Working under pressure with fast-changing needs is often what staffing companies are asked to do. When a customer suddenly needs an additional supply of workers to help overcome a short term hurdle, staffing agencies are best placed to recruit and supply qualified workers at short notice. However, managing this situation can be challenging for both agency and client.

Removing unnecessary back-and-forth communication loops is key. To help customers define their own requirements for workers, JoinedUp allows clients to add, remove and edit their own bookings directly using the Post Shifts functionality. No information is lost or delayed by sharing spreadsheets via email, and very specific details for each shift are included for the agency to work with, removing any ambiguity.

In addition to this, JoinedUp can assign an 'order type' to each shift, based on the lead time before the shift starts. Order types can be customised to the agency's needs. The settings apply across the whole agency. The defaults are as follows:

Once a shift has an order type set, it is maintained in the system throughout the shift's lifecycle. Order types can be reported on vs shift fill rates to demonstrate the impact that knowing requirements just a few days further in advance has on successfully meeting client needs.
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The JoinedUp Customer Success team will create the order types you need for your agency. Set up usually takes less than 5 business days.
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When defining your order types, please provide the following information:

The number of order types required is up to you. Base them on how your business works, and how soon you need your customers to be telling you about their needs. Some of our agency customers offer clients incentives for posting their shifts sooner rather than later, because these shifts are usually easier to fill, as the agency can maintain a more consistent workforce.

The use of order types is controlled by shift template. Check the box next to "Enable order types" in Shift templates > Advanced settings.

Set order type automatically when shifts are posted by clients
​Use this setting when clients are posting shifts. The order type is assigned in the background based on the lead time before the shift starts. The client user doesn't see which order type is assigned; the order type is shown to the agency when allocating shifts from the on site shift allocation screen.
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​Set order type automatically on all shifts
Alternatively, order types can be set automatically on all shifts, whether posted by the client or created by the agency. This means when an agent user creates a shift – as well as when a client posts a shift – the order type is assigned. In situations where an agency's clients are not yet posting shifts, this setting is an opportunity to experiment with using order types.

Order types display when allocating shifts on the on site shift allocation page.

When allocating a shift to a particular worker on a particular day, in the Allocate menu, the unallocated shifts will display showing their order types. 

The original order type is retained if the allocated worker is replaced with another worker. 

The on site shift allocation page stores an overview of order types and worker availability on a daily basis. To view this, click the number of workers on a given day to see the 'Real time status' overlay.

This overlay can quickly show you where you have unallocated shifts (by order type) and if you need more available workers to fill them.
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To report on progress of filling your shifts by order type, and correlating that to the workers you have available, use the Planning Report.

Choose the date range and which site and shift template you want to report against.

The report output gives you a point in time reference to shifts throughout that period per day, including their order types. Use this to discuss fill rates and ongoing worker availability with your clients.