This article was last updated March 13, 2024.
Once you have employees, positions, and locations added to your account, you're ready to schedule. However, there are some settings you may want to adjust before adding shifts so things will appear and function the way you want them to.
This is where you will define restrictions for employees and choose whether or not messages, newsfeed, and tasks are activated for the account. These settings affect all other users on the account and can only be adjusted by someone in the admin role.
Let's take a look at each section and all the options.
Restrictions
The Visibility of coworkers across locations setting lets you choose whether employees from different locations are able to see employees assigned to another location. If this option is disabled, it also affects your visibility of schedules for employees setting (under the schedule settings tab), so you won't see the option to allow them to view the schedule for other locations, either.
Contact details allows you to choose whether employees have access to their coworkers' phone numbers, email addresses, and birthdays. When disabled, they can still view a list of employees added to the account along with assigned locations and positions. Managers and admins will still have access to all details.
Messages
New - private messaging is now included with the free version of Sling
Group messaging is included with Premium and Business only
Enable group and private messaging for your organization gives you the ability to completely disable messaging within your Sling account. When disabled, the Messages tab is not visible to any user (including admins and managers).
If enabled, the option to allow or restrict employees' access appears.
If the Allow employees to start conversations option is enabled, you can choose whether employees are able to create both group and private conversations or just private ones.
There are additional restriction options available for group messages as you're creating a new one or editing an existing one.
Newsfeed
settings options included with Premium and Business only
Just like Messages and Tasks, the Enable content sharing across your organization feature lets you choose whether the Newsfeed is accessible. When disabled, the Newsfeed tab is not visible to any user.
When enabled, an option to allow or restrict employees' ability to create Pages will appear.
There are additional options for Newsfeed pages and permissions available when you create a Page.
Tasks
setting option included with Premium and Business only
This simply lets you choose whether the feature is accessible or not. When disabled, the Tasks tab will not appear for any user.
This is where you will designate how the schedule is laid out for the account and how employees will see it.
The First day of the week setting lets you choose which day starts your work week and changes the layout of the schedule, unavailability, reports, and more.
Hours of operation defaults to 12 am-12 am, but you can adjust this to change the layout of the day view, unavailability, and even the times that appear in the create shift window on the schedule.
Once you set the hours of operation, you can also choose whether shifts crossing between two days will have hours split according to the date on which the hours occur, or whether they are all attributed to the date on which the shift started.
Visibility of schedules for employees lets you choose how much or how little of the schedule your employees can see. When disabled, employees will only see their own schedules while managers and admins can still see the full schedule.
When enabled, you will be presented with additional options for how much data they can see. Additionally, you will be able to choose if you would like them to see their coworkers on specific shifts with the Visibility of coworkers for employees setting. Remember, if the visibility across locations setting is disabled under the company settings, you will not see options to allow employees to view other locations, here.
Visibility of time off and unavailability (Premium and Business only) allows managers to keep this information hidden from employees' view. If enabled, employees can see approved time off and unavailability for others under the Full schedule.
Visibility of schedules for managers (Premium and Business only) allows you to hide other locations' schedules from managers who should not be concerned. When disabled, they will only be able to view schedules for the location(s) assigned within their profile. When enabled, they can view other locations, but cannot make any changes.
The Breaks setting allows you to choose whether or not the option to add a break to your shifts appears as you're scheduling.
If disabled, you will not be able to add a break to a shift at all. Employees also will not see the option to start a break when using our internal time clock.
If breaks are enabled, you will be able to select from either Standard or Automated break options.
Standard Breaks: If you select standard breaks, you will need to indicate the duration of the break and whether the break will be paid or unpaid.
Automated Breaks: If you select automated for your break type, more break options will appear. You will have the option to add a meal break and a rest break. You will need to indicate whether each type of break you enable is paid or unpaid. Then you can set the automation rules and whether or not you will allow employees to return early from their breaks. If automated breaks are enabled, you also have the option to enable Attestation. This setting allows employees to attest whether or not they took their required breaks. The Attestation setting also gives you the option to allow employees to waive their required breaks. If an employee doesn’t take a required break, they will be asked to confirm whether or not they took their break when they clock out of their shift.
Click here for more details about breaks.
Please note that automated breaks are not automatically deducted from the shift's duration; they simply provide additional options to indicate rest and meal breaks instead of a single break type. Employees will always need to indicate that they are starting and ending their break in order for it to be counted. If an employee forgets to indicate when they start and end a break, the timesheet for their shift can be edited to add those details.
Paid or unpaid breaks: this lets you choose whether the breaks are paid or not. This is an all-or-nothing setting for standard breaks, so if set as paid, any break duration added to a shift will be counted as paid. However, employees can clock out for additional break time beyond the duration added to a shift, which will be counted as unpaid. For example, if a shift has a 30-minute break added and the employee takes 40 minutes, 30 minutes are counted as paid while the remaining 10 are unpaid.
Default break length lets you set the duration that will automatically populate for each shift for standard breaks. It is still possible to change the duration of a break so it's shorter or longer as you're creating shifts. Just remember that any break time scheduled for a shift while the breaks are set as paid will be counted as paid, regardless of the default length.
You will also notice that the list of break lengths is limited, but you have the option to type any duration into the field.
Shift acceptance
When enabled, this will send a notification to employees when shifts are published that asks them to confirm their schedules. They can accept to confirm or deny to point out any scheduling issues. Denied shifts are not automatically removed from the employees' schedules.
Shift exchanges and available shifts
Allow employees to give away their shifts lets you choose whether or not employees can make a shift available or offer a shift. When disabled, employees won't be able to access either option, but admins and managers are still able to make these changes on behalf of an employee.
Allow employees to swap shifts (Premium and Business accounts only) lets you control access to shift trades. If disabled, swaps will be unavailable to all users, including admins and managers.
Restrict offers and swaps by location and position
When enabled, employees can only offer or swap a shift if the other employee is also assigned to the location and position of the shift. When disabled, employees can offer or swap shifts across locations and positions. Note that this will automatically be enabled and cannot be changed when the Visibility of coworkers across locations option is restricted.
Automatically approve applicants lets you choose whether employees can pick up and exchange shifts freely or whether you want to have managers approve any exchanges. When disabled, a manager's approval is required.
Unavailability
The Unavailability setting lets you enable or disable the feature for your employees. When disabled, employees cannot access the settings at all, but managers and admins are able to adjust an employees information on their behalf.
Premium and Business accounts can also choose whether or not changes to unavailability require approval. Changes made by an employee would then go to management for review before appearing on the schedule.
Labor compliance
The clopening setting lets you designate whether a minimum number of hours is required between one shift and the next.
When enabled, you will receive a warning if you attempt to schedule an employee with a shorter rest time between shifts than the number specified here.
