You are here:

Configure Scheduling Contexts

You can configure Scheduling Contexts and assign them to a precise list of jobs per employee to enable you to have a more granular approach when scheduling employees to multiple locations. Scheduling Contexts provide a method for you to specify the jobs per employee that are available to:

Schedule Generation Strategy
Matching Rules for Procedure Sets
Open Shift requests
Self-Scheduling requests

Step 1: Define Scheduling Contexts

Define one or more Scheduling Contexts that you can then associate with specific jobs. A Scheduling Context is used as a label that you can associate to existing jobs in the People Record.

Go to Administration > Application Setup > Common Setup > Symbolic Purpose (Formerly Reviewer Purpose).
Click to add a new reviewer purpose.
In Name, enter a name for the Scheduling Context. For example, SelfSchedulingWave1.
(Optional) In Description, enter a description for the Scheduling Context.
In Type, select Scheduling Context.
Select Active.
Click to define additional Scheduling Contexts.
To inactivate a Scheduling Context, clear the Active option.
To remove a Scheduling Context, click to delete the row. Once it is removed, you cannot retrieve it. If you want to keep the Scheduling Context, change its status to inactive.
Click Save.

Step 2: Associate Scheduling Contexts to Specific Jobs

You can associate one or more Scheduling Contexts to specific jobs for an employee in their People Record.

Click Main Menu .
Select Maintenance > People Information.
Select an employee from the list.
In the Timekeeping section, select Employee Role.
In the table showing the jobs in the selected job transfer set, for a specific job, select one or more Scheduling Contexts from the drop-down menu in the Scheduling Context column to associate to that job.

Note: The employee's primary job is always displayed in the first row of the table, regardless of whether the primary job is part of the Job Transfer Set. This enables you to set job preferences for the primary job without requiring you to add the primary job to the Job Transfer Set.

You can filter the data shown in the table using the filter row above each column header. For example, you can filter by a specific Scheduling Context to only display those jobs that are associated with it.

Click Save.

Step 3: Configure the Schedule Generation Engine

To configure the Schedule Generation engine to only consider jobs in the employee's job transfer set that are associated to a specific Scheduling Context when generating the schedule, follow these steps:

Go to Administration > Application Setup > Scheduler Setup > Schedule Generation Strategy.
Select a strategy and click Edit.
Ensure that the Assign Shifts to Primary Job Only option is not selected.

Otherwise, the Schedule Engine ignores the scheduling contexts.

In Restrict Job Transfer Set to Scheduling Contexts, select one or more Scheduling Contexts from the Available Scheduling Contexts box and click the right arrow to add them to Selected. Alternatively, click the double right arrow to select all items. To remove Scheduling Contexts, select the items from Selected Scheduling Contexts and click the left arrow.
Click Save.

For more information about the Schedule Generation Engine, see Configure a schedule generation strategy.

Step 4: Configure Rules in the Priority Scheduling Engine

To configure the PSE to only consider jobs in the employee's job transfer set that are associated to a specific Scheduling Context when generating the schedule, follow these steps:

Go to Administration > Application Setup > Scheduler Setup > Sorting and Matching > Rules.
Click New or select a rule and click Edit or Duplicate.
Enter a Name and optionally, a Description.
In Context, select Matching Assignments.
You cannot change the context of a rule after it is saved. Instead, create another rule with the necessary context.
In Match By, select Employee Jobs.
In the Parameter table, select Value for each Scheduling Context you want to use.
Clear Value for Primary Job and Job Transfer Set.
Click Save & Return.

For more information about the Priority Scheduling Engine, see Configure sorting and matching overview.

Step 5: Configure Request Subtypes for Open Shift Requests and Self-Scheduling Requests

To configure Open Shift requests or Self Scheduling requests to only consider jobs that have been associated to a Scheduling Context, follow these steps:

Go to Administration > Application Setup > Employee Self Service > Request Subtypes.
Select the Open Shift or Self Scheduling request subtype.
In Location Filtering, select Scheduling Contexts.
In Restrict Job Transfer Set to Scheduling Contexts, select one or more Scheduling Contexts in Available Scheduling Contexts, and add them to Selected Scheduling Contexts.
Click Save.

When an employee submits an open shift request or self-scheduling request that is associated with the request subtype, the system uses the selected Scheduling Contexts to determine which jobs in the employee's job transfer set are made available to the employee to select from. Shifts with jobs that are not included in the selected Scheduling Contexts are not displayed to the employee for selection.

For more information about request subtypes, see Configure Request Subtypes.