Shift generation

A forecast tells you how many people you need at 11:15 on Thursday. It does not tell you what shifts to write. Shift generation does that: it takes a week’s required hours and covers them with draft shifts, then hands the result to automatic assignment.

Two things make it usable rather than clever:

• It only ever creates shapes you allow. Keep a catalog of shift profiles and generation may use nothing else. Keep none and shapes are derived from your work policy’s minimum and maximum lengths.

• Nothing happens before you have seen the cost. The preview shows the shift count, the hours beyond what the forecast asks for, the hours your position minimums add, and any demand nothing in the catalog can reach.

The whole flow is three steps — Preview, Shifts created, People assigned — and each one can be undone.

Note

Shift generation is part of the demand forecasting feature, so it needs a Plus or Pro plan and a labor standard that resolves. On Core the page is not in the sidebar and its address lands on the upgrade page. See Demand forecasting.