New Release | Main: Skill Level Assignment by Labor Position | Apr 23rd, 2026

What’s New?

Original Release date: 29th Jan 2026

Update Release date: 23rd Apr 2026

Skill Level Assignment by Labor Position

Skill Level Assignment by Labor Position allows you to schedule employees based on the specific stations or work areas they are trained to perform (such as Grill, Cashier, Fry, or Drive-Thru), instead of relying only on broad job roles. By tying skill levels directly to labor positions, you can ensure schedules are built with appropriately trained staff in each workstation.

Availability

• Enabled by default: No

• Customer setup required: Yes

• Enablement method: Contact Support to request enablement, confirm whether API access to labor position is required 

• Configuration or data impact: Yes

Once enabled, this feature becomes available for configuration in your scheduling and auto scheduler settings.

Intended Users

This feature is designed for:

• Customer administrators who manage labor positions and scheduling rules

• Operations and workforce managers responsible for staffing accuracy

• Customers using either integrations (such as POS or HR systems) to manage employee labor assignments or by the manager via the HotSchedules user interface

How It Works

1. Create Labor Positions
   Labor positions represent individual workstations or tasks (for example, Grill or Cashier). These positions must be active in your system before skill levels can be applied.
    

   1. Navigate to Above Store Console in HotSchedules 

   2. Go to Labor Positions section

   3. Create Labor Positions for each workstation/task:

      1. Example: "Grill", "Cashier", "Fry", "Drive-Thru"

      2. External ID is required; if using an API this value is required to match your source system.

   4. Ensure each Labor Position is set to Active

   5. Save your Labor Positions
      
      

2. Define Skill Levels
   You set up skill levels (such as Novice, Proficient, or Expert) that represent an employee’s proficiency at each labor position. A default skill level is automatically applied to new labor positions.

3. Assign Labor Positions to Employees
   Employees can be assigned to one or more labor positions through your integration or data feed or updated directly via the user interface. This determines which stations an employee is eligible to work.

4. Set Skill Levels per Labor Position
   Once labor positions are assigned, managers can review and update each employee’s skill level for each position directly in the employee profile.

   1. Navigate to Employees > Select an employee

   2. Go to Employee Profile > Jobs/Schedule

   3. Find the new Labor Positions section

   4. Review assigned Labor Positions

   5. Adjust skill level for each Labor Position using the dropdown:

      1. Select: Novice, Proficient, Expert (or your custom levels)

   6. Save changes
      
      

5. Configure Autoscheduler Rules
   Autoscheduler settings can be updated to:

   • Schedule by labor position instead of job

   • Require minimum staffing levels by labor position

   • Enforce skill level requirements (for example, only Proficient or higher on Grill)

6. Schedule and Validate
   When Autoscheduler runs, it uses labor positions and skill levels to build schedules. A Skill Level Report is available to review employee assignments and confirm accuracy.

Why It Matters

Skill Level Assignment by Labor Position helps you:

• Schedule the right employees in the right workstations

• Reduce risk by ensuring only trained employees are assigned to critical positions

• Improve operational consistency and safety

• Gain better visibility into workforce skills at a more detailed level

By moving from job-based scheduling to skill-based labor positions, you gain greater control and confidence in your schedules.