First, schedule all Days Off, and fill the Holidays. Then refer to the Scheduling Process developed during training with your participation
Scheduling Assistant is found under Scheduling, the second icon from the left. Choose Schedule if you are ready to run Scheduling Assistant, or choose Rules if you need to set those up.
To run Scheduling Assistant, select Scheduling Assistant> Schedule. In the new window, select the job you wish to schedule and the start and end date. “All unscheduled days” will look at every day between your start and end dates to schedule the call job. “Flagged days only” will schedule only those days you have flagged under Manual Schedule for the selected call job. Refer to your Process for the suggested date range to use.
Now, look at 'How to Schedule" Here you select how "fussy" Scheduling Assistant needs to be. 'Normal' - the suggested and usually best choice for scheduling in most circumstances. All choices respect rules and dayoff. The "Leftovers" choice gives priority to filling as many spots as possible, even if tallies aren't so nice.
- 'Intervals' - to be used instead of Normal as a first step if hard-and-fast minimum intervals between certain day types are of prime importance to your group. 'Intervals' can be followed by Lenient and Leftovers if needed.
- 'Normal' - the default setting which schedules a bit closer than 'Intervals', but still generates a fair schedule.
- 'Lenient' - to be used after Normal if Normal scheduling left some dates unscheduled. Schedules closer than the above two choices.
- 'Leftovers' - to be used after Lenient if Lenient left some dates unscheduled. Will schedule some dates back-to-back for those non-fussy jobs. Not often used.
Next, look at the “Day Type” area. Here you select which day types you want Scheduling Assistant to schedule. Uncheck any day type you do not want scheduled. For example, many Groups have weekends scheduled next, so all the Noxious days and Regular days would be unchecked, leaving only Weekend1 and Weekend2 checked. Click “Next” to start the Scheduling Assistant.
The screen will refresh and display the “Year Report” for whatever job you are scheduling. It will refresh every so often as it schedules, displaying an orange square on each day it fills in. You will find the Manual Scheduler and Day Off Scheduler are unavailable while Scheduling Assistant is running. There will be a message “Scheduling Assistant is currently scheduling...” along with a “Stop Scheduling” button. Click the “Stop Scheduling” button only if you want the process to stop. The whiteboards, reports, tallies, and Provider Request areas are unaffected, although they may display a bit more slowly. Providers viewing the whiteboards, etc. will not see any messages about the Scheduling Assistant, and their areas will remain unaffected for use.
When Scheduling Assistant is finished, review the resulting preliminary schedule, tweak it manually as needed, then you are ready to run the next stage. Most likely, after the weekend call jobs and backups (if applicable) are the way you want them, you will want to start the weekday call jobs. The procedure is the same, but when you get to the “Day Type” area, leave the "All Days" checked.
Repeat the process running Scheduling Assistant, tweaking manually between stages until your schedule is completed. Remember to use the tally window for reference when manually tweaking.
Scheduling Creation is interactive. You will be able check the tallies and spread, make adjustments, and run the next step(s), immediately, then move on to the next step. The schedule created by Scheduling Assistant is meant to be a preliminary schedule. Our process will generate one that is likely to be better than hand generated ones, and saves you significant time completing your schedule.
