Autofill assigns the right employees to your unassigned shifts. It reduces the time spent matching people to shifts by hand, helps make sure shifts are covered, and keeps your roster within your compliance rules.
There are two ways to use it:
Autofill on its own, run directly from Roster Manager against shifts that are already on your roster. This is the quickest option when you just need open shifts filled.
Autofill as part of a forecast, where shifts are generated from forecast demand and then filled in the same run.
What Autofill takes into account
For each unassigned shift, Autofill looks for the best-fit employee while respecting your rules. It considers:
Factor |
What it checks |
|---|---|
Eligibility |
Employees who are allocated to the shift's location and department, hold the role for the shift, and have an award profile set up for that role (with shift types). An employee who is missing any of these isn't considered. |
Availability |
Employees who are unavailable, or who already have an overlapping shift, aren't considered for that shift. If your organisation treats employees as unavailable by default, make sure their availability has been entered. |
Leave |
Employees on leave aren't considered for those dates. |
Contracted hours |
Respects each employee's minimum and maximum contracted hours. |
Breaks and award rules |
Meal breaks are scheduled using the break rules in each employee's award profile. Autofill also works within the compliance rules configured for your organisation, such as minimum rest periods, overtime thresholds, and weekly or pay-period limits. |
Beyond these rules, Autofill also weighs wage cost (favouring suitable lower-cost employees), demand signals, and a fair spread of shifts across your team, including less popular ones. Compliance and availability are firm rules that can't be broken. Cost and fairness are goals that Autofill balances as well as it can.
Skills and qualifications. Autofill doesn't currently match employees on skills, certifications or training. Check that anyone assigned holds the qualifications a shift needs before you publish.
Autofill on its own
Use this when your roster already has unassigned shifts and you want them filled, without creating a forecast.
In Roster Manager, filter the roster to the location and department you want to fill. This pre-fills the dialog for you.
Select the Smart Scheduling button, then Autofill shifts.
In the Autofill unassigned shifts dialog, complete the details below.
Select Autofill.
Field |
Required? |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
Auto-fill name |
Yes |
A name to help you identify the request on the Manage Forecasts page. |
Date range |
Yes |
Pre-filled from the dates showing on your roster. You can change it. |
Location |
Yes |
Pre-filled from your roster filters when a single location is selected. |
Department |
Yes |
Pre-filled from your roster filters when a single department is selected. |
Area |
No |
Pre-filled from your roster filters. Narrow the request to a specific area if needed. |
Because this is a request to fill existing shifts only, there is no Demand Profile, optimisation model or forecast date range to choose, and no shifts are created.
A confirmation message appears ("Autofill processing started"), and the request is added to the Manage Forecasts page, where you can follow its progress. Autofill can take a few minutes depending on how many shifts need filling. When it finishes, the assigned employees appear on the shifts in Roster Manager.
Autofill only works on shifts that already exist. If there are no unassigned shifts in the dates you chose, there is nothing for it to fill. If a shift can't be filled because no employee meets all the rules, it is left unassigned so you can resolve it manually.
Autofill as part of a forecast
When you create a forecast, you can select Autofill shifts under Additional Actions.
With Generate shifts: Smart Scheduling creates the shifts needed to meet demand, then assigns employees to them in the same run. This is the fastest route from forecast to a staffed roster. It’s optimized for filling shifts on the Live Roster but can be used in the Demand Template option as well - if you want to see the templated shifts with suggested assignees.
Without Generate shifts: Smart Scheduling fills the unassigned shifts already on the roster for your chosen dates.
Checking the results
Open the Manage Forecasts page to see the status of the Autofill stage: Pending, Processing, Completed or Failed. If a request fails, select View Logs from the menu on that row for an explanation.
Once it's complete, review the roster before publishing. Autofill assigns employees but you stay in control of the final roster, and you can adjust any assignment as you normally would.
Tips for better results
Keep employee availability, leave and contracted hours up to date. Autofill is only as accurate as the information in Humanforce.
Check that employees are allocated to the right location and department, hold the role, and that the role has an award profile with shift types set up. An employee without these won't be offered shifts.
Run it more than once. You can run Autofill again at any time on a roster that is partly or mostly filled. As the roster date approaches and gaps open up (for example through leave or unplanned absence), run it again to fill them.
Work in manageable ranges. A few weeks at a time works best. Larger ranges take longer to process, and very long ranges (such as several months) may be slow or unsupported.