Agents need to be added into Surfboard so you can:
Schedule them
Track their performance data
Give them access to the tool
How to add agents to Surfboard
Open Surfboard and navigate to the Surfers tab
Click the Add Surfer button at the top right corner of the page
Personal details
Enter the agent's first name and last name. If you use a HRIS tool to track time off, it's important that their name matches exactly, otherwise their time off may not sync to the schedule correctly. Learn more about time off here
Enter the agent's email address
Contractual details
You can choose to add a start or end date to the agent's profile. This is used to streamline the onboarding and offboarding of agents, and to prevent scheduling on days the agent is not yet working. Learn more about start and end dates here.
Next you'll be asked to enter the details of this agent's contract or applicable labour laws. This is to enable automated scheduling and validation to tell you if these rules have been broken. This includes:
Minimum and maximum weekly hours
Minimum and maximum daily hours
Rest time - the minimum time off required between shifts. This is 11 hours for the majority of the US and EU.
Working window - this is an optional field to add limitations to the days of the week or hours an agent can work.
Team and skills
Now assign the agent to the applicable team using the dropdown. If you haven't yet created a team, you can assign the agent later.
Finally, assign skills to the agent. Skills enable you to schedule skilled agents on the correct task, automatically.
Click save.
Additional settings for agents
Clocking in and out
You can enable clocking in and out to ask agents to submit the time they started or ended their shift. This data feeds into the real-time page, giving you instant visibility over their presence, and is also available in timesheets or via our API.
Open Surfboard and navigate to the Reporting > Timesheets
Click the Manage time reporting button at the top right corner of the page
Select the agents you want to clock in and out
Select any additional settings:
Allow surfers to enter custom times: Allows the agent to enter a clock-in or clock-out time in the past, in case they forget
Allow overtime any time: Agents can report on overtime outside of their scheduled hours or on days they are not scheduled to work
Click save.
Working availability
This setting allows agents to submit the days and times they're available to work via Surfboard. This is helpful for freelance or part-time staff who have varying availability. You can view agent's availability from the schedule.
Open Surfboard and navigate to the Surfers tab
Click the Settings button at the top right corner of the page
Select the agents you want to submit their availability
Click save.
FAQs
How do I invite agents to Surfboard?
Agents are not granted access automatically. To enable agents to log in to Surfboard you need to send them an email invitation. Click the Send invite button next to their name in the agent table.
If you are using start dates, you can opt in to automatically send their invitation on their start date.
How do I remove agents from Surfboard?
Open Surfboard and navigate to the Surfers tab
Click the checkbox next to the agent's name
Scroll down in the form and click the Delete button
The agent will then be:
Deleted from the account including the schedule and reports
Their access will be removed and they will no longer be able to log in
Data for deleted agent's is available as downloadable timesheets.
Read our timesheets guide here.