What is auto assign?
Auto assign assigns your employees to the unassigned shifts in the schedule with one click. It takes into account employees' availability and wishes, roles, min. and max. hours, leave and your rules.
How to use auto assign
Create the shifts
Auto assign fills the unassigned shifts in the period. You can create the shifts yourself, use a template or let Workfeed create them based on your schedule in the last weeks:
Auto template: Click "Template" and select "Auto template". The shifts are created as unassigned, so you can see and adjust them before you use auto assign. Read more in How to use auto template.
Generate missing shifts first: Turn on the button in auto assign. Auto assign then creates and fills the shifts in one step. It is described further down.
Open auto assign
Choose the period and the department you want to fill, and click "Auto assign" at the top right of the schedule. Auto assign can only be used on one department at a time.
How does auto assign work?
At the top of the panel, you can expand "How does auto assign work?". It lists everything auto assign takes into account, for example leave, availability, wishes, rules and shifts in other departments. Shifts that are already assigned are not changed.
Employees
Under "Employees", you choose who and what auto assign should use:
Employees: Choose which employees to include. Auto assign only uses the department's primary employees.
Roles: Choose which roles to fill. An employee only gets shifts with roles they have.
Adjust min and max hours: Change the min. and max. hours per week for all employees at once. Max. hours are averaged over the period, so one week can be a little higher than another.
Primary employees: If employees are missing, check that they are primary in the department. Click the name of the department at the top left, select "Manage departments", click the department and then "Primary employees" at the bottom right. Tick the employees and click "Save". An employee can only be primary in one department.
Min. and max. hours: When you click "Adjust min and max hours", you see all employees with their hours. You can also change the hours for a single employee under "Edit profile" in the team list.
Rules
Under "Rules", you can see how many rules are active. Click them to turn rules on and off or create new ones, for example rest between shifts or max. shifts per day. Auto assign never breaks an active rule.
Generate missing shifts first and usual shift times
Generate missing shifts first: First creates the shifts that are missing based on your schedule in the previous weeks, and then fills them. The button is only shown to admins, and only when the selected period is at most 31 days.
Assign employees to their usual shift times: Gives employees the times they usually work. For example, an employee who usually works Thursdays at 9:00 gets priority for that shift over other employees.
Fill the schedule
At the bottom of the panel, you see the period, the department and how many unassigned shifts are ready to be filled. Click the blue "Auto assign" button.
When auto assign is done, you can choose "Keep and save changes" or "Undo". The schedule is not published, so you can still make changes. If you undo, shifts created with "Generate missing shifts first" are deleted too.
The circles next to the employees on the left show how far they are from their hours: orange is below the minimum, green is between the minimum and maximum, and red is above the maximum.
FAQ
Auto assign does not fill all shifts. Why?
If no employee fits based on what is listed under "How does auto assign work?", the shift stays unassigned.
The "Auto assign" button in the panel is grey. Why?
There are no unassigned shifts in the period, or the department has no primary employees. Create the shifts or turn on "Generate missing shifts first", and check the primary employees.
Can I make changes to the schedule afterwards?
Yes. Auto assign does not publish the schedule, so you can make your own changes before you publish.
I get an error when I use auto assign. Why?
Something in the period may cause problems, for example a shift with a role that no longer exists. Reload the schedule or try another week. If that does not help, write to us in the support chat.
I cannot see "Auto assign" in the schedule. Why?
Auto assign requires a Pro or Pro+ subscription, and it can only be used on one department at a time. If you have several departments open, select only one.