Send open or offered shifts from the roster to quickly add staff and fill shifts
Need to fill a shift quickly or manage last-minute changes? Open and offered shifts make it easy to send them to your workforce and fill them fast.
Instead of assigning shifts directly, you can offer them to employees or open them up to a wider group, allowing staff to accept or express interest. This gives you flexibility and control while keeping your roster moving.
This feature allows you to send an offer or open shift to multiple employees for a single shift directly from the roster, helping you respond quickly to changes without disrupting your schedule.
This article will cover:
- How offered and open shifts work in your platform
- The key differences between offers and open shifts
- How to create and publish these shift types
- Using quick fill and shortlists to allocate employees to shifts
- Setting up manager notifications
- Communication templates for offers and open shifts
- Open and Offered Shifts report
- FAQs
If you need to send offers to multiple employees across multiple shifts at once, use the separate bulk shifts feature.
To experience a virtual walk-through of the offered and open shifts process, check it out below, or view the walk-through here!
Using shift offers and open shifts
Offering and open 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 with these types of shifts is that, rather than assigning a shift and telling employees when and where to work, you are inviting their interest in a specific shift. Employees can choose whether they want to work the shift or express their interest, and once responses are received, the shift can then be allocated.
Once an offer or open shift is sent, it remains active until:
- The shift start time has passed
- The shift has been allocated to an employee
- The offer or open shift expires
To understand how employees accept or decline offered shifts, please refer to our Employee article on Accept or decline a shift offer.
Methods of offering shifts
Admins have 2 main ways to send shift offers in foundU:
- From bulk shifts – This method lets you send offers (offers only, not open shifts) to multiple employees for multiple shifts at once.
- From the roster – This method lets you send offers or open shifts for a specific shift to multiple employees directly from the roster.
This article focuses on the roster method for offered and open shifts. To review the process for bulk shifts, refer to our bulk shifts article.
Sending shifts from the roster gives you full visibility of employee rosters and control over how shifts are filled. It also provides flexibility to manage offers and open shifts efficiently to:
- See which employees are already rostered when sending shifts
- Send both offered and open shifts from the same place
- Issue multiple offers to employees, even if they overlap with other offers
- Edit pending or declined offers and reissue them directly from the roster
Offered vs Open shifts
One of the key advantages of using the roster is the ability to send out both offered and open shifts. Each option gives you a different level of control over who receives and fills the shift.
Let's take a closer look at how each works.
Offered shifts
This method allows you to send a shift directly to one or more selected employees, offering the same shift to multiple employees and allowing them to respond.
This is ideal when you want to be more targeted in your approach.
This is beneficial if you need to:
- Be selective about which employees receive the shift
- Prioritise employees with the most experience
- Offer shifts to a preferred or trusted group of employees
Open shifts
With open shifts, foundU does the heavy lifting for you. Instead of selecting employees manually, you simply choose the position required for the shift.
The system will then send the shift to all employees who match the criteria, such as position, an available status, and who have no shift conflicts.
It's important to note that when using open shifts, you cannot manually select employees; the field will be unavailable.
This is beneficial if you need to:
- Fill a shift quickly with available staff
- If you want the shift to be exposed to the maximum number of matched employees
- Reduce manual selection and streamline the process
Please note: Employees with shift warnings are still included in match results. To manage overtime risk, you can use open shifts with the Shortlist method to keep control over who is allocated the shift. This will allow you to choose from a list of interested employees after it has been sent.
Refer to the section below for more details on Quick fill and Shortlists.
Managing shifts from the roster is simple and saves time, letting you fill or adjust shifts quickly. You can easily control how shifts are offered and allocated, while seeing who is scheduled at a glance.
In this section, we’ll cover the key steps in the shift process that differ for offered and open shifts. For a complete overview, refer to our full roster building guide.
Key considerations when building your roster:
- You can change the shift type between Assign, Offer, and Open; however, once saved, the type cannot be changed.
- You can change the assign method between Quick fill and Shortlist at any time if needed.
- Any roster templates, copied rosters, or shifts will retain the shift type as it currently appears.
- Offers and open shifts can be edited and republished even after they have been declined, though any changes will not appear in the Open & Offered Shifts Report.
To send an offered or open shift:
- From your roster, select the day you want to add the shift, then select the + icon to add a new shift.
- Choose the shift type: Assign shift, Offer shift, or Open shift. You can adjust this selection prior to saving.
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For Offer and Open shifts, select the method for allocating the shift after it is sent:
- Quick fill – First in, best dressed. The first employee to accept the shift is automatically allocated.
