How to Collect Shift Preferences from Part-Time Staff — Without the Back-and-Forth

😮‍💨 Collecting shift availability from a large team is a nightmare. You send individual messages, then responses come back scattered across group chats, DMs, and verbal confirmations. Half your day is gone just figuring out who hasn't replied yet — and then you still have to manually transfer everything into a spreadsheet before you can even start building the schedule.

There has to be a better way to gather shift preferences and track responses without the back-and-forth chaos.

​

👉 Use Shopl's [Notice & Survey] feature to collect shift availability and manage responses — all in one place.

Send a single survey to your entire team, see who's responded in real time, and go straight to building the schedule. No more chasing down stragglers or copy-pasting answers into EXCEL.

​

1. Who Is This For?

• Store managers who want a faster, cleaner way to collect employee shift preferences
• Managers who keep losing time chasing non-responses before the schedule can go out
• Anyone who wants to cut the time between gathering availability and publishing the final Work schedule

​

2. Collect Shift Availability — Fast and Without the Hassle

▪︎ Survey your whole team on available dates in one go

With Shopl's [Notice & Survey] feature, you can build a survey that lets employees select which days they're available to work — then send it to everyone at once. No individual messages, no hunting through chat threads.

Employees respond directly from the Shopl app on their phone. You get all the answers in one place, without jumping between multiple chat groups.

​

▪︎ Send the survey only to the stores or groups that need it

When a Schedule change only affects certain locations or teams, you can target the survey to just those stores or Groups. The right people get the survey — and you only need to manage responses from the people who actually matter for that schedule.

​

▪︎ Track responses in real time and follow up with one tap

Once the survey is live, you can see exactly who has responded and who hasn't — in real time. Spot anyone who's Skipped it and send them a reminder Notifications with a single tap. No more manually checking a list and messaging people one by one.

​

▪︎ Review results instantly and build the schedule

Survey Results are tallied automatically, giving you a clear view of availability By date. Skip the manual data entry. When the responses are in, you're ready to build the Work schedule immediately — no EXCEL required.

​

💡 Once you have the Survey results, head straight to Shopl's [Schedule] feature to build and publish the Work schedule without switching tools.

​

3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. The survey's End date has passed — can I still collect more responses?

A. Once a survey closes, it no longer accepts new responses by Default.

If you need more input, resend the same survey or adjust the End date to reopen it — whichever fits your situation.

​

Q. If I edit the End date or Questions after sending, will it affect responses already submitted?

A. Changing the End date won't affect any responses that are already in.

However, editing the Questions can create a mismatch between new and existing responses. To avoid confusion, review and finalize your Questions before sending the survey out.

Now you know how to use Shopl's [Notice & Survey] feature to collect shift preferences without the back-and-forth. Once your team has responded, take those results straight into Shopl's [Schedule] feature to build, adjust, and Share the Work schedule — all without leaving the app. From availability surveys to published schedules, Shopl keeps your entire workflow in one place.