Administering and using the shift feature

You define shifts such as "Early morning shift" in Desk-Net and assign users to it. These shift assignments are being displayed on several pages in Desk-Net allowing you to even better co-ordinate reporters, photographers and other staff.

This support entry provides you with

• an overview of how shifts are displayed,
• how you can assign users to shifts and
• provides admins with all necessary information on how to set up and edit shifts.

Please note that for using the shift feature at least one shift has to be defined by an administrator. The shift feature comes with no pre-defined shifts.

Shift display in Desk-Net

Users can review shift assignments on various pages in Desk-Net:

• Availability box: Shift assignments are placed in the new Availability box (formerly "Absences) on the Dashboard, the Short-term Calendar and the Short-term Planning page.
• Shifts page: There is a dedicated Shifts page under the Management navigation item solely dedicated to shifts.
• My Schedule page: Every user can review his own shift assignments in the appointment box on the My Schedule page.

The selection of shifts a user sees depends on his access rights and his filter settings. Example: If a user is assigned to the Sports desk (and has selected it in the section menu) he can see all shifts that are related to the Sports desk.

For each shift users can easily see who is assigned to a shift on what day. In addition to this there are two additional pieces of information related to shifts users can access:

• Shift info: Administrators can enter an optional note for each shift. This information plus information on the days and time the shift occurs can be access by users by clicking on a shift name. 
  
  
• Shift update history: Desk-Net tracks every assignment of a user to a shift and every removal from a shift. This update history can be accessed on the page Management > Shifts by clicking on the shift name 
  
  
• Daily shift note: If a note has been entered a small dark triangle appears on that day. Click on it to read the shift.
  The shift note appears immediately on the Dashboard and on My Schedule - no need to click on a triangle. The note is also exported via the appointment feed into a user's smartphone calendar.
  
  
• Minimum staffing: If on any given day not enough users have been assigned to a shift the shift will be marked with a thin orange line (on the Dashboard the shift name turns orange).
  
  

Assigning users to a shift (and removing them)

You assign a user to a shift similar to the way you enter a story or an absence. When you hover with your mouse next to a shift name or in the column header a link "Add" appears.

Click on the link, select "User". In the layer that opens select a user and the date range and save your entries - done.

For removing a user click on the user's screen name and select the Remove option from the menu that opens.

For many shifts only a small subset of users are eligible for assignment. You may mark such users as User Favorites for specific shifts. You will see a grey star icon to the right of their name. Simply click on it and the next time you open the user list during the shift assignment process that user will immediately be displayed.

Setting up and editing shifts

Admins can create and edit shifts on the page Admin > Shifts.

Click on the link "Add shift" if you want to define a new shift. Fill in the entry fields in the layer that opens:

• Label: A short label for the shift. This is the label that will appear on all the pages on which shifts are displayed.
• Note: An optional note that provides additional information about the shift to the user.
  
  
• Departments: Define for what departments (or desks) the shift is relevant. Example: If you create a shift that is only relevant to the Online Department then only select that department. Only users of that department will then see that shift.
  
  
• Occurrence & time: Enter the relevant days and the time for the shift.
  
  
• Availability: This setting does not have an impact on the shift feature initially, but since it provides the basis for other Desk-Net features that will be deployed in the future we very much recommend you set it correctly. When a user is assigned to a shift it can mean that he can take over certain jobs, because being assigned to that shift means "Yes, he is available". However, in other cases working on a certain shift can mean that the user is busy fulfilling a certain job or role and can therefore not work on other tasks. Simply select whatever is the more appropriate selection. When in doubt select "Available".
  
  
• Colours:  Open the Menu "More options" and choose your Shift colour amongst one of the 36 available colours.
  
  

You remove or edit a shift by clicking on its name in the shift list on the Admin > Shifts page and selecting the appropriate item from the menu that opens upon click.