How can I advance the Schedule (Rotaload)?

The following video covers verifying if your Contract Times are set up for a Site, Auto Scheduling, setting up an Auto Scheduling Profile, manually loading Schedules (Rotaloading) and unloading schedules (Un-rotaloading).

Rotaload functionality

Rotaload copies both duties and scheduling information for one or more (source) weeks into the empty duty slots in subsequent weeks. This allows users to follow a scheduling pattern week after week, only making changes when staff are not available, or when duty requirements change. This saves significant amounts of time during the scheduling process.

It is imperative to ensure that each site has been set up with contracted duties before RotaLoading takes place, as it is these contracted duties that get copied from the source. RotaLoad will not work for a site unless it has contracted duties. It makes no difference which week is being viewed when the RotaLoad button is selected - the next schedule will be added in the correct place.

As well as being able to schedule contract duties, Rotaload allows the scheduling of Non-Contract Until Further Notice (UFN) Duties. Typically, these are duties which are not part of the contracted hours for the site, but are worked upon on an ongoing, regular basis. UFN duties can be set up on the UFN tab on the Site maintenance screen of the Desktop Client, but can be viewed in the Web Client at Set Up | Sites | UFN tab.

Using Rotaload

Rotaload is run from within Plan | Sites. Select the site that you wish to Rotaload. Select RotaLoad from the toolbar. The following screen will be displayed:

 

To complete the Rotaload:

  • Review the Site Information
  • Review the contracted duties details and modify as necessary. To Rotaload contracted duties, select Rotaload
  • Review the UFN duties details and modify as necessary. To Rotaload contracted duties, select Rotaload
  • Select Rotaload from the toolbar (or select Back if you do not wish to proceed any further)

The following definitions will help when completing the above screen:

  • Allocate Employees - Select to allocate employees to the new RotaLoaded duties. When Rotaloading from a previous period, then the employees will be taken from the duties in the period. If Rotaloading from contracted hours, then the employees will be taken from the duties on the contract times set up against the Site
  • Rotation - The rotation, in terms of weeks (i.e. 1 means 1 week schedule to be Rotaloaded, 2 means a 2 week schedule to be RotaLoaded etc.)
  • From Where - Choose the source of the Rotaloaded duties. To Rotaload from duties in a previous period, then choose Using Period from the From Where drop-down list. To Rotaload from the contract times set up on the Site, choose Contracted Hours from the From Where drop-down list
  • Using Period - If Rotaloading Using Period then the site's Weeks in schedule determines how many weeks to go back, to find the source week. If Weeks in schedule is 1, then last week is the source week. If Weeks in schedule is 2, then the week before last is the source week etc. Alternatively, select a specific week to use as the source week, by selecting From out of the drop-down list options. Up to 20 previous weeks are available. Users will not be able to fill in From Where and From Where Using in the Rotaload frame, as the source for RotaLoaded UFN duties will always be the UFN duties entered in the Site Card created in the Desktop Client

The Rotaload process

  • Rotaload copies the Contracted/UFN Duties into the next unscheduled week(s) and allocates the appropriate employees.
  • The duties that have just been scheduled using Rotaload will be displayed.
  • If the Rotaload undertaken passes the current week, you will be able to move forward to see the week you have scheduled, by scroll up and down using the scroll bars on the left-hand side of the screen. Remember, this date is the Scheduled To Date.
  • If an employee has any non-override failures, the duty will be created as an unallocated (open post), but when an employee fails the check, the employee value will be set to the employee who previously worked the duty. The duty will be highlighted with a yellow background, to indicate the check failures. Details of the failures will show on the Checks Tab when the duty is edited.
  • If duties have been manually added into the period that is being Rotaloaded, then the RotaLoad process will move these manually added duties to the next available slot (for the same date), and mark the column heading as Conflicting Duties. This ensures that the Rotaload process takes precedence, but you still can manually add duties in the future.