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Collect availability for different periods in the day, ie, evenings

QUESTION:

We need to roster for evening turns, but often people are available for the daytime but not evening or vice versa on any given day.

Is there would be any way of adding evening turns into the availability forms and roster separately to the day turns?

ANSWER:

Yes it is possible.

When specifying a turn, either in the template or in the roster, if you change the 'Period' field it will separate it out on the availability.

Ie, if you have three turns:

Hours: 0900-1700, Period: Days
Hours: 1000-1600, Period: Days
Hours: 1200-1700, Period: Days

Then the availability will only be polled on 'Days'.

OR....

Ie, if you have three turns:

Hours: 0900-1700, Period: Days
Hours: 1000-1600, Period: Days
Hours: 1600-2000, Period: Evening

Then the availability will be polled separately for 'Days' and 'Evening'.

You can have as many distinct options as you like, ie 'Early Morning', 'Middle Shift', 'Afternoon', 'Evening', etc.

1		Navigate to your rosters in the normal way, by selecting 'Manage Rosters' from the 'Rostering' menu.
2		When adding or editing a new turn there is an attribute called "Period". There will be a drop-down box with frequently-used options, and the ability to add a new option, or leave blank. Let's say we need to roster somebody for an evening special. Click on "Other"
3		You will now gain a box at the side of the drop down menu. Type a title e.g. "Night".
4	On the availability sheet the 'Night' turn will be polled for availability separately to the other turns, which might be 'blank' or 'days', etc.
5	It is always best to be disciplined and either "use periods all the time" or "never use periods". This is because 'blank' is considered a period. This isn't a problem if all turns are 'blank' as only one set of yes/no boxes would be shown on the availability collection page, and users would expect what they normally expect in terms of start and finish times on the railway they work for. However, if SOME (not all) turns have a period, then availability will be polled for each period, including 'blank', presenting yes/no boxes for (e.g.) 'days', 'evening' and 'blank', which is ambiguous for users.

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