Advanced Scheduler Overview 

Advanced Scheduling allows for automation of schedule creation by using Skills and Scheduled Cost Centers to determine where employees can work and what the employee can or will be doing for the scheduled shift. The goal of Advanced Scheduling is to provide as much automation as possible in a changing environment. Advanced Scheduling allows for employees to swap shifts, drop shifts, add availability, and view schedules all from the web or mobile app. Managers will have capability to quickly schedule while staying within budget as well as avoid any pre-approved time off or availability. The video below will cover the entire process once all settings have been configured. The remaining guide will cover all levels of access guides to ensure settings within the system and on the employees are in place to ensure the system can work as automated as possible.

 Level Of Access Overview 

When working with Advanced Scheduling, there will be 3-4 levels of access users that will be involved in the build of the system, the employee settings, and creating schedules. The User Definitions are listed below with functionality typically granted. Any functionality with an * indicates that the function is dependent on if this is a feature your company has decided to use or not.

Company Administrator

• Scheduler Set Up

• Create/Edit Scheduler Settings

• Add New Skills & Assign Skills to Cost Center

• Assign Manager Permissions

• Create/Edit Workload Template

• Employee Maintenance

• add Skills, Scheduled Cost Center, and Scheduler Profile to Employee

• Update/Maintain Employee Availability

• Schedule Creation

• Create Schedule

• Post Schedule

• Un-post Schedule

• Override Constraints

• Post Open Shifts

• Schedule Workflow after Post

• Approve/Deny Swaps

• Approve/Deny Request for Coverage (Drop Shifts)

• Approve/Deny Availability Requests

• Approve/Deny Open Shift Pick Up

Department Manager

• Scheduler Set Up

• Create/Edit Workload Template

• Employee Maintenance

• add Skills, Scheduled Cost Center, and Scheduler Profile to Employee

• Update/Maintain Employee Availability

• Schedule Creation

• Create Schedule

• Post Schedule

• Un-post Schedule

• Override Constraints

• Post Open Shifts

• Schedule Workflow after Post

• Approve/Deny Swaps

• Approve/Deny Request for Coverage (Drop Shifts)

• Approve/Deny Availability Requests

• Approve/Deny Open Shift Pick Up

Time Keeping & Scheduling Manager

• Employee Maintenance

• add Skills, Scheduled Cost Center, and Scheduler Profile to Employee

• Update/Maintain Employee Availability

• Schedule Creation

• Create Schedule

• Post Schedule

• Un-post Schedule

• Override Constraints

• Post Open Shifts

• Schedule Workflow after Post

• Approve/Deny Swaps

• Approve/Deny Request for Coverage (Drop Shifts)

• Approve/Deny Availability Requests

• Approve/Deny Open Shift Pick Up

Employee

• Employee Self Service

• Request to Swap Shift with Peer(s)*

• Request to Drop Shift to Peer(s)*

• Request to add Availability/Preferences*

• Pick Up Open Shifts*

• View Team Schedule*

 Permissions: Assigning Manager & Proper Security Settings 

Completed by Company Administrator

In order to manage anything on the actual Schedule, a manager must have the proper security profile, have access to the team they oversee, and must be assigned to the "Managed Scheduled Cost Center". Below is an overview of all three steps to ensure your managers can start making schedules and editing skills, etc.

Security Profile:

When we set up your account to have access to Scheduling, we will usually edit a current TLM Manager Security profile to include Scheduling if the same person manages time schedules. If your company has only a scheduler, we may create a specific profile for you. Check with your Green Leaf rep to determine which profile to use.

To check on the manager's security profile, navigate to the employee record (Hamburger Menu > Team Tab> My Team > Employee Information - locate the manager, then "Profiles". Find the Profile titled "Security" and choose the appropriate profile to match, such as "TLM/Scheduling Manager".

Access to the Team "Groups"

Now to make sure this manager has access to the team they oversee, they must have access to the people. To check on this or to add, navigate to the Hamburger Menu > Gear Icon > Global Set Up > Groups > Edit

Look for the group that best fits this manager. For example, if they oversee the entire department, you may look for the cost center by name or if they oversee everyone, choose the "All Company Employee" group. Choose the pencil next to the group. Then choose "View Group Permissions"

Once there, you can see current managers to the left as seen below or you can add a new manager by choosing "Add Manager". Once you add a manager, don't forget to check off which tasks they can do for that group. This will affect what they see in the employees when they operate in the system.

Below is the window that appears when you "Add Manager". Choose the manager then check all boxes that apply.

