Roompact Training on Schedule
Schedule allows a department to maintain their duty, desk, and other work schedules. It facilities staff members trading shifts and sends out a weekly reminder of upcoming shifts. Before you start using Schedule, there are a few set up tasks you need to complete first. After you complete your set up, and assign staff members to shifts, the Schedule feature will take care of the rest.
Creating and Editing Calendars
In order to begin using Schedule, the first thing one must do is set up your Calendars. You may have a number of different calendars on your campus. For example, there may be an RDOD calendar, a calendar for a specific community or residence hall, or one for a front desk. Begin the process by clicking anywhere in a blank area within Schedule’s displayed calendar.
The Calendar creation process will ask you to name the calendar and add Locations to it. The Locations determine which staff members will be eligible to sign up for shifts on the calendar. For example, if you have a calendar that is shared across two buildings, you’d add both locations to the calendar.
If you want a supervisor sign-off to be required for any staff members trading shifts, you can select that option for your calendar.
Creating and Assigning Shifts on a Calendar
Once a Calendar is created, you need to populate it with Shift Slots. Shift Slots are the individual shifts that a staff member can be assigned to. You can define its start date and time and end date in time. You can also add as many shift slots as you need – such as if two staff members are working the same shift. There is also the ability to repeat them over the course of a date range. Many institutions will first set up all of their shift slots and then go in later and assign each to the appropriate staff member.
One important thing to note about using the custom repeat option. Using this option allows you to create multiple individual slots, all at once, for a time period (such as a semester). Once these slots are created, they can only be altered individually. You can’t go back and adjust them as a series.
After creating your Shift Slots (or even while you are creating them), you can assign staff members to the shifts utilizing the drop down. The staff eligible to be assigned in this drop-down are determined by the Locations you added when you created the Calendar. Most schools will set up all the shifts first before going back in and assigning them.
Trading Shifts
If a staff member can no longer fulfill a shift or if they want to trade a shift with another staff member, they can propose the change through Schedule. Staff members can propose a trade with a specific staff member, or leave it open allowing any other staff member with the ability to pick it up.
To initiate a trade, the staff member clicks on the shift, and selects who they want to trade with (if applicable).
Before a shift trade is complete, the proposed staff member picking up the shift will need to go in and agree to the change. Pending trades will show up in the calendar view itself as well as to the right of the calendar in the notification panel. This is also where staff members may see “open trades,” when a staff member proposes a trade that can be picked up by anyone instead of identifying a specific individual.
If the Calendar requires supervisor approval for any trades, notifications will also show up in the right-hand notification panel. Supervisors can then approve it or deny it. All completed trades will initiate a email confirmation to the trading staff members as a confirmation.
Request A Day Off
The Request Day Off feature sends a supervisor (as defined in Roompact’s software) a request for a specific day off. Supervisors can then approve or deny the request. Requestors will receive a response via email and approved requests will appear on your calendar.
Filters, Downloading Data, and Other Options
Throughout the drop down in the upper right, Schedule allows you to view all Calendars at once or to view specific calendars. Additionally, you can navigate through the calendar with the various options (today, month, day, week, etc.)
Schedule also includes a number of filters you can turn on and off. If you only want to view filled shifts or unfilled shifts, or pending days off or approved days off, you can toggle them with the filters along the top.
The download button will download a detailed view of your shifts. It will ask you to select a Calendar and enter a date range. The resulting list will include details of all of those shifts including the number of hours worked by the specific staff member in that shift.
Shift Reminder Emails
Emailed upcoming shift reminders are automatically sent to staff members when they are assigned to a shift within Schedule. There are two types of email notifications that an assigned staff member will receive:
- Staff who have any assignments for the upcoming week receive an email Sunday evening with their assignments for the week.
- If staff have been assigned to a shift mid-week, they’ll receive an update email the evening that shift was assigned. (So on Monday, if you assign a Wednesday shift to a staff member, the staff member will receive an update email Monday evening.)
Learn More In Our Support Portal
Our support portal provides more detailed information and instructions about how to use Schedule’s features. Learn more about topics such as…
- Creating, Editing, Archiving, and Deleting Calendars
- Creating New Shifts
- Sign Up for a Shift
- Trading Shifts With Other Staff Members
- Upcoming Shift Email Reminders
- Schedule & Location Filters
- Downloading Staff Shifts and Hours Worked
- Request Day Off
