# Shift scheduling

## Made posted schedules extendable and cut scheduling clicks by 81%

At Spotwork, I led the rebuild of the staffing platform, doubling daily shift postings in eight months.

[Video: A video depicting the new shift posting experience.](https://pub-3f00bf1204d54dbe88e07be7288fe49c.r2.dev/media/b43a6d5b-b8b0-4563-a997-2485086fd046-new-shift-redesign.mp4)

[Video: A video depicting the new schedule editing experience. Adding and removing shifts could now be done in a matter of seconds.](https://pub-3f00bf1204d54dbe88e07be7288fe49c.r2.dev/media/cb6e2c38-8fc4-49e1-bacf-19f48856785b-schedule-extension.mp4)

## Business fit

### Repeat shifts were a critical lever of our business

Companies posting shifts regularly signalled high trust and retention, and saw higher worker attendance.

- **Schedules couldn't be extended**: The companies posting most often could only extend or change a posted schedule by cancelling it first.
- **Duplicate work**: Each extension had staffing managers redraft the shift and send workers a fresh round of offers, repeating work the first posting had already done.
- **Backlog as projected cash flow**: Our backlog of scheduled shifts reflected projected cash flow and the health of our business. So companies needed the easiest path to post and extend shifts.

## UX gap

### The calendar allowed many dates but needed a click for each one

- **Clicks grew in lockstep with shift dates**: Clicks grew with every date a staffing manager chose: 100 consecutive days took 103.
- **Echoed in support requests**: Support requests and back-channel feedback described picking dates one at a time as slow and tedious, especially for longer schedules.

_Interactive demo on the page_

## North Star

### Let staffing managers schedule and extend shifts 10x faster and easier than they can today.

## Give shift details and schedule planning their own steps

The shift form packed shift, job role and scheduling data into one view, pushing **40% of its fields past the average fold**.

The first release **split shift details and schedule planning into steps**. Start and end times, the only position fields staffing managers changed, moved into the planning step.

## Turn read-only position fields into a card with a map

The remaining position data was read-only, yet disabled input fields gave it the same weight as the fields staffing managers filled in. So the form **looked denser than it was**.

One card grouped that data with a map of the site, letting staffing managers **take in the position at a glance**.

## Let staffing managers extend and modify a schedule after it's posted

A shift's dates were fixed once it was posted. To add more, staffing managers drafted the shift again and **sent a fresh round of offers**.

Staffing managers now **extend or change a posted schedule in place**: Edit Schedule opens it in the same drag-to-select calendar, where a drag adds dates and a click cancels one. SpotFill can then send offers for the new dates.

## Concept testing

### I prototyped two concepts to make scheduling more efficient

#### Concept 1: Recurrence

Recurrence came from calendar and meeting apps I studied: staffing managers pick weekdays and an end date, and **extend a schedule to any length by changing that date**.

#### Concept 2: Drag to select

Drag to select kept the scheduling calendar staffing managers already used, where a click toggles one date, and added a drag that **toggles many dates in one gesture**.

_Interactive demo on the page_

#### I evaluated both concepts against 10 scheduling prompts the operations team and I defined upfront

| Scheduling prompt | Old calendar | Recurrence | Drag to select |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 100 consecutive days from 7 October 2025 | 103 | 12 | **11** |
| All Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from January to March 2025 | 41 | **7** | 18 |
| All days in Q2 2025, excluding Good Friday | 92 | Not possible | **3** |
| Every weekday in November 2025 | 20 | 7 | **2** |
| Every Tuesday and Thursday in November 2025 | 8 | **4** | **4** |
| Thursday to Sunday every week in November 2025 | 18 | 6 | **4** |
| Every Friday and Saturday in November and December 2025 | 18 | 5 | **4** |
| Every weekend in November and December 2025 | 19 | **5** | 6 |
| Weekdays every other week in November and December 2025 | 24 | Not possible | **10** |
| The first week of November and December 2025 | 15 | Not possible | **5** |

A drag counts as two clicks, and every change of month as one.

- Recurrence: Rejected
- Drag to select: Approved

## 81% fewer clicks to pick shift dates

Dragging across the calendar to select dates in bulk **cut the clicks to pick shift dates by 81%** compared with picking them one at a time.

## Takeaway

### Speed has to leave room for exceptions

Recurrence was efficient but rigid. Drag to select brought that efficiency to the calendar staffing managers already used, and kept supervisors in complete control over exclusions such as business holidays.

A pattern borrowed from other tools pays off only when it bends to the schedules people keep.