Managing Shift Opportunities

The Shift Opportunities function enables managers to designate unfilled shifts as open shifts or shift opportunities, then alert qualified staff members. Employees can then sign up for shift opportunities over the Web, requiring minimal or no effort by managers. You create open shifts and shift opportunities in Staff Manager Client Schedule Editor.

Opportunities not only represent a need in the schedule, but such needs are also displayed to employees through the Web (or posted) in accordance with configured posting groups. Opportunities may have rewards attached to them. These rewards can be points (which employee collect and redeem like frequent flyer miles) or dollars, depending on how the organization has configured the Opportunity function.

You can see which employees have filled opportunities on the daily, weekly, and monthly schedule pages. Clairvia Web marks filled opportunities by including (O) in front of the employee's name.

If your organization has also implemented the optional ShiftAlert application, you also have the ability to send urgent staffing needs directly to qualified employees by creating a ShiftAlert. See Managing ShiftAlerts for more information.

Open Shifts and Opportunities Defined

Open Shifts are used by managers to identify holes in the schedule without displaying them to employees. They represent a need for an employee to work a specific task that has not been posted as an opportunity. Open Shifts may or may not be converted to Shift Opportunities and posted on employee dashboards.

An Opportunity is an unstaffed shift that has been posted so employees can sign up for the shift voluntarily. Opportunities may have an award attached to encourage them to work. Opportunities are posted for viewing on the Employee Dashboard based on posting schedules created by the manager.

General Features of Shifts Opportunities

• There are two types of shift opportunities:
• Auto-Approve opportunities (also known as Schedule Me opportunities) are awarded to the first qualified employee to sign up.
• Consider Me opportunities allow employees to present themselves for consideration; the manager or staffing office representative then selects which employee are awarded the shift.
• Optional award points: A fixed rate or fixed bonus amount (in addition to hourly rate or loyalty points) can be associated with some or all opportunities. Points may be redeemed for pay, merchandise, or schedule preferences.
• Dynamic updating: When employees log into Clairvia Web, they are presented with a list of the opportunities they are qualified to work. This list updates dynamically as other employees sign up or more opportunities are created.
• Extensive reporting: Reports analyze which posted opportunities are successful and which are not. There are also reports for employees and managers on awards given and redeemed.
• Multi-entity functionality: You can offer opportunities to employees in other profiles or facilities based on float set up.
• Automatic posting: You can post open shift opportunities to employees when the schedule is posted or use posting schedules to determine when employees see opportunities. Open shifts are not posted to the Clairvia Web.
• Flexible employee access: You can control access down to the individual employee level.
• Automatic conflict checking: Staff Manager checks for employee shift conflicts, potential overtime conflicts, and conflicts with any maximum consecutive hours worked limits. If employees are already scheduled for productive tasks, Staff Manager does not show them the opportunities, while employees scheduled for Unpaid/Non-working tasks do see the opportunities. In cases where an opportunity requires an employee with a particular skill, Staff Manager only displays the opportunity to employees with that skill. In facilities using the optional Maximum Consecutive Hours limit, Staff Manager will not show employees an opportunity if accepting the opportunity would put the employee over the consecutive hours worked limit. You set the Maximum Consecutive Hours setting in Staff Manager Administrator.

How Managers Work with Shift Opportunities

Managers can:

• Configure opportunities so employees can sign up automatically.
• Manage opportunity requests.
• Confirm that employees worked the scheduled opportunities and approve the rewards assigned to that opportunity shift.
• Quickly view all open opportunity needs to determine immediate staffing needs.
• Analyze opportunities using the following reports:
• Housewide Staffing Report displays employees working opportunity shifts.
• Schedule Report highlights opportunity shifts with employee assignments.
• Opportunity Audit Report displays employee shift opportunities information.
• Opportunity Reward Report displays all rewards earned by employees who have worked a shift swap opportunity.

In organizations equipped with the optional External Resource Management interface, managers can also use shift opportunities to administer shifts sent to external resource management vendors.

How Employees Work with Shift Opportunities

Employees can:

• View their reward account balance from their Dashboards
• View skill-specific opportunities for only open shifts
• View Consider Me opportunities pending approval
• Manage their opportunities quick list
• Delete opportunities in which they are not interested or which do not fit their schedule
• Apply to work available opportunity shifts

Shift Swaps and Opportunities

If a facility has made shift swap available, managers should be aware that employees cannot swap an Opportunity shift with an associated reward. If an employee wants to swap an Opportunity shift they were granted, the swap must be completed manually by a manager, who will determine if the reward should be given to the new employee.

Viewing Opportunities

Complete the following steps to view opportunities:

1. From the Schedule menu, select Administer Schedule > Weekly Schedule. This opens the Weekly Schedule page in Task View by default.
2. Make sure the Show Opportunities check box is selected. This opens the Opportunities list on the left side of the page. To hide the quick list, deselect the Show Opportunities check box.
3. Select View by Opportunity or View by Employee to sort the opportunities accordingly.
4. Select Show All, Unrequested, or Requested to filter the opportunities viewed further.
1. Show All: Shows all opportunities.
2. Unrequested: Shows all opportunities where no employees have been assigned (for Schedule Me opportunities) and no employee has signed up (for Consider Me opportunities). This view enables you to work immediate needs more efficiently.
3. Requested: Shows you Consider Me opportunities with employees signed up; you will need to approve which employee will receive the opportunity.

For employees to view opportunities, the following criteria must be met.

