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Solving a Schedule

Kellie Oxley Updated by Kellie Oxley

A Schedule is only useful as a framework – the real important part is the employees and assigning them to Jobs. Schedules in Auto Rostering can be 'solved' intuitively and easily. Auto Rostering has several tools available to help you solve the puzzle of your staffing needs.

Assigning Employees

When you open a Job in a Schedule, there are two main groups of employees. These two lists will be used to Assign employees to a Job and aim to cover the required number of employees for this Job, as noted by the Employees required field in the Job.

Employees on the left-hand list are listed as either Available or Unavailable. The Available list will only be populated by employees who are valid for this Job, for example those that are not assigned to another Job in the Job's timeframe and have the required Skills. Unavailable employees are those that are unable to be Assigned because they would break one of the rules of the Job, for example their Skills do not match the requirements.

Employees in the right-hand list are Assigned to this Job. This means that they have been scheduled to work that Job within that timeframe. Employees will need to be Assigned to this Job until there are enough employees to meet the Employees Required for it. An Invalid assignation is an employee who does not fulfil some of the criteria for the Job (e.g. their Custom Data does not match), and will not count towards the Assigned total.

You can move an employee from the left to the right (and vice-versa) in several ways:

  • Double click the employee
  • Click and drag the employee
  • Select multiple employees and select Remove Selected or Assign Selected

Overrides

While managers normally Assign employees listed in the Available list, they may wish to Assign employees who are listed in the Unavailable list. Auto Rostering will allow you to do this but will warn you of what rules the Unavailable will break. You can choose to proceed and the employee will be assigned.

The Assignment will be clearly identifiable in the Schedule. It will display as having been an 'override' Assignment and Auto Rostering will maintain a record of the rules broken during the Assignment.

Job Status

Each Job in a Schedule will always have a current Status. The Status is determined by the amount of valid Assigned employees compared to the required number of employees, and by the Available employees. There are 6 statuses:

• Insufficient employees assigned

• Correct number of employees assigned

• Too many employees assigned

• No available employees

• Insufficient employees to meet requirement

• Correct number of employees assigned but no cover

You can view these by selecting the Legend icon on the top right hand side within the schedule.

The default colour of each status can be changed in the System Preferences.

Schedule Views

Auto Rostering has many different views available for Schedules.

Calendar

The calendar view displays a column for each date being viewed and each row represents a Job Type. Job Types are groups into the Subgroups they belong to.

You can choose to view a summary or detailed view. The detailed view will identify the employees Assigned to each Job. The summary view will display all Jobs in a uniform size without showing the individual employees Assigned.

Where there are more than three overlapping Jobs in the same row and same day, the view will highlight this with an "expand" option. Expanding a day will display all Jobs on that day in the Schedule.

Schedule Date Ranges

When viewing a Schedule, you can quickly switch between different standard date ranged by selecting one of the available ranged from the toolbar at the top of the screen. Once a range has been selected, you can move forward and backward in equal ranged by clicking the '<' or '>' arrows.

Note: There is a fourth option that can be configured to display 'Pay period'. This will only appear if Pay periods have been configured in System Preferences. Once configured, then the Pay Period range will display the Schedule for the date range that matches the current Pay period date.

The Custom date range option allows you to use the calendar to manually select a date range which is not a standard week, month or pay period range. You select the start date of the range and then the end date. The Schedule will then display the dates within that range (inclusive of the start and end dates). You can return to the standard day, week, month or pay period date range by selecting them in the toolbar.

You can change several preferences in the System Preferences for the date ranges:

• Start day of week allows you to choose the first day of the week

• Schedule initial range allows you to set your preferred date range, and Schedules will automatically use that date range when opened

Filters

The Schedule data that is displayed for the selected date range can be Filtered to only show a specific subset of that data. The Filter menu is on the left-hand side of the Schedule and allows for multiple Filters to be applied.

Subgroup Filters

You can choose to include or exclude subgroups from view using the Subgroup filter. The row of Jobs displayed will be restricted to Jobs in the chosen Subgroups.

Employee and Job Type Filters

The Schedule can be Filtered by adding specific employees to the Filter. The Jobs are then Filtered to just the ones that have these employees Assigned to them.

You can also Filter what Job Types are shown in the Schedule by adding Job Types to the Filter.

Other Filters

Additional Filters are available if you select Expand on the Filter. You can Filter by Job status, start times, end times, and days of the week. Multiple Filters can be combined to create a comprehensive view.

You can select Clear Custom Filters to quickly clear all active Filters and return the Schedule to its default view.

Toolbar Filters

The information bar displayed above the Schedule can also be used to filter the Schedule's data. Selecting either Unassigned Jobs or Invalid Assignments will Filter the Jobs displayed to only those that match that criteria.

Job Offers

The Job Offer functionality allows Managers to issue Job Offer notifications to employees. Employees can accept these Offers and the system will then automatically Assign the employee to the Job.

Offering a Job

You can Offer a Job by right-clicking on the Schedule information bar and selecting Offer Jobs. Any applicable Jobs will then be put onto the Job Offer Board

Auto Solve

Schedules can be Auto Solved – this is a powerful tool in Auto Rostering that allows you to easily Assign employees to Schedules and the Jobs contained therein. When you Solve a Schedule, Auto Rostering will consider all the different settings you have applied to a Schedule and its Jobs, Subgroups, Concurrent Jobs, Templates, Custom Data etc. and Assign employees to Jobs, giving you a one-click solution to your rostering needs. To Auto Solve a Schedule, select the Auto Solve button on the Schedule.

Agency Cover

Sometimes Jobs will be covered by sourcing resources external to your employees in Auto Rostering. The system allows you to record that Jobs have been covered in this way so that the correct Job status is maintained – this also allows you to use Reports to report on Agency Cover.

Assigning Agency Cover to a Job

In a Job's details screen, you can select Assign Agency at the bottom of the screen to apply Agency Cover. You will then need to populate the three fields:

• Agency provides a list of agencies that you have set up in System Preferences

• Reason for Cover allows you to choose a reason for needing to assign an agency worker

• Agency Worker is the name of the individual working on the Job from the agency.

Once complete, the system will assign an Agency Employee to the Assigned list for that Job. The Agency Employee Assignment will always remain valid as no Job Type or Constraint rules will prevent it.

Managing Lists

Both the Agency and Reason for Cover lists can be managed in the System Preferences page, under the Agency tab.

Read about Approving a Schedule here.

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