Make schedule changes (Schedules tool)
Make changes to the agents’ schedules in the Schedules tool. For example, add absences for agents who are ill, move lunches or change the duration of an activity or absence. You can add activities or absences for several agents at a time.
Keyboard shortcuts are available for most actions. See Keyboard shortcuts in WFM for details.
Show staffing to directly see the impact of your schedule changes.
The schedule history for each agent is available. You can restore the agent's schedule to any previous shift.
NOTE If other users have made schedule changes for the selected date and the selected teams, the Refresh button is available. Click the Refresh button to load the latest schedule changes.
Prerequisites
- You have the Web > Schedules permission and a selection of the underlying permissions, depending on what actions to perform.
- You have the Web > Schedules > Edit location permission.
- You have the Global functions > Schedules permission and a selection of the underlying permissions, depending on what actions to perform.
Page location
WFM > Schedules
Procedures
View staffing to see how your schedule changes affects the staffing levels.
- Select the Show staffing switch.
- Staffing is shown for a summary of all skills related to the agents.
- Click any skill to show staffing levels for that particular skill.
- Hover the mouse pointer anywhere in the staffing view to show a line that indicates that same time in the view of the shifts. This works the other way around also.
- Select the Use shrinkage check box to show the forecasted volume with shrinkage included.
NOTE The staffing information is immediately updated by any changes to the forecast and by schedule changes made in the web scheduling tools or through requests. Changes made in the Schedules module in the WFM client are visible in the staffing view within an hour.
Apply a filter to only show shifts that contain a selected activity. This is useful to see who is scheduled on the activity that day, or to find who you could move from that activity to something that is more urgent.
- Click the Filter button.
- Select the Show only shifts with a certain activity switch.
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Select the activity in the drop-down menu.
Only shifts which contain the selected activity are shown.
- Clear the Show only shifts with a certain activity switch when you want to remove the filter.
Apply a filter to only show agents with selected absences.
- Click the Filter button.
- Select the Show only shifts with certain absences switch.
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All absences are selected by default. If there are some absences that you don't want to see, click the X to remove those.
Only agents that have the selected absences are shown.
- Clear the Show only shifts with certain absences switch when you want to remove the filter.
- Select agents.
- Select Add activity or Add personal activity.
- Select the type of activity.
- Define the start and end time. If the activity start or end time is past midnight, select the time with +1 next to it.
- Click Save.
NOTE If the new activity or personal activity overwrites a non-overwritable activity for one or more agents, choose how to handle that conflict. See the section below on how to handle conflicts with activities that are not overwritable.
This is used to add work hours that are in addition to the contractual agreement. You must select how the agents are compensated for the overtime hours.
NOTE You can also add overtime before or after an agent's scheduled absence.
- Select agents.
- Select Add overtime.
- Select the type of activity.
- Select the multiplicator definition set to apply. This defines how the agent is compensated for the overtime.
- Define the start and end time. If the activity start or end time is past midnight, select the time with +1 next to it.
- Click Save.
Add days off to agents' schedules.
NOTE If you select an agent that has a scheduled shift and add a day off, the shift is removed.
- Select agents.
- Select Add day off.
- Select the type of Day off.
- Adjust the start and end date if needed. Use the arrows or the calendar buttons.
- Click Save.
NOTE To add days off in the Week view, see the Add days off procedure at View a schedule overview for a week (Schedules tool).
- Select agents.
- Select Add full-day absence.
- Select the type of absence.
- If the absence starts in the middle of a day, for example if an agent gets sick and goes home early, click the field where it says Full day and select the time that the absence starts.
- Select the end date. Use the arrows or click the date field to select a specific date.
- Click Save.
NOTE To add a full-day absence in the Week view, see the Add a full-day absence procedure at View a schedule overview for a week (Schedules tool).
- Select agents.
- Select Add part-day absence.
- Select the type of absence.