• The facility must permit Opportunities.
• The profile must have Opportunities employee view available.
• The opportunity must be set as OK to Post in Client.
• The schedule publish date must be greater than the schedule date.
• The opportunity must be open.
• The employee must have permission to see Opportunities; managers control this permission in Staff Manager Client using the Employees dialog box Permissions tab.
• The employee must be member of a profile represented in an Opportunities Posting Group.
• The employee's Posting Group must be included in the profile’s Posting Schedule.
• The employee must be able to work in the profile where the opportunity is scheduled
• The employee must possess the correct skill for the opportunity task.
• The employee must not have any schedule conflicts on the day of the opportunity.
• Accepting the opportunity must not put the employee over the maximum consecutive hours worked limit (in facilities using the optional Maximum Consecutive Hours setting). Managers set the Maximum Consecutive Hours setting in Staff Manager Administrator.

Approving Opportunities

1. Click an opportunity link in the Opportunities list (see the preceding section Viewing Opportunities). This opens the Opportunity Details window. This window displays the employee name, home profile, paid hours, overtime after X hours, pay rate, seniority date (if the manager has configured seniority date to be displayed), when they requested the opportunity, their current reward points/dollars, the opportunity status (which will show as pending until the manager makes the final decision), and the selection check box. If the employee included a note to the scheduler, that information will show in the Messages from the Employees box.
2. Select an employee from the menu and click the selection check box at the end of that employee's row.
3. Click the Schedule button at the bottom of the page to approve the employee to work the opportunity.

If an employee signs up for two Consider Me opportunities for shifts that fall on the same day but have overlapping times, approving one request automatically denies the other, so that you do not accidentally schedule that employee for both shifts. The employee receives an approved message for the approved opportunity and a denied message for the other.

Denying Opportunities

1. Click an opportunity link in the Opportunities list (see the preceding section Viewing Opportunities). This opens the Opportunity Details window. This window displays the employee name, home profile, paid hours, overtime after X hours, pay rate, seniority date (if the manager has configured seniority date to be displayed), when they requested the opportunity, their current reward points/dollars, the opportunity status (which will show as pending until the manager makes the final decision), and the selection check box. If the employee included a note to the scheduler, that information will show in the Messages from the Employees box.
2. Select an employee from the menu and click the selection check box at the end of that employee's row.
3. Click the Deny button to remove the employee from consideration.

Approving Rewards

At the discretion of the organization and manager, you can attach rewards to opportunities. These rewards can be dollars or points, with points being redeemable like frequent flyer miles.

Once an employee has worked an opportunity shift, the manager confirms that the employee worked the opportunity. Only then does the employee receive the points or dollars.

1. From the Schedule menu, select Administer Opportunities > Confirm Rewards. This opens the Opportunity Reward Confirmation page with the Confirm Rewards tab active.
2. Select the appropriate employee and opportunity row or rows by selecting the check box at the end.
3. Click Approve Selected.

When an employee works a scheduled task on the same day as an opportunity task, both tasks will display on the Confirm Rewards tab. You can use this additional information to determine if the reward is still valid for the employee on that day.

Denying Rewards

Sometimes employees may not be able to work the opportunity shifts they were awarded. In these cases, managers can deny the rewards associated with those opportunities.

1. From the Schedule menu, select Administer Opportunities > Confirm Rewards. This opens the Opportunity Reward Confirmation page with the Confirm Rewards tab active.
2. Select the appropriate employee and opportunity row or rows by selecting the check box at the end.
3. Click Deny Selected.

Redeeming Opportunity Rewards

Employees contact their manager to redeem any points or dollars in their Reward Account. In other cases, you may need to adjust an employee's reward balance for some reason, such as the employee being rewarded points or dollars in error.

Complete the following steps to redeem or adjust an employee's awards.

1. From the Schedule menu, select Administer Opportunities > Redeem Rewards. This opens the Manager Reward Redemption page.
2. Select an employee or employees by selecting the check boxes at the end of the employee rows.
3. If the employee is redeeming points, complete the Number of Points to Redeem or Adjust box. If the employee is redeeming all their points, you can leave this box blank and click Redeem All.
4. If the employee is redeeming dollars, complete the Number of Dollars to Redeem or Adjust box. If the employee is redeeming all their dollars, you can leave this box blank and click Redeem All.
5. Click the appropriate button.
• Redeem to redeem the number of points or dollars entered.
• Redeem All to redeem all of the employee's rewards.
• Adjust to deduct the points or dollars from the employee's balance.

Turning Off an Opportunity Posting Group

Posting groups are associated with posting schedules, which are then associated with opportunities. Because of these connections, posting groups cannot be deleted, but they can be turned off.

1. From the Configure menu, select Opportunity Settings. This opens the Opportunity Settings page with the Options and Messages tab active.
2. Click the Posting Groups tab.
3. Click Edit beside the posting group you want to disable. This opens the Add of Edit an Opportunity Posting Group window.
4. Deselect Enable this Posting Group.
5. Click Save.

The posting group is now displayed at the bottom of the Posting Groups list with a line through it to indicate it has been disabled.

Restoring a Disabled Posting Group

1. From the Configure menu, select Opportunity Settings. This opens the Opportunity Settings page with the Options and Messages tab active.
2. Click the Posting Groups tab.
3. Click Edit beside the disabled posting group. This opens the Add of Edit an Opportunity Posting Group window.
4. Select Enable this Posting Group.
5. Click Save.

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