Shiftboard
Cloud-Based Scheduling

It's tedious and quite expensive for staffing agencies, healthcare, production companies, hospitality, and events groups to track work schedules, staff qualifications and availability using spreadsheets—especially for parttime, contract, and seasonal projects. To address this challenge, Shiftboard, a company with headquarters in Seattle, provides a suite of online scheduling and workforce management solutions to tap required resources and deliver real-time communications and reports. Shiftboard lets employers schedule, distribute, or assign positions to staff, who can then view, engage, and receive alerts about their schedules—from any web browser or mobile device. The company offers a robust set of configurable solutions to securely manage personnel data as well as connect to a various external resources for better transactions and analytical capabilities.

Using Shiftboard, various staff types, including volunteers, can participate in a simple yet controlled recruiting, on-boarding, and scheduling process. Beyond automated, intelligent scheduling, workflows can include opting-into available positions, signing up for automated standby lists, updating credentials, skills, and receiving targeted group notifications such as instant 2-way SMS alerts, trade offers, and vital instructions. Furthermore, staff can log activities and communicate urgent or rapidly changing requirements easily. “We found that automated scheduling with skills matching and self-service tools, when available anywhere from any device, greatly empowers flexible staffing and much better communications. It drastically improves the business while rewarding the workforce experience," explains Bryan Lhuillier, CEO, Shiftboard. “People are happier and the business is a lot more efficient,” he adds. In addition to core-scheduling functions, products also include modules for tracking vital financial data for hourly and contract situations including overtime settings, seniority tools, and variable bill rates for client/agency staffing models. To manage labor costs, Shiftboard includes forecasting tools to understand common disparities between scheduled versus actual data. For back office integrations, the service supports transactional APIs and related tools used to connect with leading payroll providers, accounting systems, ERP, HCM, and major HRIS deployments. “Our platform offers a wide variety of tools that lets staff directly engage with their information, manage personal flexibility, roles, and related settings, all in accordance with enterprise or workgroup-specific rules.

Our staffing platform empowers the right people to be in the right place, at the right time. It's for organizations who need scheduling clarity, automation, and engagement tracking for all kinds of work

Ultimately, our tools empower perpetual staff improvements and satisfaction by providing them with the tools they need to stay up to date on opportunities and additional requirements,” explains Lhuillier.

The company's software caters to a range of business types including large events production, hospitality, healthcare, logistics, non-profit, contact, and security services. Leading clients include South by Southwest (SXSW), Centerplate, Sundance and Tribeca International Film Festivals, multiple large convention centers, arenas, and luxury hotel brands throughout the US. The Shiftboard service also provides support to the Major League Baseball Network, Visiting Nurse Services of New York, National Australia Bank, Puget Sound Blood Center, and eight of the top ten US Universities.

For instance, SXSW, the largest film, music, and interactive tech conference of its kind manages a highly complex operation that requires timely work and coordination between thousands of people across hundreds of times and locations, many of whom are first-year seasonal staff and volunteers. To be successful, SXSW requires an outstanding degree of holistic coordination, great communications, state-of- art logistical and personnel systems; the Shiftboard system provides SXSW with many of the tools and services it needs to make both production and operations a major success, year after year.

Moving ahead, Shiftboard expects to continue expanding it's share of mobile application offerings — more compelling, enterprise-ready solutions that meet a rapidly evolving marketplace. “As we continue to empower the largest humanpowered operations worldwide, mobility and the cloud are leading the way to great outcomes,” concludes Lhuillier.