Scheduling

There are three scheduling environments that an organization is likely to encounter – fixed, rotating and dynamic. In a fixed schedule environment, employees are assigned a work pattern on hire or on a change in role or situation. The planned work pattern is static and is changed only in special situations. In a rotating schedule environment, schedule rosters are established in advance and assigned to groups of employees on hire or when a new project or period begins. In a dynamic environment, an employee does not have a set schedule; a new schedule is established every period, and updates are made frequently based on a variety of factors.

In each environment, it is important for schedules to be created and maintained systematically to communicate work expectations, track adherence, and reconcile with actual work completed. Time and Labor provides capabilities to support each schedule environment.

For fixed schedule environments, a company may support centralized standard schedule definitions and ad hoc manager-specified work patterns. All schedule building blocks, including shifts, workdays, and schedule definitions, are optional. For example, an organization may want to establish only standard shifts and allow these to be assigned directly to employees.

For rotating schedule environments, a set of rotations, with relative start days, may be defined on a schedule. For example, Crew A may start its rotation on day one of the pattern and Crew B may start on day seven. Schedule patterns are not associated with specific dates until an employee is assigned to the pattern, allowing flexibility and reusability. The scheduler may choose a sample date, however, and view the resulting rotation pattern. Split shifts on one day, and off shifts that are greater or less than 24 hours can be created also. These features are particularly useful for organizations that operate on a 24-hour schedule and must rotate individuals between day shifts and night shifts.

Dynamic scheduling environments require frequent schedule changes and intelligent scheduling arrangements. Today, the schedule override capabilities are intended for infrequent ad hoc use. In Time and Labor, a generic interface to the open scheduling architecture loads optimized work schedules or data from other systems, including training data from PeopleSoft Learning Management. Managers have a graphical interface to view schedules for their employees. In addition to viewing coverage, assigned shifts, and total work hours, managers can identify individuals with planned absences or training. If updates need to be made to the schedule, managers can find replacements, swap shifts, copy schedules, and make short- and long-term schedule changes.

Employees can view their monthly schedule, including work and shift information, planned absences, holidays, and training.