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WORK TIME PREFERENCES -Viewing / Setting Availability

Employee Work Time Preferences 
Note that employee work time preferences do not affect any already existing shifts – they can just be used the next time you AutoFill to automatically assign shifts. You can use the Analyze feature at any time to compare how the assigned shifts compare to the current work time preferences. Also, the preferences can be used when finding replacements for shifts. 

Employee work time preferences can be used by WhenToWork for the following:

  • These preferences can be considered when AutoFill optimizes the schedule assignments each week 
  • When you click any shift, the Shift Change window will show a list of employees who are available to work that shift. Employees who have set that time to “prefer to work” are listed first so that you will know the best employees to work that shift. 

Employees normally set their own preferences when they sign in, but Managers can also set them for Employees.

REPEATING Weekly Preferences (and FUTURE REPEATING Weekly Preferences) should be set first. Then if certain dates are different, they can be set using “Set Date Specific Preferences”. Date Specific Preferences always override Repeating Weekly Preferences

To set the REPEATING WEEKLY work time preferences for an employee

From any page: 

  • In the top menu, click EMPLOYEES to go to the Employees List page 
  • Click the magnifying glass next to the employee name to open the Employee details window 
  • Click the Schedule/Preferences tab 
  • Click the Set REPEATING WEEKLY button to open the Preferences window. (These are the normal daily preferences for the employee and can be set down to 15 minutes for each day of the week). Note each day shows Midnight to Midnight. 

  • To set “prefer working” times, click the green color swatch and then “paint” over the times you would like to change by pressing the left mouse button and holding until you want to stop painting
  • OR click a day name to change that whole day to that color 
  • Be sure to click the SAVE button in the lower right 
  • You can also save the repeating preferences as a “Preference Template” to be used for other employees. For example, you can quickly add Cannot Work hours for all minor employees by loading that preference template into each employee’s “REPEATING Weekly Preferences” grid 
  • Also, if these Repeating Preferences will change on a certain date, click the Set FUTURE Weekly Prefs button to have a new set of Repeating Weekly Preferences go into effect on a certain date

To set any DATE SPECIFIC Preferences 

After setting the Weekly Repeating Preferences for an employee, you can then set any dates that have different preferences using the “Set DATE SPECIFIC Prefs” button. 

  • From the View Employee window, click the Set DATE SPECIFIC button 
  • In this window you can use the paint rollers and click and “paint” the dates to set the whole day to that color 
  • Or you can double-click a date to bring up the hourly preferences for that day 

  • For this specific date, you can paint preference times and choose to repeat for a number of weeks. (Ex. to also set these preferences for the following Wednesday, choose Repeat for 2 weeks). 
  • Click “all day” on the left to color the whole day
  • Click the SAVE button when done. 
  • You also can click the COPY Prefs button and then choose another date and use the PASTE Prefs button to apply those preferences to the other date). 

 

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