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Open Shifts

Open Shifts are shifts that are created without an assignee. Once published, eligible employees see them in the Employee Hub and can request them.

This is one of the flagship features of the flair Scheduler. Instead of you (the manager) chasing people to cover gaps, the platform turns the shift gap into a self-service offer.

When to use Open Shifts​

Open Shifts work well for:

  • Filling availability gaps — e.g. a colleague called in sick and you need someone to cover.
  • Offering optional overtime — you publish extra shifts and let willing employees opt in.
  • Flexible rotations — instead of pre-assigning every slot, post a pool of shifts and let the team self-organise.
  • Multi-site organisations — eligible employees across several locations can compete for the same shift.

Creating an Open Shift in Salesforce​

You create Open Shifts inside the Scheduler planning view, the same way as regular shifts — you just leave the assignee field empty.

  1. Open the Scheduler (see Working With Shifts).
  2. Click on the day column where the open shift should be — on the Open Shifts row at the top of the view (instead of an employee row).
  3. The Edit Shift dialog opens.
  4. Set the Start time, End time, Break, and any Notes that should be visible to employees considering the shift.
  5. Optionally select a Predefined Shift template.
  6. Optionally restrict eligibility by Skill — only employees with the matching skills will see the shift.
  7. Click Save.

The open shift appears in the Open Shifts row at the top of the planning view, visually distinct from assigned shifts.

Publishing Open Shifts​

Open Shifts behave like normal shifts in publishing. They remain invisible to employees until you publish the period that contains them.

See Working With Shifts → Publishing for the publishing workflow.

How employees request an Open Shift​

Once published, eligible employees see the Open Shift in their Employee Hub:

  1. The employee opens the Shifts page in the Employee Hub.
  2. Available Open Shifts appear in the Colleagues tab when the Show open shifts toggle is enabled.
  3. The employee taps the shift to see the details.
  4. They click Request Shift to submit a request.

The request creates an Open_Shift_Assignment_Request__c record and notifies the manager. Until the manager confirms, the open shift remains visible and other employees can still request it. The state shown on the shift in the Hub moves through Available → Request Sent → Waiting Approval → Confirmed (or Rejected).

Manager approval is always required

Requesting an open shift never assigns it directly. A manager must explicitly confirm the request — only then is the shift created and assigned to the employee, and the open shift is removed from the pool. Other employees who had also requested it are notified that the shift is no longer available.

Managing an Open Shift after publishing​

If you change your mind about an Open Shift before anyone requests it, just open it from the planning view and edit or delete it like any other shift. Once published edits are saved, the change propagates to the Hub on the next refresh.

If an Open Shift has already been confirmed to an employee, it becomes a regular assigned shift to that employee — you can still edit or reassign it as needed.

Eligibility and filtering​

Not every employee will be a good fit for every Open Shift. Eligibility is determined by two things:

  • The Scheduler's Target — Open Shifts inherit the scope of the Scheduler they belong to. A Scheduler whose Target is Department__c only surfaces its open shifts to employees in that department; a Scheduler whose Target is Location__c scopes them to that location; and so on. There is no separate per-shift Department or Location filter — it comes from the Scheduler's Target object.
  • Per-shift Skill filters — restrict an individual open shift to employees who have one or more specific skills (Open_Shift_Skill_Association__c).
Combine target scope and skills

A Scheduler scoped to Logistics Department with an Open Shift restricted to the Forklift skill will only offer that shift to logistics employees who have the Forklift skill. This keeps the offer focused and reduces the chance of an unqualified person requesting it.

Object-agnostic by design​

Open Shifts are object-agnostic: any Scheduler can have Open Shifts, regardless of what parent object the Scheduler is tied to (Location, Department, Project, custom). There's no special record type — a shift is "open" simply because no employee is assigned to it.

This means Open Shifts work consistently everywhere in the Scheduler, no matter how your org is structured.

Next steps​