Configure sorting and matching rule sets

A priority sorting and matching rule set groups related sorting and matching rules, and determines the order to sort employees, sort shifts, or match shifts to employees. An intermediate component, it structures complex procedure sets.

Note: Priority rule sets are different from schedule rule sets. Schedule rule sets contain the restrictions and requirements on a schedule, and include employee and organizational rules.

1. From the Main Menu, select Administration > Application Setup > Scheduler Setup > Sorting and Matching > Rule Sets.
2. Click New or select a rule set and click Edit or Duplicate.
3. To remove a rule set, select the rule and click Delete. Click Yes to confirm. If an error message states that you cannot delete rule sets because they are part of procedure sets, remove the rule sets from the procedure sets. Try again to delete the rule sets.
3. Enter a Name and (Optional) Enter a Description.
4. Select a Context to define the purpose of the rule set:
   • Matching Assignments
   • Sorting Employees
   • Sorting Shifts
   Note: A rule set cannot mix employee sorts, shift sorts, or matching rules. Additionally, you cannot change the context of a rule set after it is saved. Instead, create a rule set with the necessary context.
5. To add rules, select the rules from Available Rules box and click the right arrow to move them to the Selected Rules box.
6. To change the order of rules, click and drag the items in the Selected Rules box. To remove rules, select them from Selected Rules box and click the left arrow to move them to the Available Rules box.
7. The rules are processed in order from top to bottom of the Selected Rules list.
Note: The order of sorting rules in a rule set is very important to the results of a procedure set, and must match the scheduling priorities. Typically, the first rule sorts most of the data. The rules that follow act as tie-breakers and sort only data that earlier rules could not sort. The order of matching rules has no effect on the results of a procedure set. The employee and a shift must meet all matching rules. Otherwise, the system does not assign the shift to the employee.
8. For example, you have a group of employees:
   • Full time, hire date 1994
   • Part time, hire date 2004
   • Part time, hire date 2002, Operator certification
   • Full time, hire date 1989, Operator certification
   • Full time, hire date 1985, Operator certification
   • Per diem, hire date 2000
   • Full time, hire date 1994, First Aid certification
9. To assign shifts first to full-time employees:
   1. Sort by worker type to group the full-time, part-time, and per-diem employees.
   2. Sort by hire date: earliest to most recent. The order of part-time employees changes.
   3. Sort by certification.
10. To assign shifts first to senior employees:
    1. Sort by hire date: earliest to most recent.
    2. Sort by certification. The order of employees hired in 1994 changes.
    3. Sort by worker type: full time, part time, per diem.
11. In this example, the per-diem employee is sorted higher than in the first example
8. Click Save & Return.