employees cancel their upcoming shift, which will allow you to quickly fill the shift using an offer. 

  For further reading about the unfilled shift creation setting and shift offers, please refer to our Offering Shifts article. 

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• Reduce the number of employee no-shows. 
• Employees inform their managers when they are unable to work a shift. 
• Prevent double-handling of shifts. 

To allow employees to cancel shifts:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Platform Settings > Work Settings. 
2. Locate the 'Employees can cancel upcoming shifts' setting and select Yes.
3. Once yes has been selected, the following fields will become available: 'Minimum notice required to cancel shift'.
   • In this field, you can specify the number of hours' notice required before an employee can cancel their shifts. 
     
     For example, if a shift starts at 3 pm and the notice period is set at 8 hours, employees will be unable to cancel their shift anytime after 7 am that same day (8 hours before the shift starts). 
4. To save your changes, select Save from the taskbar.

The 'Enable roster analytics' setting is a valuable feature for businesses where external contacts manage rostering.

For example, this is particularly useful for labour hire companies whose clients are responsible for creating rosters in foundU. 

When this setting is set to 'No', the Roster Analytics Bar and the Roster Efficiency Drawer are removed from your rosters. This is beneficial for hiding all analytical data, including:

• Total Wages - Daily labour cost total.
• Total Hours - The total number of hours from shifts.
• Wages Budget - Specified budget.
• Wages Budget (% Spent) - Percentage of budget spent on wages.
• SPLH - Daily total of imported sales data.
• Total Staff - The number of staff with shifts.
• Labour to Sales (%) - The percentage of sales estimated to be used by labour costs.
• SPLH ($) - Average dollar value of sales per labour hour.

  Please note:  Updating this setting will affect all employees across every roster. If you need to conceal wages from specific admin users, you can manage this through their permissions. 

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• For demonstration and training purposes.
• Hiding employees' wage details from external admin users.

  For further reading on updating this setting or using roster analytics, please refer to our article Roster Analytics.

The 'Display pay rates on roster' setting is used to limit the amount of analytics available for your admin users to select. 

When this setting is set to 'No', the Roster Efficiency Drawer is limited to the following items:

• Total Hours - The total number of hours from shifts.
• Total Staff - The amount of staff with shifts.

  Please note:  Updating this setting will affect all employees across every roster. If you need to conceal wages from specific admin users, you can manage this through their permissions. 

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• For demonstration and training purposes.
• Hiding employees' wage details from external admin users.

  For further reading on updating this setting or using roster analytics, please refer to our article Roster Analytics.

The 'Show employee contact details' setting is a valuable feature that allows you to decide whether an employee's contact details are available on the roster.

There are benefits to both options for this setting; however, these will depend on your business needs. For instance, when this setting is set to:

• Yes - Employee's contact details can be accessed by selecting the ellipsis next to the employee's name.
  • This tool is great for rostering managers, giving them access to employee contact details when they do not have access to the people menus or employee profiles.
• No - The employees' email addresses and phone numbers will be removed from all rosters.
  • This is especially beneficial for labour hire companies whose clients use foundU to create rosters. Additionally, it helps ensure that clients do not contact your employees directly.

  Please note:  When you update this setting, it'll affect all employees across every roster. But don't worry; admins can still reach out to employees through the Dashboard, People Menus, and Employee Profiles, depending on their permissions.

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting include:

• Hiding employee contact details from external admin users. 
• Preventing your clients from contacting employees directly. 
• Allowing roster managers to contact employees if they don't have access to Approved People.

To hide employee contact details:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Platform Settings > Work Settings. 
2. Locate the 'Show employee contact details' setting and select No. 
3. To save your changes, select Save from the taskbar.

The 'Allow employees to access shift calendar link' setting enables a personal calendar link for employees to add their rostered shifts to an external calendar. 

There are benefits to both options for this setting; however, these will depend on your business needs. For instance, when this setting is set to:

• Yes - Employees will find an 'Add to calendar' link in the 'Upcoming Roster' section on their Employee App. This link allows them to connect their upcoming shifts to their personal calendar and check their shifts there. This option is selected by default. 
• No - Employees will be required to log into their Employee App to check their upcoming shifts. 

  Please note: When this setting is set to 'No', after being enabled, existing links will be revoked, and employees will need to log in to their Employee App to view their upcoming roster. 

Some use cases where you may want to update this setting:

• Allows employees to share their shifts with a family member to keep them informed.
• Let's employees consolidate all of their appointments and events together, making it easier for them to see their availability at a glance.

  For more information on this feature, please refer to our Sync rostered shifts to your personal calendar employee guide here.