Assigning the Cost Center to the Manager  

In order for the manager to have the right to add skills to employees or edit workload templates (beyond security to this data), they must also have the Cost Center assigned to them in their employee record. To do this, you can do it by Mass Edit, or you can add it manually.

Manually: Hamburger Menu > Team Icon > My Team > Employee Information - locate the employee, open the employee record and locate the "Managed Scheduled Cost Centers" widget. Add the cost centers by choosing the ellipses and "Add Cost Centers".

 Scheduler Settings - "Adding a New Location "

Completed by Company Administrator

  Scheduler  Settings   

Typically during initial Advanced Scheduling Implementation, Green Leaf would have set up any current locations you have with a Scheduler Setting. The Setting tells the system, which locations or departments to include in the schedule, how many days are part of the cycle, what time zone the schedule is in, and any budget related rules. The only time a Company Admin would need to make any changes to Scheduler Settings is if a new location is being added. In this case, please do the following:

Navigate to the Hamburger Menu > Settings Tab> Scheduler Set Up > Schedule Settings.

Once there you'll see all current settings present. Click the "Copy" icon.

Once the Settings have been copied, click the pencil next to the Copy of the settings.

Update all areas marked in RED below.

• Name: Update as the name of the location being added.

• Time Zone: Update according to the new location, if needed

• Employees Scheduled: Click into the people icon to update the filter to the appropriate location. If you do not see the option of location filter, please reach out to your Green Leaf Advanced Scheduler Rep to assist.

• Posting Workflow: Please reach out to your Green Leaf Advanced Scheduler Rep to assist in creating a workflow for the new location.

• Use Cost Centers for Scheduler: Add the Cost Center that should be used in the new location (typically this is one location but can be more depending on how you have your scheduler settings set up)

All settings on the right can remain as is. Now that the new location settings are in place, the next steps would be to create skills or if the skills currently in the system will apply to the new location, skip the Skills step and add the skills to the Cost Center where the skills should be worked. Then create a Workload and this location will be ready to be scheduled.

 Skills & Cost Centers 

Completed by Company Administrator

 Skills 

When it comes to Advanced Scheduling, Skills are required in order to determine what "Role" aka Skill needs to be filled on the schedule. More than one skill can be assigned to a single employee; the skill they are working in will be listed in the schedule. For example, based on the below Skills, an employee would see on the schedule that they are scheduled as a "Driver"  on a particular day and if they are also a "Packager" they'd see themselves scheduled as a "Packager" on another day. The below steps cover adding Skills and Maintaining them.

STEP 1: Create/Maintain Skills

To manually add skills or maintain current skills:

Navigation Path: Hamburger menu > HR Set Up > Skills

Once in the Skill screen, you can add a new skill, by clicking "Add New Skill" OR edit a current Skill by clicking the pencil icon.

Once on the edit or add Skill screen, add the Category (optional) (RED BOX), and give the Skill a name, (GREEN BOX).

Remember that an employee can have more than one Skill and the Skill is the name of the particular shift you want to fill. For example, if you have a retail environment and you have associates that all have the same job title but some would be considered leads for a shift then you'd have 2 Skills. "Associate" and "Lead Associate". Then if the employee then can sometimes be a Lead or just an Associate, you can add both skills to the employee and they will work in the 2 different roles when scheduled.

In the PURPLE BOX determine if you'd like the Skill to display on Applicant Tracking (helping automate new hires to have Skills). Always select "Is Schedulable" in order to be on the schedule. Choose a color of your preference. Assign an average rate if you'd like to help keep schedules within budget.

The average rate will be used for the Open Shifts budget but once the employee is actually assigned to the schedule, the employee's base compensation will be taken into consideration for the budget.

STEP 2: Assign Skills to Cost Center

After Skills have been created, they will need to be assigned to the Cost Center that would have this Skill to Schedule.

Navigate to your Cost Centers: Hamburger Menu > Settings Tab > Global Set Up > Cost Centers

Typically all companies have a Department, Worksite, and Delivery Cost Center set up. Choose the Pencil next to the Worksite Cost Center. When you think of Cost Centers in relation to scheduling, think of them as the "where" would an employee be working.

Once in the Cost Centers, choose the cost center that would need Skills assigned, and add the Skill or Skills as seen below. If your Cost Center Tree has multiple layers, you may add Skills to each layer.

CAUTION - DO NOT UPDATE ANY ADDRESSES ON COST CENTERS! 

The address on the worksite dictate how employees are taxed. Please do not make any address changes without Green Leaf being involved.

