Navigate the schedule editor
View from a different time zone
By default, this view uses the business unit’s time zone. Users with administrator permissions can change the displayed time zone by selecting from the list in the upper right corner of the view. This option is helpful for administrators who access the view from a different time zone.
At the bottom of the schedule editor, use the list to switch between viewing activity counts or viewing scheduled forecast and differences, with or without shrinkage. For more information, see Review activity counts and daily summaries and Review scheduled, forecast, and difference counts.
Forecast-based schedule generation uses data from the portion of a forecast along with week- and day-level scheduling constraints to produce a week's schedule. Use schedule generation from forecasting to return predicted service performance that closely matches requirements with as few paid hours as possible.
You must select a forecast to generate a forecast-based schedule, and you can only generate one schedule per business unit at a time. When you generate another schedule, the newly generated schedule will be displayed in the Last Scheduling Attempts section at the top of the schedules page.
- A forecast-based schedule may take 20 minutes or longer to generate.
- If you recently added the Workforce Management > Agent Schedule > Utilize Load Based permission to an agent, it may take up to a minute or two before that agent will be included when generating a schedule.
- If you have the right configurations but still unable to see an agent in the generated schedule, go to Configuration > Agents and select Sync Agents.
- If any work plans are listed as not valid, make sure to correct the work plan validation items before you generate the schedule. Otherwise, the scheduler may produce errors when it generates the schedule. For more information, see Validate and save the work plan.
- The short-term weeks are a maximum of six.
To create a schedule with a forecast, follow these steps:
- Click Admin.
- Under Workforce Management, click Schedules.
- From the Business Unit list, located in the upper right corner, select a business unit.
- (Optional) To change the time zone in which you view data, in the upper right hand corner select the current time zone list. Note: By default, the view uses the business unit's time zone.
- Click Generate . The Generate Schedule page opens.
- Click the calendar button at the end of the Schedule Start Week box and select the start week.
- Click the arrows at the end of the Number Of Weeks box to indicate the schedule length, from one to six weeks.
- (Optional) add a description for the schedule.
- Click the Scheduling Method list and select Create Schedule with Forecast.
- Under Select Forecast, click the forecast on which to base the schedule. Notes:
- For the forecast to be available to generate a schedule, the schedule period must fall within the forecast period. For example, a six week schedule must align with a six week forecast. A four week schedule must fall within a four, five, or six week forecast.
- The forecast only appears if it is enabled for use in schedule generation.
- Click Generate.
- Open the new schedule.
- From the Select Action menu, click Add Agents. The Add Agents dialog box opens.
- In the Agents column, do one of the following:
- Scroll through the list and check the box next to each agent you want to add.
- To add all available agents to the schedule, click All.
- To remove all agents from the schedule, click None.
- To view only the list of the agents you choose, click Show selected.
- When you finish adding agents to the schedule, click OK.
In the schedule editor, you can perform various tasks related to the selected schedule.
Some available options depend on the current schedule view. In the schedule editor, to view available options click the arrow at the end of the Select Action menu.
