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Declaring employee availability You can declare the times that your employees are available to work, or times they are not. This is the purpose of the current availability and the recurring availability sections. Recurring Availability Weekly pattern of availability Current Availability Weekly availability for specific weeks Optionally, you can allow some or all of your employees to declare their own availability via the web as well. Availability is declared by adding special time blocks called availability time blocks which block off time for a specific employee as being either available or unavailable. Employee availability is considered when auto-scheduling and when showing conflicts, if the appropriate availability rule is added to the Rules section. In order for availability to have an effect, you must have chosen to use availability in the Setup Wizard (which adds the appropriate rules for you automatically, based on your answers), or you must add one of the following two rules to the Rules section (not both): No employee should be scheduled during any time declared UNAVAILABLE for the employee. This is the rule to use if your employees are available most of the time, but are unavailable at specific times. Using this rule, the system assumes that your employees are available at all times EXCEPT those specifically declared unavailable. Only schedule an employee for shifts that fall within the time declared AVAILABLE for the employee. This is the rule to use if your employees are unavailable most of the time, but are available at specific times. Using this rule, the system assumes that your employees are unavailable at all times EXCEPT those specifically declared available. Employee availability does not disable you from assigning any employee to any shift. The manager can always break any rule. Assuming the above mentioned rules are added in the Rules section, here is the effect availability will have on your schedule: You can see any shifts that conflict with any employee's availability, when in the current schedule and in "Show Conflicts" mode. Show Conflicts mode is available by clicking Options | Show Conflicts in the top drop down menu of the current schedule. The Show Conflicts mode will show you which shifts on the schedule conflict with any of your rules, which includes availability conflicts as well as many other potential conflicts. See Rules. The auto-scheduler will not schedule any employee where doing so would cause an availability conflict. Setting up recurring availability In the recurring availability section you can declare each employee's weekly pattern of availability. For example, you could say that employee John Smith is available Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9am to 4pm, and Tuesdays from 7p to midnight. In this section you indicate the usual pattern, without regard to sparatic changes, which are handled in the current availabilty section (see below). Click here for instructions on how to set up an employee's recurring availability pattern. Overriding recurring availability In the current availability section you can override each employee's weekly pattern of availability for any week by declaring a different pattern of availability for just the one week. You can do this for any week. Click here for instructions on how to override an employee's recurring availability for any week. Didn't find your answer here? Call our technical support line toll free at 866-846-3123! Employee Scheduling home