Availability in Homebase

 

In Homebase, team members with Manager Access can view and manage your team's availability from the Team Availability section of the Schedule.

Availability is viewed in a weekly format based on the Schedule Start Day (customized in Settings > Schedule Enforcement)

 

From this page, Managers can:

• View Team Availability
• Add or make changes to Team Availability
• Approve or Deny Availability requests (depending on Settings)
• View individual team members' past availability requests 

 

Where to find Availability

1. Select Schedule in the left menu

    

   

    

2. Click Team Availability

    

   

    

3. Choose the week you would like to start the availability status in the top left 

    

   

    

 

 

Creating Availability

Managers can manually create an availability schedule for Team members in addition to allowing them to submit their own availability.

Team Availability is managed on a weekly view. Users can navigate from past to future weeks by selecting the corresponding arrows next to the Week Date Range in the top left. 

 

 

• Preferred: Day or Time of Day the Employee preferred to work.
  • Time frames: Employees can have multiple preferred time frames for a single day, as long as they do not overlap.
  • Whole Day: Employees can prefer "whole day" if they do not have a time frame preference they wish to work.
• Unavailable: Day or Time of Day the Employee is unavailable to work.
  • Time frames: Employees can have multiple unavailable time frames for a single day, as long as they do not overlap.
  • Whole Day: Employees can have a preference for a "whole day" if they are unavailable the entire workday.
• Apply To: For multi-location companies where employees work at multiple locations, the availability can be applied to a specific location or all locations.

 

Requirements

Employees can have both Preferred time frames and Unavailable time frames for a workday as long as they do not overlap.

Employees may submit multiple availabilities at once, as long as the start dates of their Availabilities do not overlap.

When selecting the time frame for the availability, the End time must be greater than the start time so "overnight" requests cannot be submitted.

• To submit an overnight request (Ex: 8 p.m. - 4 a.m. the next day), two blocks of availability must be created.
  • Ex: If an employee prefers to work 8 p.m. - 4 a.m. overnight, they must submit a preferred availability for 8 p.m. - 11:59 pm
    • "11:59 pm" must be typed.
    • 12 am will not be accepted by HB since this is considered the beginning of the day, not the end (the End time must be greater than the start time)
  • Then, they must submit another block of availability for 12 a.m.-4 a.m.

If availabilities are added or edited from the "Team Availability" page, they are automatically approved.

 

 

Reviewing Requests

Employers have the option to "Require manager approval for employee availability requests" 

• When this setting is enabled, all new availability submissions must be approved by the Employer before it takes effect.
• When this setting is not enabled, all new availability submissions will be automatically approved.
• All past & current availability submissions (approved or rejected) will be displayed on the Team Availability page under the submitting employee's name.

Owners and managers cannot view or manage (approve/decline) Availability Requests from the mobile app.

 

Needs Review Dashboard

 

On the right side of the Manager View Dashboard, you will see availability requests under Needs Review. 

 

Team Availability Page

 

 

Owners and managers can approve or reject availability requests from the "Team Availability" page under Schedule.

 

 

When an availability request is approved or denied, the submitting user is notified via e-mail. When approving or rejecting an availability, the Employer can choose to "Add a Note" to the request that will be sent in the e-mail notification.

 

Who can approve availability?

• Any user with "Manager" access or higher can approve or reject availability requests unless their permission is revoked in "Team Permissions".
• Managers are able to approve requests for all team members, including themselves and other managers.
• The ability to approve availability requests can not be customized according to access level, role, or department.

 

Schedule Builder

Approved availabilities will be visible on the Schedule Builder.

 

Preferred

 

 

When adding shifts for employees who have "preferred" availability, the cell on the schedule builder will display their preferred availability for that day, as well as the modal that appears when clicking on the cell.

Employees can still be scheduled outside of their preferred availability without generating an availability "Conflict" on the schedule.

 

Conflicts

 

 

 

 

• When adding shifts for employees who are "unavailable", the cell on the schedule builder will be filled in as a grey opaque cell.
• Employees can still be scheduled when they are unavailable, however, the User adding the shift will receive a "Conflict" message.
• "The shift you are trying to schedule conflicts with the published availability for this employee."
• You can choose to continue by selecting "OK", "Move to Open Shifts" to assign the shift to another employee, or "Cancel" to undo adding the shift.

 

 

Alerts & Permissions

• Require manager approval for employee availability requests (⭐ Essentials)
• For Locations on the Basic plan, Team Members who have created Homebase accounts can submit their Availability to their Employer. The Availability will be automatically approved.
• For locations on the Essentials plan and up, Employers can require availabilities to be approved by a manager before they go into effect.

 

Team Permissions

⭐ Essentials

If Manager approval is required for employee availability requests, Account Owners can choose to permit or restrict a manager or general manager's permission to approve requests. To set this permission: Settings > Team Permissions >

 

 

Removing the permission to approve availability requests does not impact the user's ability to:

1. View employee's availability in "Schedule: Team Availability"
2. Add or Edit an Employee's Availability
3. View Pending Availability Requests
4. Receive Employee Availability Request Notifications

 

Manager Alerts

In Settings > Your Account > Notifications, Managers can choose to be notified of Employee availability requests via email or push notifications.