Task | Description | Keyboard shortcut |
---|---|---|
Assign Shifts | Assign shifts from one agent to another. | Shift + Q and Shift + T |
Replace Shifts with Activity | Replace an entire shift or shifts with a selected activity. | Shift + R |
Replace Activity | Replace an activity or activities with another activity in a schedule. | Shift + B |
Swap Shifts | Swap one agent's shifts with another agent. | Shift + W |
Copy Activity to Agents | Copy an activity to one or more agents in the schedule. | Shift + A |
Copy Shift to Agents | Copy an agent's shift to one or more agents. | Shift + M |
Copy Shift to Days | Copy an agent's shift to one or more days. | Shift + D |
Remove Selected | Remove one or more items from the selected schedule. | Delete |
Add Agents | Include more agents in the selected schedule. | N/A |
Remove Agents | Exclude one or more agents in the selected schedule. | N/A |
In addition to managing the schedule from the Select Action list, you can also:
Task | Description |
---|---|
Available schedule views | Learn more about the various ways to view a schedule. |
Change the schedule view | Select to view a schedule by day, date range, week, or vertical view in the schedule editor. |
View schedule by management unit or work team |
Select work teams or management units in the schedule editor. |
Review scheduled, forecast, and difference counts | If your schedule was generated based on a forecast, details about scheduled, forecast (with and without shrinkage), and difference counts are listed in the schedule grid. |
Review Scheduled and Forecast counts and daily summaries | Depending on your view, the schedule editor displays metrics that help you analyze and plan schedules. |
View agent information | Click an agent name to view that agent's assigned skills and languages. |
View adherence information in the schedule editor | Customize the schedule editor to show agent adherence information for past schedules. Add conformance and adherence columns in the agent area. |
View an agent's paid hours per week | Depending on your view, you can see various details about an agent's paid hours for a specific day or week. |
Add an activity to one or more agents | Choose the time frame in which to add the activity to shifts. Or let the system recommend the most appropriate times based on coverage, and then choose from the list of times to which to add the activity. |
Adjust an activity's length | Adjust a non-default activity's length within a shift. |
Modify activity details | Edit default values for non-default activities. |
Use zoom to adjust the level of schedule detail |
Zoom in to see the current schedule in more detail, or zoom out to see a larger time period for the current schedule. |
Undo or redo unsaved changes to a schedule |
Undo or redo unsaved changes to a schedule, one at a time, up to the last save. |
View from a different time zone
By default, this view uses the business unit’s time zone. Users with administrator permissions can change the displayed time zone by selecting from the list in the upper right corner of the view. This option is helpful for administrators who access the view from a different time zone.
Click the Publish button on the right side of the toolbar.
Create a blank schedule for expected shift patterns when no forecast is available. This method improves the scheduling algorithm by using the shortest, median, longest, or staggered time span for the selected shift length; and the earliest, median, latest, or staggered start times for flexible shifts.
- Click Admin.
- Under Workforce Management, click Schedules.
- From the Business Unit list, located in the upper right corner, select a business unit.
- (Optional) To change the time zone in which you view data, in the upper right hand corner select the current time zone list. Note: By default, the view uses the business unit's time zone.
- Click Generate . The Generate Schedule page opens.
- Click the calendar button at the end of the Schedule Start Week box and select the start week.
- Click the arrows at the end of the Number Of Weeks box to indicate the schedule length, from one to six weeks.
- (Optional) add a description for the schedule.
- Click the Scheduling Method list and select Create Schedule Without Forecast.
- Click the Shift Start list and select one of the following options. This applies to every agent within the schedule:
Option Description Earliest Shift Start This option enables you to select the shift start time according to the workplan. For example, if a workplan with shift start time between 8:00am and 10:00am every 30 min interval, the scheduler generates shifts with 8:00am being the most preferred. In the event where shift start time of 8:00am is unavailable due to a constraint violation, the next earliest start time 8:30am takes priority. Median Shift Start This option enables you to select the shift start time as the midpoint between the earliest and the latest time during schedule generation. For example, if the earliest start time is 8:00am and latest start time is 10:00am, then 9:00am represents the midpoint and the same is preferred. In the event where two shift start times represent the median, the lesser of the two values are chosen. Staggered Shift Start (Default) This option enables you to select the shift start time after a uniform sampling of shift start times. Here, all the shift start times have equal probability of being chosen. Latest Shift Start This option enables you to select the latest shift time as the shift start time. If this time is unavailable due to a constraint violation, the preceding shift start time is chosen to generate schedule. For example, if the earliest time is 8:00am and latest time is 10:00am, then 10:00am is most preferred. If it is not available, then 9:30am is considered as the next option. - Click the Shift Length list and select one of the following:
Option Description Earliest Shift Length This option gives preference to the shortest shift length as per the workplan. For example, if a workplan with shift lengths between 6-9 hours and every 1 hour interval, the shortest length of 6 hours is most preferred. Median Shift Length (Default) This option gives preference to the length that represents the midpoint between the shortest and the longest shift duration. For example, if a workplan with shift lengths between 6-9 hours, the midpoint will fall between 7 and 8 hours. In such case, the preferred shift length will be 7 hours. Staggered Shift Length This option gives preference after a uniform sampling of shift lengths similar to the shift start equivalent. Latest Shift Length This option gives preference to the longest shift length for agent schedule generation. For example, if a workplan with shift lengths between 6-9 hours, the preferred shift length will be 9 hours. Only an administrator can select this option to observe maximum coverage in a hypothetical schedule. - Click Generate.
