Daily Rules

Daily rules are templates for possible shifts in a day. You create a daily rule for each type of shift you need when scheduling employees.

Let's say you want to create two morning templates. One for the morning shifts during the weekdays, and a different template for morning shifts during the weekends. This is what they would look like:

Morning Weekday—The shift will be eight hours long. It will start between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning and have two breaks:

  • Lunch break—45-minute break. Starts three hours from the shift's start time.

  • Second break—20-minute break. Starts six hours from the shift's start time.

Morning Weekend—The shift will be seven hours long. It will start between 8:30 and 9:30 in the morning and have two breaks:

  • Lunch break—35-minute break. Starts two hours from the shift's start time.

  • Second break—15-minute break. Starts six hours from the shift's start time.

For each rule you define the shift duration, start times, variances, and activities included in the shift.

When you're building a schedule, you can save time defining the type of shifts you want to use. All you have to do is select a daily rule that has your shift preferences.

You don't have to create weekly rules from scratch. You can duplicate an existing weekly rule, make changes, and save it as a new one.

Create a Daily Rule

  1. Click the app selector and select WFM.

  2. Go to Setup > Daily Rules.

  3. Click New Rule, and enter a daily rule name.

  4. Select the Shift type and Shift length.

  5. Define the Shift start time range and Start time increment.

    Here you create different options for the shift's start time. For example, you can set that your daily rule has two options for the shift start time: 8:00 and 9:00 AM.

    You create daily rules with these values:

    • Shift starts between 8:00 AM—8:00 AM, and Start time increment 0:00.

      In this case, all the shifts will be scheduled to start at 8:00.

    • Shift starts between 8:00 AM—9:00 AM, and Start time increment 1:00.

      The shifts will start either at 8:00 or 9:00 (two options).

    • Shift starts between 8:00 AM—9:00 AM, and Start time increment 0:15.

      There will be five options for the shift's start time: 8:00, 8:15, 8:30, 8:45, and 9:00.

    When the value is 0:00, the shift's start time can only be the hours defined in Shift starts between.

    Let's say you defined these values: Shift starts between 8:00 AM—11:30 AM, and Start time increment 0:00.

    In this case, the shift can only start at 8:00 or 11:30.

    You might want to create more than one option for the shift's start time. More options give your agents more flexibility.

    Keep in mind, too many options can create scheduling conflicts.

    That's why it's important to balance between the shifts' time range and increments. If you define a long time range, make sure that the increment time is longer as well.

    Let's say the Shift starts between 8:00 AM—9:00 AM, and the Start time increment is 0:15. This will create five options for the shift start time (8:00, 8:15, 8:30, 8:45, and 9:00).

    If you define that the Start time increment is 0:30, you'll only have three options (8:00, 8:30, and 9:00).

  6. Add Activity codes:

    1. Select an activity code from the drop-down.

    2. Define the Length and Relative start time. This defines how long after the start of the shift the activity will begin.

    3. Define the Slack. The slack is how long the activity can deviate (in 15-minute increments) from the defined start time.

      You added an Activity code called lunch break with these settings:

      • Length: 30 minutes.

      • Relative start: four hours.

      • Slack: one hour.

      Let's say Mary's shift starts at 8:00. Her lunch break should be from 12:00—12:30, because that's four hours after her shift starts.

      But it's been a busy day. A lot of other things have come up. Since Mary's lunch has an hour slack on it, she might end up eating later. She could have her break at 12:15, 12:30, 12:45, 1:00. It'll depend on her other activities and their priorities.

    4. Click Add to add the activity code.

  7. Once you've added all the relevant activity codes, click Create.