Configure Employee Preferences

Employee Preferences request subtypes allow employees to express preferred shift locations and jobs, and general work preferences. The set of available locations and jobs displayed to the employee when making their request is determined by the employee's job transfer set (JTS) and, if applicable, the JTS associated with the employee's assignment. Examples of work preferences include the maximum number of days and nights the employee wants to work in a week, and the maximum number of shifts they want to work in a day. Work preferences are not limited by employee assignments.

Once approved, the system uses these preferences to sort shifts that are displayed to the employee when they make shift swap, open shift, and self-scheduling requests: shifts that match their preferences are identified and listed before those that do not.

These preferences are also used by the Schedule Generation tool when building employee schedules, and they are displayed on the Current Schedule page Employee Preferences add-on. See Track employee preferences for more information.

The employee submits location, job, and work preferences from their profile (Main Menu Edit Profile. See Edit Profile for more information.

  1. Click Tap Main Menu > Administration > Application Setup > Employee Self Service > Request Subtypes.
  2. Do one of the following:
    Note: Best Practice: Because edits can affect pending requests, create new request subtypes rather than edit current request subtypes.
    • Click Tap New. Enter a Name.
    • Select one subtype. Click Tap Edit or Duplicate.
    • Select subtypes. You cannot delete subtypes that are being used. Click Tap Delete. Click Tap Yes to confirm.
  3. (Optional) Enter a Description.
  4. (Optional) Enter a Symbol. A symbol is an abbreviation to be displayed in the workspace; it does not have to be unique and can be up to five characters long.
  5. In Request Type, select Employee Preferences.
    Note: You cannot change this value after you save the request subtype.
  6. Priority. This field is not used by employee preference request subtypes.
  7. Employee Notification: Select a notification to send to employees when their requests change status.
  8. Employee Notification when Manager Changes Preference: Select a notification to send to employees when a manager changes the system-generated Job Preference score in the job preferences table in the employee's people information record (People Information > Timekeeping > Employee Role). See Timekeeping for more information.
    Note: This notification is also used for any changes the manager makes to work preferences. See step 11 for more information.
    Note: Whether the manager or the employee has specified a given preference is tracked in the Employee Choice? column in the job preferences table.
  9. Manager Notification: Select a notification to send to managers when requests change status, such as when employees submit or cancel a schedule request.
  10. Employee Preference Types: Select the preferences you want to allow the employee to be able to express using this request subtype. You can select one or more.
    • Jobs
    • Locations
    • Work
    Note: Work preferences are listed individually (Maximum days per week, Maximum hours per week, and so on).
  11. Employee Preference Types: Override Schedule: For work preferences only, select the preferences configured by the employee that you want to allow to be overridden. If selected, when one of the specified employee preferences is overridden, the system uses these values to build schedule rule overrides, which are displayed on the employee's people information record (People Information > Scheduling > Schedule Rule Overrides). See Scheduling for more information.
    Note: Employees also receive notification for overrides to work preferences if you configure them.
  12. Automatic Approval: Without manager intervention, automatically approve employee preferences requests when submitted, unless the request violates an employee rule.
  13. (Optional) Approval settings — Select any of the following:
    • Approval Settings: If your organization requires multiple levels of approval, select the approval settings.
      Note:
      • Approval Settings override the Employee Notification and Manager Notification settings that are configured in the request.
      • For symbolic reviewers, the associated reviewer list works only with the Filter by Submitter setting.
      • You must select Approval Settings in order to set the remaining options.
    • Reminder Template: Only if you select Approval Settings that have reminder notifications. Select the business process to use for all reminder notifications in the Approval Settings and Approval Step Settings.
    • Automatic Action Template: Only if you select Approval Settings that have automatic actions. Select the business process to use for automatic actions in the Approval Settings and Approval Step Settings.

      Inactivity notifications

      • If the approval settings in the request include approval step settings that have Inactive Approver Notification and Inactive Approver's Manager Notification activated to send notifications when the system acts automatically, the workflow notification for these fields must be mapped to the Inactive Request event type. To configure the notifications, see the Configure Notifications for Schedule Requests topic. To configure automatic actions, see the Approval Settings and Approval Step Settings topics.
      • Then in Automatic Action Template, select the Automatic Action v3 business process. This process completes the automatic action (approve or refuse) in the Approval Setting and in the Approval Step Setting, and sends notifications to a manager and a manager's manager after the automatic action is completed.
    • Reviewer Override: Only if you select Approval Settings. To override the Default Approval Sequence in the Approval Settings, select the symbolic purpose that assigns a different Reviewer List when the request is made by specific employees. Symbolic Purposes and Reviewer Lists must be selected in the employee’s People Record.
  14. Click Tap Save or Save & Return when you are done.