Teams Shifts

Shifts in Microsoft Teams is a schedule management tool that helps you create, update, and manage schedules and shifts for your team.

In this guide:

Add Shifts on Teams
Create a schedule (with video guide)
Create a group and add members
Add open shifts and prepare for assignments
Duplicate weekly schedules
Requests (Time off, Swap, Offers)
- Approve requests (shift assignment, time off, swap)
Shifts Microsoft video guides

Add Shifts on Teams

Add the Shifts app on Teams by clicking on the more options … icon on the left nav of the Teams app and select Shifts.
Right click on the Shifts icon to pin it to the Teams left nav for easy access.

On the Teams app, click on More at the bottom of the app screen and select Reorder to move the Shifts app into your visible nav and then Save to pin it there
Click on the pinned Shifts app to view upcoming shifts and all options

Create a Schedule

Each Teams team has one Schedule in the Shifts app but multiple groups can be created within that schedule to set up separate shift assignment sets. A schedule can be created for any team by the owner of that Teams site. Please note, schedules can’t be deleted once created, but groups can be deleted/edited within the schedule as needed.

Go to the top left of the app and click the team name.
Select New schedule and choose the team you want to create a schedule for.
Make sure the time zone is correct for the shifts you’ll be scheduling, and then click Create.
Check Settings on the new schedule to make sure it has all desired options

View the Microsoft Schedule creation video guide below

Create a group and add members

Select the relevant schedule by clicking on the three horizontal bar menu icon on the top left in Shifts
Click on Add group on the top right corner of the selected schedule

Add members to the new group by clicking on Add people below the date line and find people within the Teams site who should be in that group

Add open shifts and prepare for assignments

Click on any open slot in the Open shifts row for each date and add settings for the shift that needs to be set up (only Team owners can create new open shifts)

If the week uses the same set of time slots for each day, right click on an existing slot, select Copy, click within open date slot and right click Paste

shift - open shifts

Once all slots have been created on the Open shifts section or you’re finished with a schedule, click on Share with team on top right corner so that slots are available for assignment

Owners can assign members to open shifts. If members assign shifts to themselves, owners will need to make sure they approve those assignments on the Requests tab

Note: If you don’t see any assigned shifts in your phone app, you might need to clear shifts data. In teams, go to settings and chose shifts. There should be a ‘clear shifts data’ option near the bottom. Click it and that should resolve the issue.

Duplicate weekly schedules

A weekly shift set can be duplicated by clicking on Copy schedule (default choice is 1 time which copies it over to the next week, but can be extended up to 3 weeks)

Requests (shift assignment, time off, swap)

All requests are under the Requests tab, here you can request Time off (only for your Shifts group, separate from official Workday PTO requests), set up a Swap for a shift, or Offer your shift to a colleague

Approve requests

Teams site owners will need to go to the Request tab to approve time off requests and open shift self-assignment requests, swaps and offers will show up for the relevant team members when initiated and should not require owner approval