Scheduler Module Scheduling Engine Guide

Transcription

1 Scheduler Module Scheduling Engine Guide This document provides a walkthrough of key functionality of the Scheduler Module Scheduling Engine.

2 Table of Contents Background... 2 Assumptions and Requirements... 2 Review: Scheduled Skills and Cost Centers... 2 Review: Shift Attributes... 3 Review: Employee Schedule Attributes... 4 Review: Schedule Settings... 5 New Configurations... 6 Employee Work Time Availability and Preferences... 6 Setting Constraints: Employee Related... 7 Setting Employee Constraints: Working Time Regulations... 7 Setting Employee Constraints: Scheduler Profile... 9 Setting Constraints: Schedule Related Overriding Employee Schedule Constraints Running the Engine Using Workload Templates Using Manual Shifts via Schedule Settings Post Schedule Creation In Summary , Kronos Incorporated. 1

3 Background The ability to create and manage employee schedules is very important. How those schedules are created in the first place is extremely important. The Scheduler team is proud to introduce a brand-new state of the art Scheduling Engine! This engine not only assigns shifts automatically based on business demand and employee qualifications, it also optimizes those shift assignments based on 15 different parameters, which can lower costs, reduce scheduled overtime, and satisfy employee schedule preferences. This document will outline the steps to follow in order to use the Scheduling Engine for your schedules. Assumptions and Requirements In order to use the Scheduling Engine for shift auto-assignments, the following assumptions must be made: Must have the Scheduler module Must have proper configurations set for shift requirements Including Cost Center and Skill linked to each open shift Must have proper scheduling configurations set for employee profiles Scheduled Cost Centers and Skills identified and saved per employee For the Scheduling Engine to assign shifts successfully, these attributes must be in place. Review: Scheduled Skills and Cost Centers Scheduling is an economics problem. You have your supply and demand and you need to have as close of a perfect fit as you can. On the demand side of the equation, you have your workload requirements. This is the business need established for particular areas and job duties. In order to establish these requirements, you first need to establish: Schedulable Skills: Each skill to be used on schedules must be classified as Is Schedulable, to which color and average rate ($) can be established. Schedulable Cost Centers: One cost center tree declared as Schedulable. Cost Centers from this tree will be used for shift and employee qualifications. Scheduled Skills must be associated with the appropriate Scheduled Cost Center level that will be used when creating shifts. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 2

4 Review: Shift Attributes Shifts built through Workload Templates or through Manual Shifts are considered (currently) to establish demand, or what the business needs at any point in the day. I need 4 cashiers in Electronics between 10am and 6pm 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 3

5 Review: Employee Schedule Attributes On the supply part of this equation, the scheduled employees must have certain configurations set so that they can be correctly assigned to shifts. As a part of their SCHEDULES tab in each employee s profile, there are widgets that must be configured for every individual: Skills: Every skill that the employee can be scheduled against Scheduled Cost Center: Every cost center (from the schedulable tree) that the employee can be scheduled against Work Time Availability: Allows for managers to configure when employees are and are not available to be scheduled (will cover in more detail further down in document). Recently introduced in February 2017 release. For scheduling managers, each will need to have their appropriate Managed Scheduled Cost Centers configured as a part of their profile. This includes every cost center (from the schedulable cost center tree) that the individual can manage schedules for. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 4

6 Review: Schedule Settings As a part of the global schedule settings that can be configured, it is important to note the cost centers that can be used for each particular schedule. This is an important piece to running the Schedule Engine as all applicable cost centers and shifts using those cost centers must be declared. This narrows the list of employees that will be featured on this particular schedule. In other words, if all employees are listed in the Employees Scheduled filter, the only employees that will be shown on the schedule are those linked to the Scheduled Cost Centers I have declared for this schedule. There are 77 employees in my Employees Scheduled filter. I have added 2 Cost Centers in the Use Cost Centers for Scheduler section. Since I only have 10 employees configured to those cost centers, only those 10 employees are displayed in my schedule. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 5

