Shift Bidding is a dynamic and employee-centric scheduling process that empowers the employees by giving them a voice to shape their shifts as much as possible in an other non-flexible and monotonous shifts-distribution industry, and is used to allocate work shifts or schedules based on a transparent and competitive framework.

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It has emerged as a useful tactic to balance workforce needs and employee preferences in today’s fast paced business environment, where operational continuity is extremely essential and helps enables the organization to provide enough staffing coverage while also empowering the employees to have a say in choosing their work schedules. Employees actively engaging in the scheduling process helps in improving the work-life balance and job satisfaction.

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Shift Bidding is frequently used in sectors including Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, and Customer Service, where operations must be carried out around the clock. It’s a crucial tool for creating a harmonic and effective workforce scheduling environment, regardless of the industry.

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What are the problems faced by companies that are currently not using shift-bidding while scheduling shifts for their employees:

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Typically in contact centres, it’s observed that the Attrition Rates are excessive. One of the many reasons is that the Agents are forced to work in the shifts that are either not suitable or not preferred by them. Furthermore, agents are commonly not a part of the schedule creation process; Supervisors make rigid and inflexible schedules and agents are bound to follow them. While there are many other limitations faced by companies with traditional scheduling methods, some of the prominent ones are:

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Increased Absenteeism: Employees may be more likely to request time off or call in sick if they are dissatisfied with their schedules, leading to increased absenteeism and disruptions to workflow.

Higher Overtime Costs: Without the ability for employees to bid on shifts they prefer, organizations may rely more on overtime to fill staffing gaps during peak times, resulting in increased labor costs.

Difficulty in Retaining Talent: In companies where work schedule flexibility is highly valued, the absence of shift bidding may contribute to higher turnover rates as employees seek organizations that offer more flexible scheduling options. In industries where scheduling flexibility is a competitive advantage for talent acquisition, companies without shift bidding may struggle to attract and retain skilled employees.

To address these challenges, organizations should consider implementing shift bidding as part of their WFM strategy. This can lead to improved employee satisfaction, better adaptability to changing workloads, and enhanced overall organizational efficiency.

How do comapnies benefit by introducing shift-bidding as part of thier shift scheduling process in an organization?

Organizations use Shift Bidding for various reasons. It offers multiple advantages to both employees and companies, thereby making it a valuable strategy in various industries. Some of the advantages are mentioned below:

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Employee empowerment: Shift Bidding empowers employees by giving them an opportunity to raise their voice and have a say in work schedules. It allows agents to express preferences, select shifts and have greater control over their working hours.

Flexibility and work-life balance: Shift Bidding contributes to improved work-life balance by enabling the employees to choose the shifts that suit them. This flexibility leads to increased job satisfaction, reduced stress and anxiety & better overall well-being.

Transparent allocation: Shift bidding introduces a transparent allocation process, where shifts are assigned based on objective criteria like seniority, skills, or performance, etc. and this minimizes favouritism and personal biases in shift assignments.

Optimized Staffing: By allowing employees to bid on shifts according to their preferences, optimal staffing can be ensured. It helps in preventing overstaffing or understaffing situations, leading to smoother operations and enhanced customer service.

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The value that Sprinklr drives:

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Sprinklr's WFM platform for companies helps deliver optimal solutions to every organization to meet all workforce related problems, including forecasting, staffing, scheduling, leave management, adherence and many more. Shift Bidding is one such tool that allows agents to select and bid for their favourite shifts based on their availability, work preferences and agent ranking criteria.

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Once a supervisor creates a shift bid for agents to submit their preferences, several agent ranking criterias are factored in through the AI to distrbute shifts to agents as per their preferences in the most efficient manner. The supervisor on the Sprinklr platform can draw inferences based on these agent shift preferences which is visible to the supervisor, against all the agents in a very user-friendly UI. Additionally, once submitted by the agent, the supervisor can also redirect the agent to re-submit their shift.

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On the agent side, once the bids go live, they receive a notification to place their bids where in the agent has to simple drag and move their preferences and press submit. Once the supervisor finalises these bids, it auto-reflects in the agent's schedule page.

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Sprinklr's shift bidding feature has helped revolutionize the way many companies organize their workforce and schedule the shifts for their agents. In the modern times, as the benefits discussed above in this article, are increasingly becoming more significant, it becomes extremely crucial for all organizations to adapt and grow with the current industry and reap the rewards that follow.

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If you are looking to boost the growth of your organization and the efficiency of your workforce operations, Sprinklr's WFM solution is here to your rescue.