Last updated: 2026-01-30

Source: https://support.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/50000009365-create-an-on-call-schedule

Set up an on-call schedule to ensure that your support team is available and reachable regardless of day or time to handle critical incidents. With an on-call schedule, ensure sufficient redundancies are built into your support desk, irrespective of weekends and holidays.

How on-call schedules work:

  • An organization may have multiple on-call schedules to prevent gaps in coverage hours.
  • Each schedule is linked to either an agent group with specialized knowledge in a specific field, a particular location, or a combination of both.
  • A schedule encompasses all hours and every day, ensuring the availability of an agent at any given time to respond to an incident.
  • One or more shifts can be associated with an on-call schedule.
  • A shift represents a pattern of time slots defined by day, time zone, or both; for instance, a weekday shift, weekend shift, APAC shift, North America shift, or North America weekday shift.

    • Here's how you can set up an on-call schedule:

    1. Go to Admin Settings > IT Operations Management section > On-Call Schedules. To set up on-call schedules for specific workspaces, go to Admin > Workspace >IT Operations Management section > On-Call Schedules.

    This creates an on-call schedule. Once the on-call schedule is created, you can proceed to configure shifts to assign to the schedule. Learn more about creating shifts here.

    ``` Note: An agent group associated with an on-call schedule will not be available for selection. In case no agent group is available for selection, go to the Admin panel, scroll down to User Management section, and create a new agent group. This new agent group will then be available for selection when you create a new on-call schedule. ```