Bidding Templates

A bidding template is a set of weekly shifts that employees can choose from and bid on.

You first define the template with weekly rules and assign employees. After you generate the template, your employees receive options for weekly schedules based on the template. They can choose the schedule they prefer, but if multiple employees want the same schedule, they bid on it.

Let's say you generated a bidding template for 10 employees. Five schedules have shifts that start at 8:00, and the shifts in the other five schedules start at 9:00.

Your employees can choose the schedule that they prefer.

If four employees ask for the 8:00 shift, all of them will be scheduled accordingly. The other six employees bid on the 9:00 shift. Only five of them can win. The last employee loses the bid and is automatically scheduled for the 8:00 shift.

To learn more about how bidding works, see Shift Bidding.

You can create several templates for different schedules, depending on the employee groups and scheduling needs.

For example, you can create one template for a group of employees who generally work full time, and another one for employees who work part-time.

To create a bidding template:

  1. Click the app selector and select WFM.

  2. Go to Setup > Bidding Templates.

  3. Click New template.

  4. Enter a Name and, optionally, a Description.

  5. Click Select weekly rules.

    If you want to create and add a new weekly rule for bidding, see Create a Weekly Rule for Bidding.

  6. Select the weekly rules you want to assign to the template.

    The rules you selected are listed in the Selected tab. The previously assigned rules are listed in the Assigned tab.

  7. Click Save.

  8. To assign employees to the template, go to the Employees tab and click Select employees.

  9. Select the employees you want to assign to the template. You can search and filter for specific employees.

    The previously assigned employees are listed in the Existing tab.

    Keep in mind:

    • Only employees who have the Can be Scheduled attribute enabled will appear in the employee list. To learn more, see Set Up Employees.

    • An employee cannot be assigned to a weekly rule and a template at the same time. If an employee is assigned to a weekly rule, adding them to a template will remove them from the rule.

  10. Click Save, then Save the template.

Create a Weekly Rule for Bidding

A bidding template is a set of weekly shifts that employees can choose from and bid on.

When you define a template, you can either assign existing weekly rules or create a new one.

Once you create a new rule, it's added automatically to the bidding template you're defining.

To create a weekly rule for bidding:

  1. Click the app selector and select WFM.

  2. Go to Setup > Bidding Templates.

  3. Click New Template.

  4. Click New weekly rule, and enter a weekly rule name.

  5. Select Use for bidding.

  6. Define the Total per week. This is the minimum and maximum days of shifts that can be assigned to employees associated with this rule.

  7. You can include either of these settings:

    • Consistent start time—Define a consistent start time for shifts generated with this rule. The shifts will all begin at the same time, regardless of employee shift preferences. You can select this if your weekly rule is made up of only one daily rule.

    • Consecutive days off—If employees have multiple days off in a workweek, they will only be scheduled consecutively.

      Closed office days are not considered days off, and will not be taken into account during scheduling.

  8. Define the minimum number of hours between shifts. Employees assigned to this rule will have at least the defined number of hours free in between the shifts they receive. This number must be between 3 and 18.

  9. Click Select Daily Rules and select the daily rules you want for this weekly rule.

  10. Click Save.

  11. Define the Possible Days on which the employees assigned to this rule can be assigned shifts.

    For example, you want the weekly rule to define a schedule with morning shifts that occur on the weekend. Select a daily rule for morning shifts, and click SAT and SUN.

  12. Under Usage, enter the minimum and maximum number of times this daily rule is used per week. The maximum cannot exceed the total number of days you selected in Possible Days.

    For example, under Possible Days, you selected FRI, SAT, and SUN. The maximum number under Usage is 3.

  13. Go to the Advanced tab and select the full-day settings.

    This setting lets you define how many hours to deduct when an employee is out of office for a full day.

    • Define shift start and length—Customize how many hours to deduct when an employee is out of office for a full day.

    • Use default operating hours—The hours will be the scheduling unit's operating hours for that day. You can see the hours in Admin > Scheduling Unit.

  14. Once you've added all of the relevant daily rules, click Save.

    Now you can use this rule when creating a bidding template.