Blog

October 9, 2019

Automatically Offer and Fill Shifts for Rotational Overtime/Sign-Ups

Aladtec now has a robust solution for rotational overtime/sign-ups or any other process requiring shifts to be offered to members one at a time. Offering shifts based on seniority, hours worked, last overtime accepted or offered, or other criteria can be satisfied using staggered Coverage Alerts. Unlimited sets of rules can be configured for staggered Coverage Alerts, accommodating unique rules for various groups of members.

To start using staggered Coverage Alerts, go to Setup -> Coverage Alerts to create Notification Profiles which match the rules for offering shifts, see image below for an example. Each Notification Profile allows customizing:

  • Wait Time – a wait time can be selected to give recipients enough time to respond to shift notifications; if a member does not respond to the shift notification within the wait time, the member’s turn will be automatically forfeited and the next member will be notified.
  • Sort Criteria – recipients can be sorted in the correct order to get offered shifts, using criteria such as: date hired, total hours worked for specific Time Types and date ranges, availability (if enabled in Work Groups), last accepted or offered coverage alert, or other fields from the Member Database.
  • Approval Rules – either follow Work Group rules for approving a sign up in response to a staggered Coverage Alert, or override the Work Group rules by automatically approving sign ups unless a Work Limit rule is violated. If a Work Limit rule is violated and requires administrative approval, the Coverage Alert process will stall until the administrator has approved or denied the sign up.

Setting up staggered coverage alerts

After Notification Profiles are set up, sending a staggered Coverage Alert is very similar to sending a simultaneous Coverage Alert. Simply select the blue envelope to send a Coverage Alert, then, as shown below, select open shifts for a specific date range, the recipients, and a staggered Notification Profile along with a Time Type.
Setting up staggered coverage alert notification preferences

Prior to sending a staggered Coverage Alert, the order members will be offered shifts can be previewed. Shifts will be offered in Schedules/Positions order, one at a time, and the order of recipients is based on the sort rules in the Notification Profile. If a recipient declines an offered shift, or does not sign up within the set wait time, the unsent recipients are automatically re-sorted based on changes to the sort criteria values, such as total hours worked, and the next recipient is notified. Below is an example of the Coverage Alert Preview.
Coverage alert preview

To keep track of current Coverage Alerts, the history can be viewed from the Coverage Alert page by clicking on the green clock, see below. From the history, details can be viewed and the Coverage Alert can be canceled. The details for the staggered Coverage Alert include the recipient order, when the notification was sent to the recipient, the last action taken, and the current status such as sent, accepted, or declined.
Coverage alert history

For additional information on Coverage Alerts, watch this video.

For questions or additional help with Coverage Alerts, please contact the Support Team at support@aladtec.com or 888.749.5550. As always, thank you for using Aladtec!

~ Your Aladtec Team