[Product Updates] July 2025

We’re back with another round of updates and fixes for Hero Schedule. Here’s a look at the key improvements and fixes in the last month:

Schedule Shift Bid in Advance

You can now schedule the start of the shift bidding process to begin at a specific time and date.

Qualification-Based Bidding

For greater control over shift assignments, you can now set up shifts to require specific qualifications. Only employees possessing the necessary qualifications will be able to bid on these shifts, ensuring the right staff are in the right roles.

“Weekend Protection” for Shift Bidding

We’ve implemented “weekend protection” for shift bidding, adding another layer of flexibility and fairness to your scheduling process.

Employee Tagging with Multi-Member Groups

You can now “tag” employees with various skills, credentials, and qualifications. This is achieved by creating an employee grouping with the “multi-member” checkbox enabled, allowing an employee to belong to multiple groups within that specific grouping. This provides a way to track and manage employee attributes.

Bulk Operations in Schedule Editor

The main schedule editor is now even better! Certain operations that previously had to be done one shift at a time can now be applied to many shifts at once, dramatically speeding up your workflow.

Granular Pay Period Permissions

We’ve split the pay period permission into “can close pay period” and “can view pay period reports.” This provides more precise control over user access, with corresponding menu options and screen sections hidden based on permissions.

Improved Employee Import Functionality

Employee imports are now more robust! You can update records correlated by email or login name, and we now support an “Inactive Date” column. Grouping support has been improved, and error messages for failed import scenarios are more helpful.

Prominent Blackout/Special Day Warning

The warning for blackout/special days on the time off approval screen is now more prominent, ensuring crucial information isn’t missed.

Other Changes

Improved Accessibility Color Contrast – A minor color change has been made to the main schedule view to improve accessibility color contrast, making it easier to read for all users.

Updated SMS Messages – SMS messages sent when users respond to notifications have been updated for clarity.

Multi-Member Group Selection Fix – Resolved a minor issue when selecting employees using a multi-member group when adding employees to a bid schedule.

Shift Trade Display Fix – Fixed a rare issue where, if a shift was edited to be “not worked” and then traded to become a workday again, some of the original shift would incorrectly show up.

Admin Submenu Color – Corrected the color on the admin submenu on the Hero theme, addressing an issue where it was too light.

Completed Schedule Draft Display – Fixed an issue where employees sometimes wouldn’t display correctly on completed schedule drafts.

Group Display Order and Hierarchy – On screens where you select groups from a drop-down list, if the grouping had parent-child groups, the groups are now displayed in the correct order and reflect their hierarchy.

Multi-Organization Login Errors – Addressed errors that could occur for users with logins for multiple organizations when viewing the “Only Me” schedule or time cards.

Streamlined Shift Bidding Experience – For organizations that primarily use Hero Schedule for shift bidding, we’ve hidden a few inapplicable options, providing a cleaner and more focused user interface.

See our developer’s release notes for all details.

Looking Ahead

We are committed to continuously improving the Hero Schedule platform and always appreciate your feedback. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.