7 New Configurations Employee Work Time Availability and Preferences Employee Work Time Availability is a hard constraint that the engine uses that is a guarantee of when a person can or cannot be scheduled. Employee Work Time Preference is a soft optimization that provides the employees an input on when they would prefer to be scheduled or not scheduled. This is something that is not a guarantee by the engine but can be accommodated when this does not go against the business need These pieces are configured in the same way as the previous version of Work Time Preferences with one notable exception. There are now two methods in which to enter this data. Calendar Independent: This is the same method as previously existed in the product. Users can establish a certain cycle that has a start and end date range (if end date is blank, then the cycle repeats indefinitely). Calendar Dependent: This new method allows users to enter availability and preference details that are tied to a specific date. Any calendar dependent information will override the calendar independent defined for that point in time. For example: Kevin s Work Time Availability has been defined Mon-Fri from 8am to 8pm on a 7-day cycle that began on 02/05/2017. However, on Monday 03/13 and Wednesday 03/15, Kevin s availability is shortened to where is is only available between 10am and 6pm. When a schedule is created for this particular week, this will be Kevin s availability constraint. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 6

8 Setting Constraints: Employee Related In previous versions of the Scheduler module, employee related scheduling constraints were captured in two different places: Scheduler Profiles Schedule Settings With the Scheduling Engine enabled, all employee related constraints are consolidated to the Scheduler Profile. While the existing constraints remain in place as options, new constraints have been added to assist in scheduling: Minimum Hours per day: Guaranteed number of scheduled hours per person per day Minimum Hours per week: Guaranteed number of scheduled hours per person per week Minimum Hours in Primary Skill: Guaranteed number of scheduled hours per person in the skill defined as primary for each. For the above constraints, there must be enough pre-built shifts to satisfy the requirement. There are two different ways that users can establish these constraints: through Working Time Regulations or directly through the Scheduler Profile. Setting Employee Constraints: Working Time Regulations To set Working Time Regulations, refer to the following steps: 1. Navigate to Working Time Regulations under Company Settings > Profiles/Policies > Working Time Regulations. 2. Create new or edit existing. 3. The user interface for Working Time Regulations changed with the February 2017 product release. Building in constraints is based more on individual rules (much like the Pay Calculations profile.) 4. Click Add Rule to add appropriate constraints. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 7

9 5. Configure each constraint value and save the profile. 6. Navigate to the Scheduler Profile to establish the Warning messages for the appropriate constraints to be used under Scheduler >Schedule Profiles 7. Create new or edit existing profile. 8. Even if constraint values were configured in Working Time Regulations, you must add them to Scheduler Profiles as well for the constraint to be honored from a scheduling perspective (since Working Time Regulations also apply on the TLM sub-system. Click Add Schedule Constraint to add the same constraints previously established in Working Time Regulations. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 8

10 9. For each constraint added, click the Edit icon for each and change the violation setting to either Warning or Error*, and establish how the violation message should appear. *If a constraint violation is set to Warning, any scheduled shift violating this rule will appear as a red shift that is reduced in size. Users will still be able to post these shifts to TLM. If a constraint violation is set to Error, users will not be able to post these shifts to TLM. Users will also have the option to either use the constraint value set in Working Time Regulations, or enter in a custom value. 10. Once all constraints have been configured, save the profile. 11. Ensure that each employee record has a Working Time Regulation AND Scheduler Profile saved. Setting Employee Constraints: Scheduler Profile 1. Navigate to the Scheduler Profile screen under Scheduler > Schedule Profiles. 2. Create New or Edit existing profile. 3. Click Add Schedule Constraint to add appropriate constraints. 4. Once the constraint has been added, click the Edit icon for each to configure. 5. Users will have the opportunity to configure each constraint value as well as establish the Error or Warning parameters. 6. Once all constraints have been configured, save the profile. 7. Ensure that each employee record has a Scheduler Profile assigned and saved. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 9

11 Setting Constraints: Schedule Related There are two constraints that can be established for the schedule itself: Maximum Schedule Budget Maximum Total Hours To set Schedule-centric constraints, refer to the following steps: 1. Navigate to Schedule Settings under Scheduler > Schedule Settings. 2. Create New or Edit existing setting. 3. Click Add Schedule Constraint to add appropriate constraints. 4. Once the constraint has been added, click the Edit icon for each to configure. 5. Users will have the opportunity to configure each constraint value as well as establish the Error or Warning parameters. 6. Once all constraints have been configured, save the schedule setting. Overriding Employee Schedule Constraints In previous versions of the Scheduler module, users had the ability to override scheduling constraints, but only on an all-or-nothing basis. Now, managers will be able to override specific constraints for individual employees before a schedule is auto-assigned, and after. This will assist the manager in a couple of different ways: Can provide a targeted path for different schedule scenarios within the same time period For Example: As a manager, I may want to override someone s availability to see what the overall affect to the entire schedule will be. Perhaps this change would give me some additional cost savings. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 10

