In this article, we’ll review how you can schedule your event workers using Nowsta. We’ll start with event creation, then move on to requesting individual workers, publishing shifts on a first-come, first-serve basis. We’ll also review the multi-event view as well as discuss how you can update events using Nowsta. 

Nowsta has been designed to make it easy for you to identify which events you need to pay attention to and which you can safely ignore. 

If you see an event in green, that means the event is fully staffed. If you see an event in yellow, that means there are still some shifts that have not been filled. If you see an event in red, that indicates you’ve asked a worker to work in that event, and the worker has declined, so you’ll need to click on that event to replace the worker.

On each event card, you can also see specifically what’s happening with each shift. The dots or circles under the event represent individual shifts.

In terms of creating an event, there are a few different ways you can do this. 

First, you can select New Event button from the upper right corner of the calendar page. You can fill in the event details here, things like the name of an event, client, venue and shifts. 

You can also create an event by importing the event from Caterease or Total Party Planner.

Another option is to click into an existing event, then select the Duplicate Event button. This will copy all of the event details to the new event, and you can choose to have that event on a different day.

Nowsta is designed so that you can make changes easily as your events change.

You may notice the event date and time are separate from the shift times and it is ok for those to differ since you may ask your workers to come in a little earlier or leave later than event guests. 

You will also see a number of optional inputs along the left hand side and top of the event page such as event name, venue, and client. You can edit these at any time.

Worker Instructions are general notes that all workers regardless of position will see on their app. Admin Notes are internal notes visible just for your admin team, not workers

You can also optionally attach files to the event. The files will be visible to all staff working the event. So, it’s a good place to attach a menu or timeline or BEO to share with your staff.

To request individual workers, select the empty shift button under the shift. A list will populate and display all of your staff who are qualified to work in this position.

For each worker, you can see different information such as the worker’s profile picture, their availability, their star ratings, availability status, as well as how many hours they’ve already been scheduled to work this week, which is extremely useful if you’re looking to manage overtime.

If you’d like to request that someone work, you can just hit the request button and that will send the worker a request. If you have all your shifts assigned you can press request at the top of the event page to request everyone at once.

Once a worker confirms, you’ll see the shift turn from yellow to green almost instantly on the coordinator side. That’s helpful in keeping you up to date in real time.

Another option when staffing is to take advantage of our publishing feature. Publishing allows you to make shifts available on a first-come, first-serve basis. So, you can invite more workers than there are shifts, and the first staff to respond are the ones to get the shift.

It’s really useful if you have a large event with a lot of shifts, or if you have a last minute shift that opens up and you need to fill it quickly. To use publishing, simply select the publish button under any shift. Again, you’ll see a list of your qualified staff. 

You can select everyone, or filter by a tag first and then select everyone with that tag, or just select individual staff members. Don’t worry if you a staff member selected who is assigned to a conflicting shift - Nowsta will automatically prevent that person from seeing any shifts that conflict with the shift they’re already working. To publish the shift, go ahead and select the publish shift toggle. You can optionally choose to enable notifications. 

The multi-event view is designed to help you out on days where you have multiple events going on at the same time. It’s really useful when you have several events you’re working on and you want to move workers between events. 

You can pull up multiple events side-by-side and drag workers between the events as needed. If a worker is confirmed for one event and you move them to another, the worker will get a notification on their application notifying them of the change.