Work plan rotations overview
- Workforce Management > Work Plan Rotation > Add, Edit, View, Delete permissions
As a planner, you can create shifts that rotate, typically on a weekly basis. This action grants agents the opportunity to work all shifts, both desired and undesired, which balances the distribution of popular and less popular working times and days.
Work plan rotations rotate through configured, enabled work plans on a weekly basis, even if the management unit includes multiple planning period weeks. When you select work plans, you can create a predictable pattern for the selected work plans and the system rotates them weekly. If a work plan is not enabled, you cannot add it to the pattern. Also, you cannot disable or delete an enabled work plan while it is in a rotation, unless you first remove it from the rotation.
- The system supports up to 100 rotating patterns and 20 separate rotating positions in each work plan rotation.
- An agent can only belong to one work plan rotation at a time.
- If an agent belongs to a work plan and assigned to a work plan rotation pattern, the scheduling engine favors the rotation pattern.
Work plan rotation patterns
You only need to describe the minimum repeating pattern in the work plan rotation. You do not need to repeat patterns over and over because the rotation restarts the pattern that you configure after it reaches the last plan.
In this example, a planner wants a rotation that rotates agents through six weeks of two Monday through Friday shifts (called Day work plan) immediately followed by one week of Monday through Friday night shifts (called Night work plan).
In this scenario, make sure that these three work plans exist in the rotation:
- Day work plan
- Day work plan
- Night work plan
You do not have to set the pattern twice for the length of the six-week rotation period. The work plan rotation continuously repeats the sequence in the configured order.
Intraweek constraints
Intraweek constraints consist of the following metrics:
- Maximum consecutive scheduled weekends
- Minimum days off per planning period
- Maximum days off per planning period
- Minimum paid time per planning period
- Maximum paid time per planning period
- Maximum consecutive scheduled days
- Minimum time between shift starts
- Minimum time between shifts
Constraint settings and constraint rules
Make sure that work plans in a rotation have the same planning period constraint settings. The system applies the planning period constraint rule as a minimum of minimum and a maximum of maximum value. For example, using the minimum value across the minimum type constraints, or the maximum value across the maximum type constraints. When an agent is scheduled based on a work plan rotation, the scheduler considers intraweek constraints as minimum of minimum and maximum of maximum value.
Suppose the scheduling engine schedules an agent with multiple work plans; for example, Work Plan A and Work Plan B:
- Work Plan A has a maximum consecutive weekend constraint of three
- Work Plan B has a maximum consecutive weekend constraint of six
The scheduling engine considers the maximum consecutive of six, or a maximum of maximum.
Work plan rotation scenarios
The following section demonstrates how the schedule generates with different planning period constraints.
In this example, a planner works with the following constraints:
- Business unit start day of the week: Thursday
- Planning periods starting date: October 1, 2020
- Planning periods length: Six weeks
- Work plan rotation period: October 1, 2020 to December 30, 2020
- Agent effective period: October 1, 2020 to December 30, 2020
- Schedule period: Six weeks, October 1, 2020 to November 11, 2020
Scenario 1: Work plan with the same planning period configuration
Work plan pattern in the work plan rotation:
| Work plan | Minimum days off per planning period |
|---|---|
| Day shift work plan | 3 |
| Night shift work plan | 3 |
| Long day shift work plan | 3 |
Because the minimum days off per planning period are the same, when the schedule generates with this work plan configuration the scheduler considers a minimum of three days of per planning period.
Scenario 2: Work plan with a different planning period configuration
Work plan pattern in the work plan rotation:
| Work plan | Minimum days off per planning period |
|---|---|
| Day shift work plan | 3 |
| Night shift work plan | 4 |
| Long day shift work plan | 5 |
When the schedule generates with this work plan configuration, the scheduler considers the minimum of minimum, and the minimum days off per planning period is three.