- Define the start and end time. If the absence start or end time is past midnight, select the time with +1 next to it.
- Click Save.
NOTE If the agent has a previously scheduled shift which is covered completely by the added absence, the part-day day absence is converted to a full-day absence.
- Select the agents to add a meeting for.
- Click Actions and select Add meeting.
- Enter a Title. This field is required to save the meeting.
- Adjust the start and end time and the date if needed.
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Select an Activity for the meeting.
The list of available activities contains the activities that are contract time but not connected to a skill. The selected activity is shown when looking at shift details.
- Enter a Location for the meeting.
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Add additional Participants by choosing sites, teams, or persons.
- Expand the sites and teams to find persons.
- The persons you select are shown in the Participants field.
- Click the X to exclude a person from the meeting.
- Enter a meeting agenda in the Agenda field. The agenda is visible to the participants.
- Enter an Internal note if needed. Internal notes are only visible for users with permission to use Meetings.
- Click Save.
- Click to select the activity or absence to move.
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Hover the selected activity or absence so that the mouse pointer forms a cross with arrows. Drag and drop it to the new position.
A message is shown if an activity you move overlaps a non-overwritable activity. Click the drop-down menu, select how to handle the situation, and click OK.
NOTE You can move an overtime activity before or after a shift. Full-day absences cannot be moved on days off or on days with no shift.
- Click to select the activity or absence to change.
- Hover the start or end of the selected activity or absence so that the mouse pointer forms a double-headed arrow. Drag and drop the start or end of the activity or absence to the new time.
NOTE The duration of full-day absences cannot be changed on days off or on days with no shift.
- Click to select the shift you want to move.
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Hover the selected activity or absence so that the mouse pointer forms a cross with arrows. Drag and drop it to the new position.
NOTE If the view doesn't show the entire shift, you cannot move it. If more than one time zone is available, change the time zone to try to see the entire shift.
The snap to interval is the increment by which you can drag and drop activities. It helps you place the activity or the start or end time of the activity at the correct time.
- Click Settings.
- Select the Snap to interval.
- Select agents.
- Select Move shift.
- Enter the new start time for the shift.
- Click Save.
- Select the two agents to swap shifts for.
- Click Actions and select Swap shifts.
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Hover the agent name and click the Schedule history icon.
All the agent's previous shifts for this day are shown. The top shift is the current shift.
- To restore the agent's schedule to a previous shift, select which shift to restore to and click Restore.
NOTE If a schedule change is modified by "WFM System", this means that the schedule is changed by an automatic process. For example, this is shown when an agent's request has been automatically approved or when schedules are copied to or imported from another scenario.
- Select agents.
- Select Replace absence.
- Select the absence type to replace.
- Select the absence type to Replace with.
- Click Save.
- Click OK to confirm.
- Click to select the agent(s).
- Select Edit activity in the actions menu.
- Select the activity that you want to edit.
- Adjust the time range, if necessary. If an agent doesn’t have the specified activity in that range, their schedule will not change.
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Select one of the following options:
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Replace activity
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Move to new start time
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Move to a later time
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Move to an earlier time
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Extend
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Shorten
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Depending on your selection, fill in the activity or time.
- Click Save to confirm the edit.
NOTE You cannot edit meetings, overtime, or base activity.
- In the Day view, click to select the agent(s).
- Select Edit Location.
- Select Home, Office, or None. If you exceed the seat capacity, a warning message will appear. Click OK or Cancel.
- Adjust the time range, if necessary.
- Click Save.
NOTE To change an existing location, in the Day view, in the Name column, click the Home or Office symbol, select Home, Office, or None, and click Save. To edit a location in the Week view, see the Edit a location procedure at View a schedule overview for a week (Schedules tool).
- Select the meeting to edit.
- Click Actions and select Edit meeting.
- If this is a recurring meeting, select which meetings you want to edit.
- This instance—Update meeting details only for this instance. This instance will then no longer belong to the series.
