Some workers are used on a casual basis. Through vWork you can send simple jobs to these casual workers by SMS without them downloading or signing in to the vWork mobile app to view and complete Jobs.
Casual Workers is an optional feature in vWork. If you want to enable this feature or find out more about it please email support@vworkapp.com. One of our team will be in touch to discuss your requirements.
đź”” Note: A casual worker must have an email address associated with their user profile that hasn't previously been used to sign in to the vWork mobile app.
In this article
- Why use Casual Workers?
- How to set up Casual Workers
- Assign jobs to Casual Workers
- How a Casual Worker completes a job
- Casual Workers - tips
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Why use Casual Workers?
The Casual Workers feature makes for a simpler mobile user experience and ensures it is easy for dispatchers to schedule and track work assigned to casual workers. You use this feature to schedule jobs for casual workers as you would your regular users of the mobile app. Casual workers don’t use the vWork Mobile app to access job information and shouldn't download the vWork mobile app on their phones. Instead, they receive an SMS message with a link that provides basic job information and simple functionality that enables them to notify the dispatcher when they accept or decline, and complete a job. All the information is on a single page on their phone.
How to set up Casual Workers
Once the Casual Workers feature is enabled in your account, there are two simple steps to set it up:
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Enable Accept and Decline Jobs in your vWork settings.
- Add each casual worker as a user in your vWork account.
Enable Accept and Decline Jobs
To enable Accept and Decline Jobs:
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Go to Settings>General.
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Ensure the checkbox for Accept and Decline Jobs shows a checkmark.
Note: Accept and Decline Jobs is an account-wide setting. Once this is enabled all users of the mobile app will have the ability to accept or decline jobs from their mobile device.
- Scroll down to the Customize Branding section and make sure you have added your branding. Your branding will show as a banner on the casual worker's phone once they have accepted the job. The article Add my Logo to vWork explains how to do this.
Add casual workers as Users to your account
To add a casual worker as a User:
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Go to Settings>Users>Users
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Under User Management select Add User.
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Enter the casual worker's details in the Name, Email, Phone, and Password fields. (Be sure to leave no spaces between numbers in the phone field.)
đź”” Notes:- While you will need to enter an email and password these are not used by the casual worker to access the job information through the vWork mobile app. Job information is shared with the casual worker via an SMS message.
- The email address you use to create the casual worker's User profile must not have been used previously to sign in to the vWork mobile app.
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You will notice that Mobile User Permissions are Enabled by default. You should leave this permission enabled. No other user permissions need to be changed.
- While you will need to enter an email and password these are not used by the casual worker to access the job information through the vWork mobile app. Job information is shared with the casual worker via an SMS message.
- Click Create.
The new worker shows on the User Management list. You are able to see and select the casual worker in vWork anywhere that you can do this for a regular mobile user.
Assign jobs to Casual Workers
Once you have set up a casual worker in vWork you assign jobs to them as you would any other worker.
When a job is published to a casual worker they are sent an SMS message. This includes a link to the job details. They tap this link to open the job.
In the example below, an SMS was sent from the vWork account holder “Orange Gecko” to a casual worker with an Android phone. The SMS message includes the job number and the link that the casual worker taps for the full job information.
How a Casual Worker completes a job
đź”” Note: Casual workers must have data or a wifi connection to access job information share with them via SMS message.
To complete a job as a casual worker:
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The casual worker taps the link in the SMS message. This redirects them to a page on their phone where they can view the Job details, steps, and custom fields, and choose to Accept or Decline the job.
- When the casual worker taps Accept the page displays a list of the job steps and a Complete Job button.
Custom fields can also be used to provide additional information about the job, but these are information only; the casual worker can't add information about the job to a custom field. -
Once the casual worker completes all the job steps they tap the Complete Job button to show the job as complete in vWork. The dispatcher sees the job as complete on their schedule and in the jobs list. The casual worker sees a page that confirms the job is complete on their phone.
Note: The casual worker cannot complete steps or custom fields on their phone in the same way a worker who uses the mobile vWork app can. The only way they can interact with the job, once they have accepted it, is by tapping the Complete Job button.
Casual worker - tips
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Casual workers do not display an identifier in vWork that differentiates them from other vWork mobile app workers. You may wish to add an identifier in the name field when you create the user to make it easier to distinguish casual workers from regular workers.
In this example, Ernie Plumb is a casual worker. I have used (C) to identify him as a casual worker by entering this in the name field when I created him as a user.
- When you create a job template for casual workers make sure the steps and custom fields contain all the information that the casual worker needs to complete the job including the step address. Remember that the only interaction a casual worker has with a job is to complete it. They cannot amend, edit, or complete steps or custom fields. They can only view these as a list on their phone.
- Geolocation of an address does not pull through to the job as it does for workers using the vWork mobile app . While a casual worker can read the address for a step they can't click a link to open a map to Navigate.
- A casual worker shouldn't download the vWork mobile app to their device. They don't need to log in to the vWork mobile app to recieve a job. If they did download the app and log in they would no longer be a casual worker.