Frontline organizations succeed when the right people are in the right place and the right work gets done—every shift, every day. In Session 4 of Microsoft Frontline Fridays we’ll show how Shifts and the Planner app (Tasks publishing) inside Microsoft Teams replace paper rosters, email chains, and manual check-lists with an integrated, real-time system that drives productivity and cuts operational waste.
REGISTER HERE FOR ALL FUTURE SESSIONS: aka.ms/frontlinefridays
Pick the time that works for you
- July 10, 6:00 – 7:30 PM Pacific (UTC-7) – Optimizing operational efficiency – How to do more with less, at scale
- July 11, 9:00 – 10:30 AM Pacific (UTC-7) – Optimizing operational efficiency – How to do more with less, at scale
Introduction to Frontline Fridays
Frontline Fridays is a live, expert-led webinar series that tackles the most common questions we hear from customers deploying Microsoft‘s frontline solutions. Each 90-minute session focuses on a specific theme, walks through real product demos, and ends with open Q&A so you leave with clear next steps.
What to expect in Session 4
Shifts – turn pen-and-paper schedules into a living roster
- Build and publish in minutes: managers copy last week’s pattern, make quick changes, and push the new roster to everyone from inside Teams—no more Excel version-control headaches.
- Open Shifts save time: post gaps for staff to claim; a new public-preview feature even lets managers publish those openings across multiple locations, tapping the wider labor pool when one site is short-staffed.
- Worker empowerment: frontline workers (FLWs) always know when they work, get instant notifications when a shift changes, set availability, swap or offer shifts, and request time-off—directly from their phone.
- Mobile time-clock with geolocation: employees clock-in/out in the Teams mobile app; if location detection is enabled, each punch captures GPS coordinates for compliance audits.
- Extensible by design: rich Microsoft Graph APIs plus Power Automate connectors let IT integrate Shifts with existing WFM or HR systems—or trigger flows such as sending an approval when someone picks up overtime.
Planner – publish once, track work everywhere
Front-office teams can create a single task list—be it a monthly safety walk, new product launch checklist, or training module—and publish it to hundreds of stores, clinics, or warehouses:
- Central creation, local execution: corporate or regional leaders build the list in Planner and decide which Teams (locations) receive it; managers assign tasks and frontline staff complete them on mobile, desktop, or web.
- New capabilities for frontline scenarios: recent updates add per-employee task lists, automatic recurrence for repeat inspections, mandatory photo / form submission, and built-in approval steps before a task can be marked done.
- Roll-up reporting: publishers see real-time dashboards that show completion status by location, list, or individual task—so you can intervene before missed tasks hurt KPIs.
Why together is better
Because Shifts and Planner live side-by-side in Teams, a manager can adjust tomorrow’s roster and immediately confirm that today’s tasks are finished, while a worker can check next week’s shifts and tick off the closing checklist—all without switching apps. Power Automate closes the loop, enabling scenarios like “when an open shift is approved, create a cleaning task” or “send a reminder if a site hasn’t completed its weekly audit.” One platform, fewer silos, measurable results.
Ready to re-engineer your frontline operations?
Join us to see live demos, hear customer stories, and get your questions answered by product specialists. Whether you manage a single warehouse or thousands of retail sites, you’ll leave with practical steps to reduce manual coordination, boost compliance, and free up time for customer-facing work.
REGISTER HERE: aka.ms/frontlinefridays
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