Availability - the basics

The goal of setting your availability is:

1. To ensure that the needs of the store are met
2. To make sure you work when you want as often as possible

How to best support the needs of the store:

• Be flexible.  Offer more hours of availability.
• Set your preferred availability higher than your number of desired hours.

How to work when you want more often:

Shift Agent gives you the ability to communicate to your manager specifically what you hope for by giving you three levels of availability.  If you follow the Shift Agent way, you will work more often at the times you prefer.

1. First, determine the times for each day when you absolutely cannot work.
2. Next, you will input the times when you PREFER to work.
3. Every other time is considered AVAILABLE.

TIP:  Try to make a distinction between hours that you PREFER to work and hours that you are simply available.

Display of Availability

Shift Agent uses three colors to represent the three kinds of availability. The display of a person's availability is on a series of availability bars, one for each day of the week.  Each bar is a display of a timeline of that day from 12am to 12am left to right. The bar contains each availability rule that you place on that day.

By default, any time that does not have a specific rule assumes that you are available.

The reason we have three kinds of availability is to provide the best opportunity for managers to give employees the hours that they really want, while simultaneously meeting the company's needs.  This way, you can prevent employees from working when they aren't available as much as possible, and also work to give them their preferred hours.