Work schedules facilitate planning shift work and holidays for groups of people of any size in advance, whilst still offering the flexibility to react to the real world, all with minimal overhead and management effort.

The feature is well suited to any business that has workers with repetitive work patterns. The tools make setup, management, and follow-up, quick and easy.

Work schedules and holidays

A work schedule indicates the shifts, resting time, and holidays for groups of people and periods of time. People join schedule groups in order to see the related schedule.

Whenever work schedule groups need to be divided for holiday planning, a dedicated holiday schedule should be created. Planned events from a Holiday schedule override planned events from a work schedule. People must become members of this in addition to their work schedule.

Workflow

Below is a brief outline of the workflow when using work schedules. Please see the Work schedule requirements & setup article for guidance on each step.

1. Plan
   • Create a schedule with repeating shift patterns for groups of people for the coming planning period
   • Make edits and add any important planning notes (e.g. Expected downtimes, maintenance, shift changes, etc)
   • If needed, create holiday schedules for groups of people, which override their usual shift patterns
   • Manage peoples' work and holiday schedules via their group memberships
     
     
2. Publish
   • Publish the work and holiday schedules
   • Employees and supervisors can immediately see their work schedule in Worktime
     
     
3. React & follow-up
   • Employees follow their schedule and record actual work hours with Worktime. They are clearly informed about deviations and planning notes.
   • Follow-up and react to real-world situations using Planning > Planning view, tools

Glossary

• Work schedule
  • Container/Concept - A representation of all the shifts, rest time, and holidays for groups of people.
  • Schedule type - 
• Aliases & Shift types - Method of identifying types of planned shifts and absences
• Schedules and Schedule types - A plan of planned shifts and absences that can be joined by people to see their intended work schedule
  • Work schedule - Work schedules include work shifts, time off/rest time, and group absences
  • Holiday schedule - Holiday schedules are detailed absence plans that override work schedules when joined. A person can follow a different work schedule and holiday schedule group for maximum planning flexibility.
• Schedule groups - People can join a schedule group to see the planned shifts and absences that have been published for that group and period of time.
• Schedule periods - Schedules are planned and published on a range of dates at a time. This is known as a schedule period.
• Schedule period groups - Although groups are defined for each schedule, for flexibility their use is defined for each schedule period.
• Schedule period group shift patterns - A repeating pattern of shifts and absences by alias which make planning periods quicker and easier. These are configured for each schedule period.
• Schedule period calendar - A calendar representation of the groups and shifts in a period. This calendar is used to review the plan, make deviations, and add planning notes, before publishing.
• Deviations - Any change to the usual pattern of shifts and absences, is highlighted as a deviation so that everyone can easily notice them. This is especially important to employees who may be very used to following the same pattern for long periods of time.

Getting started

Please see the dedicated article for Work schedule requirements & setup.