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Frequently asked questions - Auto-Rostering

alethea.barlow@oneadvanced.com Updated by alethea.barlow@oneadvanced.com

This article answers common questions about using Auto-Rostering and Time and Attendance. Check back to this article as it will be regularly updated.

General FAQ

Who can access the Auto-Rostering setup?

User Administrators that have been setup in OneAdvanced Identity (ASSO)

Can the initial Auto-Rostering provisioning be run a second time?

No, Initial provisioning can only be performed once.

For GDPR purposes, how do you delete an employee from Auto-Rostering?

Employees can be removed by unticking in the Auto-Rostering setup in Time and Attendance.

Can anyone use Auto-Rostering?

Auto-Rostering has been designed to be used by all customers who have migrated to the latest cloud based Time and Attendance solution. Please note however that with the wealth of customisation options historically available in Time & Attendance, your database may have been configured in the past to a setup that is inconsistent with the T&A to Auto-Rostering mapping (for example if you have repurposed a standard dropdown field, such as LOCATION for customised use, then the Auto-Rostering configuration wizard may fail). If this is the case please contact us, and our Services team will be able to reconfigure your system to be compatible with Auto-Rostering, whilst preserving your Time & Attendance customisation.

Employee Details

I can't see one of my employees in Auto-Rostering!

Don't panic, we can get them in. If you run the Auto-Rostering setup wizard again you will be able to select the missing employee(s) in the employee provisioning screen. They will then be added to Auto-Rostering automatically by the synchronisation task

When I manage an employees details, why are so many fields read only?

The read only fields contain data that has been synchronised from your Time & Attendance system. To make changes to this data, edit the employee details in Time & Attendance. They will automatically synchronise to Auto-Rostering

My Employees have internal and external email addresses in T&A. Which one is sent to Auto-Rostering?

The name of the field is TMSEMP.EMAIL. Whilst this may be labelled differently in your system due to customisations, the default label is "Email address - Company". You can check the field name easily in T&A for Windows by placing the cursor in the email field for any employee and pressing F1. If the dialog that appears says TMSEMP.EMAIL as the field name then this is the one that is sent to Auto-Rostering

I've asked Auto-Rostering to send my employee a welcome email but they have not received it.

The first place to check is the spam and/or junk folder in the employees email inbox. Some email filters are quite aggressive and will filter the welcome email out. It is also possible that you have no email server set up in Auto-Rostering (it will not inherit the settings from Time & Attendance during provisioning). You can check this by looking in the Email tab of the system preferences. If there is nothing configured in these preferences, please contact your IT team to request an SMTP server

Some of my employees have characters in their names (e.g. O'Malley). Is this ok?

Of course! Auto-Rostering and Time & Attendance fully support the use of common special characters in names (e.g apostrophes and hyphens)

Manage Absences

All the employee absences are read only in Auto-Rostering, how do I edit these?

Employee absences are synchronised from the T&A system. To change employee absences they will need to be edited in T&A, and the synchronisation will take care of pushing those edits into Auto-Rostering

I've added a Bank Holiday and it isn't showing up in Auto-Rostering, why is this?

If you ticked the "Group Absence" option when configuring the Bank Holiday you have created an absence that applies to a group, not an individual. Auto-Rostering does not synchronise Group Absences outside of the initial provisioning. To include a Bank Holiday for a range of people, add the absence as normal in T&A but don't tick the Group Absence box. This will create the same absence for individuals, and will synchronise to Auto-Rostering

Why is the absence calendar empty when I first view it?

You need to select an employee first before any data will be shown. Use the "Select Employee" text box at the top of the screen to search for the employee you wish to view. Upon selection the absences will be displayed in the calendar.

What is the difference between absence codes and status in the absence calendar?

Absence codes will display the absence code associated with the absence (e.g. H for Holiday or J for Jury Duty). Switching this to status will display colour coded days, that represent whether a request for absence from the employee for that day is pending, rejected (red) or accepted (green)

Managing Schedules

What does "Publishing" do?

Publishing is a vital step in the Auto-Rostering workflow. It will take your plan and synchronise with the T&A application. This means that shifts, with appropriate job information, will be created in T&A and visible to your employees and users in the T&A application. Once published, Time and Attendance takes over. So if an employee clocks late, or fails to show up, anomalies will be generated in the usual way.

I need to make changes to a schedule that has been published, can I do that?

Absolutely! You will need to edit the schedule, press the unlock button and make your changes. When you publish again the changes will be synchronised with T&A in the usual way

What is a template?

A template is the same as a schedule, but reusable. You may have the same team doing the same jobs each week, and creating this as a template will allow you to reuse this schedule as many times as you wish. You can also have multiple templates saved, and choose the appropriate template for the period you are rostering for.

What is Attendance Confirmation?

This is an optional feature that, prior to publishing a schedule, allows the employees to receive a notification within their self service application that informs them about the job they have been assigned to. If the employee responds that they are happy to work that job, they can do so. If not, this gives the user repsonsible for Auto-Rostering the opportunity to arrange cover.

After publishing my schedule, where can I check that the synchronisation worked as it should?

In the scheduling menu item there is a Sync History option. This will show you a log of all synchronised information, successful or not. In the case of an unsuccessful synchronisation there will be a short error message that will inform you about why the synchronisation was not successful. There is a filter at the top of the page to look at the synchronisation history for a single employee, if required.

If I change an assignment in Auto-Rostering, what happens in T&A?

The synchronisation process will remove the previously assigned job in T&A and replace it with your changes.

What if my employees have a set roster already, and I am using Auto-Rostering to plug gaps?

This is perfectly fine. As noted above if you do wish to change the job (shift) that exists in a predefined roster the employee is assigned to, you can. The next week their roster will go back to what it was.

I have employees that work early morning and return in the evening, can Auto-Rostering handle this?

Yes! You can have multiple jobs on any given day and assign employees to them. As long as the jobs don't overlap (Auto-Rostering will inform you if it does find overlaps) then the synchronisation will create multiple shifts on the day for the employee to work

If I change my employees shift in T&A will that send the change to the Auto-Rostering schedule?

No. All scheduling should be done in Auto-Rostering and synchronised to T&A. If you wish to change the shift an employee has been rostered to work, alter the schedule in Auto-Rostering to reflect your change, and allow the synchronisation to make the alteration in T&A. Changing shifts in T&A, whilst possible, is not recommended.

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