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Additional Needs-Based Scheduling Set Up

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Selection Styles

Selection styles can be modified to include need-based passes, and/or a new selection style can be created which includes need-based passes. Note: Need-based passes are those where the Selection field is set to either Staffing Plan or Core Staffing Plan.

If core schedules are not populated during holidays, and there are no need-based passes set up, no employees will be populated on holidays.

To add a needs-based scheduling pass to an existing Auto Schedule selection style, complete the following steps:

  1. From the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Selection Styles screen, search for and open an existing selection style.
  2. Click on the Passes button in the left pane. The existing passes will be displayed.
  3. Click on the Add button to open a screen to add passes.
  4. In the Selection field, choose one of the following options:
  5. Enter a Description identifying this pass.
  6. In the Staffing Level field, enter the percentage of population for this pass--which in this pass is for holiday dates only because the Holiday Pass is set to Yes. If all employees who are eligible to work a holiday should be scheduled, this is a way to force the system to over-schedule. For example, if the staffing requirement for a specific coverage period on the Staffing Plan is set to 10, but there are 12 employees who are eligible to work a holiday, set this value to 120% or higher and all employees will be scheduled.
  7. In the Holiday Pass field, set this value to Yes to populate only holidays within the scheduling range with needs-based schedules. Non-holiday dates in the schedule will not be populated.
  8. Save this record.
  9. Click on the Qualification button in the left pane to open the screen to select the rules to be validated with this pass.
  10. Select the Holiday validation to enforce the holiday rules.
  11. Select all other rules for determining which employees are eligible to work. See the Qualification Rules Lists for explanations of each of the available rules.
  12. If additional fields are displayed with a selected rule, enter the values required. Note: If the Hide When Run check box is selected, these fields are required, since the user will not be able to view or edit this field when running the Scheduling Assistant wizard. If this check box is not selected, default values are still recommended, since these fields are required when running the wizard. If default values are not set up, the user must complete the fields each time the wizard is run.
  13. When all rules are selected, Save this page.
  14. Click on the Sorting Rules button in the left pane to rank the qualified employees.
  15. Drag the rules to be used to rank employees from the Available Rules column to the Selected Rules column. See Sorting Rules for explanations of each of the available rules. Note: The sorting of employees for assigning Holiday schedules may be different than for regular need-based schedules. For example, in holiday scheduling, you may want the highest seniority employees scheduled last instead of first, especially if all eligible employees will not not be scheduled.
  16. Enter the values of additional information required, such as sorting direction and increments used for calculating total points.
  17. When all fields are completed, click on the Save button at the bottom of this page.
  18. To create additional passes, click on the Passes button and repeat steps 2-17 above.
    1. When more than one pass is created for a selection style, the pass numbers default to the order they were created.
    2. To reorder the Pass sequences, click on the number of a record under the Pass column and change it.
    3. The numbering sequences of the other passes are updated. For example, if there are four passes set up, and pass 3 is updated to number 2, passes 2, 3 and 4 are automatically updated to the proper number sequence. In the same manner, if one or more passes are deleted, the system automatically adjusts the numbering sequence of the remaining passes.
  19. When all appropriate passes have been changed, click on the Update Order button to save the sequence.

Create a Staffing Template

The Staffing Template is a staffing grid indicating the baseline staffing levels needed for an organization unit. These staffing needs are set up for each combination of profile and coverage period.

Staffing templates are used to create the Staffing Plan, which indicates the staffing needs for a specific scheduling period. Auto Schedule Passes where the Selection is set to Staffing Plan use this information when running the scheduling process.

For more information on setting up a staffing template, see the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Staffing Template screen.