12 This allows the manager to effectively make tactical scheduling decisions after a schedule has been created For Example: Someone calls out sick and a manager needs to assign that shift to someone else, which will cause the newly assigned person to go over their maximum hours per week constraint. To override constraints prior to auto-assigning shifts, follow the steps outlined below: 1. Navigate to Schedules under Scheduler > Schedules. 2. Create new and select the appropriate Schedule Setting and Start Date. 3. Once inside your settings for this schedule, either import a Workload Template or use the Manual shifts built in the global schedule setting. 4. Before the shifts are auto-assigned, click the Override Constraints button. 5. A window will open that displays all employees tied to this schedule along with all the constraints that can be overridden. 6. Once the desired options are checked for the appropriate employee(s), click the OVERRIDE button to save this setting. 7. Proceed to auto-assign shifts. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 11

13 To override constraints after auto-assigning shifts, follow the steps outlined below: 8. Navigate to Schedules under Scheduler > Schedules. 9. Open the appropriate schedule in the View by Employee or View by Cost Center. 10. Featured in the upper-right of the screen is a button to Override Constraints. Follow the same steps as outlined above. Once constraints have been overridden, shifts can be assigned without violation. Running the Engine Using Workload Templates In order to use the Engine to assign shifts based on Workload Templates, follow the instructions outlined below: 1. Navigate to Schedules under Scheduler > Schedules. 2. Click Add New to create a new schedule. 3. Select the appropriate Schedule Setting and Start Date. 4. Once inside the individual schedule s settings, click the Import Workload Template button and select a template to use. 5. The Workload Requirements section of this schedule s settings will populate with the workload data. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 12

14 6. Click Generate Shifts for Open Coverage to create open shifts based on this Workload Template. 7. To use the Engine for auto-assignments, click the Assign Shifts button. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 13

15 8. A progress window will display while shifts are being auto assigned and optimized. 9. Once the assignments are complete, a message will appear informing the user that the schedule is now complete. 10. Proceed to the View by Employee or View by Cost Center of the schedule to make any adjustments. Using Manual Shifts via Schedule Settings In order to use the Engine to assign shifts based on Manual Shifts, follow the instructions outlined below: 1. Navigate to Schedule Settings under Scheduler > Schedule Settings. 2. Create New or Edit Existing Schedule Setting. 3. Inside the Schedule Setting, click Add Shift Creation Rule and select Manual Shifts. 4. Configure all manual shifts. 5. Navigate to Schedules under Scheduler > Schedules. 6. Click Add New to create a new schedule. 7. Select the appropriate Schedule Setting and Start Date. 8. Once inside the individual schedule s settings, open shifts will already be present (if user navigates to the View by Employee or View by Cost Center, the open shifts will appear in the schedule.) 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 14

16 9. To use the Engine for auto-assignments, click the Assign Shifts button. 10. A progress window will display while shifts are being auto assigned and optimized. 11. Once the assignments are complete, a message will appear informing the user that the schedule is now complete. 12. Proceed to the View by Employee or View by Cost Center of the schedule to make any adjustments. Post Schedule Creation After the auto-assignment process is complete, the engine still plays an integral part in the schedule itself. Each time a shift is added, edited, or reassigned, the engine runs and checks the constraints defined for each person and schedule. When editing and assigning a shift, there will be a Qualification Summary provided that will inform managers why a certain employee or group of employees are not qualified to work the shift in question. There are different areas where the Qualification Summary can be accessed. 1. In one of the major schedule views (by Employee and by Cost Center), click an open shift. 2. When the Assign Shift window opens, there is a button provided for Qualification Summary. 3. Click this button to review the provided list (if applicable). 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 15

17 This is also an option any time that a shift is edited. 1. In any schedule view or report where a user can edit a shift, click the shift itself (and then Edit Shift) or click the edit icon when in a report. 2. Inside the Edit Shift window of a shift a user is trying to edit, there is an additional icon featured next to the employee name field. 3. Click this icon to get to the Qualification Summary. 4. The presented window will display the employees on the schedule along with a list of reasons why they are unable to work the selected shift. 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 16

18 In Summary The new state of the art Scheduling Engine allows for powerful scheduling and optimization features that benefit both managers and employees alike. Stay tuned for more new and exciting features from the Scheduler Module! 2017, Kronos Incorporated. 17