Understanding Work Schedules

Type of Schedules

You can define three main types of schedules:

• Punch schedules include punch detail such as In, Out, Meal, Break, and Transfer.

• Elapsed schedules show the duration of time to be worked—for example, eight hours on Monday.

• Flex schedules are practical when a payee has some flexibility to begin and end the workday.

Types of Shifts

A shift represents a set of punch types from which it is built. You can create three types of shifts:

• Elapsed shifts

  Define one elapsed punch entry for the shift, such as an elapsed shift of 8 hours, which is non-clock time. Elapsed shifts cannot exceed 24 hours.

• Punch shifts

  Use punch shifts to create shifts that define specific work times. Punch shifts are defined by an in punch and the first subsequent instance of an out punch. Other punches such as break, meal, or transfer, can occur between the in and out punches. Punch times are associated with each punch. The duration of a punch can be entered, or the system can calculate the duration when the next punch time is entered.

• Flex (flexible) shifts

  The system supports flexible shifts, giving payees latitude for beginning and ending shifts. You can enter core, required hours and the weekly number of hours that the flexible shift requires, but the system uses the weekly information only if you set up an array for processing.

  See Defining Array Elements.

Example: Flex Shifts

In this example:

1. Payees begin and end their workdays within a range of flexible hours in the morning and afternoon (begin between 06:00 and 09:00 and end between 15:00 and 18:00). They must work 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week and must work during the core hours, 09:00 to 15:00. A payee's begin and end times can vary daily within the flexible hours.

2. Payees work any 8 hours during the day, within a range of flexible hours (between 06:00 and 19:00), and there's no company-defined core period. They must work 40 hours a week.

3. Payees work anytime during the week, provided that they work 40 hours a week and during the core hours, 09:00 to 15:00. A payee's begin and end times can vary daily within the flexible hours, and the length of the workday can vary, provided that the weekly 40 hour requirement is met.

4. Payees work 40 hours a week and during the core hours, 09:00 to 15:00. A payee's begin and end times can vary daily within the flexible hours, but the workday must be 8 hours.

Schedule Definitions and Schedule Calendars

A schedule definition defines a work schedule and is identified by a schedule ID. After creating schedule definitions, you can assign them to pay groups and payees. The same schedule can be assigned to multiple pay groups. You also have the option of creating and assigning a personal schedule to a given payee.

The system uses schedule definitions to derive schedule calendars and to resolve payee schedules. A schedule calendar is a range of dates with specified work and non-work time.

Rotating Schedules

You can define rotating schedules that enable you to assign the same schedule to several payees with different start dates. For example, a basic rotating schedule for a continuously operating factory operation might consist of:

• Seven days

• One off

• Seven afternoons

• One off

• Seven nights

• Five off

To keep the factory staffed 24 hours, seven days per week, there are four groups, or rotations, of workers. Each rotation uses the same schedule, but the actual days are staggered so that there is always one rotation covering each of the shifts. This table represents what the actual rotations would look like for a month:

Self-Service Scheduling Features

Self-service scheduling pages are available to managers and payees. Managers can use these pages to view schedules, view payee's scheduling preferences and change schedule assignments, and create schedules for individual payees. Employees can use these pages to view their monthly schedules and to enter personal scheduling preferences.

Schedule Settings

Use the Schedule Settings page to define the labels to display for punch types, the range of dates for the Dates table (TL_DATES_TBL), and other scheduling settings. The Dates table stores date-related information, such as the day of week, day of month, and calendar year that the system needs to build calendar schedules.