Matching jobs to the hours your workers actually work

Filling a shift has always meant working out twice over whether somebody is right for it. First whether they are qualified, then whether they are actually free at that time of day. The second part lived in phone calls and memory, which meant offering nights to somebody who only ever works days and finding out the slow way.

Workers can now record their usual working times in the mobile app, and Agency Accelerator uses them. When you fill a job, the people you see are the people who can realistically take it.

What the worker does

This starts in the worker's own app, on their profile. It takes them a moment and it changes what they get put forward for.

Usual working times. The worker sets the hours they normally work. This is their standing pattern rather than a diary, so they set it once and it holds until they change it.
Date specific exceptions. Where a worker is happy to work outside those hours on a particular day, they can add an exception: a date, and a from and to time for that date. The exception applies to that date only and does not touch their usual working times.
Exceptions are the worker's to set. Only the worker can create one, from their own app. You cannot add an exception on a worker's behalf, so the agreement to work those hours always comes from them.

A worker who has not recorded any availability is treated as available, so nobody disappears from your lists simply because they have not opened the app yet.

What changes on your side

Availability now sits alongside qualification when the platform works out who can take a job.

Eligible worker lists are filtered. A fully qualified worker is left out of the default list where the job's times fall wholly or partly outside their usual working hours. Any overlap with hours they are not available is enough to hold them back.
Direct allocation respects it too. This is not only a change to what you see. A worker who is unavailable for a job's times cannot be directly allocated to it either.
You can still see everyone. The eligibility screen can be switched to include unavailable workers for that job. They appear in the list with out of work hours beside their name, so a shorter list is always explained rather than leaving you wondering where somebody went.

This is available on both Agency Accelerator Free and Agency Accelerator Pro.

Filling a job

Open the job and go to the eligible workers list.
Work from the default list. Everyone shown is both qualified for the role and available for the times.
If you need a wider view, switch the list to show unavailable workers as well.
Anyone held back for availability is labelled out of work hours, so you can see at a glance whether the issue is their hours or something else.
Allocate or send the job to your chosen worker as normal.

When you want a worker who is outside their hours

Availability is a filter, not a lock. If the right person for a shift is one whose usual hours do not cover it, you can still get them onto the job.

Show unavailable workers on the eligibility list and find the worker you want.
Contact them and ask whether they would work that date.
If they agree, ask them to add an exception in their app for that date, with the from and to times they are happy to work.
Once the exception is saved, they become eligible for the job and appear in the normal list.
Allocate the job to them in the usual way.

The exception covers that date only. Their usual working times are untouched, so agreeing to one late shift does not quietly sign them up for every late shift after it.

Helping your workers set this up

The feature only pays off once your workers have recorded their hours, so it is worth a short message to your workforce when this goes live. Two things are worth saying to them:

Setting usual working times means being offered work that fits, rather than turning down jobs at the wrong time of day.
Adding an exception is how they say yes to a one off, without changing their normal pattern.

If something looks wrong

A worker you expected is missing from the eligible list. Switch the list to show unavailable workers. If they appear with out of work hours, the job falls outside the times they have set, and an exception from them will bring them back into the list.
You cannot allocate a worker directly. Availability applies to direct allocation as well as to the list, so a worker whose hours do not cover the job cannot be allocated to it until they add an exception for that date.
A worker says they added an exception but is still not eligible. Check the exception covers the correct date and that its from and to times cover the whole of the job, as a partial overlap is not enough.
Your lists have not changed at all. Workers who have not set any availability are treated as available, so lists look exactly as they did until your workforce starts recording their hours.

If something still does not look right, get in touch with the Care Hires support team with the job reference and the worker you were expecting to see.