- Shortlist – Allocate the shift from a shortlist of interested employees. See the next section for more details.
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Provide shift details. The options in the Employees field will vary depending on the shift type:
-
Offer Shift – Select the checkboxes next to the employees you want to send the offer to.
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Open Shift – The Employees field will be greyed out. Instead, a badge indicates how many employees meet your criteria, and the shift will be sent to all eligible employees.
Hot tip: The badge colour indicates match count:
- Red – 0 matches
- Amber – 1 to 10 matches
- Green – 11 + matches
-
- After entering the details, you can either publish the shift immediately or save it as a draft.
Once an offer or an open shift is saved or published, it will remain at the top of the roster, regardless of whether employees have been allocated to it. Since these shifts can be sent to multiple employees, they will stay here until allocated to a specific employee and become an accepted (green) shift.
Shift Status Colours
To make it easier to identify offered and open shifts, foundU uses colours to indicate status:
- White – Draft offers or open shifts.
- Blue – Pending offers or open shifts. When the text is Red, the offer or open shift has been declined.
- Green – Accepted shifts.
Depending on whether Quick fill or Shortlist is selected, managers may have an additional step. Shifts using Shortlist will not automatically allocate employees, so further action is required. Refer to the next section for the next steps in this process.
After a shift has been published and sent to employees, you'll need to determine how to fill it. This is where Quick fill and Shortlist come in.
While you select the method when creating the shift, the key difference lies in how responses are managed once employees begin accepting or requesting the shift.
Depending on your needs, you can either allocate the shift to the first available employee or review and choose the most suitable person.
If your requirements change, the selected method can be updated even after the shift has been published, giving you flexibility in how the shift is ultimately filled.
Let’s take a closer look at how each option works below.
Quick fill is a “first in, best dressed” option, perfect when you need a shift filled quickly and aren’t concerned about which employee takes it.
When Quick fill is especially useful:
- An employee calls in sick with little notice
- A client requests additional labour ASAP
- You need extra support for a busy day or event
When Quick fill is selected, the first employee to accept the shift is automatically assigned to the shift.
Quick fill shifts for employees
Employees receive a notification via email, SMS, or push notification whenever an open or offered shift is available. They have two options when reviewing the shift:
- Decline – This rejects the shift. Once declined, the response cannot be changed.
- Accept – This assigns the shift to them (if they are the first to respond) and automatically declines it for all other employees.
Once accepted, the shift becomes a standard accepted (green) shift. If they need to change it, they can either cancel it or follow your company's process for shift swaps or cancellations.
Quick fill shifts on the Roster
Quick fill offered and open shifts on the roster are displayed in a blue pending state until accepted. The key difference when reviewing these shifts is the badges used, for instance:
- Offered shifts – Show a person icon indicating how many employees the shift was offered to.
- Open shifts – Display an OPEN badge. Employees don't appear on open shifts until they accept.
For a complete guide on shift statuses, please refer to our article Rostered Shifts - Status, Warnings & Errors.
You can check which employees have viewed or declined the shift by selecting the shift, then Details. This shows a list of all employees sent the shift and their current status.
-
Pending (Offers only):
Unopened - The employee has not viewed the offer in their app.
Viewed - The employee has viewed the offer but not taken any action.
Declined - The employee has declined the offered or open shift.
Once an employee accepts a Quick fill shift, it becomes their rostered shift. Quick Fill shifts are first-in, best-dressed, so the earliest responder gets it!
Hot tip: Shifts can be edited at any time, letting you add more employees to an offered shift or change the method if needed.
Shortlists are the more selective option for sending offers and open shifts. With this method, once employees have reviewed a shift and expressed interest, you get to choose the best person from the shortlist to be assigned the shift.
When Shortlists is especially useful:
- You need a leader or strong performer to fill a shift
- You want to ensure the right skill set or experience is matched to the shift
- You want more control over who ultimately gets the shift
Choosing from a list of employees gives you full visibility and control over who will be assigned, making it ideal for key or critical shifts.
Shortlists shifts for employees
Employees receive a notification via email, SMS, or push notification whenever an open or offered shift is available. They have two options when reviewing the shift:
- Dismiss – This rejects the shift. Once dismissed, the response cannot be changed.
- Request – Signals interest in working the shift. This does not automatically assign the shift.
Requested shifts aren’t automatically assigned, so employees can cancel their requests for any pending offers or open shifts. Once a shift is assigned, they can either cancel it or follow your company's process for shift swaps or cancellations.
