Employee scheduling software with named shifts
Employee scheduling software decides which working hours each person holds, and shift management keeps that record current. In PeopleMuster a shift is a named time window you give to people. Morning runs ten to seven. Mid runs twelve to nine. Once somebody holds a shift, attendance and check-in both know what their normal day looks like.
Build the shift once, with a name, a start and an end, and a line of description so the next admin knows why it exists. Then assign it. An assignment carries a start date, a duration that can simply be ongoing, and the name of whoever made it.
Three tabs organise the work: the assignments running now, the shift definitions themselves, and the history. History is the tab that gets used in an argument, because it shows what a person was on in March even after they moved twice.
A shift is not decoration. Attendance reads it to decide lateness, which is why the two modules are set up together and why moving somebody's window quietly changes their punctuality figures from that date forward.
Most companies need fewer windows than they expect. Two or three cover the majority, with a fourth for the one team that starts early. Writing them down is the useful part: half the informal arrangements people have been running turn out to disagree with each other once somebody types them into a form.
Assignments carry a status, so a window that has ended stops appearing among the active ones without being deleted. Past assignments keep their dates and their assigner, which is what makes the history tab worth anything.
Assignment is quick. Whoever holds the permission assigns, and the record shows their name. No form travels round for sign-off, and the history still says who made each change.
Shifts also open the door for browser check-in. When an admin switches it on, each person's check-in card opens in a window around their assigned shift. Change the shift, and the window moves with it.
What it does
- Named windows
- Morning, mid, evening, or whatever your team calls them. Each has a start, an end and a description.
- Per-person assignment
- One person, one shift, from a date. Duration can be left ongoing when there is no end in sight.
- Assignment history
- Every past assignment stays, with who assigned it. Useful when a record is questioned months later.
- Feeds the attendance clock
- Lateness reads the assigned window, so a staggered team is measured fairly.
What it needs before it works
- Your working windows written down as real times, including the ones that only two people use.
- A person to own assignment, because changing a window changes how someone's attendance reads.
- The attendance module switched on, so arrival is measured against each person's window.
Questions people ask
What does employee scheduling software do in PeopleMuster?
It gives every person a named shift with a start time, an end time and a start date. Attendance measures lateness against that window, and browser check-in opens around it. The assignment history shows who held which shift, from when, and who assigned it.
What happens to old attendance when a shift changes?
Past records keep the window they were judged under. The new window applies from the assignment's start date onward.
How many shifts can a company define?
As many as you need. They are records you create, not a fixed list, and each one carries its own name, times and description.
How do I move someone to a different shift?
Assign the new shift from the date it starts. Both assignments stay in the history, one active and one ended, each with the name of whoever made it.
How do shifts affect browser check-in?
The check-in card opens around the person's assigned shift. By default it opens an hour before the start and closes two hours after, and an admin can change both.