Question 1

How does the shift bidding optimizer work?

Accepted Answer

Enter your open shifts with day, start time, duration, and coverage needed. Then add employee bids — each employee specifies which shifts they want, their seniority, hourly rate, and current hours. The optimizer assigns shifts using a weighted scoring algorithm that balances seniority, fairness (hours equity), cost, and coverage requirements.

Question 2

What fairness rules does the optimizer enforce?

Accepted Answer

The optimizer tracks each employee's cumulative hours and prioritizes employees with fewer hours when scores are close. It also checks for consecutive day limits, minimum rest periods, and maximum weekly hours to ensure compliance.

Question 3

How is seniority weighted in the bidding process?

Accepted Answer

You can set the seniority weight (0-100%). At 50%, seniority and fairness contribute equally to the bid score. At 100%, the most senior employee always wins ties. At 0%, only hours equity and cost matter.

Question 4

Can I export the bidding results?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The optimized shift assignments, fairness breakdown, and cost summary can be downloaded as a CSV file. You can also print the results directly from your browser.

Question 5

What happens if not enough employees bid on a shift?

Accepted Answer

The optimizer flags any shifts with insufficient bids as coverage gaps. These are highlighted in red in the results, so you know which shifts still need manual assignment or additional outreach.

Question 6

Is this tool free?

Accepted Answer

Yes, completely free. Enter your email to receive your optimized bid results with detailed analysis. No signup required.

Shift Bidding Optimizer

Bidding Configuration

Open Shifts

Employee Bids

Optimized Shift Assignments

Fairness Analysis

Employee Workload Summary

Recommendations

Get Your Bid Results Emailed

More Free Scheduling Tools

Ready to Automate Your Shift Bidding?