Shortlist shifts on the Roster
Shortlist offered, and open shifts on the roster are displayed in a blue pending state until an employee is assigned. The key difference when reviewing these shifts is the badges used, for instance:
- Offered shifts – Show a person icon, indicating how many employees have requested the shift out of those offered (e.g., 4/10 means 4 requested out of 10 offers sent).
- Open shifts – Show a request icon, with the number indicating how many employees have requested it.
Hot tip: Badges are white when no requests have been made, and turn green once employees have submitted their requests.
For a complete guide on shift statuses, please refer to our article Rostered Shifts - Status, Warnings & Errors.
Assigning shortlist shifts
You can check which employees have viewed, requested, or declined the shift. Please be aware that this list will be blank for any open shifts where employees have not interacted with them.
The status you can see are:
-
Pending (Offers only):
Unopened - The employee has not viewed the offer in their app.
Viewed - The employee has viewed the offer but not taken any action.
Requested - The employee has requested their interest in working the shift.
Declined - The employee has dismissed the offered or open shift.
This list is your next step in the Shortlist method: it’s from here that admins select the preferred employee.
Please note: You must assign an employee to a shift before it expires. Once expired, the shift can no longer be assigned. To proceed, you'll need to either edit and republish the offer or open shift, or create a new one.
To assign employees:
Select the required shift, then Assign.
From the list, choose your employee.
Then select Confirm and notify.
Warning: Shifts can be edited at any time before an employee is allocated. If you do, anyone who's already requested the shift will need to resubmit their interest.
Communications, reporting & FAQs
When an offered or open shift is published, the platform automatically sends email notifications to your employees, keeping them informed of both in real time.
You can also choose which admin users receive notifications when offers and open shifts are accepted, requested, or declined. This ensures your admins and managers stay across activity as it happens, particularly when using shortlists, so they can quickly return to the roster and select their preferred employees to fill the shift.
To specify who receives the notifications:
- Navigate to Work > Rosters.
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Select the blue badge next to each Operation, and then select the ellipsis next to the roster you want to edit.
- On the second stage of the workflow, enable any of the following options to suit your needs
- Accepted shift notification - A notification will be sent when an employee accepts a shift offer or requests a shift.
-
Declined shift notification - A notification will be sent when an employee declines a shift offer or an open shift.
Within each of the above toggles, select from the following people to notify:- Operation Manager - The manager of the operation - This can be seen from the Operation overview
- Employee Manager - The manager on the employee profile - This can be seen from the Employee profile overview
- Specific People - Select people individually from all available admin & operation users.
- Select Next, then Save roster.
Your platform provides platform-wide communication specific to offered and open shifts, which you can send to your employees or managers.
For other communications regarding assigned shifts, edits or other roster functions, please refer here.
These communications are sent using email by default. However, if your platform has SMS enabled, you may choose to receive them via SMS instead.
You can customise the content of these notifications to better suit your specific needs.
Not a smartphone user
Some message templates have 2 template versions:
- Smartphone user
- Not a smartphone user
Which template is sent is determined by the 'Has Smart Phone' toggle on their profile. This toggle is enabled by default when approving an employee.
If the toggle is off, the employee will receive the Not a smartphone user template.
The main difference applies to SMS notifications. For employees without a smartphone, SMS messages will not include a direct link. Instead, the employee will be prompted to check their email for further details and access links.
Permission Reminder: Your ability to edit communication settings and content may be restricted based on your permissions.
Templates - All methods
Below is a list of key communications for all methods of sending Offers and Open shifts.
- Shift offer has been cancelled
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 42 | Employee | Message sent when a pending shift offer has been cancelled by an admin. |
- Employee's offer or open shifts have been filled
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 61 | Employee | Notifying employees that all offers or open shifts have been filled. |
- Employee has expired offers or open shifts
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 62 | Employee | Notifying employees that the shifts have expired. |
- Employee's shift has been accepted, declined or cancelled
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 135 | Dynamic |
Informs when an employee accepts or declines a shift offer or open shift. This notification is sent to the assigned Admin Users linked to a roster. This communication is also sent to an Operation Manager when an employee cancels a rostered shift. |
- Employee has offers or open shifts published from the roster
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 152 | Employee | Notifying employees when offers or open shifts are published from the roster. |
| 153 | Employee (Not a smartphone user) | Notifying employees when offers or open shifts are published from the roster. |
- Employee has outstanding offers or open shifts
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 171 | Employee | Notifying employees of any outstanding offers or open shifts that have not expired. |
Hot tip: You can specify a regular time to send this reminder, e.g. Mondays at 6 pm.
