Building an AI Rota Planner for Work.Life using Claude + Lovable

What they built

A custom AI-powered rota planner for Work.Life's roaming team - a bespoke web app that replaces legacy shift-management software with a purpose-built tool tailored to the company's specific deployment model.

Key features include:

• Dashboard showing spaces covered, confirmed cover, and actions needed
• Auto-generated monthly rota - algorithm surfaces available roaming staff based on experience history and pre-approved holidays, then publishes with one click
• Holiday and absence management - absence logged in Shapes (HR platform) surfaces instantly in the planner; holiday requests trigger cover assignment in one action
• Automated notifications - Outlook calendar invites sent automatically to roaming staff, permanent space staff, and third-party partners on rota publish
• Slack integration - end-of-day prompts for staff to rate their space experience and the roaming team member
• Weekly AI-generated PDF summary for the roaming manager covering space performance and ratings, ready for management meetings

Why they built it

• Work.Life has 65 staff across 14 locations plus a roaming team that covers absences - no off-the-shelf tool matched this operating model
• Existing tools (tried over 10 years) were built for hourly shift workers in hospitality - clunky, over-featured, and expensive
• Staff had to log holidays and sick days in two separate systems (HiBob + shift tool), maintain two logins, and manually cross-reference calendars
• The roaming manager had to manually assign cover, chase confirmations over Slack/phone, and email third-party partners individually
• Primary motivation: employee experience - ugly, legacy tools negatively affect how employees feel about their workplace day-to-day
• Secondary motivation: cost - eliminating a monthly SaaS subscription and reducing the number of licenses needed

Tools used

• Claude - used to architect the full solution and generate the majority of the code
• Lovable - no-code/low-code platform used to host the app, build the UI, and manage the backend; code from Claude was pasted directly in
• Slack - custom Slack app created to send automated notifications and end-of-day rating prompts
• Microsoft Outlook - integrated to send automated calendar invitations to all relevant parties on rota publish
• Shapes (HRIS) - integrated so that absence/sick leave logged there surfaces immediately in the rota planner

How you could build this yourself

1. Run a pain-point session with your key user - ask them to walk through their current tool and articulate every friction point, not just what they wish they had. Note every manual step and every system they have to switch between.
2. Map the integrations you need - identify which existing tools (HRIS, calendar, comms) the new tool must talk to. This shapes your build before you write a single prompt.
3. Architect in Claude first - describe the full workflow, the algorithm logic, and the data you need to store. Ask Claude to generate the code. This is cheapest if you have existing Claude credits.
4. Paste into Lovable - import the Claude-generated code into Lovable to get a working app with a backend. Expect ~85% to be done at this point; use remaining credits for UI tweaks and bug fixes.
5. Build your Slack app - create a custom Slack app in your workspace, grant it permissions to send and receive messages, then connect it to your Lovable app via the integration settings.
6. Connect your calendar - integrate Outlook (or Google Calendar) so the app can send calendar invites automatically on key triggers (e.g., rota published, cover confirmed).
7. Connect your HRIS - set up a webhook or API connection so absence/leave data flows into your tool in real time, eliminating duplicate entry.
8. Test with your stakeholder before launch - have your key user (e.g., the roaming manager) click through every workflow and flag anything that doesn't match how they actually work.
9. Budget expectation - Olya built this for ~£80 in Lovable credits. Ongoing edits and bug fixes cost ~£20 per top-up. No monthly subscription once live.

Source

Built and presented by Olya Yakzhina, Head of People at Work.Life, as part of an Open Org "Shipped by HR" session. This is Olya's third appearance on the series.