Schedule Generation Profiles for Workforce Scheduling

As a schedule administrator, you can define schedule generation profiles that identify the staffing departments and policies governing specific scheduling processes. You can also set scheduling rules to make sure schedules comply with policies and regulations.

Schedule managers then use their profiles to generate the workforce schedule for their workers according to their work patterns.

You manage these profiles using the Schedule Generation Profiles quick action for My Client Groups > Workforce Scheduling. You can also use the Workforce Schedule Generation Profiles task in the Setup and Maintenance work area. The task is in the Workforce Deployment offering, Workforce Scheduling functional area.

When you create a schedule generation profile, you enter basic details, such as the name, identifying code, active start and end dates, and a description. And you define the schedule periods, including how many weeks are in the schedule cycle, the day start time for your staffing departments, and which 2 consecutive days to consider as the weekend.

You also define the schedule generation window and the optional self-scheduling window contained within it. Schedule managers start working on their schedules when the schedule generation window opens. They publish the schedules to their workers after the self-scheduling window officially closes, if defined, and before the schedule generation window closes. Workers can claim open shifts during the self-scheduling window, and scheduling managers can assign the requested shifts.

You define the schedule generation window and optional self-scheduling window by specifying how many days before the schedule period starts to open and close each window. For example, you create a profile with these windows:

The schedule generation window opens 90 days before the schedule period starts. And the window closes 30 days before the schedule period starts.
The self-scheduling window opens 60 days before the schedule period opens. And the window closes 45 days before the schedule period starts. The self-scheduling window start and end dates need to be inside the schedule generation window start and end dates.

Time line showing the schedule generation window, self-scheduling window, when to publish the schedule, and the corresponding schedule period.

You can add day intervals for the coverage variance panel that schedulers open below their schedules. These intervals help them identify where they’re overstaffed, understaffed, or staffed appropriately. You can also specify whether to send reminder notifications to schedulers to finish their schedules for publishing.

You add the shifts to use when generating the open shifts and the worker schedules. You add the schedule managers who will use the profile to generate and publish schedules for the added staffing departments. And you can specify whether schedulers can schedule floating resources.

You can optionally identify specific jobs and positions to include or exclude when generating schedules for the specified staffing departments. You can't include some jobs and positions and exclude others. You can only include or exclude all. If you don't add any jobs or positions, the profile can be used to generate schedules for all jobs and positions.

You can also specify these scheduling rules:

The maximum consecutive days workers can work
The maximum number of weekends workers can work in a schedule period
A minimum rest period between the ending shift of 1 day and starting shift of the next day

You can also specify shift time deviation rules to use in time and labor schedule deviation calculations and validations.

A grace period
Start early and late periods
End early and late periods

maximum consecutive days workers can work, and the maximum number of weekends they can work in a schedule period. And you can specify a minimum rest period between shifts.

You can save a draft of the schedule generation profile and finish it over time. When you're ready, you can create the profile so that schedulers can use it as soon as it becomes active.

You can create more profiles by duplicating an existing profile, and you can edit and delete profiles as long as no schedule was generated using it. As soon as a profile is used to generate schedules, you can't change or delete existing staffing departments. But you can add more staffing departments.