Training #2: Five-Step Scheduling with Copy and Paste

Now that you've got your first week's schedule set in WFM, here are five steps to build your schedule each week.

Step 1: Copy and paste last week's schedule

1. Go to Shifts > Daily.

2. While you're looking at the current week in the daily schedule view, hover over Copy. Select Copy to next week.

3. After you make your selection, you'll be taken to the next week where all shifts and staff are pasted.

Step 2: Check sales forecast

1. If you've got historical sales data for your default date range, ensure it looks right. Start by checking the weekly sales total. You will see this in the KPI panel on the right of the daily page.

2. Check the sales forecast for each day. To do this, press Tab through the days on the daily view. The arrow in the bottom right will move you ahead one day at a time.

3. If you need to adjust the sales forecast or if no forecast appears, select Edit forecast or Create forecast.

4. To generate your sales forecast, use one of the following options (see screenshot above):

   • Option 1 — POS defaults: Uses past imported POS data to automatically build your forecast.

   • Option 2 — Custom POS settings: Pick the date you'd like your sales forecast to be based on. Dates in red mean missing sales data, so choose a week with all black dates.

   • Option 3 — Enter a manual projection: Enter the sales or units you expect to sell each day for the week you're scheduling.

Step 3: Reassign staff to shifts they can work

1. Go to the Options button and change the "Color by" to "Availability". This will color all of the shifts in the scheduling view to Green/ Red/ Yellow/ Blue depending on Availability. [See this user manual page on Shifts Colors] to understand what all the colors mean.

2. The fastest way to reassign employees is to start on the first day and look for any red shifts. Click the red shift, then click the blue reassign arrow. An employee selection dialog displays the list of available employees.

3. Keep reassigning those red shifts to available staff until all the shifts are green.

   Note:

   You need to add a job to each shift. Before you can assign an employee to a shift, select the job to see the list of employees who can do it.

Step 4: Optimize your schedule

1. The best way to optimize your schedule depends on whether you've set up a labor deployment model in WFM. If you have, follow Option 2.

2. Option 1. Optimize your schedule using your sales forecast (no labor deployment model)

   • Start by checking your labor KPIs for next week. Check if they on target. If not, look at the busy and slow times using the sales row to spot them.

   • By checking the hourly KPIs on the daily page, you can spot areas to optimize. If your labor cost percentage target is 19 to 21%, you'll see any times outside that range marked in red. In the example below, labor percent is highest from 7 to 10 AM.

     As a manager, you'd expect this if I've got a few people doing prep or opening. The first times to focus on are peak hours when sales are highest: 12 PM to 2 PM and 4 PM to 8 PM. In this example, labor percent is below target during those times.

     As a manager, you might want to add a few more employees or extend existing shifts to cover those times and hit your labor cost target. As you add or adjust shifts, the metrics update in real time. When the numbers turn black, you're within your target for that hour. Follow this process daily, keeping an eye on your weekly labor cost percent target . This is the big number at the top right.

   • There are lots of ways to tweak your schedule to improve labor metrics and customer service time. You can also set targets for productivity and labor efficiency, and follow the same process to keep your metrics balanced.

3. Option 2. Optimize your schedule using your sales forecast WITH labor deployment model

   • The fastest way to build and optimize your schedule each week is to follow these steps. After you've finished step 3, turn on your labor deployment model. Select Options. On the Shift display options, switch Labor deployment on.

   • To optimize your schedule with the model, follow the steps in the video:

     Optimize your schedule using your sales forecast WITH labor deployment model

Step 5: Communicate shifts to staff and print reports

1. To let your staff know about their shifts, select 'Actions, then click Publish Schedules.

2. Employees can receive their schedules through:

   • SMS

   • Email

   • Push notifications to the phone app

     If you'd like to send the schedule by SMS or email, tick those boxes in the Publish Schedules window. You can also add a message for an employee if you want to share something with their schedules, such as "Staff meeting Wednesday 10AM."

3. After you've picked how you want to notify staff and added any messages, scroll down and click Choose all under the Staff box to move everyone over. Only employees with shifts scheduled for that week will get notifications.

4. Click Publish and Send. You can find more info about publishing shifts here.

5. This emails texts the Schedule to Staff for the week at the Location you're looking at. They'll also get a notification on their smartphone if WFM phone app is installed. Staff may also log in to the browser and see published Schedules. To print, select 'Print' and choose report type:

   This emails and texts the schedule to staff for the week at the location you're viewing. They'll also get a notification on their phone if the WFM app is installed. Staff can also log in on the browser to see published schedules.

   To print, click Print, then select any of the following reports:

   • Staff report shows a table view of the full week's schedule without wages.

   • Daily report gives you a bar graph view without wages.

   • Reports with '' in the name contain wage costs.

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