Understanding Shift Bidding Modes

Hero Schedule offers three distinct bidding modes to accommodate the unique needs of different agencies: Standard, Sprint, and Ranked. Each mode is designed to handle shift assignments with fairness and efficiency, but they approach the process in different ways. This guide will help you understand the differences between them so you can choose the best option for your agency.

Related Resources

• Creating a Shift Bid: A Step-by-Step Guide

Standard Bidding

In this mode, each employee gets a set amount of time to place their bid before the next person can go. The bidding schedule is fixed from the start and will not change, regardless of how quickly an employee makes their choice. For example, if you set the bidding time to 24 hours per employee and you have 10 employees, the bid will take exactly 10 days to complete.

• Pros: This is a good option for a very rigid, fixed-time process. Since employees bid one at a time in order of seniority, a lower-seniority employee can see what a previous employee has picked before making their own selection. This can be an advantage if employees want to see who they will be working with.
• Cons: This can be a very slow process. The total bid duration is the number of employees multiplied by the time limit per employee.

Sprint Bidding

Similar to Standard, each employee gets a set amount of time to bid, but their timer begins as soon as the previous employee makes their choice. This keeps the process moving along quickly. For example, with a bid set to 24 hours per person and 10 employees, if every employee took two minutes to bid, the entire process could be completed in just 20 minutes.

• Pros: This is a great option for a fast-paced process where you still want employees to bid one at a time in order of seniority. The bid can be completed much faster than the Standard mode.
• Cons: Just like with Standard bidding, employees must wait for their turn to bid.

Ranked Bidding

With Ranked Bidding, every employee can bid immediately and rank their preferred shifts in order of preference. Bidding ends for everyone at a pre-set time. Once the bidding closes, the system automatically assigns shifts based on seniority. Each employee receives their highest-ranked choice that hasn't already been taken by a more senior employee. To ensure all positions are filled, it's often easiest to tell everyone they should rank all available schedules.

• Pros: This method can go very quickly because everyone bids at the same time. It also removes the pressure of a timed, turn-by-turn process.
• Cons: No one knows what everyone else is selecting, which might be a disadvantage if employees want to know who they will be working with on a shift.

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