Auto Scheduling with Homebase

Auto scheduling in Homebase allows you to assign shifts to your team with ease! In this article, we will learn everything you need to know about the the auto-scheduling feature in Homebase. 

How does Homebase auto-scheduling prioritize assigned shifts?

Firstly, Homebase assigns shifts based on the following scheduling factors:

• Time Off: Employees will not be assigned shifts on days they have scheduled time off. 
• Availability: If an employee show that they are unavailable on certain days, Homebase will schedule around their availability.

Second, we also follow the scheduling rules in each employee profile. We will cover these in more detail in step 2: 

• Maximum work hours
• Seniority
• Roles

Third, we assign based on the number of hours scheduled. If an employee has fewer hours than another, the employee with fewer hours will have priority for the shift. 

Step 1: Create Employee Roles

1. From a computer, click the left navigation menu and select "Schedule".

    

   

    

2. Select "Departments/Roles" below the navigation bar.

    

   

    

3. Select Add New Department in the top right corner to create a department.

    

   

    

4. Add roles to your department by typing in the blank field to the right of your department, then Create a new role.

    

   

    

   • Delete roles by clicking the X next to the role.

      

     

      

   • Delete departments by clicking the trash can icon to the right.

      

     

   • To edit the name of your department, click the blue pencil icon to the right.

      

     

Step 2: Set Auto-Schedule Rules

1. Click "Team" on the left navigation menu to view the Team Roster.

    

   

    

2. From the Team Roster, select the employee to set up Auto-Schedule Rules.

    

   Please Note

   Auto-Schedule Rules must be set up individually for each team member,  there is no way to set up auto-schedule Rules in bulk.

    

   

    

3. In the Employee's profile, go to Job Details and scroll to the bottom section "Auto-Schedule Rules".

    

   

    

4. Set Max Hours Per Week: Type the max hours per week for each employee. This will ensure employees don't get scheduled more than the max number of hours set.
5. Set Seniority: Click the drop-down for seniority and choose one option for each employee: Trainee, Average, or Experienced. The auto-scheduler will prioritize shift distribution to employees labeled with Experienced first, following Average, and lastly Trainee.
6. Set Roles Employee Can Work: Click the drop-down and select roles. This ensures employees will only be scheduled roles they were given.
   • Homebase automatically pre-populates employee roles based on the last 60 days of information and will auto-schedule an employee in that role if the manager leaves it within the drop-down field.
7. Save Changes.

Step 3: Creating a Template for Open Shifts

1. Select Schedule in the top navigation bar.

    

   

    

2. Select the date range in the top left corner to choose a week without any shifts.

    

   

    

3. Create all of your needed shifts in the open shifts row. Click ADD+ on the Open Shifts row.

    

   

    

   • Assign a role to each shift (Roles that you gave your employees)
   • If you need multiple shifts covered per day, select the plus icon on the first created shift to create another shift and click on the shift to edit the time.

   Please Note

   Always save a template before auto-scheduling! Otherwise, they’d have to set it all up again. Now that you’ve created all of your shifts for Monday, let’s save this as the Monday template to use for future weeks.

Save the open shifts as a template:

1. Select Tools in the upper right corner.

    

   

    

2. Select Templates.

    

   

    

3. Enter a template name.
4. Select Create.
   • This creates a template of the shifts you need to be covered that can be used to auto-schedule in future weeks.

Step 4: Click the magic wand and auto-schedule your shifts!

1. Once your open shifts are scheduled in the open shifts row, select the wand icon (Auto-Schedule) next to Open Shifts.

    

   

    

2. Select the rules you’d like to apply and select Auto-Schedule.
3. Open shifts will stay in the open shifts row if there is no employee available to cover a shift.
4. When your schedule is made, select Publish in the top right corner.

Auto Scheduling FAQ