- Open the new schedule.
- From the Select Action menu, click Add Agents. The Add Agents dialog box opens.
- In the Agents column, do one of the following:
- Scroll through the list and check the box next to each agent you want to add.
- To add all available agents to the schedule, click All.
- To remove all agents from the schedule, click None.
- To view only the list of the agents you choose, click Show selected.
- When you finish adding agents to the schedule, click OK.
In the schedule editor, you can perform various tasks related to the selected schedule.
Some available options depend on the current schedule view. In the schedule editor, to view available options click the arrow at the end of the Select Action menu.
Task | Description | Keyboard shortcut |
---|---|---|
Assign Shifts | Assign shifts from one agent to another. | Shift + Q and Shift + T |
Replace Shifts with Activity | Replace an entire shift or shifts with a selected activity. | Shift + R |
Replace Activity | Replace an activity or activities with another activity in a schedule. | Shift + B |
Swap Shifts | Swap one agent's shifts with another agent. | Shift + W |
Copy Activity to Agents | Copy an activity to one or more agents in the schedule. | Shift + A |
Copy Shift to Agents | Copy an agent's shift to one or more agents. | Shift + M |
Copy Shift to Days | Copy an agent's shift to one or more days. | Shift + D |
Remove Selected | Remove one or more items from the selected schedule. | Delete |
Add Agents | Include more agents in the selected schedule. | N/A |
Remove Agents | Exclude one or more agents in the selected schedule. | N/A |
In addition to managing the schedule from the Select Action list, you can also:
Task | Description |
---|---|
Available schedule views | Learn more about the various ways to view a schedule. |
Change the schedule view | Select to view a schedule by day, date range, week, or vertical view in the schedule editor. |
View schedule by management unit or work team |
Select work teams or management units in the schedule editor. |
Review scheduled, forecast, and difference counts | If your schedule was generated based on a forecast, details about scheduled, forecast (with and without shrinkage), and difference counts are listed in the schedule grid. |
Review Scheduled and Forecast counts and daily summaries | Depending on your view, the schedule editor displays metrics that help you analyze and plan schedules. |
View agent information | Click an agent name to view that agent's assigned skills and languages. |
View adherence information in the schedule editor | Customize the schedule editor to show agent adherence information for past schedules. Add conformance and adherence columns in the agent area. |
View an agent's paid hours per week | Depending on your view, you can see various details about an agent's paid hours for a specific day or week. |
Add an activity to one or more agents | Choose the time frame in which to add the activity to shifts. Or let the system recommend the most appropriate times based on coverage, and then choose from the list of times to which to add the activity. |
Adjust an activity's length | Adjust a non-default activity's length within a shift. |
Modify activity details | Edit default values for non-default activities. |
Use zoom to adjust the level of schedule detail |
Zoom in to see the current schedule in more detail, or zoom out to see a larger time period for the current schedule. |
Undo or redo unsaved changes to a schedule |
Undo or redo unsaved changes to a schedule, one at a time, up to the last save. |
View from a different time zone
By default, this view uses the business unit’s time zone. Users with administrator permissions can change the displayed time zone by selecting from the list in the upper right corner of the view. This option is helpful for administrators who access the view from a different time zone.
Click the Publish button on the right side of the toolbar.
You can generate a schedule for a specific week. The selection choice varies, depending on the start date you designate for the management unit. Blank schedules rely on the administrator to add agents, create shifts, and configure schedule parameters.
- Click Admin.
- Under Workforce Management, click Schedules.
- From the Business Unit list, located in the upper right corner, select a business unit.
- (Optional) To change the time zone in which you view data, in the upper right hand corner select the current time zone list. Note: By default, the view uses the business unit's time zone.
- Click Generate . The Generate Schedule page opens.
- Click the calendar button at the end of the Schedule Start Week box and select the start week.
- Click the arrows at the end of the Number Of Weeks box to indicate the schedule length, from one to six weeks.
- (Optional) add a description for the schedule.
- Click the Scheduling Method list and select Create Blank Schedule.
- Click Generate.
- Open the new schedule.
- From the Select Action menu, click Add Agents. The Add Agents dialog box opens.
