Availability within Auto assign
Updated
by
Leigh Hutchens
Within Quinyx's Auto assign solution, we are able to consider the availabilities provided by the employees, through the Availability function, to indicate when they are available to work (please read more about the availability function in the mobile app here).
Scheduling according to availability within our Auto assign solution can be considered a hard requirement or a soft requirement.
Availability is considered a hard requirement
If the availability provided by the employees is considered a hard requirement it means that Quinyx Auto assign solution is not allowed to schedule employees outside of their provided availability. If you prefer to schedule according to employee availability but you want to allow the Auto assign solution to schedule outside of it if necessary, please look at the section below called “Availability is considered a preferential requirement”.
Availability is by default seen as a hard requirement so no additional rule configuration is needed to handle an availability, provided that you already use Quinyx Auto assign within your business. However, you do need to reach out to Quinyx to enable availability to be used within the algorithm solutions. Without enabling it, availability will not be considered.
Risks of setting availability as a hard constraint
Whenever you consider availability as a hard constraint there is a risk that the availability provided and the hours of the shifts do not match perfectly. Whenever that is the case the Quinyx Auto assign solution will leave that shift unassigned.
This holds true for cases where:
- The availability provided does not match any of the shifts available at all
- The availability provided has only a small overlap with the shifts available
- The availability provided has a large overlap with the shifts available but a small part of the shifts available falls outside of the provided availability
In all of these cases, no shifts would be assigned by the Quinyx Auto assign solution. Therefore, please make sure that the shifts actually can be assigned within the provided availability before contacting Quinyx support when seeing a large number of unassigned shifts you did not expect to see.
Availability is considered a preferential requirement
If the availability provided by the employees is considered a preferential requirement it means that Quinyx Auto assign solution prefers to assign employees within their provided availability but if that is not possible, assigning shifts outside of their provided availability is also an option. You can set the relative importance of scheduling according to provided availability compared to your other labor rules and scheduling preferences to ensure that your business strategy is considered within the assignment of the shifts.
To ensure that availability is considered a preferential requirement some additional rule configuration is required, which needs to be estimated and implemented. This also assumes that you already use the Quinyx Auto assign solution. If you would like to consider availability as a preference, please reach out to Quinyx support or your Quinyx contact person. Please provide the Quinyx team with an indication of the level of importance of adhering to employees’ provided availability compared to your other labor rules and scheduling preferences.
FAQ
How does the Quinyx Auto assign solution handle a situation where an employee has submitted both an availability as well as an absence?
Quinyx Auto assign solution will never schedule an employee when they have provided an absence, even if they have availability on the same day.
Who does the Quinyx Auto assign solution assign a single shift to when multiple employees have matching availabilities?
Without any further configuration, Quinyx Auto assign solution will assign the shift to the employee according to what is optimal based on the other configured rules and preferences.
If you would like to ensure that the shift is preferably assigned to a full-time employee over a part-time employee or a higher contract employee over a lower contract employee this requires some additional rule configuration that needs to be estimated and implemented. Please reach out to Quinyx support or your Quinyx contact person.
If an employee works across multiple units but only provides availability within one unit, will the Quinyx Auto Assign solution assign the employee shifts within the unit for which the availability was provided?
Currently, availability handled by the Auto assign algorithm is not handled on a unit level. Therefore the employee will simply be preferred to be assigned to a unit on the day for which an availability is provided no matter which unit the availability is provided for.
If an employee works across multiple sections but only provides availability within one section, will the Quinyx Auto assign solution assign the employee shifts within the section for which the availability was provided?
Currently, availability handled by the Auto assign algorithm is not handled on a section level. Therefore the employee will simply be preferred to be assigned to a unit on the day for which an availability is provided no matter which section the availability is provided for.
I do not have Quinyx Auto assign configured, how can I ensure that I can automatically schedule employees according to their availability?
To make use of automatic scheduling according to the availability provided you need to have the Quinyx Auto assign module configured and that needs to be estimated and implemented. Please reach out to Quinyx support or your Quinyx contact person.
