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The Availability page aims to help you set up a schedule based on the availability provided by your employees. Some Police departments and Fire departments use this page differently. Below we will go over how to set up both.
Employees will use this page to select the times they are available to work. Employees can also number their shifts in order of preference. Admins can verify the shift times and make necessary modifications before assigning shifts.
Settings to Configure
Before we begin some settings will need to be configured. First message support at [email protected] to have Availabilities turned on for you. Once it is turned on make sure you have setup your Minimum Staffing requirements. For a detailed guide on this please click here.
Next head over to Admin > Groups & Schedules > Groups
We need to edit the group to add the additional shift times so that they can be seen when you hover over the cell to identify what shift the user is available to work.
Next head over to Admin > Settings > Site Settings.
Once there look for the setting called Availability Minimum Staffing and configure it according to your specific needs. Below is an example.
Setting Your Availabilities - Calendar View
Fire Departments commonly use the Calendar view because it is similar to what an actual calendar would look like when building the schedule. Below are numbered areas, and what they mean/are used for.
*The calendar view option can only be used if the Pace Support team sets up your site with a Calendar View during the initial build. This build is no longer offered. This option will not work correctly if your site has been set up to use Grid View.
- This is where you can access the Availability page to start setting up the schedule.
- You may receive this warning message if a shift has already been created for this person. You can ignore this message and still build the schedule if necessary.
- This allows you to set the availability for the individual selected in the drop-down.
- This allows the individual to set up their preferred shifts in order of preference. The lower the number, the higher the preference.
- This will export the Availabilities selected by all individuals to an Excel file - we can switch this to unavailable so you can see what shift times do not have people assigned to them.
- Select between Calendar View and Grid View to build the calendar.
Building the schedule using Calendar View
The calendar view will start on the 1st day of each month. Select the shift times the individual is unavailable for. If you would rather see the shift names and times, we can adjust them to ensure this is visible. Notes can be added by clicking on the pencil icon. These notes are visible on the calendar.
Below are your quick selection buttons. You can select/deselect for all occurrences of a shift or select availability based on the day. For example, selecting 06:00 - 12:00 will select all the 06:00 - 12:00 shifts for you for each day. The changes save automatically.
Once the employees are done, you'll need to head over to Admin > Employees> Generate Schedule
You'll receive a page similar to this one. Click the link for your preferred month to create a new schedule. In our example, we are building for April 2023.
Next, we'll leave the default option and check the box to confirm our decision. Hit the create button to build the schedule, and we're done. Now you can go back to the schedule and make any modifications necessary.
Setting Your Availabilities - Grid View
The grid view takes a more straightforward approach to build the schedule. The green areas represent the day the individual is available for that shift. The red area means unavailable.
As seen in the GIF below, every day will start as available. Clicking into the cell turns it red, meaning unavailable. The changes save automatically.
Building the schedule using Grid View
First, have an employee log into the scheduler and choose their unavailable days for the respective shift. Below is an example of how it would look for an employee making their selection and how to add notes to the dates they would be unavailable. Their selection is not a guarantee but more of a notice to the Supervisor that they prefer not to work that day. The command staff will see their choices and can make the final decision when building the schedule.
Once the employees have picked their preferred days off, click the Calendar tab. From here, ensure the month you are building is selected. Next, check the box for Availabilities; your schedule should be primarily green or red and include the available/unavailable days the employees selected.
Before proceeding further, building the minimum staffing rules as mentioned above you would like the scheduler to follow might be a good idea; it may help to ensure you have the proper coverage when deciding to honor the days the employees marked as unavailable.
Now we will assign the shifts needed to fill in the gaps on the schedule. Click on the Assign All button; this will auto-fill the schedule.
Caution as this will wipe the schedule and will add the shifts below for you automatically. If you are only doing this for a handful of availability times it is recommended not to use this button. Below is a better option.
If you have a schedule already built out for your full-time employees, you can hover over the cell to add in the days your part-time employees are available. This will show you the shifts they are available for as well are their preferred shift. From here just enter in the keyboard shortcut you set up to quickly add these shifts in.
How you proceed from this point forward is entirely up to you. Selecting a cell and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard will delete the shift for you. The Total row will keep a running tally of the month's ON shift, Regular Day Off, and Time Off for each individual. The columns update in real time as you make changes to the schedule.
If you have any questions or need additional assistance with setting up Availabilities please reach out to us at [email protected]
