Labor Forecasting and Schedule Optimization

A new maintenance form and table were added to hold rounding rules. Previously, the system used the conventional rounding up at 0.5. The rounding rule is now user-defined, such that users can define the maximum productivity level.

Multi-Activity Shifts (Transitions) were implemented. When an employee has skills to work in two areas, the system can create a shift that spans both areas based on shift efficiency.

With all things equal between two employees, they should be allocated approximately the same number of hours. The Assign Staff Randomly rule accomplishes this. It assigns shifts to staff randomly.

The “Skill Greater Than Required” rule was changed to the “Skill Must Be Better Than Required Skill” rule. This rule assigns staff with the highest skills first, and then selects from the next skill level group of employees, and so on, until all required shifts are filled or until there are no more employees qualified to work in the Schedule Area.

Shift offset from schedule area functionality was implemented, built on the existing Position offset framework. This gives users the ability to set shift start and stop offsets at the beginning and end of shifts. These represent non-service activities that must be performed.

Best Fit distribution: Schedules can now be generated using best fit distribution. If a department is set up to use best fit, then the workload hours are calculated based on the daily total volume rather than any particular interval requirements.

The schedule displays employees as Absent if there is an LTA reason for their unavailability. This provides additional availability data (LTA), making the selection of employees who are able to work easier for managers.