Building The Back End: Part Two

There are some important key facts to consider here that will assist you in the future. New skills can always be added later. 

Some organizations have a multitude of skill-sets, one's that certain staff/job titles can perform. For example in health care, there are Registered Nurses. HOWEVER, within specific areas such as ICU's there are registered nurses that are trained for many different skill-sets (different types of registered nurses).

Even though there may be numerous registered nurses working in one specific area, some may have training to operate dialysis machines, or perform charge duties, or take care of certain complexities of patients whereas others may not and so on. 

Here is the key point: When defining skill sets within StaffingCall, be sure to enter all skills that vary among staff, particularly if you'll be needing to call-out to specific staff to cover a workplace duty. In this case described, as a supervisor you may need to offer a shift to a registered nurse that MUST be able to run a dialysis machine, therefore when you create the staffing request, and are selecting this skill in the drop-down menu, as you will see later, your shift offer will only go out to those who match the skill you need. 

For this reason, we encourage you to enter all the specific skill-sets/job duties you commonly assign staff members to.

Keep in mind, you can add to this list later and even remove skills you may realise you don't need in the future.

Once you are done adding one skill, click "Save", then proceed to enter the next skill OR job title, until you are finished with building the skills-lists that your group will need.

The shift setup section can handle multiples of shifts within a 24-hour period. For example, one could enter these different varieties:

- One shift per 24-hour period

- Two shifts per 24-hour period consisting of any length of time for each shift

- Three shifts per 24-hour period and so forth. 

The calendar display within the desktop and mobile applications can be adjusted to weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly displays so that users can properly visualize and interact with multiple sets of shifts within a 24-hour period. (i.e. 4+ shifts on one calendar day will be optimally viewed on a bi-weekly, or weekly calendar view, whereas a calendar day with 1,2,or 3 shifts can be viewed quite nicely on the monthly calendar view).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Currently there is one option that cannot be done at this time with groups of staff and that is to combine different rotations within one calendar/group setup. For example, one cannot build three-eight hour shifts into the same group alongside two-twelve hour shifts totaling a mixture of five varying shifts in a 24-hour period. Any other combination thereof also cannot be completed. To accommodate 2 different rotation groups within a single group, we would need to create a separate "business unit" within the "business group". This is a simple task and can be done via the same steps as these training modules. If you need to setup your group in this way, now is the important time to differentiate the need of creating two separate groups in the system. Take note and carry on with the completion of this first group, then move onto the next.

Let's define an example:

Within a hospital emergency department, there may be a group of nurses who only work 8-hour shifts. Their rotation is built around 8-hour shifts in a set-cycle over a set-period of time. These nurses can be categorized into one group.

One proud feature we are able to offer to ensure shift length variables can be accounted for, is the option to send custom shift-length offers with customized start and end-times, as well as enable staff the option to offer partial-shift responses. 

Then, select the "Start Time" for the first shift you are adding into the system, followed by the "End Time" of the first shift you are adding into the system. (Step 2 and 3 in image below)

Be sure to click "Save" (Step 4 in image below)

Then repeat the steps above to add the second shift into the system again selecting the specific start and end times for the second shift, and so on.

Example: Shift One: Start Time: 7:00 AM, End Time 7:00 PM.

               Shift Two: Start Time: 7:00 PM, End Time 7:00 AM

These also may be entered in 24-hour format and the system will adjust them as necessary prior to selecting the "Save Button"

Example: Shift One: Start Time: 0700, End Time: 1900

               Shift Two: Start Time: 1900, End Time: 0700

This example will create a total of 2 - 12 hour shifts in a calendar day and will display the shifts as "Shift One" and "Shift Two" on the calendar day.

As stated above in this module, if one were to enter a total of 3x 8-hour shifts in a 24 hour period, the setup may look like this:

Shift One: Start Time: 0700, End Time: 1500

Shift Two: Start Time: 1500, End Time: 2300

Shift Three: Start Time: 2300, End Time: 0700

These three shifts will be displayed as: Shift One, Shift Two, Shift Three on the calendar day.

One final note on custom shifts. This doesn't need to be programmed here and is automatically offered in the shift-offer creation menu, as well as the shift response menu from the end users.

And there you have it! Congratulations on programming your group shift routines into the StaffingCall IntellENGINE Console. You're practically a programmer now and may proceed to the next step.