To add a new Staffing Template record, complete the following steps:

  1. Select the Staffing Template icon from the Configuration pages, Scheduling section.
  2. Click on the Add button to open a screen to add a new record.
  3. Enter a Code and Description to identify this Staffing Template.
  4. Select the Coverage Set Code from the listing to indicate the coverage periods. The staffing needs will be set up by coverage periods that exist within the selected coverage set. Note: If the coverage set selected does not match the one set up for the organization unit on the Staffing Configuration screen, an error message is generated.
  5. In the Active field, indicate if this Staffing Template is currently active and available to be assigned.
  6. Enter the Number Of Weeks of this template. This indicates the number of weeks of rotation before the same staffing needs pattern is repeated. Note: In most cases, this staffing needs template is the same every week, and this value is set to one.
  7. Indicate whether this template is to be the Default for this organization unit. When this value is set to Yes, this template is automatically loaded when the Open Staffing Plan button is selected.
  8. Enter the Organization Unit values indicating the labor distribution where this staffing template will be applied.
  9. Click on the Save button.
  10. A grid is displayed to set up the staffing needs for this organization unit, for the number of weeks indicated.
  11. In the Profile box, select a profile for this organization unit.
  12. In the Coverage Period box, select one of the coverage periods from the selected coverage set.
  13. For each day in the week, enter the number of staff needed for that profile/coverage period combination. This is the number of staff needed during the coverage period, not an FTE value. A value of 1 for a 4-hour coverage period indicates needs for four hours of coverage. A value of 1 for a 12-hour coverage period indicates needs for twelve hours of coverage. A value of .5 in an 8-hour night coverage period indicates that four hours of coverage are needed during that time frame.
  14. Repeat steps 11-13 until each profile/coverage period combination for the organization unit is configured.
  15. Click on the Save button to save the record.

To delete one or more lines of the Staffing Template, complete the following steps:

  1. Position the cursor in the box to the left of the record and click. The row is now highlighted.
  2. When all rows are selected for deletion, click on the <Delete> key on the keyboard.
  3. A warning message is generating, verifying the rows are to be deleted. Click on Yes.

Note: Be sure to use the <Delete> key on the keyboard, not the Delete button in the left pane. Clicking on the button in the left pane will delete the entire template.

Create a Core Staffing Template

The Core Staffing Template is a staffing grid used for populating needs-based schedules in an organization unit. These staffing needs are set up for each combination of profile and activity code. This option can be used to set up staffing needs for organization units that use “staggered shifts” where coverage for specific time frames are needed.

For more information, see the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Core Staffing Template.

To add a new Core Staffing Template record, complete the following steps:

  1. Select the Core Staffing Template icon from the Configuration pages, Scheduling section.
  2. Click on the Add button to open a screen to add a new record.
  3. Enter a Code and Description to identify this core staffing template.
  4. In the Active field, indicate if this template is currently active and available to be assigned.
  5. Indicate whether this template is to be the Default for this organization unit. When this value is set to Yes, this template is automatically loaded when the Open Core Staffing Plan button is selected.
  6. Enter the Number Of Weeks of this template. This indicates the number of weeks of rotation before the same staffing needs pattern is repeated. Note: In most cases, this staffing needs template is the same every week, and this value is set to one.
  7. Enter the Organization Unit values indicating where this staffing template will be applied.
  8. Click on the Save button.
  9. A grid is displayed to set up the staffing needs by activity code for this organization unit, for the number of weeks indicated.
  10. In the Profile box, select a profile for this organization unit.
  11. In the Activity box, select one of the activity codes from the drop-down menu.
  12. For each day in the week, enter the number of staff needed for that profile/activity code combination.
  13. Repeat steps 10-12 until each profile/activity code combination for the organization unit is configured.
  14. Click on the Save button to save the record.

To delete one or more lines of the Core Staffing Template, complete the following steps:

  1. Position the cursor in the box to the left of the record and click. The row is now highlighted.
  2. When all rows are selected for deletion, click on the <Delete> key on the keyboard.
  3. A warning message is generating, verifying the rows are to be deleted. Click on Yes.

Note: Be sure to use the <Delete> key on the keyboard, not the Delete button in the left pane. Clicking on the button in the left pane will delete the entire template.

Activity Codes

An Activity Code indicator setting determines whether an activity code can be used by the system when creating need-based schedules. Only codes with this value set to Y may be used by the system when creating a needs-based automatic schedule.

The indicator setting of multiple activity codes can be set to Y at the same time, by using the Replace feature, as outlined below.

