Assign Employees to Departments and Roles

Assigning each Employee to their correct department and role connects your team to the schedule. In 7shifts, these are called Assignments. An employee without both a department and a role assignment won't appear in the schedule builder and won't be included in labor cost reports.

Even if you completed parts of this during POS setup or the employee import, review the full list before building your first schedule. Roles change and promotions happen - catching gaps now is faster than fixing a broken schedule later.

After completing this article, every team member will be assigned to the correct location, department, and role and will appear in the schedule builder.

Where you are: Phase 2 - The First Schedule

1. Assign employees to departments and roles (you are here!)
2. Send shift invites and confirm employee app activation
3. Build and publish your first schedule

Things to know

• Managers and Assistant Managers must be assigned to a department before they can build schedules, approve requests, or receive notifications for that department.
• The team can only view schedules, notifications, and reports for the locations and departments they are assigned to. Assignment accuracy affects what each user can see, not just whether they appear on the schedule.
• Every profile needs at least one location, one department, and one role before they can be scheduled. Profiles without assignments will appear as "No Role" on the schedule and will skew labor reporting figures.
• Employees can be assigned to multiple departments and multiple roles. Assign all applicable areas now to give Managers full scheduling flexibility.

Before you begin

• Complete your account structure to unlock scheduling, departments and roles need to exist before they can be assigned to Employees.

Assign locations, departments, and roles to each team member

1. In the left navigation bar, go to Team.
2. Click on the first Employee's name to open their profile.
3. Select the Assignments tab.
4. Under the Locations column, check the box next to each location this employee works at.
   Caution: Reassigning an employee to a new location does not automatically delete their existing shifts at the original location. If you're transferring an employee permanently, delete their original location shifts manually after updating their assignments.
5. Under the Departments column, check the box next to each department this employee is assigned to.
6. Under the Roles column, check the box next to each role this Employee holds.

7. If the Employee holds multiple roles, set their Primary Role using the Primary Role dropdown in the Roles section:
   

   Note: The Primary Role controls how the employee appears in the schedule builder. Their name displays under the primary role by default, with shift-level role changes visible via color coding on the shift badge.
   

8. Click Save.
9. Repeat steps 2-8 for each Employee in your team.

Troubleshooting

A Manager can't see a department's schedule
The Manager is not assigned to the department. Open the Manager's profile on the Team page, scroll to Assignments, and add the missing department.What's next

What's Next

Every Employee is assigned to their location, department, and role. Your team is ready to receive shift invites.

Your next step is to send shift invites and confirm employee app activation. Employees need to accept their invitation and activate their 7shifts account before they can view their schedule or receive shift notifications.

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