Shift Properties

Use the Shifts Properties pane to define the general shift parameters. By default, this pane opens when you select a shift in the Shifts pane.

Name Field

The name for this shift. Use names, such as First Shift, Swing Shift, or Second Shift, that identify the shift type. The name must be unique within the site.

Time and Duration

• Min. Paid Hours—The minimum number of hours defined for this shift, entered in hh:mm format. All contracts assigned to the shift must be available to work at least this number of hours. Valid values are 00:01 to 23:45. This value must be less than or equal to the Maximum Daily Paid Hours setting in the associated contract. Must include all paid breaks and meals.
• Max. Paid Hours—The maximum number of hours defined for this shift, entered in hh:mm format. Valid values are 00:01 to 23:45. This value must be greater than or equal to the Minimum Daily Paid Hours setting in the associated contract. Must include all paid breaks and meals.
• Earliest Start Time—The earliest time that this shift can start. Some sites stagger shifts so that, for example, all third-shift agents arrive between 7:15 and 8:15. The earliest start time for this shift would then be 7:15.
• Latest End Time—The latest time that this shift can end. Shift agents can end their shift at staggered intervals that correspond to the stagger at the beginning of the shift. For example, a shift that starts between 7:15 and 8:15 can end between 3:15 and 4:15. The latest end time for this shift would then be 4:15.
• Next Day—When this check box is checked, indicates that this shift can end during the next day.
• Start Step—If using staggered start times for various agents working a shift, the Start Step is the increment of time between possible shift start times. Scheduler uses this Start Step to configure agent schedules. The start step can be any number of minutes between 1-120.

Important

The Earliest Start Time's last two digits must be either :00 or an even multiple of the Start Step entry; otherwise, Scheduler disregards the Start Step entry and defaults to a Start Step of 15 min. For example: If you set an Earliest Start Time of 9:15 and a Start Step option of 30 minutes, the Scheduler disregards the Start Step entry (because 15 is neither equal to nor a multiple of 30), and starts shifts at 9:15, 9:30, 9:45, 10:00, and so on.

Use the following optional time settings to narrow the range of time during which the start or end of the shift can be scheduled. You can create a fixed start or end time for the shift. For example, to set a fixed start time, set the Latest Start Time field to the same time as the Earliest Start Time field. The total shift duration then remains flexible.

Important

If you set fixed start and end times for your shift, the shift will be too inflexible to create optimal schedules.

• Latest Start Time—The latest time that this shift can start. Some sites stagger shifts so that, for example, all third-shift agents arrive between 7:15 and 8:15. The latest start time for this shift would then be 8:15.
• Earliest End Time—The earliest time that this shift can end. Shift agents can end their shift at staggered intervals that correspond to the stagger at the beginning of the shift. For example, a shift that starts between 7:15 and 8:15 might end between 3:15 and 4:15. The earliest end time for this shift would then be 3:15.

Available Days of Week

The days of the week for which this shift can be assigned by the scheduling algorithm. By default, all days are selected.

Distribution:

• Min.—The minimum number of occurrences of the shift for each agent whose contract is associated with the shift.

• Max.—The maximum number of occurrences of the shift for each agent whose contract is associated with the shift.

• Applies To—The period of time for which Scheduler should apply the distribution minimum and maximum.
  • Disregard—Distribution properties are not applied.
  • Every Week—The Min./Max. are considered on a weekly basis. Amounts entered should equal the numbers required for one week.
  • Schedule Planning Period—Distribution properties are applied to the schedule planning period. Distribution amounts entered should equal the numbers required for the entire schedule planning period.

Days-Off Rule

The rules that can be defined for the days off that are associated with the shift:

• No Rule means there are no rules about days off.
• There are three possible day-off rules:
  • Next day—If agents work this shift, they get the next day off.
  • Previous day—If agents work this shift, they get the previous day off.
  • Next day is not off—If agents work this shift, they cannot get the next day off.