Setup Considerations: Shifts

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of shifts. It explains:

Why to set it up.

How it fits into the rest of Workday VNDLY.

Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.

Security requirements and business process configurations.

Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.

Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What It Is

Shifts are defined blocks of time in Workday VNDLY that allow companies to ensure consistent staffing coverage. Companies can also use shifts to compensate hard-to-fill times differently to incentivize workers. You can configure and maintain shifts during job creation to offer release, and from work orders to invoicing.

Business Benefits

With shifts, you can:

Track time against a data element, such as a work order.

Allocate time against a data element that will also pay a premium.

Collect the time data allocated against shifts and export it to a different system for calculation.

Enable warnings that appear if shifts are entered outside of defined shift times.

Use the

Shifts

dataset or the

Shift Differential

dataset to report on shift definitions in custom reports.

Use Cases

Create multiple shifts, or a shift with exceptions, by deploying the flexible shift strategy to accommodate a contractor's changing schedule.

Create shifts that have extra pay (shift differentials) attached to encourage contractors to take that particular shift.

Set the ability to have the shift differentials to calculate automatically in the client rate.

Modify work orders with the bulk update process to add shifts and differentials to the work orders your clients to update.

Questions to Consider

Questions	Considerations
What are shift strategies?	Shift strategies are different ways a client might manage their shift needs for each work order. VNDLY Workday supports 2 types of shift strategies: Dedicated shift strategy . This strategy maintains a 1 to 1 relationship between a single shift and a work order. By selecting this strategy you are limited to only 1 shift for the assignment. We don't restrict contractors from being assigned to multiple work orders with a dedicated strategy, but we do restrict contractors from being assigned to 2 different strategies on work orders. You might use a dedicated strategy when you only need a contractor to cover a single shift or if you have an integration with an external system that restricts contractors to a single work order. Dedicated strategies default to the shift assignment on the timesheet so that the contractor doesn't have to select which shift their time should be allocated to. Flexible shift strategy . This strategy allows a contractor to be assigned to more than 1 shift on the same work order. You might use this shift strategy if you have a contractor who might be assigned to work multiple shifts and needs the flexibility to be able to punch in and out of their assigned shifts as needed. Flexible shift strategies require the time to be manually allocated on the timesheet so that the system knows which shift the hours were worked against.
How do you display shifts on jobs?	A toggle on the job templates allows you to apply shifts to the job and/or make it required on the job. This toggle helps ensure that shifts don't automatically apply to every job.
What timesheets and classification types can I use with shifts?	Shifts are supported on Time In / Time Out and Summary timesheet types. However, flexible shift strategies don't work with auto-classified timesheets.
What if a job fits the criteria for multiple criteria groups of different shift rules?	Workday VNDLY prevents users from creating duplicate rules, but doesn't prevent users from creating rules that could overrule another. You should compare any shift rules created to ensure that there isn't a conflict. For more information, see Concept: Shift Rules.
Can I include shifts on a time import?	You can include shift assignments if you have the add_shift_to_time_import feature flag enabled in your tenant. To enable, create a Product Support ticket with Workday VNDLY Support.
Can I remove a shift that I no longer need?	You can remove shifts by deleting or deactivating the shifts. You can only delete a shift if it hasn't been assigned to a job or work order. If the shift is already assigned to a job or work order, you can only make it unavailable by deactivating it. Shifts can be deactivated if there's no time allocated against it. It will no longer be selectable on jobs, work orders, or timesheets, and you won't be able to save or submit time against it.
What timezone will my contractors' punches be collected in?	Existing timesheets honor the timezone that the contractor's computer is set to.
How does the shifts functionality affect my current jobs?	When you set up shifts, the shifts and any rules that you create only apply to new jobs going forward. This includes the Are Shifts Required setting. Existing jobs aren't impacted. However, you can modify a work order to add a newly created shift to it. Shifts aren't required on timesheets; a contractor can either allocate their time against a shift or not select a shift.

Recommendations

We recommend that light industrial clients implement shifts in their tenants.

If you have a contractor that is assigned to a shift, but also needs to allocate time outside of a shift, we recommend that you assign them a flexible shift strategy. This lets the contractor either select a shift or not select a shift to allocate their time.

Requirements

Clients using only:

Extended Workforce Management.

Manually allocated timesheets. (Shift allocation requires manual classification. Only dedicated strategy works with auto-classified timesheets at this time).

Charge codes.

Premium applied to the bill rate. (Pay rate premiums aren't included in shifts functionality).

Limitations

Shifts functionality:

Is used as a tracking tool, not a scheduling tool.

Applies the premium only to the bill rate.

Doesn't support Worker Profile Management or Statement of Work.

Only supports charge codes, not project codes.

Doesn't support flexible shift strategies with auto-classified time.

Tenant Setup

Create a Product Support ticket with Workday VNDLY Support to enable shifts in your tenant.

Security

Administrators with the settings.admin permission
can add the following permissions to roles to view and maintain shifts:

Module	Permission	Description
Job	shift.differential.read	Permission to view shift differential on a job page.
Settings	shift.settings.read	Permission to view shift settings.
Settings	shift.settings.edit	Permission to edit shift settings.
Job, Work Order	field.shifts.update	Permission to override shifts, shift strategy, and shift differentials on a job or work order.
Work Order	workorder.modifications.shifts_backdate.create	Permission to backdate shift, shift strategy, and shift differential changes for a work order.

Business Processes

You must have the correct permissions for each business process:

Business Process	Consideration
Publish a Job	Change the shift selection and the shift strategy when publishing a job.
Modify Work Order	Edit shifts on a work order, including backdating the shifts.
Release an Offer	Update the shifts, Type of Rate Differential , and Rate Differential (if already created for the shift) before releasing the offer.
Timesheet Summary	Submit a timesheet with shift information.
Work Orders	Filter for work orders with shifts.

Reporting

Datasets	Considerations
Shifts	Can report on shift definitions in custom reports.
Shift Differential	Can report on shift definitions in custom reports.
Shifts joined with:	Can create full data reports.
Jobs
Timesheets via Jobs
Work Orders via Effective Dated Values