As an Administrator or Scheduling Manager, you want to help ensure that your employees know when they are scheduled to work. With this workflow, employees are notified when new schedules are created or assigned to them.
This article will guide you through:
Create the ‘Schedule Assigned’ Workflow
To create the ‘Schedule Assigned’ workflow, click Insert in Workflows >> Maintain Workflows.
Select the From Template option and then workflow ‘201 – Schedule Assigned’ from the dropdown, click OK.
By default:
- Employees will be notified by an Avanti Message in their Self-Service Portal (ASSP), as well as a notification in the Avanti Go and ASSP.
*To help reduce the number of notification messages when multiple schedules are inserted, at least 5 minutes will elapse from when the last schedule was created in order to send the notification. - The message will display the following:
If you are satisfied with these defaults, all that is needed to activate the default workflow is to select ‘Active’ and click OK. Notifications will now be sent to employees when a schedule is created or assigned to them.
Maintain the ‘Schedule Assigned’ Workflow
Once the workflow is created, you can update:
- How employees are notified
- What's included in the notification
- The notification delay for multiple schedules
Update How the Employees Are Notified
By default, employees will be notified via an Avanti Message and a notification in Avanti Go and the ASSP. You can configure how you would like to notify employees from these options:
- Avanti Message
- Avanti Mobile Notification (coming soon)
To update how the notifications are sent, click ‘Send Notification Settings’. This can be found on the last step of the 'Schedule Assigned' workflow under Workflows>Maintain Workflows.
Sending the Notification via Avanti Message, Email Only, or Avanti Message & Email
From the Notification tab of Send Notification Settings, select your preferred 'Notification Type' from the dropdown.
*For notifications sent by email, you may also select 'High Priority' to flag the email as High Priority in the employee's inbox, if supported by their eMail program.
- Avanti Messages are accessed from ASSP.
- Emails will be sent to:
- The Alert Email address on their Employee Profile
- If they do not have an Alert Email, it will be sent to the the Primary Email on their Employee Profile
- If there is no Alert or Primary Email on their Employee Profile, it will be sent to the Alert Email on their Avanti User
Sending the Notification to Avanti Mobile
By default, the notification will also be sent to Avanti Mobile. To prevent this, deselect ‘Send Avanti Notification’ from the Notification tab of 'Send Notification Settings'.
If you are satisfied with the rest of the defaults, select OK to save the changes to the notifications. All that is needed to activate the workflow is to select ‘Active’ and click OK. Notifications will now be sent to employees when a schedule is created or assigned to them.
Updating the Notification
There are three things that can be updated on the notification:
- The Subject
- The Contents of the Notification
- The Schedule Details Displayed
By default, the message sent will display similar to the following:
Updating the Subject
To update the contents of the notification the employee receives, click ‘Send Notification Settings’ if it's not already open. This can be found on the last step of the 'Schedule Assigned' workflow under Workflows>Maintain Workflows.
When the notification is created, the subject defaults to ‘New Schedules Assigned’ on the Notification tab.
You can update the Subject to display any text you would like. For example, update the subject to be ‘You have been scheduled additional shifts’.
*Tip: Try to keep the Subject brief and to the point so that the employee easily recognizes the purpose of the email and does not mistake as spam.
If you are satisfied with the rest of the defaults, click OK to save the changes to the notifications. Then all that is needed to activate the workflow is to select ‘Active’ and OK. Notifications will now be sent to employees when a schedule is created or assigned to them.
Updating the Contents of the Notification
To update the contents of the notification the employee receives, click ‘Send Notification Settings’ if it's not already open. This can be found on the last step of the 'Schedule Assigned' workflow under Workflows>Maintain Workflows.
When the notification is created, the message defaults to the following on the Notification tab.
You can update the message to display any text you would like. It will be formatted using HTML, if ‘HTML message’ is selected. You do not need to know or use HTML to have the message formatted in HTML.
By default, the message will includes <% @GivenName(EmpNo) %>, which will display the employee’s Given Name. To include the employee’s first and last name instead, replace <% @GivenName(EmpNo) %> with
<% @GivenName(EmpNo) %> <% @Surname(EmpNo) %>
Updating What's Included in the Schedule Information
The following information will be included in the notification by default. However, this information will only be included if it is entered on the created schedule:
- Schedule From and To Date And Time
- Shift Description
- Location Description
- Pay Code Description
To update the schedule information included in the notification, click the bottom ‘Assign Settings’ button in the first step.
'Assign Settings' will appear similar to the following. Select the for Value.
The expression that populates the schedule information displayed will be available.
Removing the Shift Description
To remove 'Shift Description' from the notification, remove the following from the expression. Please ensure the trailing '+' is removed.
IsNull(', Shift: ' + RTRIM(TcShifts.Description), ' ') +
Removing the Location Description
To remove 'Location Description' from the notification, remove the following from the expression. Please ensure the leading '+' is removed.
+ IsNull(', Location: ' + RTRIM(Location.Name), '')
Removing the Position Description
To remove 'Position Description' from the notification, remove the following from the expression. Please ensure the leading '+' is removed.
+ IsNull(', Position: ' + RTRIM(Position.Name), '' )
Removing the Pay Code Description
To remove the 'Pay Code Description' from the notification, remove the following from the expression. Please ensure the leading '+' is removed.
+ RTRIM(TcScheduleEntries.PayCode), '')
Once you are satisfied with the changes, click OK to save.
*Before saving your changes, please ensure there is not a '+'
Once you are satisfied with the rest of the defaults, click OK to save the changes to the notifications. Then all that is needed to activate the workflow is to select ‘Active’ and click OK. Notifications will now be sent to employees when a schedule is created or assigned to them.
Update the Delay before Notifications Are Sent
To help ensure that all schedules are inserted before a notification is sent, the notification will not be sent until at least 5 minutes has elapsed since their last schedule was created.
To modify this delay, click ‘Wait for New Instance Settings’ on the Workflows>Maintain Workflows
‘Wait for New Instance’ will appear similar to the following. Click the button.
By default, the delay will be 5 minutes. Update the value in the 'Constant':
- The first two digits indicate the number of hours.
- The third and fourth digit indicate minutes.
- The last two digits indicate seconds
In the example below, the notification will be delayed at least 1 hour, 15 minutes and 30 seconds from the last schedule created for the employee.
Congratulations! This workflow is now set up. Click OK to save the changes to the notifications. Then all that is needed to activate the workflow is to select ‘Active’ and click OK. Notifications will now be sent to employees when a schedule is created or assigned to them.