- In the Agents column, do one of the following:
- Scroll through the list and check the box next to each agent you want to add.
- To add all available agents to the schedule, click All.
- To remove all agents from the schedule, click None.
- To view only the list of the agents you choose, click Show selected.
- When you finish adding agents to the schedule, click OK.
Some available options depend on the current schedule view. In the schedule editor, to view available options click the arrow at the end of the toolbar, or the Select Action menu.
Toolbar
Task | Description | Keyboard shortcut |
---|---|---|
Publish | Publish the schedule and optionally add informational details. | N/A |
Filter and Sort | Filter agent schedules by queue, skills, or languages. Sort by agent name, paid hours, shift start or end time, and ascending or descending order. | Shift + F |
Reschedule | Perform an automated intraday rescheduling operation to incorporate manual changes made to the forecast associated with the schedule. | N/A |
Add Full Day Time Off | Add a full day of timHe-off to an agent within a schedule. | Ctrl + Shift + F |
Undo | Reverses the last action performed. | Ctrl + Z |
Redo | Repeats the last action performed. | Ctrl + Y |
View Shift History | View a history of unsaved shift changes and select from a list of modifications. | Shift + H |
Show Summary | View and copy to your clipboard summary calculations for statistics in a specific schedule. | Shift + U |
Display Options | In View by Day and View by Date Range, customize how information appears in the schedule editor for past schedules. | N/A |
Export | Export schedule activities, agent shifts, scheduled and forecast counts, and activity counts. | N/A |
Select Action menu
Task | Description | Keyboard shortcut |
---|---|---|
Assign Shift | Assign shifts from one agent to another. | Shift + Q |
Replace Shifts with Activity | Replace an entire shift or shifts with a selected activity. | Shift + R |
Replace Activity | Replace an activity or activities with another activity in a schedule. | Shift + B |
Swap Shifts | Swap one agent's shifts with another agent. | Shift + W |
Copy Activity to Agents | Copy an activity to one or more agents in the schedule. | Shift + A |
Copy Shift to Agents | Copy an agent's shift to one or more agents. | Shift + M |
Copy Shift to Days | Copy an agent's shift to one or more days. | Shift + D |
Remove Selected | Remove one or more agent shifts from the selected schedule. | Delete |
Remove Activity Code in Range | Remove one or more activities from a single or multiple shifts within a specific time range. | Delete |
Add Agents | Include more agents in the selected schedule | N/A |
Remove Agents | Exclude one or more agents in the selected schedule | N/A |
Show Time-Off Request Differences | View and synchronize time-off requests. | Shift + V |
Show Keyboard Shortcuts | View the list of keyboard shortcuts that help administrators manage schedule editing | Shift + K |
View adherence information in the schedule editor | In View by Day and View by Date Range, you can customize the schedule editor to show agent adherence information for past schedules. | In Display Options, enable Show Adherence. |
View late information in the schedule editor | You can view the late explanations request for the next work activity submitted by the agent for specific categories. You can further approve or deny these requests. | In Schedule view, click the grey dotted line. |
Click the Publish button on the right side of the toolbar.
Some available options depend on the current schedule view. In the schedule editor, to view available options click the arrow at the end of the toolbar, or the Select Action menu.
