Blog

July 18, 2011

New Release Series: Humanity Introduces Updated Shift Features

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Here at Humanity, as part of our latest version of online scheduling software, we’re happy to announce the release of new shift functionality including extended drag & drop capabilities, better overnight shift handling, and an advanced open shift management solution.

Humanity’s new open shift feature dramatically streamlines the process of filling open shifts. In employee scheduling, there are two ‘shift types’. Open shifts allow management to set the number of employees needed to work, and employees then request to work on the designated open shift(s). With closed shifts, only schedulers are allowed to add or remove employees to or from a shift. Previously, within Humanity’s online scheduling software, managers would have to create separate shifts for each ‘shift type’. Now managers can designate a number of open spots available on each shift. Once the shifts are posted, employees not already assigned to the shift by a scheduler will be notified and can choose to work the time period.
 
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The New Shift Edit Window: Allows for date and time to be set simply by filling out the respective fields. The flexible date field now supports multi-day shifts, while the date field makes overnight shifts easier than ever. In addition to the date and time fields, the shift edit window supports inline changes to position, staff, and location (to be discussed further later in the series). Open shift integration is also found in the edit window giving the ability to designate open slots.

With the new and improved drag & drop feature, shifts can easily be ordered and positioned across dates on-screen in real-time. Humanity already boasts the easy-to-use ability to create and time shifts via drag and drop. To take advantage of drag and drop, users can just double click within a schedule, which will create the shift. They can then drag the shift to create the wanted time period, and now with the new functionality, shifts can also be dragged to the wanted date.

Humanity currently supports overnight shifts for businesses that run past midnight. To create overnight shifts using existing tools, the schedule would have to run to midnight. Shifts could either be created in day mode and dragged down past midnight to change to overnight, or you could have simply dragged between two days in month mode. The updated version of our online scheduling software makes creating overnight or multi-day shifts a breeze. Overnight shifts can be dragged past midnight in both day and week mode in addition to between days in month mode. Multi-day shifts are now supported in the new shift edit window simply by changing the date fields.
 
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Overnight Shifts: Visible on the day and week grid by diagonal lines while day shifts are solid. 

We are constantly developing and enhancing our online scheduling application by soliciting input and feedback from our users with an aim to create the smoothest possible experience for scheduling employees, and we hope that the new shift features meet customer needs. We will continue to reveal aspects of our new version in upcoming posts and soon enough will announce the official release date. Stay Tuned.