Add activities to shifts

Add activities on top of the base activity to create more complex shifts with different skill activities and non-skill activities like lunches, breaks and administrative tasks.

The activities can be positioned within the shift in different ways. One way is to use the auto-positioning functionality. It will position one or more activities trying to divide the contract time as evenly as possible. The other ways are to position activities at a specific time, or relative to the start or end of the shift.

If the shift you create has a lunch, start by adding the lunch activity. This is useful as it often affects where other activities are placed. Adding the lunch activity is also important to show all possible shifts based on the rule, as it is often a non-contract time activity.

Do not add activities with a lot of possibilities for when it can be placed within the shift and how long it is. That will a big and complex rule set. Instead try to keep the rule sets small and with a clear purpose. See Creating shifts overview for more information about what to consider when creating shifts.

Prerequisites

  • You have the Shifts permission.
  • You have created basic shifts.
  • The activities to use in the shifts are created in Options > Scheduling > Activity.

Page location

Client > Shifts > Activities tab

Procedures

Add activities and position them automatically

Automatic positioning of activities in the shifts allows you to distribute activities evenly within the shifts. This is useful for placement of breaks.

  1. Right-click in the table on the Activities tab and select New.
  2. Select the Auto position check box.

  3. Enter a Count for how many occurrences of this activity to add in the shift.

    EXAMPLE   This is useful to add two short breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

  4. Select the Activity you want to add.

  5. Define the Length of the activity:

    • Min—the shortest possible length of the activity.
    • Max—the longest possible length of the activity.
    • Segment—the increments of the activity length between the min and max length.

    EXAMPLE   If Min is set to 1:00, Max to 2:00 and Segment to 0:30, the possible activity lengths are 1:00, 1:30 and 2:00.

  6. Define the Segment for the positioning of the activity, i.e. the increments of the position in the shift.

    EXAMPLE   If Segment is set to 0:30, the possible start times of the activity are always at xx:00 or xx:30.

  7. Click Refresh to show the shifts generated based on the current rules.

  8. Click Save to save the changes.

    NOTE   The automatically positioned activities are evenly distributed within the contract time of the shift. If there are non-contract time activities with a lower priority, this will affect the automatic positioning of activities. They will always be positioned to keep the consecutive contract time as short as possible.

Add activities and position them relative to the start or end of the shift

Control at what time an activity is scheduled by placing it in relation to the start time or end time of the shift. This can be useful for example to schedule login time at the start of each shift, or to schedule the lunch break to start within 3 to 4,5h into the shift, regardless of when the shift starts.

  1. Right-click in the table on the Activities tab and select New.
  2. Select Relative start or Relative end in the Type menu.

  3. Define the Length of the activity:

    • Min—the shortest possible length of the activity.
    • Max—the longest possible length of the activity.
    • Segment—the increments of the activity length between the min and max length.

  4. Define the Position of the activity:

    • Early start—the shortest time from the start (or end) of the shift to the start of the activity.
    • Late start—the longest time from the start (or end) of the shift to the start of the activity.
    • Segment—the increments of the position within the shift, between the early and late start time.

    NOTE   The position of the activity always refers to the start time of the activity, regardless of if you are placing the activity in relation to the start or the end of the shift.

  5. Click Refresh to show the shifts generated based on the current rules.
  6. Click Save to save the changes.

Add activities and position them at a specific time

Control at what time an activity is scheduled by placing it at a specific time or within a time interval.

  1. Right-click in the table on the Activities tab and select New.
  2. Select Absolute start in the Type menu.

  3. Define the Length of the activity.

    • Min—the shortest possible length of the activity.
    • Max—the longest possible length of the activity.
    • Segment—the increments of the activity length between the min and max length.

  4. Define the Position of the activity at the time of day in the agent's time zone.

    • Early start—the shortest time from the start (or end) of the shift to the start of the activity.
    • Late start—the longest time from the start (or end) of the shift to the start of the activity.
    • Segment—the increments of the position within the shift, between the early and late start time.
  5. Click Refresh to show the shifts generated based on the current rules.
  6. Click Save to save the changes.

Change the priority of the activities

The priority of the activities decides which activity that end up on top if there are overlaps and affects the automatic positioning of activities. The activity at the bottom has the highest priority and will show on top in the shift.

  1. Select the activity to move by clicking the small field to the left of the rule set name.
  2. Right-click and select Move up or Move down.
  3. Click Refresh to show the shifts generated based on the new priority order.
  4. Click Save to save the changes.

Delete activities from the shifts

Delete activities that are not needed in this rule set.

  1. Select the activity to delete by clicking the small field to the left of the rule set name.
  2. Click Delete.
  3. Click Yes to confirm.
  4. Click Refresh to show the shifts generated without that activity.
  5. Click Save to save the changes.

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