The Complete Guide to Shift Bidding

Shift bidding is one of several methods managers use to allocate shifts - alongside manager-assigned rosters, self-scheduling, and seniority-based systems. While it can offer flexibility, shift bidding often emerges as a workaround when existing scheduling processes aren’t meeting team needs.

In many cases, poorly constructed or rigid rosters drive employees to seek swaps or shift trades - highlighting deeper scheduling issues.

This guide explores how shift bidding works, where it fits in, and how to reduce the need for it - especially if you're aiming for a fairer and more efficient scheduling strategy.

What is shift bidding?

Shift bidding is a workforce management strategy that allows employees to request or "bid" on available shifts based on their preferences, availability, and seniority.

Unlike traditional scheduling methods, where managers assign shifts independently, shift bidding gives employees an opportunity to decide their own work schedules while helping employers fill shifts more efficiently. It is one of many ways to roster staff efficiently and fairly.

This approach creates a marketplace-like environment where employees can bid on a shift preference, and managers can make informed decisions based on employee availability, qualifications, and business needs.

How shift bidding works: A step-by-step process

The shift bidding process typically follows these key stages:

1. Shift publication

Managers publish available shifts with detailed information including the date, time, location, required skills, and any special requirements. This transparency allows employees to make informed bidding decisions.

2. Bidding period

Employees review available shifts and submit bids for their preferred time slots. Most systems allow employees to rank their preferences and indicate their availability for multiple shifts.

3. Manager approval

Manual methods of scheduling require individual manager approval using their knowledge of predetermined criteria such as seniority, qualifications, past performance, and business requirements to make optimal assignments.

Modern tools can help automate the review and approval process with simple compliance and rule checks. This can also help reduce bias during the shift allocation process.

4. Notification and confirmation

Employees should receive confirmation about successful bids and can confirm their acceptance of assigned shifts. This typically requires a manager to email them.

The role of shift bidding in healthcare

Healthcare rosters have to juggle workforce shortages, strict staffing ratios, and unpredictable demand surges.

Shift bidding offers hospitals and clinics a flexible “pressure-valve” that layers on top of their core scheduling process.

What shift bidding offers for healthcare:

• Open-shift marketplaces - ideal for routine gaps due to PTO, sudden call-outs, or flu-season spikes.
• Float pools & per-diem staff - bid lists let credentialed float nurses grab shifts across multiple units, maximising internal resources.
• Speciality or locum coverage - rural hospitals have piloted shift bidding for locum physicians to guarantee coverage in critical specialities.
• Incentivising hard-to-fill shifts - differential pay or points can be baked into the bid so night shifts or weekends become attractive without mandating them.

Tips for implementing shift bidding

1. Establish clear bidding rules

If you are using a manual system, it is important to create transparent guidelines about how bids are evaluated and assignments are made. Consider factors like seniority, performance metrics, attendance history, and skill requirements. Clear rules prevent confusion and ensure fairness.

If using a digital platform, you should ensure your system understands your preferences and rules so that this knowledge is preserved when the system comes to making approval decisions.

2. Set appropriate bidding windows

Balance giving employees enough time to submit thoughtful bids with operational needs for timely scheduling.

Most successful implementations use bidding windows of 3-7 days for regular shifts and shorter periods for urgent coverage needs.

3. Provide adequate training

Invest in comprehensive training for both employees and managers. Employees need to understand how to use the bidding system effectively, while managers must learn how to optimise shift publications and manage the assignment process.

4. Monitor and adjust

Regularly review bidding patterns, assignment outcomes, and employee feedback to identify areas for improvement. Successful shift bidding programs evolve based on organisational learning and changing needs.

Managing seniority vs. performance balance

Organisations often struggle with balancing seniority-based preferences with performance considerations.

Swap pure seniority for a simple weighted points system that combines tenure with performance-related factors such as recent appraisals or key skills. Whether you jot scores on a whiteboard or let rostering software calculate them, the aim is to let more than one criterion influence who wins each shift.

Keep it transparent too - publish the factors, show each employee their tally, and review the weights together each year. Staff see that experience still counts, but good performance and hard-to-fill skills also open doors - making allocation debates fairer and faster.

Should you be using shift bidding?

Creating better quality rosters can reduce the need for shift bidding as it means your roster is already meeting staff preferences. However, if offering shift bidding is unavoidable, it’s wise to use a smart digital system to manage them efficiently.

Keep in mind the potential challenges of shift bidding:

• Uneven coverage if unpopular shifts go unfilled
• Increased admin without the right tools
• Risk of employee frustration or disengagement
• Not ideal for small or highly specialised teams
• Requires clear rules and consistent participation

Remember that not every organisation needs (or even wants) a competitive “marketplace” for shifts. Features like intelligent shift swaps and open shifts tend to be more effective than shift bidding.

If your priority is fast, rules-compliant roster creation rather than open auctions, a purpose-built AI rostering engine such as RosterLab’s digital scheduling solution may be the smarter choice.

The most important factor is building higher-quality rosters.