Shift Cover for Admins

Use Crew to quickly and easily allow employees to cover each other’s shifts. Team members can request covers from coworkers; anyone who is available to work can request to pick up a shift; and Admins automatically receive notifications to review and approve changes.

Note  Admins who are subscribers to Crew Pro may choose to turn off Admin approval for shift covers. In that case, the first person to request an open shift will automatically be assigned to it.

The Crew Calendar is designed to accommodate schedule changes simply and smoothly, so that every shift is filled, and everyone is in the know.

Team members can get their shifts covered with Crew whether the Organization is using the Crew Schedule to set schedules and assign shifts, or a photo schedule

Adding the Shift Cover Feature

The Shift Cover feature must be added by an Admin for employees to post shifts to be covered. If your employees aren’t seeing the Shift Cover option in their Crew app, you’ll need to add it. Shift Cover can be enabled through the Admin tab under “Shift Cover.”

       Add the Shift Cover feature from here

Viewing Shift Cover Requests

Once a team member has posted a request for cover it will appear in the Chats tab next to the Clock icon. (The box may be labeled “Get Shift Coverage” or “Shift Approvals,” depending on what kind of request is at the top of the current queue.) Tapping the Clock icon box will take you to the Coverage filter of the Calendar tab (Android) or in the Admin’s Shift Cover screen (iOS). From here the request can be approved or denied.

Admins can view a team member’s request for cover

Admin Approval

Once a team member has requested to cover a shift, the shift approval request will populate in the Admin’s Chats tab next to the Clock icon, as long as Admin approval is required. Note  Subscribers to Crew Pro can turn off the requirement that an Admin must approve all shift change requests. In that case the first person to request to cover a shift would automatically be assigned to it, and the request would close.

     An Admin’s Chats tab shows shift-change approval requests

Tapping on the Shift Cover line item will bring the Admin to the Coverage filter of the Calendar tab (Android) or the Shift Covers screen (iOS).

  • If only one team member has requested to cover the shift, tapping “Approve Request” will bring up a box with options to “Confirm” the request, or “Never Mind.”
  • If multiple team members have requested it, tapping “Approve Request” will bring up the names of the requesters, listed in chronological order of request. Selecting one will bring up the box with options to “Confirm” or “Never Mind.”

Confirm a shift request from here

If the request is approved, the shift will automatically be added to the correct employee’s schedule and removed from the schedule of the employee who needed the cover. The new assignee will also be notified via push Notification.

Admin Requests

Admins can also make the request for a shift cover by scheduling it through the “Get Shift Coverage” box. This is useful if shifts are assigned via a photo schedule and not through Crew Schedule on the Crew app. All team members will be notified of the shift request, and any team member can request to cover it. In this case, the Admin can choose to

  • “Add and close request,” i.e. to add the requester to the shift and close it to further requests, or to
  • “Add and keep requestable,” if they want to add the requester but still allow the shift to be filled by additional people

If an Admin posts the shift to be covered, he or she can allow multiple people to cover it

Admins can also request additional workers for an existing and already assigned shift by tapping on that shift from the Team filter on the Calendar tab, and then tapping “Request more people to work.”

       An Admin can open a shift to additional people