Managing your team’s availability is essential for ensuring smooth operations and preventing burnout. With Waitwhile, you can create both regularly scheduled breaks and impromptu breaks to allow staff to recharge and maintain productivity. This guide will walk you through setting up these breaks for your team members.
Scheduled Breaks: Plan Recurring Staff Availability
Scheduled breaks are ideal for routine staff downtime, such as lunch or shift transitions. With Waitwhile, you can create recurring time blocks that block out availability on the schedule.
Steps to Create Scheduled Breaks:
Log in to your Waitwhile dashboard.
Navigate to Settings > Location > Resources
Select the staff member whose break you want to schedule.
Under Availability, click Edit Hours.
Click the three-dot menu next to the weekday you wish to edit, select Add time period
Update the start time and end time for the break (e.g., 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM for lunch).
Do this for each scheduled day you wish to create a break
Click Save to apply the schedule.
Pro Tip: You can add multiple availability blocks per day if your staff has several short breaks.
Use Case Example:
A receptionist takes a 15-minute break at 10:30 AM every day and a 30-minute lunch break at 1:00 PM. You can set both breaks as recurring availability blocks in the schedule.
Impromptu Breaks: Manage On-the-Fly Downtime
Sometimes, unexpected situations arise that require a staff member to step away for a short period. Impromptu breaks allow you to temporarily adjust their availability.
Steps to Create Impromptu Breaks:
Log in to Waitwhile and open the Visits Page view.
Click on the Resources avatars on the top right of the screen.
Edit the status of the Resource you wish to mark as away.
Select how long they should be marked as way
Save the changes, and the system will automatically block that time on the schedule.
Pro Tip: Use impromptu breaks if a staff member needs to attend to urgent personal matters or if there’s a low visitor load that allows for short rest periods.
Impact of Breaks on Customers
Customers Won’t See Unavailable Resources: Any break time—whether scheduled or impromptu—will automatically adjust wait times for your customers and remove unavailable resources from their view.
Reassigning Queues: If a staff member is on break and there’s an active queue, Waitwhile will automatically adjust to other available staff or resources, minimizing disruptions.
Don't forget to regularly review your staff’s availability and make adjustments to scheduled breaks based on customer flow or operational needs. Encourage staff to inform managers when impromptu breaks are needed to keep things running smoothly.
Have additional questions or need assistance? Reach out to us via chat or at support@waitwhile.com.