Templates - Roster offers and open shifts
Below is a list of key communications available only when sending offers and open shifts from the roster.
- Shortlist shift assigned or shift has been updated and republished
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | Employee | Message sent when a shortlist shift is assigned, or a shift is edited. |
| 101 | Employee (Not a smartphone user) | Message sent when a shortlist shift is assigned, or a shift is edited. |
- Admin has chosen another employee for a shortlist shift
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 154 | Employee | Message informing employees that the requested shift is no longer available. |
- Manager notification that offers or open shifts have expired
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 190 | Dynamic | Notifying admins that the shifts have expired. |
Templates - Bulk shifts
Below is a list of key communications when sending offers from Bulk Shifts only.
- Employee has offered shifts from the Unfilled shifts or Bulk Shifts
| ID | Recipient | Default content |
|---|---|---|
| 57 | Employee | Notifying employees when shifts are offered from the Unfilled shifts or Bulk Shifts. |
To learn how to edit your platform communication templates, please refer to our article on Personalising your email and SMS message templates.
The Open & Offered Shifts report is a handy way to keep track of all open and offered shifts created from your roster, giving you a clear view of what’s happening behind the scenes.
Please note: This report only provides information on offers and open shifts created from the Roster. To keep track of offered shifts added from Bulk Shifts, refer to our Bulk Shift Offers report guide here.
This report shows you the current status of each shift, whether it's been published or not.
With this report, you can:
- Quickly spot trends or areas that may need attention
- Track how quickly employees are responding to shift offers
- See the status of shift offers and open shifts for a specific operation, roster, office code, or employee
Permission Reminder: This report respects your user permissions. This means that the employees that you see displayed on the report will be the ones that you can see as per your user search restrictions/ office codes.
To run the Open & Offered Shifts Report:
- Navigate to Reports > Workforce reports and select the Open & Offered Shifts Report.
- In the Duration field, select the time period for the report. This filters by shift date, not the date the offer or open shift was sent.
- Optionally, you can also further filter the information by:
- Employees
- Office Code
- Operation
- Roster
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Shift Type
- Open Quick fill - An open shift that assigns employees using the Quick fill method.
- Open Shortlist - An open shift that assigns employees using the Shortlist method.
- Offered Quick fill - An offered shift that assigns employees using the Quick fill method.
- Offered Shortlist - An offered shift that assigns employees using the Shortlist method.
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Shift status
- Pending - The shift is either a draft or published shift and is waiting to be accepted or requested.
- Accepted - The employee has accepted the shift offer or a quick fill open shift.
- Declined - The offer has been declined, or the open shift has been dismissed by the employee.
- Requested - The employee requested a shift that is not yet assigned.
- Requested - expired - The shortlist offer or open shift has expired, and no employees have been allocated to the shift.
- Unsuccessful - Employees requested a shift, which was assigned to another employee.
- Expired - The quick fill offer or open shift has expired, and no employees have accepted it.
- Removed - The employee is on the shortlist for a shift which was then cancelled.
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Submit the report. The report will then show columns for:
- Shift Type - Lists if it is an Open Quick fill, Open Shortlist, Offered Quick fill, or Offered Shortlist.
- Shift ID - This is a unique ID given to every shift that is created.
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Employee - Displays the name of the employee who was sent an offer or an open shift.
Please note: This field will be blank for open shifts, where no employees have been accepted or assigned to work it.
- Shift Date - The start date for the shift.
- Shift Time - The start and end times for the shift.
- Operation - Displays the operation the shift is linked to.
- Roster - The roster from which the offer or open shift is sent.
- Shift Status- Notifies of the status or outcome of the offer or open shift.
- Office Code - If your operations use Office Codes, this will display the code associated.
- Offer Time - The time the shift was published and sent to the employee. This field will be blank for any draft offers or open shifts.
- Response Time - How quickly the employee accepted or requested the shift.
- You can export this report by selecting either Export CSV or Export PDF.
What is the difference between an Offer and an Open shift?
Offer and Open shifts are both designed to help you fill shifts without directly assigning them to an employee. Instead, they send a shift proposal to your team, allowing employees to respond based on their availability.
The key difference lies in how employees are selected:
Offers – You choose which employees to send the shift to.
Open shifts – The platform automatically sends the shift to all eligible employees.
This gives you the flexibility to either target specific employees or open the opportunity to a wider group.
Which is better, Quick fill or Shortlist?
