Supervisor Rules

Mar 20, 2023

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Supervisor Rules allow you to define request flows and give certain people various abilities without them having to be full site admins.

These rules also dictate email/text/app notifications exchanged during the request process. (e.g. someone submits a request, who should be notified).

You can set up as many rules as you need, including multiple rules for one person if required.

Briefing

To begin, go here: (Admin Tab -> Employees -> Supervisor Rules)

Supervisor Rules are broken into 3 sections...

Supervisors
Abilities
Subordinates

We'll cover each of these in order below.

This is where you define who the supervisors for this rule are. These supervisors can be specific people or job types (each person only has one job type, so this lets you select all users of that Job Type in a single click).

You can also select shift items themselves as "Supervisors" under the "Add Temporary Supervisor" option. Shift items are things like Special Assignments, Overtime Types, and Assignments (Beat/Areas/Sectors/etc.). If you select one of these shift items as a "Supervisor", then anytime someone is assigned that shift item, they will also temporarily gain those elevated abilities. This "elevation" only lasts for the day they are assigned that shift item.

Example

Let's say Officer John McClane normally has 0 abilities; he can only request things. But let's also say he is the department's Officer In Charge (OIC) every Wednesday. If I selected the OIC Special Assignment as a "Supervisor" in one of the rules, Officer McClane would gain that elevated permission for Wednesday (and ONLY Wednesday).

Supervisor Abilities

This is where you select which abilities this rule is awarding to those supervisors we picked in the previous section. There are several to choose from, some of which "overrides" each other, as we'll explain below.

Manual Schedule Edits

If checked, supervisors in this rule can manually edit their subordinates' schedules. This is anything from assigning overtime, changing shifts, inputting time off, etc.

Add/Edit Shift Notes

If checked, the supervisors in this rule can add shift notes that appear as pop-up notes on the grid. This permission is built into the Manual Schedule Edits permission, so if that is already enabled, you can ignore this setting.

Handle 1st Level Request

If checked, the supervisors in this rule will be able to approve/reject 1st level requests submitted by their subordinates
- IF you have asked us to enable 2nd-level requests, there will also be an option here for 2nd-level requests.
  - IF a supervisor has both 1st & 2nd level requests - the 2nd-level request will overrule the 1st level based on logic written in the coding of the scheduler, so if you require 1st and 2nd-level approval, keep this in mind.

Targeted Request Notifications

Supervisors in this rule will only receive notifications (email/text) if the requesting subordinate chooses their name on the request forms. Subordinates can select one, multiple, or all of their supervisors.
This selection only affects notifications (email/text), not the request itself; therefore, all supervisors with request approval permission over that subordinate will still see and be able to handle the request in their Pending Requests queue.

Guaranteed Request Notifications

If a subordinate does not select any supervisor when submitting a request, ALL supervisors in this rule will be notified (email/text) instead.
Similarly, if Targeted Notifications are disabled, ALL supervisors in these rules will be notified (email/text) every time subordinates submit a request.
NOTE: Email/Text notifications must be enabled on your site for this setting to apply. If a user has set their own notifications preferences, their preferences will take precedence over this setting.

Subordinates

This is where you'll define the Subordinates for the Supervisors we set up at the beginning of this rule.

The biggest thing to remember when defining subordinates is that the more you select, the smaller a net you are casting; in other words, more is not merrier. This is because if you select multiple "qualifiers," people will have to meet ALL of those qualifiers to be considered a subordinate. I cover this in more depth towards the end of this section, but let's get the simpler items out of the way first.

All employees (except self)

If checked, every person on the site will be considered a subordinate of this rule(s), including the other supervisors in this rule. The only person that will NOT be considered a subordinate in this rule will be the Supervisor of this rule. In other words, they won't gain permission over themself, only over others.
If selected, this qualifier will override all others (except self).
- So if you select All Employees (except self) and then add several job types etc., these other selections will get overruled by the All Employees selection.

Self

If checked, this person will gain permission over themself. In other words, they will be considered their own subordinate. Unless you are a site Admin, this is the only way to edit your schedule. Think of this checkbox as a "bonus" that will apply on top of any other selections you've made for subordinates, including selections that say "(except self)."

Job Types

Select one or more of the job types for the subordinates that will fall under this Supervisor and the Rules checked above

Groups

Select one or more groups that will fall under this Supervisor and the Rules checked above

Schedules

Select one or more shifts that will fall under this Supervisor, and the Rules checked above

People

Select one or more individuals by name to be subordinates.

Example 1 (More is not merrier)

Let's say I select the "Patrol" job type and the "Day Shift" group as subordinate qualifiers.
- This would mean that the only people qualifying as subordinates in this rule are Patrol Officers who ALSO happen to be in the Day Shift group.

Things to keep in mind

A person can appear in multiple rules. They may be a subordinate in one rule and a supervisor in another rule for a different set of users. They may even be a supervisor/subordinate in 5 different rules!
ANYONE can be a Subordinate, even the Chief! Being a Subordinate in a supervisor rule doesn't mean that the person will have a reduced status or abilities on the site; it simply means that we want the Supervisors and their abilities that we defined earlier to be usable on this set of people.

Summary View & Example Rules

As you add supervisor rules, you will be able to see them in a summary/index view, and you can edit, remove, and add new ones right from there.

I will use the above summary view to demonstrate a few different rules: A, B, and C, which is similar to how a police department, in particular, may set up at least some of its rules.

A) This rule is set up for a Dispatch Supervisor

Those with the job type of Dispatch Supervisor can now perform all of the actions listed in their respective "Supervisor Abilities" section, and he can perform those actions on any Dispatcher job type personnel, and ONLY them.

B) This rule is set up for a Sergeant

Those with the job type of Sergeant can now perform all of the actions listed in his respective "Supervisor Abilities" section, and they can perform those actions on any Patrol Officer, Community service Officer, Deputy, or Detention Tech job type ONLY.
If someone is given a Special Assignment of OIC designation, they will be given all of the supervisor abilities of a Sergeant for THAT day only unless specified within the supervisor rules.

C) This rule is set up for a specific person Mike Cedin

Mike Cedin can perform all the actions listed in his respective "Supervisor Abilities" section. He can perform those actions on ANYONE with the job type of Dispatcher that also fall into the Day shift, Afternoon shift, and Midnight Shift and those with a schedule view of only the Main Schedule and Dispatch and ONLY them.
- Notice that in this rule, we are using a person rather than a Job Type, so we gave Office Cedin Supervisor abilities over only those with a Dispatcher Job type. We narrowed it down further by specifying the groups and schedule view as another criterion.

Rename, Reorder, & Collapse Supervisor Rules

You can now rename, reorder and collapse supervisor rules. To rename the rule, click edit and then enter a custom name at the top of the form. Click Save at the bottom to save the changes.

To reorder your rules, click on a rule and move it to the desired spot. Changes save automatically for you.

To collapse a rule, click it and click it again to uncollapse it.