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Use factors such as training and availability to qualify team members as "Recommended" for shifts.
This article is written for users with an access level of Supervisor, Location Manager or System Administrator who schedule team members.
In this article we will cover:
- What is a recommended team member?
- The factors of recommendation
- Overriding the "Not Recommended" warning when scheduling
- What is the difference between preferred team members and recommended team members?
What is a recommended team member?
When scheduling team members, Deputy considers a number of factors about a team member to ensure they are a good fit for the shift they've been assigned.
If any of these factors indicate there's a reason why team members aren't a good fit, then you will get a "Not Recommended" warning when assigning the team member to the shift.
When you review the team member drop-down list in the example of the shift below, you can see that the team members listed at the top of the list ie. Asmee, Simone and Emma are recommended, which means they fulfil these factors to work this shift.
The remaining names lower on the list have a yellow dot under their name to indicate they are not recommended as they do not fulfil the factors.
If you assign a 'Not recommended' team member to a shift you will get a warning just like the one in the example below where Belle is not recommended to work this shift at the Front Desk as she is not trained in the Front Desk.
The factors of recommendation
These are the factors Deputy looks at to ensure team members are a good fit for the shift they've been assigned to:
- Overlapping Shifts
- Training
- Unavailability
- Approved Leave
- Stress Profiles
- Onboarding completed (if using Deputy HR to onboard team members)
- Preferred team members (optional setting)
1. Overlapping Shifts
The Overlapping warning displays in the team member list when a team member who is already working another shift is scheduled, even if that shift is at another location in your organization.
In the example below, you can see that this person is greyed out and cannot be selected for this shift as team members can not work two shifts at once.
To resolve this, you may:
- Adjust the length of either of the overlapping shifts so that they no longer conflict OR
- Remove the team member from the original shift
2. Training
The “Not trained” warning appears when the work area for this shift has a Training Module applied (Required Training for this Area), but the team member does not meet the training requirement.
To resolve this, you may:
Click Roster anyway and accept the warning and schedule the team member anyway.
Add the training record to the team member's profile OR
Click Find replacement and assign a recommended team member (who has the required training for that Area) to the shift instead.
Note: If you have multiple training modules applied to an Area, the team member is required to have all of the training, in order to be recommended.
3. Unavailability
Unavailability is a way to communicate periods in which the team member would prefer not to be scheduled to work. This could be a one-off event such as "school athletics carnival" or a recurring event such as "weekly Friday university tutorial".
When you assign someone to a shift during a period that they’ve indicated as “unavailable,” you will see the below warning:
To resolve this, you may:
- Click Roster anyway, accept the warning and assign the team member anyway OR
- Click Find replacement and assign another team member
4. Approved Leave
If a "not recommended - on leave" warning appears while scheduling, it means that they have an approved leave request overlapping the shift period.
While you are able to override this and schedule the team member anyway, the leave was approved by a manager, so this team member may not be able to work the shift.
To resolve this, you may:
Click Find Replacement and assign another team member to the shift
Click Roster anyway and override the warning and schedule the team member anyway.
5. Stress Profiles
Each team member has a stress profile assigned to them, which indicates how many hours they should work in a given day or week. If a new shift puts someone’s hours over their limit for the day or week, they are said to be "stressed" and won't be recommended.
In the example below, Aki's Stress Profile is set to indicate they a maximum of 2 days per week. When a third shift is added a "Not recommended - Stressed" warning is given.
To resolve this, you may:
Click Roster anyway, override the warning and schedule the team members anyway OR
Change the team member's stress profile OR
Assign another team member
Read more about Stress Profiles for Enterprise accounts
6. Onboarding completed (if using Deputy HR in AU, UK, US)
If your Deputy account has subscribed to Deputy HR and is using it to onboard new team members, those new team members will not be recommended for shifts until they have successfully submitted their onboarding forms.
To resolve this, you may:
- Click Schedule anyway, override the warning and schedule the team members anyway OR
- Assign another team member
and then ask the team member in question to complete their onboarding forms. Team members can get help to submit their onboarding forms here:
- Complete your paperless onboarding form (Australia)
- Complete your paperless onboarding form (UK)
- Complete your paperless onboarding form (US)
If the employee's onboarding status shows "Onboarding in progress" under their name on the People tab then the manager may need to either:
- Resend the onboarding link to the employee so they can complete it OR
- Delete the onboarding request if it is no longer required.
7. Preferred team members (optional setting)
Preferred team members is a setting that you as the System Administrator or Location Manager can control to designate specific team members to be scheduled in shifts in a specific Area before other recommended team members.
Designating people as "preferred" to work in an Area only ensures that they are always first to be scheduled there, and will not limit the schedule to preferred team members only. Team members who are not set as preferred are also still able to clock in for an unscheduled shift in the area as well.
If you set preferred team members for an area but then choose to schedule other team members in the area that have not been set as preferred you will receive a warning which can be overridden.
To learn how to add specific team members as 'preferred', please read Using preferred team members when scheduling.
Overriding the "Not Recommended" warning when scheduling
It is possible to override the "Not Recommended" warning for all factors described above EXCEPT OVERLAPPING. In the case of overlap, it is impossible to work in two places at once so the schedule will only allow the team member to be added to one shift at a time.
For the other five factors that trigger a 'Not Recommended' warning, schedule managers can override the warning by clicking OK.
If you override a warning, the schedule will still indicate to you that it is 'Not Recommended' using a triangle warning icon in the top right-hand side of the shift on the schedule. When you open the shift you can see the reasons why the team member is not recommended for this shift.
Note: Some users on Deputy plans with the ability to customize access levels and permissions may not have been assigned the ability to override these warnings. For more information on this permission, read Scheduling Permissions.
For more information on this permission in Enterprise, read Access Levels & Permissions - Rostering.