Activating shift trades for agents

In Zendesk Workforce management (WFM), shift trades provide an efficient way for agents to trade their shifts and manage their time.


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Workforce Management (WFM) or Workforce Engagement Management (WEM)






Verified AI summary ◀▼
Activate shift trades to let agents swap shifts, ensuring coverage and saving managers time. Agents can trade shifts for the same or different days, with manager approval required. Once approved, shifts update in schedules, allowing flexible time management. This feature supports efficient workforce management by accommodating agents' scheduling needs while maintaining operational efficiency.


In Zendesk Workforce management (WFM), shift trades provide an efficient way for agents to
trade their shifts and manage their time.
Giving agents the freedom to quickly and efficiently swap shifts ensures adequate coverage
and frees up managers' time.
This article contains the following sections:

Turning on shift trades
Understanding shift trades



Turning on shift trades

Shift trades must be activated in Zendesk WFM before agents can request them.
To turn on shift trades

In Workforce management, hover over the schedule icon ( ) in the navigation bar, then select Shift trades
management.
Click Turn on shift trades.

A manager's approval is required by default. Click Save.





Understanding shift trades

Agents can request shift trades for the same day or for different days.
For a same-day shift trade, agents swap their shifts one-to-one. Both shifts on that day
are exchanged and appear on their schedules as soon as a manager approves the trade. For
example, agent A has a shift on the 25th of the month, and agent B has a shift on the same
day. Agent A wants to trade their shift on the 25th. Agent B agrees to the trade if agent A
works their shift that day. Both agents submit the shift trade, and their manager approves
it. The shifts then become official and appear in the agents' schedules.
For a different-day shift trade, as soon as a manager approves the trade, the original
shifts are removed because the platform doesn’t assume work is planned for those agents
anymore. For example, agent A has a shift on the 25th of the month, and agent B has a shift
on the 31st. Agent A wants to trade their shift on the 25th. Agent B agrees to work the
shift on the 25th if agent A works their shift on the 31st. The agents submit shift trade
requests, and their manager approves them. Now, agent A doesn’t have a shift on the 25th
because Agent B is working that day. Agent B doesn’t have a shift on the 31st because agent
A is working that day.