Configure Coverage Counts

Configure the calculations that compare coverage against workload, and assign those settings to a location. Coverage views can show fractional workloads, coverage in periods shorter than zones, and coverage by job group. Coverage calculations are not always intuitive.

Organizational locations inherit coverage count settings.

  1. From the Main Menu, select Administration > Application Setup > Scheduler Setup > Location Settings > Coverage Counting.
  2. Click New, or select an existing coverage count setting and click Edit or Delete.
  3. Enter a Name and optionally, a Description.

Complete the following sections.

By default, coverage counts shifts with any work rule. You can exclude shifts or segments that have work rules from coverage counts. Example: Exclude on-call shift segments. Work rules are defined in Pay Policies. If a work rule is deleted after you select it, the coverage counting setting ignores and removes the work rule. Work rules associated with employees in People Information do not affect coverage counts.

  • To exclude rules, select rules from Available Work Rules box and click the right arrow to move them to the Work Rules to Exclude box.
  • To include rules, select them from Work Rules to Exclude box and click the left arrow to move them to the Available Work Rules box.

This section allows you to exclude shifts that contain a specified comment. By default, coverage counts shifts with any comment. Comments are associated with whole shifts, not segments. Example: Exclude shifts for a new employee.

  • To exclude comments, select the comments from Available Comments box and click the right arrow to move them to the Comments to Exclude box. (Active and inactive comments are in the list.)
  • To include comments, select them from the Comments to Exclude box and click the left to move them to the Available Comments box.

By default, paycodes do not count toward coverage.

  • You can select productive or non-productive pay codes to include in coverage counts. Example: Include pay codes that match previous coverage counts.
  • If a paycode is deleted after you select it, the coverage counting setting ignores and removes the paycode.

Do the following:

  • To include paycodes for coverage, select the paycodes from Available Pay Codes box and click the right arrow to move them to the Pay Codes to Include box.
  • To exclude paycodes from coverage, select them from the Pay Codes to Include box and click the left arrow to move them to the Available Pay Codes box.

By default, segment tags are counted toward coverage.

  • You can select segment tags to exclude from coverage where the segment tag represents when an employee is not working their scheduled job. For example, you may not want segment tags such as Absent or Training to be included in coverage.
  • If a segment tag is deleted after you select it, the coverage counting setting ignores and removes the segment tag.

Do the following:

Note: Segment tags that are available for you to include or exclude depend on what is configured in the general data access profile (GDAP) assigned to you.

  • To exclude segment tags from coverage, select the segment tags from Available Segment Tags box and click the right arrow to move them to the Segment Tags to Exclude box.
  • To include segment tags for coverage, select them from the Segment Tags to Exclude box and click the left arrow to move them to the Available Segment Tags box.

Note: Do not mix coverage counting settings with shift exceptions for a location. Exclude durations do not apply when the shift matches any shift exception. Other coverage counting parameters apply.

If shifts overlap zone boundaries, coverage counts can be inaccurate. To improve accuracy, configure exclude durations. Example: The end of a shift overlaps the start of the following shift by 30 minutes. This time allows employees to exchange current information about the job. To not double-count this overlap time in coverage, configure an exclude duration from the start or end of either shift.

Select one of the following:

  • Minimum Shift Duration to Allow Exclusion from Start/End
  • Exclude Duration from Shift Start and Exclude Duration from Shift End do not apply to any shift with this duration or a shorter duration.
  • Example: Prevent exclusion parameters from applying to 4-hour and shorter shifts. Enter 4:00.
  • Enter a duration greater than or equal to the combined value of Exclude Duration from Shift Start and Exclude Duration from Shift End but less than 24 hours.
  • Exclude Duration from Shift Start
  • A time period at the start of shifts to exclude from coverage counts. Ignores shift segment types in the shift.
  • Example: Exclude portions of shifts to cover transfer time between jobs or locations.
  • Enter a time:
    • Between 0:00 (default) and 23:59
    • Must be less than the Minimum Shift Duration to Allow Exclusion from Start/End.
  • Exclude Duration from Shift End
  • A time period at the end of shifts to exclude from coverage counts. Ignores shift segment types in the shift.
  • Example: Exclude portions of shifts that overlap different zones.
  • Enter a time between 0:00 (default) and 23:59. The duration must be less than the Minimum Shift Duration to Allow Exclusion from Start/End.