To update the activity code indicators, complete the following steps:

  1. From the Configuration section>Scheduling card, open the Activity Code screen.
  2. Enter search criteria to find the activity codes that should be activated for automatic scheduling.
  3. Click on the check box to the left of each record that should be updated.
  4. Click on the Replace button in the left pane to open a screen to update all selected records at the same time.
  5. Select the Indicators tab and then open the Schedule Process category card.
  6. Click on the check box to the left of Activity Code Indicator Schedule Standard 3 to enable the field.
  7. Set this value to Y to authorize the selected activity codes to be available for use when the system creates automatic need-based schedules.
  8. Click on the Save button at the bottom of the screen to save and update all selected records.

Add Profile Activity Code Selection

For each profile, specific activity codes can be authorized for automatic scheduling. The Activities button opens a screen to search for and select specific activity codes that are authorized for automatic scheduling for this profile. The activity codes available are assigned to the same organization unit as the open Profile record.

Steps to Add Activity Codes to a Profile

To add one or more Activity Codes to a profile, complete the following steps:

  1. From the Configuration section>Labor Distribution card, open the Profiles screen.
  2. Select the Activities button from the left pane.
  3. Click on the Add button in the left pane to open the Activity Codes Search to filter search criteria when searching for an existing Activity Code.
  4. After entering values in the selected fields, click on the Search button. The results are listed below the search screen.
  5. To select one or more record, click the selection box to the left of the record to alternately add or remove the check mark. To select/de-select all records in a specific search result set, click on the box above the search results to add or remove all check marks.
  6. After selecting activity codes, click on Assign: Common Data to add the same Auto Schedule values to all records or select Assign: Individual Data button to assign individual values to each record.

    Note: Only activity codes assigned to the same organization unit as this profile in the Activity Codes configuration screen are included in the results set. For more information on the fields available when filtering the list, or when adding, editing or viewing a record, see the Configuration section>Scheduling card>Activity Codes screen.

Employee Schedule Preferences

Schedule Preferences may need to be added to employee records to ensure they are assigned to the activity times they prefer to work. These preferences are validated during scheduling passes where the Preferences criteria option is selected.

When populating need-based schedules, the system uses activity codes where Activity Code Indicator Schedule Standard 3 is set to Y. The system then attempts to match qualified employees with these activity codes. Be sure that one or more employee preference records will match the activity codes set up. For example, if only 8-hour activity codes are allowed with automatic scheduling, and all the employee preference records say the employee prefers activities with a shift length of 12 hours, this will not create a scheduling match.

Note: When fields are left blank, the system allows any values in these fields. Therefore, when less information is entered in this screen, the employee is eligible to work more activity codes and is more likely to be added to the schedule.

Set up Employee Schedule Preferences

To set up employee schedule preferences, complete the following steps.

  1. Search for and open the employee record of the employee to set up.
  2. From the Employee Sections in the left pane, select the Schedule Preferences option.
  3. Click the Add button to open the setup screen.
  4. Enter the Effective Date of when these preferences are effective.
  5. Enter an Expiration Date if these preferences will expire on a certain date. To leave these effective indefinitely, do not enter a value in this field.
  6. If using Priority values, enter a number in this field. Note: The system will only populate preferences in this record if this Priority value matches the Priority set up on the selection style.
  7. Enter a Start Time for the preferred working time frame. This setting is used with the Hour Value to indicate the preferred working time frame. For example, if the Start time is set to 700 and the Hour Value is set to 12.5, the system can populate any activity code that starts on or after 0700 and ends on or before 19:30 (which is 12.5 hours after the start time).
  8. In the Shift Length (Hours) field, enter the length of schedule the employee would like to work, for example, 8-hour or 12-hour. This can be used in conjunction with the Start Time and Hour Value information.
  9. In the Position Code field, enter the position code linked to profiles that the employee prefers to be assigned.
  10. In the Activity Code field, enter the activity code the employee would like to be scheduled.
  11. In the Sunday through Saturday fields, set each day of the week to Yes to indicate the types of schedules the employee prefers to work on the selected days of the week. Different scheduling criteria can be set up for different days of the week. For example, the employee may want to work only 8-hour schedules on Saturday and Sunday but is willing to work any length shift the other days of the week.
  12. Click on the Save button at the bottom of the screen to save the record.
  13. To create additional preferences, click on the Add button in the left pane and complete steps 5-13 for each preference record.