While working as a lifeguard at the McCoy Natatorium, Josh Abbe noticed the system of finding a substitute for a shift was flawed.

Messages of who needed what shift taken were thumbtacked to a corkboard that was so overloaded the papers were falling off, Abbe (sophomore-computer engineering) said. He added that the mass e-mails and constant phone calls sent to all employees of the natatorium were inefficient and, at times, annoying.

"Our current system just wasn't working out," he said.

That's when Abbe decided to use his hobby of making Web sites to come up with www.sublistonline.com.

The free site, which he said is set to be revamped this summer after almost three years of growth, makes it possible for managers to post the week's work schedule and allows employees to see their schedule online and post a request for a substitute.

Abbe created the site during his freshman summer session.

To sign a company up on the site, the manager first needs to create a company account.

Employees then sign up using the company code, which is only viewable by other employees, Abbe said.

Employees post a substitute request by entering the date and time of the shift, whether the need is "standard or emergency" and may optionally include the reason they need a substitute.

When an employee decides to take a shift, an e-mail is sent to both the person who posted the shift and the person taking the shift to verify the change.

Bruce English, lifeguard supervisor at the natatorium, was one of the first people to use Sub List Online.

"It's a convenient way for the student employees to find their own sub," English said.

He added that the old method of finding a substitute at the natatorium was inefficient, and the new site is not only helpful to the employees, but also for the managers.

"In today's busy college environment, people need access to this information 24/7," said Joe Donald, facilities and events coordinator at the White Building.

He replaced his paper schedule, which was available only at the White Building, with Sub List Online to make it easier for his employees to get a substitute for a shift.

"Rather than coming in at 6 a.m., they can post a shift at 1 p.m. and get a sub," he said.

Currently, the site is used by about 120 companies across the country, varying in distance and kinds of business, from the White Building, to a pet-sitting business in Arizona, to a Quizno's in Idaho, Abbe said.

Other functions of the site include a calendar, an announcement section and a contact list that provides employee's names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, screen names and other contact information.

An interactive demonstration of the site is provided to show the site from either a manager viewpoint or an employee viewpoint.

The site was originally going to be very simple and used specifically for the natatorium, Abbe said.

However, he said as he began to add more functions to the site, he realized, "this could be useful to other companies as well."

"It's always a work in progress; the more feedback I get, the better it can be," Abbe said.