Create a shift plan

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read

    • Schedule shifts for your team so that you can make sure that you are covering all work assignments and breaks. You can also specify the days of the week that you might need to override scheduled shifts.

    Before you begin

    Role required: sn_shift_planning.admin

    About this task

    In the Shifts tab, you can view the work shifts and on-call shifts in separate tabs. The shifts are grouped by active and inactive shifts. The contextual side panel displays the active and then the inactive shifts in the order it is displayed in the Shifts tab. You can scroll through the shifts using pagination.

    Note:
    Your administrator can set user preferences for the pagination size to view work shifts and on-call shifts. For more information see, Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to Workspaces > Manager Workspace.
    2. Click the Schedule icon (Schedule icon).
    3. Click the Shifts tab.
      • Search shift plans: Type keywords in the Work shift or On-call shift search field to access related shift plans easily.
      • Filter shift plans: Use the filter icon (Filter schedule) to view shifts based on whether the shift is in draft or published state.
        • To filter work shifts, in the Work shift tab, click the filter icon (Filter schedule) and select the desired state of shifts you want to view using the State field. Use the Days of week filter to narrow down the display of shifts based on the desired days in a week.
        • To filter on-call shifts, in the On-call shift tab, click the filter icon (Filter schedule) and select the desired state of shifts you want to view.
    4. Click the plus (+) icon.
    5. Create a shift.
      ToDo this
      Create a work shift
      1. Create a work shift.
        1. Click Work shift.
        2. In the Name field, enter a name for the shift.
        3. Select the time window for the shift.
          1. In the Time Zone field, select the time zone of the users that you want to allocate to the shift.
            Note:
            To add a shift for agents working in their local time zones, select the Use agent time zone option. The system uses the time zone that is specified in the agent's user record.
          2. In the Start Time field, enter the time of day when you want to start the shift.
          3. In the End Time field, enter the time of day when you want to end the shift.
        4. Select the days of the week for which you want to add this shift.
        5. Click Save.
      2. Add schedule breaks to the shift.
        1. Select the shift that you created.
        2. Click Add break.
        3. In the Name field, enter a name for the break.
        4. Set a duration for the break.
          1. In the Duration field, enter the length of time for the break.
          2. In the Earliest Start Time field, enter the earliest time to start the break.
          3. In the Latest End Time field, enter the latest time to end the break.

            For example, you can set the earliest start time as 11:00, the latest end time as 15:00, and the duration of the break as one hour. If you add four agents to that work shift, the Scheduling application automatically staggers the break duration for each agent. Stagger breaks to ensure that your four agents can cover the entire shift span.

          4. Click Save.
        You can view the number of agents for each hour or day on the shift span window.
      Create an on-call shift
      1. Create an on-call shift.
        1. Click On-call shift.
        2. In the Name field, enter a name for the shift.
        3. From the Group field, select a group that you want to assign for the shift.
        4. Select the time window for the shift.
          1. In the Start Time field, enter the time of day when you want to start the shift.
          2. In the End Time field, enter the time of day when you want to end the shift.
          3. From the Time Zone menu, select the time zone of the users that you want to allocate to the shift.
        5. Select the days of the week for which you want to apply the shift.
        6. In the Rotation start date field, click the calendar icon (Calendar icon), select the on-call rotation start date for the shift and click OK.
        7. Click Save.
      2. Create the on-call rotation.
        1. Select the shift that you created.
        2. Click Create Rotation.
        3. From the Agents field, select the names of the agents you would like to be part of the shift. When you click the field, the name of all agents that belong to the group that the on-call shift is being created for is displayed.
        4. From the Rotate interval field, select if you want the rotation to be daily or weekly.
        5. Click Save.
        Note:
        The Escalation Type field is auto-populated with Rotate through rosters field value if multiple rosters have been created for the rotation. If not, it is populated with Rotate through members field value.
      3. Click Publish to make the shift active and publish it on the schedule.
      Note:
      • You can select an active on-call shift and click Unpublish to make the shift inactive and remove it from the schedule.
      • You can view all on-call shifts that have been published on the schedule in the agent and team calendar. When you add new agents to the on-call rotation, it might take some time to refresh the data on the team calendar.
      • You can click on an on-call shift in the team calendar to see more details.
      You can view the name of the primary agent for each on-call shift on the shift calendar.