Microsoft has released new Shift features to improve the productivity and user experience of frontline workers.
The latest enhancements include a people count, updates to UX, additional controls for managers, day notes, and importing and exporting time offs and open shifts into and from Excel.
Microsoft Shifts is a schedule management tool that allows you to create, manage, and update team schedules.
These updates come on top of developments announced at Microsoft Ignite last month, which included greater information visibility, marketplace controls, and deploying shifts at scale. It also made mention of the same capability of transferring time offs and open shifts via Excel.
People Count
Frontline managers can make better decisions with the help of a people count displayed within the Shifts calendar.
The feature gives a clear view of staffing levels to make sure the correct workforce has been scheduled for each day, week, and month. The scheduled people count can also be viewed at both the team and group levels.
Updates to UX
The user experience has been bolstered through the addition of a full name display for each team member in the team schedule, automatically saving the last filter used, and displaying the shift notes inline using ‘day view’.
Additional Controls for Managers
Further controls have been added for managers on team-level settings to make changes to Shifts marketplace and visibility capabilities.
From a visibility perspective, frontline workers have a restricted view of their co-workers’ past views, view colleagues' time off without access to the reasons and notes, and reduce shift details to exclude sensitive information.
Within the Shift marketplace, managers can now choose which capabilities are added and when. For example, managers can decide whether workers are able to request to swap shifts with other workers, subject to approval by the manager. Other such requests include workers offering their shifts to other workers and asking for time off.
