Open Shift Requests: Let Employees Fill Their Own Schedule Gaps

Last-minute callouts, coverage gaps, and the scramble to find a replacement are some of the most stressful parts of managing a team. Kwilio Scheduling's open shift requests feature turns that scramble into a self-service process: post a shift that needs coverage, let eligible employees claim it, and approve the best option — without a single phone call.

What Is an Open Shift?

An open shift is a shift that exists on the schedule but isn't assigned to a specific employee. It has a time, location, and role — but it's available for any qualified employee to claim.

In Kwilio, open shifts appear in the Open Shifts tab on employees' iPhones alongside their own scheduled shifts. An employee who can cover the shift taps Request, and the request goes to their manager for approval.

Creating an Open Shift

On Mac, creating an open shift is the same as creating a regular shift — with one difference: instead of assigning it to an employee, you leave it unassigned (or mark it explicitly as open).

You can specify:

• Date, start time, and end time
• Location (and associated geofence for clock-in verification)
• Department or role — only employees in the matching department see the shift
• Notes for the employee (uniform requirements, tasks for the shift, etc.)

Once published, the open shift appears on every eligible employee's iPhone immediately.

How Employees Request Shifts

When an employee sees an open shift they want to cover:

1. They tap the shift to see the full details (time, location, notes).
2. They tap Request This Shift.
3. The app submits the request to their manager via CloudKit.
4. They receive a push notification when the manager approves or declines.

Employees can withdraw their request before approval if their availability changes.

Approving Requests

On Mac, open shift requests appear in the Schedule view with a badge. Managers see:

• Which employees have requested the shift
• Each employee's current weekly hours (to check for overtime implications)
• Any scheduling conflicts with their existing shifts

Tap an employee's name and select Approve to assign the shift to them. The schedule updates instantly, all other pending requests for that shift are closed, and the approved employee gets a push notification confirming the assignment.

Preventing Conflicts and Overtime

Kwilio checks for conflicts before letting a manager approve a request. If approving the request would give the employee:

• A double shift (overlapping with another assigned shift)
• Hours above the overtime threshold you've configured

…Kwilio flags it. You can still approve if you choose, but the flag ensures nothing slips through unintentionally.

Why Open Shifts Reduce Manager Workload

The traditional alternative — calling down a list of available employees — takes 15–30 minutes per open shift and often still leaves gaps unfilled. With open shift requests:

• Employees self-select based on their own availability. No guesswork on the manager's part.
• Requests arrive in a single queue — no tracking texts across multiple conversations.
• The schedule updates automatically on approval — no manual edits.
• Everyone stays in the loop — affected employees get notifications; the schedule syncs to all devices.

For teams with variable schedules or high turnover, open shifts are often one of the first features managers point to as a genuine time-saver.

Recurring Open Shifts

If you regularly have shifts that go uncovered — a Friday night that's hard to staff, a weekend opening that rotates — consider creating them as recurring open shifts. Kwilio's recurring pattern engine applies the same shift template across future weeks, so the open shift appears automatically without you rebuilding it each time.

Open shift requests are included in every Kwilio Scheduling subscription. There's no limit on the number of open shifts you can post or the number of requests employees can submit.