 Workload Templates 

Completed by Company Admin, Department Manager, and sometimes Time Keeping Manager

In order to maintain current templates navigate to the Hamburger Menu,> Settings Tab > Scheduler Set Up > Workload Templates

If current Workload Templates are already created you may want to make Edits. If you need to create a new template from scratch, skip down to the "Add New" steps.

Edit Current Workload Templates

From here,  you can click into the pencil to add or edit existing shifts that are part of your current template.

Then you can add rows by clicking "add row",  edit existing by overriding the current data, or delete by clicking the x next to the line.

Add New Workload Template

If you'd like to create a completely new template from scratch rather than clicking the pencil icon on the Workload Template Screen - choose "Add New". Then came the Workload Template accordingly, such as "Retail". Below, enter the information accordingly to build your Workload Template.  How to Create a Workload Template

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gJIgT_NMa4ysUAcIrNQYtNh9b6Pp9zua/view

How to Create a Workload Template Import

Please see the below video on how to create a template to import directly into the system, rather than manually create. The document referenced in the video is attached to the article. Please provide the finished product to your implementation specialist or upload it to the "Workload Template Import" section in the system.

 Employee Maintenance 

Completed by Company Admin, Department Manager, or Time Keeping Manager

In order for the Scheduler to work properly you need 3 main factors assigned to the employees. You need them to have a Skill(s) assigned, they need to have a Scheduled Cost Center (different than Default Cost Center), and they must have a Scheduler Profile assigned. During the implementation of the Schedule, we would assist in assigning the Skills, Profiles, and Cost Centers, but moving forward, all new hires and current employees would be maintained manually or at the time of hire.

Add notes about the report to reference

 Assigning  Skills  

Skills

To locate the Skills and Scheduled Cost Centers navigate the employee record. The navigation path is Hamburger Menu > Team Icon > My Team > Employee Information > Click on the employee info icon.

Once in the record, locate the Time Keeping & Scheduling tab.

Once there, you will see the Jump To box to choose Skill or Scheduled Cost Center.

Then to add a Skill - choose the +Add option. If you need to add new Skills to the Company the "Define Skills" button will take you to the Skills setup. (Keep in mind that adding Skills would also need to be added to the templates if applicable)

If the employee has more than 1 skill, you may want to mark the main skill as primary. Note there is also the option to add years and skill levels. Both options are for reporting purposes only. If employees need to be scheduled more often than others due to seniority, etc. that would be determined in the employee's Scheduler Profile. If an employee has a skill they need to be assigned but rarely works that particular skill, then the skill would be marked as "Float".

 Assigning  Scheduler Profile  

In order for the employees to be scheduled, the employees must also have a "Scheduler Profile" assigned to them. This profile would have been built to determine rules that apply to this employee, such as how many hours the employee can work in a day, or week, etc.

To apply the profile to the employee, navigate to the employee info screen, then open up the employee's record. Navigate to the profiles section of the account profile. Typically the profiles will be named based on the rules such as "Full-Time" or "Part-Time" to help ensure ease of choosing the proper option.

Both the Scheduled Cost Center and Skills can be added to Defaults for Jobs if they will always be consistent. Be sure to check out the article on adding Jobs if you'd like to learn more.

 Assigning Scheduled Cost Center 

To add the  Scheduled Cost Center, choose the ellipses in the Scheduled Cost Center tile, then choose "Add Cost Centers". Choose which is applicable.

 Assigning  Availability/Preferences  

In order for an employee to update availability, we must first give the employee access to do so. If any of the screens below are not visible to your employees, it would mean we need to update the employee ESS section in the security profile to allow "Work Time Availability" and "Work Time Preferences".

If this is already active, the employee would navigate to the Hamburger Menu > Single Person Icon > My Schedule > Availability Preferences

Once the day is clicked on the calendar, the options become available on the right.

You can choose more than one day at a time if the preferences would be the same.

Once the day/date is chosen then and the pencil for Availability or Preferences is clicked, the screen below will appear - here there is the option to choose from the blue drop-down of available/not available, etc. The drop-down will determine if a time frame is to be added or if you chose "full day" the time will disappear. Make your choices then "Apply" The same process would apply to"Preferences"

After the criteria have been selected, the calendar will reflect the choices as seen below. To make any adjustments to the Date, click on the date.

To see existing preferences or to delete them choose "Existing Availability/Preferences"

Here you can see all that you have listed and delete any that is no longer applicable.

Depending on the workflow, a manager may or may not have to approve these "Preferences".

 Creating Schedules 

Completed by Company Admin, Department Manager or Time Keeping Manager

 Creating Schedule 

When creating a schedule, there are a few options such as manually creating the schedule, utilizing a pre-made template (workload template), and/or templates related to POS System data, etc. All options are found in the Advanced Scheduling Tool. Below all options are explained.