- Entire series—Update meeting details for all meetings in the series, including previous instances.
- This and following—Update the selected meeting and all the following meetings in the series, but keep earlier meetings in the series as they are.
- Update the meeting with the new details.
- Click Save.
- Click to select the agent(s).
- Select Remove activity in the actions menu.
- Select the activity that you want to remove.
- Adjust the time range, if necessary. If an agent doesn’t have the specified activity in that range, their schedule will not change.
- Click Save to confirm the removal.
NOTE You cannot remove meetings, overtime, or base activity.
- Select agents.
- Select Remove shift.
- Click OK to confirm the removal.
NOTE Any meetings scheduled using the Meetings tool, personal activities, and absences are not removed by this command, but they are not visible as long as there is no shift in connection to them.
- Select agents.
- Select Remove day off.
- Click OK to confirm the removal.
NOTE To remove days off in the Week view, see the Remove days off procedure at View a schedule overview for a week (Schedules tool).
- Select agents.
- Select Remove absence.
- Click OK to confirm the removal.
NOTE To remove an absence in the Week view, see the Remove a full-day absence procedure at View a schedule overview for a week (Schedules tool).
The shift category, with the short name and color, is shown to the left of the shift. Hover the shift category to see the full name.
- Click the current shift category. A new window opens.
- Select the accurate shift category in the list.
- Click Save.
View and add notes related to an agent's schedule. Use internal notes as reminders for yourself and other schedulers. Use public notes to inform or remind an agent of something.
When a note is entered for an agent on a day, the Notes icon is always visible . If there is no note, you must hover the agent to show the Notes icon.
- Hover the agent name and click the Notes icon.
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Enter text in the Internal note or Public note field.
All notes can be read by other team leaders or schedulers with access to that agent within the Schedules tool or in the Schedules module in the WFM client. Public notes are additionally shown to the agent in the schedule view in MyTime.
- Click Save.
Undo your most recent change. If another user has made a change that affects the same activity or absence after your change, you cannot undo your change.
- Click Undo.
- Click OK to confirm.
When you add or move activities or personal activities in Schedules, you get a warning if the activity is placed on top of an activity that is not overwritable. This warning shows when you click Save. If this happens, choose how to handle this situation.
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Select what option to use. In specific situations, only some of these options are available.
- Place meeting on top of non-overwritable activities—Select this option to add the new activity under the non-overwritable activity. This is useful when you for example add a longer activity and want to keep the short break.
- Move non-overwritable activities for these agents—Select this option to move the non-overwritable activity so that the new activity can be added without overwriting it.
- Do not make changes for these agents—Select this option to add the activity for all agents where it does not overwrite a non-overwritable activity, but not for the affected agents.
- Override for these agents—Select this option to add the activity for all selected agents, regardless of if it is placed on top of any non-overwritable activities.
- Click OK.
Use this function to move non-overwritable activities which are overlapped by other activities. Only regular activities can be moved. Any personal activities which are invalidly overlapped must be handled manually.
This functionality can be used for example when you add a meeting to several agents and the lunch activity is invalidly overlapped for some of those agents.
- Click Settings and turn on warnings by selecting Show warnings. Make sure that the Overwriting of activity check box is selected. The agents with invalidly overlapped activities are highlighted in yellow and warning icons are displayed.
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Select the agents for which you want to move an invalidly overlapped activity. If several agents have invalidly overlapped activities, you can select all agents.
NOTE When selecting all agents, the schedules are only changed for agents that have invalidly overlapped activities.
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Select Move invalid overlapped activity in the actions menu. The activity is moved according to these rules.
- The first option is to move the activity to the closest time where it's not overlapped by any other activity. The activity must remain inside the shift and the move is blocked if it would overlap another non-overwritable activity.
- The second option is to move in the other direction.
- If neither the first nor the second option works out, a warning is shown to inform you that there are still non-overwritable activities which are invalidly overlapped.
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