This is an optional feature available for additional charge. Please contact our support team to learn more. |
Blink's Open Shifts tool helps shift managers advertise available shifts on the Blink feed and enables employees to apply for available shifts.
Managers can assign the shift and notify the team member, and there is a summary in the Hub showing all the available, booked and applied for shifts for both manager and employee.
By providing a way to advertise available shifts in the app your teams are using every day, Open Shifts will help you fill shifts sooner and with less effort.
In this article:
Open Shifts for Managers/Admins
As a manager/admin, the open shifts tool gives you access to seven key functions:
Add multiple shifts
Add shift
Manage fields (organization admins only)
Export shifts
Shift update feed posts
Shift statuses
Assign, reassign, delete a shift
Add multiple shifts
Click the ’Bulk add shifts button’, top right in your Open Shifts tool:
Download the shift template from the Bulk add shifts page. The template is built from your organization's own fields, so it may look different from other organizations' templates:
Each field your organization shows has its own column. Custom fields use their label as the column heading.
You can put the columns in any order, but don't delete any of them.
Required fields must have a value on every row. Other columns can be left blank.
You can include a maximum of 500 shifts in each upload. For more than 500 shifts, please complete multiple uploads.
If your organization's fields change, download the template again. Templates downloaded before the change won't upload.
The standard columns are described below. Your template will only include the ones your organization shows, plus the number of openings and any custom fields.
All dates should follow the ISO standard date format. The "Z" at the end of the start and end times means the time is in UTC.
Name | Description | Format | Example |
start_at | The shift date and start time | Year: YYYY Month: Number Day of month: Number Time: 00:00:00 | 2024-10-28T08:00:00.000Z |
end_at | The shift date and end time | Year: YYYY Month: Number Day of month: Number Time: 00:00:00 | 2024-10-28T08:00:00.000Z |
location | The location or address of the shift | Free text | Blink HQ, 71 Fanshaw St, N1 6LA |
pay_rate | The hourly pay rate | Free text (please specify currency) | £15 / $45 / €30 |
comment | A description of the shift | Free text | Uniform and PPE required |
external_id | The shift external ID from any third party rota tool | Free text | Dependent on third-party tool |
Save the file as a csv and then use the button ‘upload csv’ to import the data (it can also manage Excel files).
Once the data is imported, Blink will show you if there are any errors in your shifts, e.g., if there is a start date ending after the finish date. Shifts with these errors will not be posted. Click ‘upload fixed CSV’ and repeat the above steps to upload correct data, if correction of data is required.
Select your audience by choosing the teams that will be able to view and request your shifts.
Tick ‘share on the feed’ and ‘notify audience’ if you want your audience to be alerted to your new shifts.
Post your shifts and get ready to receive lots of interest!
Add shift
As an admin/manager, you can use the ‘add shift’ button to post a single shift.
Fill in all the information that applies. Start, end, location, number of openings and audience are always required. Your organization may also have made other fields required, and these will be marked on the form. The other fields may help engage your users as well.
If your organization has added custom fields, they appear on the form under their own label. Any fields your organization has hidden won't appear.
Shift start - Enter the date and time the open shift will begin.
Shift end - enter the date and time the shift will end.
Location - tell the users where this shift will be occurring.
Number of openings - enter how many people you need for this shift.
Shift ID (if shown) - this is where you can enter the identifying information for the shift you've listed. The idea is that this will connect to however the shift is listed in your third party time-keeping/scheduling system.
Pay rate (if shown) - enter the hourly pay rate, including the currency.
Comment (if shown) - add any other details about the shift, such as uniform or PPE requirements.
Audience - select the team(s) that this shift will be available to. Only users on these teams will be able to request this shift. Please note that you must be part of the team you'd like to list the shift for.
Tick ‘share on the feed’ and ‘notify audience’ if you want your audience to be alerted to your new shifts. Then post your shift!
Manage fields
Organization admins can choose which details managers fill in when they post a shift or time off. These settings apply to the whole organization.
To open Manage fields, click the settings (cog) icon at the top right of the Open Shifts admin page. Only organization admins see this icon.
Fields that are always included: start, end, location, number of openings and audience are always shown and required.
Optional fields: Shift ID, pay rate and comment are shown and optional by default. You can hide each one or make it required. A field must be shown before it can be made required. Pay rate never appears for time off.
Custom fields: you can add up to three fields of your own, such as "Production line". A custom field stays off until you give it a label. Labels can be up to 50 characters, must all be different, and can't match a standard template column name such as "location".
When you save:
New shifts use the updated fields.
Hiding a field keeps any information already entered. If you show the field again, the information comes back.
Renaming a custom field shows existing values under the new name.
Making a field required only affects new shifts. Feed posts that are already published don't change.
After you change your fields, shift and time off templates downloaded before the change will no longer upload. The page offers updated templates to download, so make sure your managers use the new ones.
Manage shifts
We've added the option to filter your currently available posts. Simply navigate to the list of shifts in the micro-app and use the "Filter by" option at the top as shown below.
Export shifts
As an admin/manager, you can export your Blink shifts as a csv file by selecting the ‘download’ icon top right.
Choose between downloading assigned shifts only, or all your shifts on Blink. You must select a period for download (the dates entered correspond to shift start dates).
The export only includes the fields your organization currently shows, including any custom fields.
Shift update feed posts
Admins/managers are notified on their feed when someone has applied for one of their shifts:
You can click ‘view interest’ and then manage that shift within the feed pop-up. Pretty cool!
Shift Statuses
In addition to feed posts, you can review the status of your shifts in the Open Shifts tool at any time. Shifts are listed by date order and show whether they are:
open with no applicants
open with applicants
assigned to a worker
Open shift (without applicant):
Open shift (with applicant):
Assigned shift:
Assign, reassign, delete a shift
Once your shifts are posted and you are receiving shift requests, you can then manage your shifts by assigning an applicant, reassigning the shift to a different applicant (conditional to there being multiple applicants), or deleting the shift altogether if your requirement changes.
Assign a shift:
Reassign:
Delete:
For information on Open Shifts 2.0 for Users, please see:
For information on Open Shifts version 1, please see:
FAQs
How can I enable this for my organization? | At this time, any requests to add this functionality need to be sent to support@joinblink.com. |
Is Open Shifts a paid-for tool? | Yes. Speak to your CSM or contact support@joinblink.com for further details. |
What do I do if I don't want the shift to be open anymore? | If the shift is no longer available, you can delete the listing.
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I'm an admin so why don't I see the team listed that I want to add a shift for? | You will only be able to add and list shifts for teams that you are a part of. |
Does the upload button support any other file types?
| Yes, you can upload an Excel file, as long as it follows your organization's current template.
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Does the csv template support other fields?
| Yes. Organization admins can add up to three custom fields in Manage fields, and they'll appear as columns in your template.
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Is there a cap on the number of shifts I can upload?
| As an admin/manager, you can upload a maximum of 500 shifts in a single import. To add >500 you should run another import.
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Can a user cancel a shift they’ve been assigned to?
| No, a user isn’t able to cancel a shift that they’ve been assigned. However, on mobile, the user is able to chat direct to the admin/manager via the concerning shift.
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Can I target individual employees for filling specific shifts?
| The best way to do this is to ‘@’ the individual(s) in the comments section on the Open Shift feed post.
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Can I stop a user from applying for conflicting or overlapping shifts? | Currently, no. But the Blink team are looking into how best to improve this for customers. |