To create a schedule, first, navigate to Hamburger Menu > Team Icon > Schedule > Advanced Scheduling > Schedules - based on what criteria you will be using, follow one of the 3 options below.

When using a Template:

1. Add New

2. Choose the "Base Setting" (these are the rules or budget created for you and can be edited via gear icon > scheduler settings > schedule settings - refer to the article for more info)

3. Enter the Start Date (usually the first day of the week)

Choose "Import Workload Template". The templates created prior will be your options. If you need to create additional templates refer to Workload Templates for steps to create additional templates to use.

Once Import Workload Template is chosen, the view will look like the below:

If you want to add a shift on the fly to this template, choose "Add Requirement". This will add the time, skill, etc. to the template to allow for the system to add the additional shift needed into the auto-population equation. Keep in mind, you can still add shifts to the employees in steps later on.

Now we must "Generate Shifts For Open Coverage". This step will create the shifts to fill.

After "Generate Shifts for Open Coverage" has been clicked, you may now click on "Week View". This will take you to the screen seen below. You'd then need to click the ellipses to "Assign Shifts". This step will auto-populate all shifts and assign them to employees. If you need to assign a hard coded (Freeze/PIN) manual shift to an employee before "Assign Shifts" you would want to click the ellipses before assigning. Then add the manual shift, PIN/Freeze the shift, then click the ellipses to "Assign Shifts".

Assigning shifts will take a moment as the system works through all rules on the employees, company, etc. If you get an error, please check to ensure you "Generated" shifts before this step.

The new view has all action items in the ellipses on the next screen.

Once the system is done assigning, you may now click into the ellipses (if you did not already on the earlier step) and choose week view to see the full scope of the shifts generated.

Once shifts are assigned, your schedule should look something like this - now you can skip down to fine-tuning steps.

When creating a schedule Manually:

Navigate to Hamburger Menu > Team Icon > Advanced Scheduling > Schedules

Add New - choose the rules from the drop-down and add the start date of the schedule.

Once on this screen SAVE then click ellipses and choose "Week View" to start manually adding shifts.

Once in the schedule, simply click into a day on the employee row, then the box below will appear. Choose "Add New Shift".

You can edit the date and time, choose a cost center (scroll down)

Add the skill and now "Save" becomes available. If there were any conflicts, there would be an alert at this time.

Continue adding shifts until the schedule is complete.

Cloning (copying):

If you have a shift you want to copy, rather than following all steps from above, navigate to the scheduling area, rather than hitting new, click on the icon seen below. Then follow the steps of updating the dates.

Once you clone and add the dates, no need to generate or assign shifts as they will already be created per the copy.

Once the schedule is created by any of the 4 options above, you will now have the option to start fine-tuning the schedule before "Posting" the schedule. To get to the schedule click on the ellipses in the upper right corner and choose "Week View".

Here's a quick overview of what the schedule would look like and some quick tips/tricks on functionality.

Clicking on an employee's name, a new window will appear showing you the hours they are scheduled as well as availability and preferences (if applicable).

Clicking into a shift will give the option to "un-assign employee", "copy", "delete" or "manage shift" which will give the option to change the time/cost center/ etc. for the shift. If you "un-assign" the shift will move to "Open Shifts" to the left, if you "Delete" the shift will be deleted. If you "Copy" you would then click into the space you'd like to "Paste" the shift to. Managing will allow you to update the time of the shift or any other criteria you need to update.

On the left, all "Open" shifts will be listed. When clicking on the "Open" shift, you will have the option to "Assign Employee". Once clicked a list of employees available to work the shift, will be listed to choose from. The second tab will have a list of employees not available and the reasons why. The reasons can be overridden but you may also want to take into consideration some of the constraints and rules assigned to the employees that could cause the restricted list of Qualified employees.

When "constraints" or rules pop up or are restricting you from being able to schedule an employee, you can click the ellipses and "Override Constraint" allowing you to schedule the employee regardless of the constraint.

Views:

You can view the schedule by Weekly, Daily, Employee, and/or Cost Center.

Each View will have more/less info than the next. Daily will have the coverage by hour options. FYI, No matter what view you're on, the whole week will post when you are ready to do so.

To print:

If you'd like to print the schedule, click the ellipses to "Print". Once the schedule has been posted, a PDF option will become available. Excel in this view is not available.

To Delete a Schedule:

If you accidentally add too many shifts, you will need to manually remove the shifts. If not too much work has been done, we recommend Deleting and starting over.