Toolbar
Task | Description | Keyboard shortcut |
---|---|---|
Publish | Publish the schedule and optionally add informational details. | N/A |
Filter and Sort | Filter agent schedules by queue, skills, or languages. Sort by agent name, paid hours, shift start or end time, and ascending or descending order. | Shift + F |
Reschedule | Perform an automated intraday rescheduling operation to incorporate manual changes made to the forecast associated with the schedule. | N/A |
Add Full Day Time Off | Add a full day of timHe-off to an agent within a schedule. | Ctrl + Shift + F |
Undo | Reverses the last action performed. | Ctrl + Z |
Redo | Repeats the last action performed. | Ctrl + Y |
View Shift History | View a history of unsaved shift changes and select from a list of modifications. | Shift + H |
Show Summary | View and copy to your clipboard summary calculations for statistics in a specific schedule. | Shift + U |
Display Options | In View by Day and View by Date Range, customize how information appears in the schedule editor for past schedules. | N/A |
Export | Export schedule activities, agent shifts, scheduled and forecast counts, and activity counts. | N/A |
Select Action menu
Task | Description | Keyboard shortcut |
---|---|---|
Assign Shift | Assign shifts from one agent to another. | Shift + Q |
Replace Shifts with Activity | Replace an entire shift or shifts with a selected activity. | Shift + R |
Replace Activity | Replace an activity or activities with another activity in a schedule. | Shift + B |
Swap Shifts | Swap one agent's shifts with another agent. | Shift + W |
Copy Activity to Agents | Copy an activity to one or more agents in the schedule. | Shift + A |
Copy Shift to Agents | Copy an agent's shift to one or more agents. | Shift + M |
Copy Shift to Days | Copy an agent's shift to one or more days. | Shift + D |
Remove Selected | Remove one or more agent shifts from the selected schedule. | Delete |
Remove Activity Code in Range | Remove one or more activities from a single or multiple shifts within a specific time range. | Delete |
Add Agents | Include more agents in the selected schedule | N/A |
Remove Agents | Exclude one or more agents in the selected schedule | N/A |
Show Time-Off Request Differences | View and synchronize time-off requests. | Shift + V |
Show Keyboard Shortcuts | View the list of keyboard shortcuts that help administrators manage schedule editing | Shift + K |
View adherence information in the schedule editor | In View by Day and View by Date Range, you can customize the schedule editor to show agent adherence information for past schedules. | In Display Options, enable Show Adherence. |
View late information in the schedule editor | You can view the late explanations request for the next work activity submitted by the agent for specific categories. You can further approve or deny these requests. | In Schedule view, click the grey dotted line. |
In addition to managing the schedule from the toolbar or Select Action list, you can also:
Task | Description |
---|---|
Add an activity to a shift | Add an activity to a shift within a schedule, and optionally adjust the length. |
Available schedule views | Learn more about the various ways to view a schedule. |
Change the schedule view | Select to view a schedule by day, week, date range, multiple weeks, or vertical view in the schedule editor. |
Review scheduled, forecast, and difference counts | If your schedule was generated based on a forecast, details about scheduled, forecast (with and without shrinkage), and difference counts are listed in the schedule grid. |
Review Scheduled and Forecast counts and daily summaries | Depending on your view, the schedule editor displays metrics that help you analyze and plan schedules. |
View agent information | Click an agent name to view that agent's assigned skills and languages. |
View an agent's paid hours per week | Depending on your view, you can see various details about an agent's paid hours for a specific day or week. |
Adjust an activity's length | Adjust a non-default activity's length within a shift. |
Modify activity details | Edit default values for non-default activities. |
Use zoom to adjust the level of schedule detail |
Zoom in to see the current schedule in more detail, or zoom out to see a larger time period for the current schedule. |
Undo or redo unsaved changes to a schedule |
Undo or redo unsaved changes to a schedule, one at a time, up to the last save. |
Filter agent schedules by planning groups, queue, skills, or languages. Sort by agent name, paid hours, shift start or end time, and ascending or descending order. To filter and sort agents,
- To access the Filter and Sort dialog box, at the top of the schedule, click Total Agents.
- In the Filter and Sort dialog box, under Set Filters do any of the following:
- To view only the schedules for agents who were modified since the last schedule save, enable Show edited agents only.
- To save the filter for a set of agents you use frequently, under Agent Filter select the agents you want to save and then enable the Remember agent filter check box.
- Click the arrow at the end of the Planning Group list and choose the desired planning group.
- Click the arrow at the end of the Queue list and choose the desired queue to display.
- Click the arrow at the end of the Skills list and choose the agent-assigned skills to display
- Click the arrow at the end of the Languages list and choose the agent-assigned languages to display.
- In the Set Sort area, do any of the following:
- Click the arrow at the end of the Sort list and select to sort by agent name, edited agents, daily paid hours, weekly paid hours, earliest shift start, or earliest shift end.
- Click the arrow at the end of the Sort Direction list and choose to sort in ascending or descending order.
- To remember the sort order, click to set the Remember sort order to Yes.
- Click OK.
Your agent can submit a running late request for your next work activity, such as, Meeting, On Queue, Off Queue or Training Activity Categories. However, if your agent submits a running late request before and activity that has the Activity Category Break or Meal the request will take effect at the beginning of the next schedule work activity.