February 29th 2024, Release Note: WFM UK | Scheduling: Creating Brands and Regions, Shift Pooling

Summary

Select the release feature from the table below to be taken directly to that section of the release note.

Release date for all features: February 29th 2024

Creating Brands and Regions

• Enabled by default? - Yes
• Set up by customer admin? - Yes
• Enable via support ticket? - No
• Affects configuration or data? - Yes

What’s Changing?

Introduction of new Location groups - 'Brand' and 'Region' - that shifts can be assigned to for 'Pooling'.

Reason for the Change

Brands and Regions are required to enable Shift Pooling (the 2nd feature in this release note).

Customers Affected

All Fourth HR & Payroll-integrated Scheduling customers using Shift Pooling.

Release Notes 

• Go to Settings > My Schedule Settings > Brands/Regions

Fig.1 - My Schedule - Brands and Regions

From here, Brands and Regions can be created.

• Select Create New Brand or Create New Region

Fig.2 - 'Create New Brand' and 'Create New Region' buttons

• Name - give the name of the Brand/Region
• Select at least one Location and then Save

A Location can only be assigned to one Brand and one Region.

Fig.3 - Creating a Brand (the functionality is identical for creating Regions)

The Region(s) and Brand(s) will then appear on the Schedule page when an open shift is created. See the Shift Pooling feature below for more information.

Shift Pooling

• Enabled by default? - No
• Set up by customer admin? - Yes
• Enable via support ticket? - No
• Affects configuration or data? - Yes

What’s Changing?

Shift Pooling allows customers to easily publish open shifts to all employees who are looking for work on a flexible, short-term basis.

Reason for the Change

To help customers fulfil their labour demands and allow their employees a greater range of options for shifts that they take.

Customers Affected

UK HR & Payroll and HR Integrated customers only.

Release Notes

Configuration and Settings

The setting Use Internal Shift pooling needs to be enabled at Organisation and Department level.

• From the Scheduling homepage, go to Settings > Organisations
• Select Edit against the required Organisation
• Tick the box against Use Shift-Pooling Internal and then Save
• Go to Settings > My Schedule Settings > Organisation Settings
• Enable the setting Can use Internal Shift-Pooling and then Save
• Then do the same for Location Settings

Fig.4 - 'Can use Internal Shift-Pooling' setting

Fig.5 - 'Can use Internal Shift-Pooling' setting

• Create and publish open shifts as normal
• Then, from the Schedule page, select the Location(s) where the open shift will be published on the My Schedule app, with the possible options:
  • My Location - the current Location where the open shift is created
  • My Brand - all the Locations listed in the Brand where the publisher has access
  • My Region - all the Locations listed in the Region where the publisher has access
  • My Brand and My Region - all the Locations in 'My Brand' and in 'My Region' that the publisher has access to
  • My Company - all the Locations in the organisation
• To have the open shift be visible in the My Schedule app for all hourly paid employees, regardless of their job roles, enable the new setting, Available to all employees
  
  • If this setting is not enabled, the open shift will be visible only to employees who have a valid assignment for the shift's job role
• When all settings are applied, select Publish

Fig.6 - 'Available to all employees' setting and Location selection

The shift will then be made available as specified to employees using the My Schedule app. See below.

My Schedule – Employee Open Shifts Journey

The following steps are for an employee using the My Schedule app.

• Go to Open Shifts and use the Filters button

Fig.7 - Open Shifts > Filters

This new filter allows the hourly paid employees to find an open shift that they would like to work.

• To allow access to the device's location (geolocation), enable Current Location
  or
• Select a Location from the drop-down
• Chose a Distance Range - a radius around the selected Location in miles
• Select a Job Role(s) and a Date
• Start Time After is not a mandatory field
• Then select Apply

Fig.8 - Open Shifts Filters

A list of open shifts that match the search criteria will be returned by the API.

• Select the shift to offer to work

For more information on using the My Schedule app, please see this short video.

My Schedule – Scheduling Manager Journey

The following steps are for managers using the My Schedule app.

Managers will be able to see the list of employees who have offered to work available shifts.

• Use the Assign button to give shift(s) to the required employee(s)

Fig.9 - An external employee, the 'Assign' button

'External' Employees

If an employee is marked as 'External' (see Fig.9) it means they have no active employment in the shift's Location. When assign is selected for an 'External' employee, a pop-up window will appear, where an employment is created.

• The Job Title will be automatically loaded - select a different one if needed from the drop-down
• Manually enter the Hourly PayRate - if outside the payment range for the job title, an error message will be displayed
• The Start Date will be always the start date of the shift, and the End Date will mark the end of the employment - the employee will be able to work additional 'pooled' shifts for its duration

Fig.10 - Create Employment

If the Hourly PayRate has a max or min value only (which is taken from the Job Title in the HR module - Linked Rates of Pay), it will display just that number and not a range.

If the setting ( Settings > Organisations > Keep same rate for same job title in all locations) is enabled the assignment will be created with the same pay rate as the one for the main assignment for the same job title.

When the assignment request is sent, the manager will see confirmation onscreen.

When the shift is successfully assigned to an employee, they will receive a notification in their Fourth app and so will their manager.