Below is found by navigation: Hamburger Menu > Team Icon > Schedule> Advanced Scheduling > Schedules

To Post a Schedule:

Once a shift is how you'd like it to be,  you can then "Post" the schedule. To post the schedule, choose the ellipses in the upper right of the schedule itself and choose "Post".

At that time, the status will move from "Trial" to "Posted". A posted schedule will send an alert to employees that the schedule has been posted as well as become visible for managers to view as well as populate on timesheets and reports.

For employee views of the schedule once posted, please refer to the employee Knowledge Center articles on Schedules.

 Posting Open Shifts 

This article will go over how to add Open Shifts to Advanced Scheduling and the process by which employees can request as well as how Managers Approve or Deny the request.

Note: Open Shifts would be shifts that you would like to post to the Schedule and allow employees to pick up the shifts.

To create Open Shifts, login into your Elevated account.

Go to Hamburger Menu > Team Icon> Schedule> Advanced Scheduling> Schedules

Click on the pencil icon of the posted schedule you would like to post open shifts to (or if creating a new Schedule, these steps will be done after choosing "Add New").

Choose the drop-down "Post Open Shifts" under Manage Open Shifts. Then to post the shifts, click "View By Week"

The open shifts as seen below are on the left-hand side and need to be posted. To post choose "Manage Open Shifts" at the top of the Open Shift Column.

Once you click the "Manage Open Shift" a new window will be displayed, choose the shifts you would like to be able to pick up the shift or choose "Send to All Employees From Schedule", and select the "Schedule Open Shift Request" workflow, then choose the date you would like the shifts to be available for pick up until and choose "Post".

Once the Open Shifts have been posted as well as the Schedule, the employee will be able to request to pick up the shift(s). Below is how the employee would see the Open Shifts to request a pick-up.

Employee View/How To Pick Up an Open Shift:

From the employee's account under My Info> My Schedule> Schedule > click "Show Open Shifts"

The employee would click on Show Open Shifts. Then all open shifts will show on the date with open shifts will have dots along the bottom of the date. Then on the date, the calendar icon will allow them to click the icon and request to pick up the shift.

Select the shift you would like to request and click "Submit".

Once the employee requests to pick up the shift, the manager will be notified and will have the option to approve or deny the shift to be picked up by the employee.

Manager View/Approving/Deny:

Now that the employee has requested to pick up the shift, the manager must Approve for the shift to be assigned to the employee requesting the shift. Below are the steps the Manager would take to complete the task.  

From the manager view on the dashboard locate the mailbox where you're My To Do Items will be listed. Here, the request to "Approve/Reject Schedule Open Shift Request" will appear. Click on the request by clicking the blue arrow.

From there, you will see the request and if you scroll down you must select the employee you want to Approve/Reject. Then click Approve/Reject.

Once the Manager Approves, the employee will receive an alert via the bell icon and the shift will be assigned to the employee. If the Manager Rejects, the employee will be notified of the rejection and no action will be taken on the Schedule.

 After Posted, What Happens?  

After a schedule has been posted it will be shared with all scheduled employees via their Green Leaf login.  Employees can find their schedule by navigating to Hamburger Menu> Schedule> My Schedule or by clicking the Timekeeping Icon> My Schedule View.

 Issues and Fixes

 Employee Not on Schedule 

The likely cause is that the employee hasn't been assigned the correct Skills, Scheduler Profile, or Scheduled Cost Center.   This can be checked by navigating to Hamburger Menu> Team> My Team> Employee Information> Employee Information Icon

 Employee Not Auto Scheduling 

After checking that the employee has been assigned the correct Skills, Scheduler Profile, or Scheduled Cost Center, check the employee's availability. An incorrect on unknown change in availability can prevent an employee from being scheduled. Navigate to Hamburger Menu> Team> Schedule> Team Setup> Availability/Preferences. At this page you can select one or multiple days on the calendar, choose from your employees directly above the calendar, and hit "View Existing" at the top right.  This will provide a breakdown of the availability of the selected employees.

 No Shifts Auto Assigning 

First, insure that the correct base settings are being selected on the Add New Schedule screen.

If the correct base settings are selected and the problem persists, it is best to check that employees are assigned to the Cost Center for which you are building a schedule.

 Too Many or Not Enough Shifts 

Check the workload template to insure that the appropriate amount of shifts are assigned to the worksite/cost center on the days you need them to be worked. To do this, navigate to Hamburger Menu> Settings> Scheduler Setup> Workload Templates

 Manager Tasks After Posted 

 Approve/Deny Swap or Request for Open Coverage 

 Make Manual Changes  to Schedule

 Reports