Shift trades overview - Genesys Cloud Resource Center
Shift trades overview
AI-generated summary
Genesys Cloud enables agents to trade complete shifts with other agents within a six-week window that includes the current week, subject to configured business unit settings. The shift trade feature supports future shifts only and requires specific licensing (Genesys Cloud CX 3, CX 4, CX 2 WEM Add-on I, CX 1 WEM Add-on II, or EX) along with role-based permissions for administrators, agents, and supervisors to manage and participate in trades.
Agents can initiate trades with other agents or select alternate shifts displayed in the Shift Trade Panel. Administrators can configure automatic approval for trade requests or route them for manual review, and can establish minimum time requirements between trade approval and shift start, such as preventing trades within 24 hours of shift commencement. Matching criteria can be configured to restrict trades based on queue membership, assigned language, assigned skills, and ability to handle the same planning groups, with administrators able to require any combination of these criteria or none.
The system implements comprehensive shift trade rules that enforce validation constraints to prevent invalid shift exchanges. These rules can be set to allow, deny, or send for administrator review, including trades with unequal paid hours, one-sided trades, and trades resulting in minimum or maximum weekly paid time violations. When automatic review is enabled and a constraint is set to allow, the system approves trades automatically; otherwise, requests proceed to administrator review.
Violation messages display when shift trade rules prevent a trade from occurring, with specific messages addressing capability mismatches, self-trades, scheduling conflicts, paid time violations, time-between-shifts compliance, external activity management, and schedule publication requirements. The system evaluates constraints for both initiating and receiving agents and flags scenarios where rules cannot be fully evaluated due to incomplete data.
Activity category trade rules provide configurable controls that determine whether agents can trade shifts containing specific activity types, whether activities should be replaced during trades, or remain unchanged. External activity trade rules govern the handling of external activities—such as those generated by Activity Plans, Coaching, or Learning features—when agents exchange shifts with one another. These rules define the system's behavior during activity trades between agents, enabling organizations to customize shift trading policies based on operational requirements.
The following licenses for alternative shifts:
Genesys Cloud CX 3, Genesys Cloud CX 4, Genesys Cloud CX 2 WEM Add-on I, Genesys Cloud CX 1 WEM Add-on II, or Genesys Cloud EX license
The following permissions for administrators to manage shift trades:
Workforce Management > Shift Trade Request – View
Workforce Management > Shift Trade Request – Edit
The following permission for agents to participate in shift trades:
The following permissions for supervisors to manage alternative shifts:
Workforce Management > Alternative Shift – View permission
Workforce Management > Alternative Shift – Edit permission
The following permissions for agents to submit alternative shifts requests:
Workforce Management > Agent Alternative Shift – Submit permission
Shift trades enable agents to trade complete shifts with other agents. You can create a shift trade in the six week window that includes the current week. For example, if the work week starts on Monday (configured in the Business Unit settings) and today is Wednesday, June 10, 2024, then shift trading is allowed in the weeks of:
June 10, 2024
June 17, 2024
June 24, 2024
July 1, 2024
July 8, 2024
July 15, 2024
Note: You can trade only future shifts, which are subject to additional shift trading settings in the Management Unit.
Shift trading enables agents to trade their scheduled shift with another shift by initiating a trade with another agent or selecting an alternate shift that is displayed in the Shift Trade Panel. You can choose whether to allow automatic approval for trade requests or queue them for administrator review. You can also set a minimum time between shift trade approval and shift start. For example, if the minimum is 24 hours, then agents cannot request a trade with a shift 10 hours from now. However, they can request a trade between shifts at least 24 hours from now.
Matching criteria requirements
You can configure agent matching criteria for trade requests. If the trade meets a constraint, then choose how to process the request. Matching requirements include:
Queue membership
Assigned language
Assigned skills
Ability to handle the same planning groups
You can choose any combination of requirements, or none. For example, you can specify that trades only occur between agents with the same language, set of skills, queue membership, and the ability to handle the same planning groups.
Shift trade rules
Shift trade rules include the following constraints, which you can set to allow, deny, or send for administrator review:
Shift trades with unequal paid hours
Shift trades that are one-sided
Shift trades that result in minimum weekly paid time violations
Shift trades that result in maximum weekly paid time violations
For shift trade rules, if you enable automatic review and set a constraint to allow, then the system can approve the trade. If you disable automatic review, then the system sends the request to an administrator for review. Violation messages are displayed when any shift trade rules prevent a trade. Click the collapsible section below for the list of violation messages.
The following violation messages are displayed when any of the shift trade rules prevent a trade:
Agent capability mismatch
Cannot trade with yourself
Direct trade for other user
Initiating shift activity category is disallowed
Initiating shift changed
Initiating shift doesn’t exist
Initiating agent has a shift conflict
Initiating shift has external activities
Initiating agent’s time between shifts ({time}) is less than the minimum time between shifts ({min})
Initiating agent’s paid time ({time}) for the planning period beginning {startDate} is greater than the maximum paid time ({max})
Initiating agent’s paid time ({time}) for the planning period beginning {startDate} is less than the minimum paid time ({min})
Initiating agent schedule does not exist
Invalid state
External activity in initiating shift overlaps with a non-interruptible activity in the receiving shift
External activity in initiating shift is outside of the receiving shift’s bounds
External activity in receiving shift overlaps with a non-interruptible activity in the initiating shift
External activity in receiving shift is outside of the initiating shift’s bounds
Minimum time between shifts rule cannot be fully evaluated for initiating agent
Maximum paid time for planning period rule cannot be fully evaluated for initiating agent
Minimum paid time for planning period rule cannot be fully evaluated for initiating agent
Minimum time between shifts rule cannot be fully evaluated for receiving agent
Maximum paid time for planning period rule cannot be fully evaluated for receiving agent
Minimum paid time for planning period rule cannot be fully evaluated for receiving agent
One sided trade
Receiving agent has a shift conflict
Receiving agent’s paid time ({time}) for the planning period beginning {startDate} is less than the minimum paid time ({min})
Receiving agent’s paid time ({time}) for the planning period beginning {startDate} is greater than the maximum paid time ({max})
Receiving agent’s time between shifts ({time}) is less than the minimum time between shifts ({min})
Receiving agent schedule does not exist
Receiving shift for one sided trade
Receiving shift activity category is disallowed
Receiving shift changed
Receiving shift has external activities
Receiving shift is no longer what initiating agent wanted
Receiving shift missing for two sided trade
Schedule is not published
Service Goals not met
Shift not found for {{agent}}
Shift start is sooner than allowed
Shift trading is not enabled
Unequal paid time
Week schedule is different
Week schedule does not exist
{{agent}}’s shift contains external activities
{{agent}}’s shift contains an external activity that is outside the bounds of {{receivingAgent}}’s shift
{agent} weekly paid {paid} (min {min}) for week of {weekDate}
{agent} weekly paid {paid} (max {max}) for week of {weekDate}
Activity category trade rules
Activity category rules determine what to do with each activity type when an agent trades a shift with another agent. Determine whether to allow agents to trade shifts with certain activities, replace activities in the traded shifts with other activities, or leave the activities unchanged.
External activity trade rules
External activity trade rules determine what to do with each external activity type such as, activities placed by Activity Plans, Coaching or Learning features, when an agent trades the activity with another agent.