Open shifts
Post unfilled Rotaleave shifts for staff to claim — eligible people bid, the manager approves, and the shift fills itself.
Updated 13 October 2026
Instead of ringing round to fill a gap, open the shift up and let your team claim it. Open shifts are part of the shift-swap module — an admin switches Shift swaps on under Settings → Organisation → Features (it is off unless it was ticked during setup, and needs the rota).
Manager: open a shift for claims
On the earlier rota page (the one with a + Add shift control under each day), every shift card gains an Open for claims checkbox once shift swaps are on. Tick it and the shift becomes visible to eligible staff, who are also emailed that it is open. A badge on the card counts pending claims as they arrive; untick it to close it again, which declines any claims still waiting.
The newer person-first grid, which managers and admins now get by default, has no such checkbox. Its Open shifts row is for planning shifts nobody is on yet — it does not make them claimable. If your organisation is on the grid, ask us to switch it back to the earlier rota page if you want to offer shifts for claims. See build and publish a rota.
Staff: claim it
Staff see an Open shifts section on their Rota page listing each open shift in the next 28 days, with its date, times and how full it is. One button: Claim. After claiming, the row shows Claim pending — “Claim submitted — your manager will review it.” The mobile app lists them under Open shifts on the Rota tab.
You only see shifts you’re eligible for: not if you are on approved leave that day, already working at that time, or have marked yourself unavailable, and, where the shift needs particular competences that are still unmet, only if you have one of them. If a shift closes or fills before you get there, Rotaleave says so.
Manager: confirm the claim
Claims land on the Approvals page alongside leave requests, as cards labelled “Open-shift claim” with the shift, date and times. Approve and — as the dialog says — “They’ll be assigned to the shift straight away.” Decline takes an optional reason.
If several people claim the same shift, approve the one you want. Once the shift has all the people it needs, the other pending claims are superseded and those people are emailed that it was filled by someone else.