Create rules to handle overtime requests

1. Select the Overtime staffing check method to use in the menu.

   When using Intraday or Intraday with shrinkage, an overtime request passes the staffing check if at least one of the agent's skills is critically understaffed for each request interval. Select No if you don't want to use any staffing check at all.

   NOTE   The staffing check compares against the staffing in the web, which does not take agent proficiencies into consideration.

2. Click Apply to save.

1. Select the Enable overtime probability check box to let agents see staffing information that shows them when overtime work is needed.
2. Click Apply to save.

NOTE   For agents to see the overtime probability in their schedule, they also need the View staffing info permission. If overtime probability is enabled and no staffing check is used, high probability is shown for all intervals.

1. Select the Maximum overtime check box.
2. Choose to set the limit per month, week or day.
3. Enter the maximum number of overtime hours for the selected period.
4. Use the When validation fails menu to define how to handle a request that causes the total hours of overtime to exceed the maximum; deny or send to the administrators for manual handling.
5. Click Apply to save.

NOTE   The maximum overtime setting is only valid for overtime requests. It will not have any effect for example when scheduling overtime in the Schedules module. The maximum time limit is for approved overtime, not requested overtime. For example, if the maximum overtime is set to eight hours per week, an agent can request above the eight hours if requests are not set to auto-approve and are in a pending status. The eight hour rule applies after you add eight hours to the schedule.

1. Select the Maximum continuous work time check box and enter the maximum number of continuous work hours.
2. Enter the Minimum rest time.

3. The minimum rest time defines the shortest duration of a break for it to be considered as a break when validating on maximum continuous work time. The minimum rest time validation requires that the Report as setting is set to either Lunch or Short break for the break activities.

   EXAMPLE   An agent's shift ends at 17:00. Her lunch break is from 12:00 to 13:00 and her last break is from 14:45 to 15:00. The maximum continuous work time is 4:00 hours. The agent requests to work overtime from 17:00 to 19:00. This can be approved automatically if the minimum rest time is 15 minutes or less. If the minimum rest time is set to 30 minutes, the 15-minute break is disregarded and the maximum continuous work time is exceeded.

4. Use the When validation fails menu to define how to handle a request that causes the number of continuous work hours to exceed the maximum; deny or send to the administrators for manual handling.
5. Click Apply to save.

Use this setting to ensure that agents still have enough time for lunch even if they request to work overtime for parts of their lunch.

NOTE   The minimum lunch time validation requires that the Report as setting is set to Lunch for the lunch activity.

1. Select the Minimum continuous lunch time check box.
2. Enter the minimum continuous lunch time.
3. Click Apply to save.

If given the permissions, agents can cancel their overtime requests. This setting controls how far in advance they need to cancel it.

NOTE    This setting only applies to when agents cancel their own overtime requests, not if it's done by a supervisor.

• Enter the number of hours in the Minimum hours before overtime that a request may be canceled field.

A period needs to be open for agents to get overtime requests approved. Define for each open request period how to handle those requests, for example automatically or manually, and for which skills.

NOTE   If you set up more than one row for a skill or channel type, with periods overlapping each other, the lower row has higher priority. See below for how to change the row order.

1. Click on New in the Open for overtime requests area to create a new rule.

2. Select a period Type; From-to period or Rolling period.

   • From-to periods are useful to for example open for requests until a certain date or to set special rules for a specific period.
   • Rolling periods are useful to for example have specific rules for the next 7 days.

3. Select to Automatically grant the overtime requests that pass all validations.

   • Set No to send the requests through to be manually approved or denied.
   • Set Yes to automatically approve requests that pass all validations.

   • Set Deny to automatically deny all overtime requests for this period.

     NOTE   For Grant, the chatbot, to prompt agents with overtime options, auto-grant must be set to yes and there must be a period open for today.

4. Select the Enabled check box if you want to enable contract work rule validations.

   If enabled, the validation will check if the overtime requests break the maximum weekly work time, the nightly rest time or the weekly rest time according to the agent's contract.

5. If the contract work rule validation is enabled, use the When validation fails menu to define how to handle a request that breaks any of the work rules; deny or send to the administrators for manual handling.

6. Select for which Skill types or specific skills these rules apply.

   Currently overtime requests can be used for skills of the types Inbound Telephony, Email, Chat, and Backoffice skills. If several skills are chosen and the agent has more than one of these skills in their skill set, the skill activity for the most understaffed of these skills will be scheduled as overtime.

7. For from-to periods, enter a Start and End date to define the request period.

8. For rolling periods, enter a Start and End day relative to the current date to define the request period.

   For overtime requests, the request period can maximum be open 48 days forward from today. If the request period you set is more than 48 days from today, the field turns yellow to indicate that it is not valid.

9. Click Apply to save.

Change the order of the rules to decide in which order the overtime request validation rules are applied. They are always applied from the bottom up, that is the lower rules override the ones at the top of the table.

1. Select a row in the rule table.

2. Right-click the selected row and select to:

   • Move up to lower priority.
   • Move down to increase priority.
3. Click Apply to save.

A rule can be deleted if the period of a rule has passed or the rule for some other reason no longer is needed.

1. Select a row in the rule table.
2. Right-click and select Delete.
3. Click Yes to confirm.
4. Click Apply to save.