Both options help you assign shifts efficiently, but the best choice depends on how much control you want in the selection process.
Quick fill – This is a “first in, best dressed” approach. The first employee to accept an offer or open shift is automatically assigned to it. This option is ideal when you need to fill a shift quickly and don’t require a selection process.
Shortlist – With this option, employees can request to work an offer or open shift, and you can then review all responses before making a decision. This gives you the flexibility to choose the most suitable employee from a list of interested candidates.
In short, Quick fill is best for speed, while Shortlist gives you more control.
What happens once an offered shift has been accepted? Do my other employees know?
Once an employee has accepted any shift offers, the shifts are published to the roster and will appear the same as other published shifts.
For all other employees who were sent an offer, as this shift has been filled, they will receive a notification stating "Your recent shift offer is no longer available as all positions have been filled. Regards, Your Company".
If an employee accidentally declines an offer or dismisses an open shift, can it then be reissued to other employees?
Once a shift is declined or dismissed, the employee can’t take further action on it. It will show as declined or open on the roster.
As an admin, you have two options:
- Offered shifts - You can still assign the shift to that employee.
- Open shifts - Edit the shift, update the details, and republish it (any employees who previously requested it will need to resubmit their interest).
If an employee accidentally accepts an offer, can it then be declined?
Once an employee accepts an offer or open shift, that shift is then assigned to them, either through quick fill or the admin selecting the employee using the shortlist. The shifts are published to the roster and treated the same as any other published shifts.
If your platform uses the Shift Cancellation feature, employees can cancel their shift as long as it is within the set notice period.
However, if you do not use this feature or the employee hasn't given enough notice, they will need to contact their manager. The manager can then cancel the shift (or reassign it to another employee) from the roster and republish to send the cancellation.
What are some of the reasons my staff can no longer accept shift offers?
Shift offers will no longer be available to your employees when:
- The shift is in the past
- The shift has been filled by another employee
- The employee has been selected for another shift, which now conflicts
- The offer or open shift has expired
By default, employees have 8 hours to accept or decline shift offers or open shifts; after that, the offer will automatically be declined.
This setting can be adjusted to your preference; for more information, refer to our guide here.
I have sent a shift offer or an open shift that I need to recall. Is this possible?
Yes, shift offers can be cancelled.
To recall an offer, simply delete the corresponding pending offer or open shift from the roster. You'll then need to republish these changes on the roster to send the cancellation.
What is the easiest way for my employees to be informed of offered shifts?
After a shift has been offered, the respective employees will receive a notification via email or SMS, depending on their communication settings on your platform.
However, for the most effective method to communicate shift-based changes is to use Push Notitificaitons.
Can we add multiple breaks, i.e., paid and unpaid breaks, to shift offers and open shifts?
When creating an open shift or an offer from the roster, you can specify start and end times, breaks, and other details just like assigning a shift. This includes adding multiple paid and unpaid breaks if needed.
When creating an open shift, why is the employee field greyed out?
Open shifts are designed to make filling shifts quicker and easier. Instead of manually selecting employees one by one, you can send a shift out to a group of suitable team members.
When creating an open shift, the employee field is greyed out because the platform automatically identifies which employees are eligible. This is based on factors such as their availability, position, roster location, and any existing shift conflicts.
The shift is then sent to all suitable employees, allowing them to accept it or request interest. If you want to select employees instead, use the Offer option.
Can I send multiple offers or open shifts to the same employee, even if their times overlap?
Yes, you can!
Employees can receive multiple offers or open shifts even if the times overlap, and they can request to work any of them.However, once an employee accepts or is assigned a shift, all other conflicting offers or open shifts are automatically cancelled. After this point, they cannot be sent new offers or open shifts that clash with their assigned shift.
Why isn't a shift I offered showing in the Open & Offered Shifts Report?
The Open & Offered Shifts Report displays the current status of all Open or Offered shifts from the roster.
If a shift isn’t appearing in the report, it’s usually due to one of two reasons:
- The shift was sent from bulk shifts. In this case, use the Bulk Shift Offers Report instead.
- The shift has been edited and republished. The report shows the current shift details, not historical versions.
If I send one shift to multiple employees, how does this affect my budgeting and analytics? Does my wage estimate increase?
When sending an offer or open shift to one or multiple employees, wage costs are not included in your budget or analytics until the shift has been assigned to a single employee.
However, the hourly estimate for the shift is still included. This means you can continue to track and manage your budget using estimated hours, even if shifts have been sent to multiple employees and not yet assigned.