Introduction
SkyTab Workforce is an employee scheduling tool designed to make scheduling easy for managers and employees. Features include schedule creation, timecard management, labor compliance, time off and availability, and private and group messaging.
Accessing Workforce
Workforce can be accessed via desktop or by downloading the Workforce mobile app.
Only users with access to Lighthouse Business Manager (LBM) can access the desktop version. Access is generally limited to account owners and managers. Access via LBM is performed via SSO, so no user credentials are required to be entered.
All users can access the Workforce mobile app once they have been invited. Instructions on how to invite employees are provided later in this document.
From Lighthouse Business Manager, you will see five links underneath Workforce.
The Employees, Jobs, and Labor Settings links open up new pages within Lighthouse Business Manager itself.
The Scheduler and Timecards links open up the integrated Workforce application.
Navigating Workforce
The Workforce application has five main sections, accessible from the top of the screen:
Scheduler: Create shifts and publish them to your workers
Attendance: Provides a live view of which employees are currently working and who are scheduled to clock-on soon
Timecards: View and edit timecard data and export to payroll
Employees: View and edit employees and their profiles (i.e. contact details, jobs, availability)
Time off: View and approve time off requests
A separate, extended menu is available by clicking the company name in the top lefthand corner, next to the SkyTab Workforce logo:
From this menu, you can access key features including:
Departments: Each schedule you create is specific to a department - for example, you might have a Back of House department and a Front of House department.
Compliance: Define when employees are eligible for additional earnings such as daily and weekly overtime and holiday rates, and what breaks they are entitled to based on hours worked.
Logbook: Communicate with fellow managers about issues or events
Certifications management: Keep track of which employees have what certifications and enforce compliance that only suitably qualified employees can be scheduled.
Before we get started
Workforce currently supports a two-level hierarchy:
Company
Department
A company is the overarching entity within Workforce.
A company can then be broken down into departments. Think of a department as a group of people who would be on the same schedule and managed by the same manager. By default your company will be set-up with a single department, but you can add more if required.
For example, a restaurant may have two departments:
Front of House
Back of House
Employees need to be added to their respective departments so they can be scheduled. Employees can be added to as many departments as applicable.
Each department will also need at least one manager. Department managers are effectively those people who will create shifts, publish schedules, and make any changes that are applicable.
Each department's schedule can be viewed on the Scheduler.
Getting started
When a company’s Workforce account is first created, the following data is automatically imported:
Company profile (i.e. location, industry)
Employee data (including names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses)
Jobs and rate data
Timecards
New employees and jobs must be created within Lighthouse Business Manager, as this functionality does not exist within Workforce. This data is then synced to Workforce approximately every 15 minutes.
Other data is also synced to Workforce, including timecard information from SkyTab POS.
To get started with Workforce, there are key steps you’ll need to take:
Create your department/s
Assign department managers
Add employees to their respective departments
Invite your employees
1. Create Your Department(s)
First, you will need to set up your departments.
A department maps to a schedule within Workforce: for example, you could create departments for Front of House and Back of House. Employees can then be assigned to their relevant department/s, and managers can also be allocated to departments.
A department is set up by default when your Workforce account is first created. To view it, navigate to Departments under the Company option on the top bar.
You can then choose to rename the department to be more relevant to your business (e.g. Front of House).
You can also create more departments by clicking on Add Department. There is no limit to how many departments you can create.
There are several settings you can define for your department, including enabling off-site addresses, creating sections, and defining shift swaps and drops.
2. Assign Department Managers
Only those users who are specifically given access to manage a department can do so. ‘Managing a department’ provides the ability to view, create, and edit shifts and schedules. To grant a manager access to a department:
Navigate to an employee’s profile via Employees > Employee Name > Access & Permissions. (Note the user must have the Manager access level)
Next, select the department/s you wish the employee to manage.
You can also provide other permissions to the employee, giving them the ability to perform other tasks within the app (e.g. approving time off requests; editing timecards).
3. Add Employees to Their Respective Departments
Next, you (or your department manager/s) will need to add employees into their relevant departments. Once employees have been added to their departments, they are able to be scheduled for shifts and invited to shift opportunities.
To add employees to a department, first, navigate to the Scheduler by clicking this option in the top bar.
Next, click on the + sign to bring up the ‘Manage Employees’ option.
Select Add an employee to [Department Name].
Select the employee/s you wish to add to the department.
4. Invite Your Employees
You've created your departments, assigned department managers and organized your employees. Now it's time to invite your employees to use Workforce!
Any employees with access to LBM will automatically have an account created with Workforce and be able to access it via the link on the LBM menu. No password is required when accessing Workforce from LBM as Single Sign On is enabled.
All other employees will need to be invited to the app. Inviting employees to the app will set up an account for them and allow them to log in to the Workforce mobile app, where they can view their shifts, apply for time off requests, and submit their availability to their managers.
Note that employees must have a valid mobile number set against their employee profile to be invited to Workforce.
Employees can be invited singularly or ‘in bulk’:
Single Invitation
From the Employees screen, scroll to locate a specific employee. Select the action icon and proceed to Send invite.
Bulk Invitation
To invite employees using the ‘In Bulk’ method, from the Employees screen, select one or more employees and then click on the Bulk Actions button. Proceed to select Send invites.
Note that only employees with a phone number set can be invited to Workforce.
Once employees have activated their account, they'll be able to view their shifts, apply for shift opportunities; message their colleagues; receive shift reminders and much more!
Congratulations! You're all set up and ready to start scheduling.
Shifts are the building blocks of your schedules; get started by creating your first one.
Shifts are created and managed from the Scheduler.
You can choose to schedule by day or week, depending on your preference.
To create a shift in the weekly view
Select a Worker and a Day for the shift. Click in the intersecting cell.
To create a shift in the daily view
Position the cursor at the desired shift start time. Click and drag to the desired shift end time and release.
The Create Shift screen will appear. Complete the required information for the shift, then click on the Create Shift button when done.
Once you have created your schedule, you need to publish it to notify workers of the shifts they are working.
Draft shifts (not yet published) have a broken outline. Shifts are color-coded according to the color assigned to the Position.
Click on the 'Publish' button in the top right of screen to start the publish process.
Confirm publishing details, including adding a Manager’s Note with information which is relevant to the schedule period. This note is sent to the workers.
Click on 'Publish & Notify' to complete the publishing process. Shifts are now displayed as solid colors, representing that they are published.
Ready to learn more?