Plans change and surfers often need to request to change or swap their shifts to fit around their other commitments or appointments, even after the schedule is finalised.

Accommodating these requests can be time-consuming and stressful. Requests can be scattered across emails, texts or Slack threads, making it hard to keep track.

In our report on the state of shift working in the UK, a huge 60.3% of shift workers said that their shifts are ‘not at all flexible’. At Surfboard, we know the power that flexibility to bring to both employees and businesses alike. For too long, surfers have been unfairly limited by scheduling software that’s rigid and not fit for purpose.

That’s why we’re incredibly excited to share yet another surfer-first feature for our teams, shift change requests.

Easily manage requests

Surfers can easily request to change a shift or shift swap to fit around their other commitments or appointments. Easily review requests and then update the schedule in one click!

Centralised communication

No more random WhatsApp or Slack messages, or emails lost in your inbox. Remove the hassle of shift swaps and requests with simple request management.

Make decisions faster

Make decisions faster with all the info you need in one place.

• When a surfer sends a shift swap or change request you can see a note to explain why they need to make a change.

• You can also see a count of how many requests that surfer has made in the last 3 months, making it to easy identify serial requesters, or to identify where someone’s shift pattern isn’t working for them.

• Easily check the impact shift swaps or changes will have on coverage when reviewing in-schedule.

Streamline your processes

When you accept a request, the schedule will automatically be updated and published out to the surfer. Get more time back to use on more valuable things.

Ready to dive in and ride the productivity wave with Surfboard?

This is one of many new exciting surfer-first features we’re releasing to our teams to support more flexible ways of working, including collecting and scheduling around working availability.

Head to our learning section to read more reports on the shift working experience, as well as a range of free eBooks.

Book a demo today