Note:

  • All exception shift rules remain the same.
  • Exclude duration parameters do not apply to pay codes.
  • Exclude duration parameters are ignored if:
    • The duration of any parameter is longer than the shift.
    • Exclude Duration from Shift Start plus Exclude Duration from Shift End is longer than the duration of a shift.
    • The counting method is Exact Match.

The counting method defines how to apply counts to the coverage rules. Each counting method can produce different counts from the same set of shifts. All counting methods count regular, transfer, break, and locked shifts.

Select one of the three counting methods:

  • Exact Match
    • Start and end times of the shift must match exactly the times of a predefined shift in the workload shift set. Otherwise, the count is 0 (zero)
    • Prevents double counts of shift sets that overlap
    • Counts transfers into the job for the entire shift, but not transfers to another job
    • Example: If the shift span is 7a–3p, only 7a–3p shifts are counted. 6a–3p or 7a–4p shifts are not counted.
    • Exact Match applies only to shift sets. If you select Exact Match for a location with zones, Full Cover of Time Span applies. The other parameters in the setting remain valid.
    • Exact Match ignores Minimum Shift Duration to Allow Exclusion from Start/End, Exclude Duration from Shift Start, Exclude Duration from Shift End, and Include Breaks in Previous Adjacent Segment.

    Note: To restrict the coverage counts to scheduled shifts with start and end times that exactly match the start and end times of the planned shifts, set the system setting
    global
    .WTKScheduler
    .ShiftCoverageCounting
    .RequireExactMatch     to True.

  • Full Cover of Time Span
    • At least one shift must cover the whole span. Otherwise, the count is 0 (zero)
    • Counts breaks and pay codes for the job according to the coverage counting setting
  • Hours Relative to Time Span
    • Divides the total number of hours of all shifts in the time span by the duration of the time span
    • Counts both the planned workload and the actual coverage
    • Example: If an 8-hour time span contains 2 shifts that total 5 hours, the count is 5 / 8 = 0.625
    • Alternatively, set the default counting method to Exact Match or Full Cover of Time Span

For a comparison of resultant employee counts using different counting methods, see Compare coverage counting methods.

  1. Number of Decimals — Enter from 0 (default) to 5 to display in coverage
    • Coverage does not display trailing zeros. Example: If coverage is 5.200, and the Number of Decimals is 3, coverage displays 5.2.
    • Decimal places round upward if the digit is 5 or more, downward if less than 5. Example: 3.5 rounds up to 4, and 3.4 rounds down to 3.
  2. Overcoverage Color — Background color of cells if coverage is higher than workload.
  3. Undercoverage Color — Background color if coverage is less than workload.
  4. Perfect Coverage Color — Background color if coverage equals workload.
  • Include Breaks in Previous Adjacent Segment — Select the checkbox to Include all breaks in coverage counts (default).
    • The duration of a shift segment includes breaks that follow the segment.
    • Consecutive breaks are combined.
    • If the shift segment has an excluded work rule, the segment and the associated break are not counted.

    • Coverage counts that include the duration of breaks in the duration of shift segments:

      • Shift 1: Break 1 6a-7a, Segment 1 7a-10a, Break 2 10a-11a, Segment 2 11a-3p, Break 3 3p-4p
      • Shift 2: Break 1 6a-7a, Break 2 7a-8a, Segment 1 8a-2p, Break 3 2p-3p, Break 4 3p-4p
      • Duration of Shift 1, Segment 1 = Break 1 + Segment 1 + Break 2 (shift starts with Break 1)
      • Duration of Shift 1, Segment 2 = Segment 2 + Break 3
      • Duration of Shift 2, Segment 1 = Break 1 + Break 2 + Segment 1 + Break 3 + Break 4

When finished, select one of the following:

  • Save or Save & Return
  • Save and Assign to Location — Navigate to and select the location, then click OK. The new setting applies to all schedule periods — current, past, and future — at this location. If the location already has an associated setting, click Yes to replace the previous settings.
  • Refresh — Returns to the last saved state.