Shift Premium Zone Rule

The Shift Premium Zone Rule automatically pays premiums to employees as extra compensation for working under certain circumstances. The rule relies on the configuration of shift premium zones, which determine when and how the premium is paid.

See Configuring shift premium zones.

Technical details

com.workbrain.app.ta.quickrules.ShiftPremiumZoneRule

Overview

The Shift Premium Zone Rule is used to pay premiums to employees according to the configuration of a shift premium zone. A shift premium zone is a range of time during which eligible employees earn premiums for eligible work.

Premiums can be paid based on a variety of factors, such as the employee’s schedule, the hours the employee works, or if the employee worked unscheduled time. Premiums can be limited to employees working specific jobs or projects, or to employees who work a minimum amount of time.

These are the main aspects of premiums that are controlled by shift premium zones:

  • Which employees are eligible to earn the premium?
  • What work earns employees the premium?
  • How is the premium amount calculated?
  • What is the maximum employees can earn in a premium?

Which employees are eligible?

You define which employees are eligible to earn the premium by applying the rule to their calculation group. Only the employees in the calculation groups to which the rule is applied are eligible to earn the zone’s premium.

The list of eligible employees, drawn from the calculation groups, can be further refined based on:

What work earns a premium?

The initial factor that determines whether an employee's work earns a premium is when the work occurred. The worked time must occur during the time range defined by the shift premium zone's start and end time. These times define the range of time during which eligible work is paid a premium.

Work details are records in the application with a start and end time, associated time codes, hour types, labor metrics, and other information, which describe what an employee was doing for a period of time. If a work detail occurs during the shift premium zone, the work detail potentially earns the employee a premium, but the work detail must pass the zone's conditions. If a work detail in the zone passes all the zone's conditions, the work detail is considered eligible work and earns the employee a premium.

You can define what work details are eligible to earn premiums based on these factors:

  • The time code. You must define what time codes are considered eligible work so that employees are only paid premiums for appropriate activities.
  • The hour type. Eligible work can be limited to time paid at the employee's regular rate, time and a half, or any specific hour type.
  • The associated labor metrics. Eligible work can be limited to time spent working in specific departments or on specific jobs.
  • Whether the worked time was scheduled
  • Whether the worked time was unscheduled.

    See Business example 5: Shift Premium Zone Rule.

  • The amount of time the employee worked during the zone. You can configure the minimum amount of time an employee must work during the zone before earning a premium.
  • The work starting or stopping before or after specific times.

In addition to eligible work, the rule can also be configured to pay premiums on work premiums (for example, when an employee receives premium time that must be included in the employee's calculated shift premium monies owed).

See Business example 6: Shift Premium Zone Rule.

How is the premium amount calculated?

The basic premium amount is calculated as the premium's rate multiplied by the duration of the premium. The zone's start and end times define the duration of the zone and set the boundaries during which premiums can be earned.

You configure how the premium duration is determined. The premium duration can be:

  • Equal to the duration of the eligible work details in the zone.
  • A constant duration for all eligible employees, regardless of the duration of eligible time worked in the zone.

Also, you configure how the premium rate is calculated. The premium rate can be:

  • A dollar amount as an hourly rate.
  • A percentage of the employee's base rate.
  • A percentage of the worked rate.

What is the maximum employees can earn?

The maximum amount employees can earn from a premium can be controlled by several parameters. The maximum amount is partially controlled by the duration of the shift premium zone. The larger the zone, the longer employees can perform eligible work, and the larger the premiums.

The rule can be configured to insert premiums of a constant duration. So this duration, multiplied by the premium's rate, defines how much employees can earn.

You can also limit how much employees can earn from premiums by:

  • Setting the maximum duration of the premium, in minutes, employees can earn in a day.
  • Setting the maximum dollar amount employees can earn in a day.

Configuration

The Shift Premium Zone Rule's behavior is based on the values of the rule's parameters, the conditions assigned to the rule, and the parameters of the shift premium zones the rule implements.

The majority of the configuration involves the shift premium zone. Add shift premium zones through Maintenance > Schedule Settings > Shift Premium Zone.

See Configuring shift premium zones.

Rule Parameters

Parameter Description
Shift Premium Zone Specify the names of the shift premium zones to which the rule applies. You can specify one or multiple zones. If left blank, the rule applies to all shift premium zones.