Team•5 min read

Seniority Rules

Give senior employees priority for shift preferences and time-off requests.

Overview

Seniority rules let you prioritize employees based on their tenure or a custom ranking. This affects shift preferences, time-off approval, and shift swap rights.

Common uses: Union environments with contractual seniority requirements, rewarding long-term employees with preferred shifts, and fair time-off allocation during holidays.

Enabling Seniority Rules

Go to Settings

Navigate to Settings → Rules → Seniority.

Enable Seniority Rules

Toggle on "Use seniority for scheduling".

Choose Seniority Method

Select how seniority is calculated:

• Hire date: Automatically based on employee start date
• Custom ranking: Manually set seniority order
• Union seniority date: Based on a separate seniority date field

Configure Where Seniority Applies

Choose which features use seniority rules.

Where Seniority Applies

Shift Bidding

When multiple employees bid for the same open shift, seniority determines who gets it.

Example: 3 employees want the Saturday evening shift. The one with the earliest hire date wins.

Time-Off Requests

When multiple employees request the same dates and not all can be approved, senior employees get priority.

Example: 4 people want Christmas week off but only 2 can be approved. The 2 most senior employees get it.

Shift Swaps

When shifts are posted for pickup, senior employees can claim them first.

Setting:Configure a "seniority window" where only senior employees can pick up shifts (e.g., first 4 hours).

AI Scheduling Preferences

AI scheduling can weight senior employees' availability preferences more heavily.

Example:A 10-year employee's "prefers mornings" setting has more influence than a 1-year employee's preference.

Setting Custom Seniority Rankings

If you need to use custom rankings instead of hire date:

1.Go to Team → Seniority List
2.Drag and drop employees to reorder them
3.Or click an employee and enter their seniority number directly
4.Click "Save Order"

Tip: If you have seniority data in a spreadsheet, use Import → Seniority List to bulk update rankings.

Seniority by Department

You can configure seniority to apply within departments rather than company-wide:

Company-Wide (Default)

All employees are ranked together regardless of department.

Per Department

Seniority only compares employees within the same department.

Per Position

Seniority only compares employees with the same position/role.

Handling Ties

When two employees have the same seniority (e.g., same hire date), configure how ties are broken:

Alphabetical: By last name, then first name

First to request: Whoever submitted first wins

Random: System randomly selects

Manual: Manager decides

Viewing Seniority Information

Employees and managers can see seniority information in several places:

•Team page: Seniority column shows ranking
•Employee profile: Shows hire date and seniority rank
•Shift bidding: Shows your position in the queue
•Time-off conflicts: Shows competing requests and who has priority

Roles & Permissions Shift Swaps Time-Off Requests Union Agreements

Need help with seniority rules?

Contact Support