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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-05-15
Concept: Swap Shifts

Concept: Swap Shifts

You can enable workers to swap shifts with other workers within their scheduling organization, helping them to have more control over their schedules and balance their work/life priorities.
When workers swap shifts, they can:
  • Search for other workers in their scheduling organization who meet the qualifications for a shift swap based on their schedule tag assignment, availability, and scheduling organization membership.
  • View other workers’ upcoming published shifts that the initiating worker is qualified to work.
  • Search and filter for shifts by date, time, and schedule tag.
Unlike the
Open Shift Board
 where workers can look for available shifts to cover, the Swap Shift functionality requires workers to initiate a direct shift swap between themselves and one of their coworkers.
After a worker selects a shift to swap and submits their request, the shift is in a
Swap Pending
 status. After a worker accepts a shift swap request, their manager receives a notification that displays the details for both swapped shifts.
When workers access the
My Schedule
 task and view
Shift Details
 for a shift, then click the
Manage Shift
 button, they see a
Swap Shift
 option.

Business Processes

You can configure these business processes to use the
Swap Shift
 functionality:
Business Process
Description
Accept Shift Swap
Enables workers to accept or reject a shift swap request. When a worker accepts a shift swap request, Workday automatically reassigns the shift to the worker.
Request Shift Swap
Enables workers to select another worker with whom they'd like to swap shifts.
You can add the
Notify All Impacted Workers of Shift Swap
 service step to the business process after the completion step. The service step notifies both workers that the shift swap was successful.

Example: Request Shift Swap Business Process Configuration

Order
Type
Specify
Optional
Group
Complete
a
Initiation
No
b
Action
Accept Shift Swap
No
Employee as Self
c
Approval
No
Manager
Yes
d
Service
Notify All Impacted Workers of Shift Swap
No
Ensure that the
Approval
 step is routing to the correct security group. Workday routes the approval step to the security group configured on the business process definition, Workday doesn't automatically route it to the worker’s manager unless they are part of the manager security group.

How Workers Can Swap and Accept Shifts

To request a shift swap, a worker can:
  1. Access the
    My Schedule
     report.
  2. Select they shift they wish to swap.
  3. Select
    Swap Shift
    .
  4. Select a worker from the prompt to swap with. Only workers assigned the corresponding schedule tag will display in the prompt.
  5. Select
    Submit
    .
To accept a shift swap, a worker can:
  1. Access My Tasks.
  2. Select the
    Swap Shift Request
     item.
  3. Select
    Approve
    .
The shift appears on the new worker's schedule and is removed from the original worker's schedule.
To cancel a request, select
Business Process
Cancel
 from the related actions menu of the in-progress business process.