Create the perfect shift schedule, in a click. Let Surfboard do the hard work for you, optimising coverage with contractual requirements to find the best time to place shifts.
With Surfboard's auto-schedule shift tool, you can generate shifts for an entire week, or a single day.
How to auto-schedule shifts for a week
Go to the weekly schedule.
Identify an agent who is under their contracted hours. The difference between the agent's contracted and scheduled hours are listed under their name.
At this point, we recommend filtering the shift coverage bar to only show the queues this agent is skilled in. This ensures the system will only try to provide coverage for the correct queues.
Click the 🪄 Fill button
Once you click the 🪄 Fill button, a weeks worth of shifts will appear to provide the best coverage, while meeting the agent’s contractual requirements
How to auto-schedule shifts for one day
Go to the weekly schedule.
Hover your cursor over a day with 0-2 shifts.
You will see 2 blocks appear, the block labelled with a ➕ icon is used to add a manual shift, the block labelled with a 🪄 icon is to use the auto-schedule tool.
Once you click the 🪄 block, a shift will appear to provide the best coverage, while meeting the agent’s contractual requirements
📹 Watch our 3min explainer
What auto-schedule will do
Only schedule custom shifts (it won’t use your templates)
Make sure that the minimum rest time between shifts on different days is respected
Make sure that the shift is within the min. and max. length
Make sure that the total shift hours are within the min. and max. hours per week.
Make sure that the shift is scheduled within any ‘working windows’ that are applied
Look to schedule the shift at the time that provides the best coverage
Days with lower staffing take priority.
Intervals with 0 staffing take priority.
An interval or day with a higher requirement than another will also take priority.
It will always try to schedule the minimum shift length so you can use less resource and reduce costs.
What auto-schedule won't do
Allow you to schedule multiple agents at once. You can only generate 1 week or 1 day of shifts per agent.
Ensure consistency across previous or subsequent working weeks, it only looks at 1 week at a time. i.e. if you worked early shifts last week, it won’t try and schedule similar start times.
Ensure fairness across the team. The system will look for shifts that provide the best coverage while staying within the contractual constraints of the agent.
How to get the most out of auto-schedule
Set-up agent's working rules
In order to get the most out of the auto-schedule tool, you need to ensure that each agent's contract details are up to date. You can edit this at any time by visiting the Agent page and selecting an agent
Minimum and maximum hours per week
Minimum and maximum hours per day
Rest time between shifts on different days
(Optional) working windows, to define specific days or hours the surfer is eligible to work
Filter the shift coverage bar
When you click the auto-schedule button, the system will look at the current shift coverage bar shown for that day or week. This includes any filters that have been applied.
If agents only work on specific queues, then it's best to filter the shift coverage bar to only show the queues that agent works on. Then, when you click the auto-schedule button, the system will only check for coverage on those queues.