Scheduling rules

Use scheduling rules to define what a valid schedule looks like for your team: when people can work, how long they can work, which breaks and meetings they need, and what work they should do. Assembled checks your schedules against these rules and flags anything that breaks one, so you can follow labor laws and company policy without checking every schedule by hand. Schedule generation and the schedule assistant use the same rules to build schedules that follow them from the start.

To open it, go to Configure > Scheduling rules.

How scheduling rules work

Every rule does two jobs:

• It checks your schedules. When a schedule doesn’t follow a rule, the agent’s row on the Staffing timeline is highlighted with a warning icon, and requests that would break a rule show Broken schedule rules on the Schedule requests page.
• It guides automatic scheduling. Schedule generation and the schedule assistant treat your rules as requirements, so the events they place follow your labor laws and policies.

A few more things to know:

• A rule only applies to the people it’s assigned to. If someone isn’t assigned to an event rule, it isn’t checked on their schedule, and automatic scheduling won’t place that event for them.
• Assignments can change over time. Each assignment group can have a start date and an end date, so you can set up a change, such as a new shift pattern next month, ahead of time.
• One working hours rule applies to a person at a time. If two working hours rules overlap for the same person, Assembled flags the conflict. See Working hours.
• Custom date range rules are only used for automatic scheduling. Event rules that repeat During custom date range are used only by the schedule assistant to place events. They aren’t used to check your existing schedule.

Rule types

When you create a rule, you choose what you want to manage.

Working hours

Working hours rules define when each person is available to work. They show on the Staffing timeline as outlined boxes, indicating where each person’s schedule should be. Everyone who should be scheduled automatically needs working hours. For how to create, upload, and assign them, see Working hours.

Shift rules

Shift rules define how shifts work at your company. Choose a Type, then a Requirement:

• Working time: Shift length, Consecutive working days, Working hours in a time range (such as 25 to 40 hours in 7 days), and, if your company generates working hours, rules such as Shift timing, Start time across days, Allowed work times, Weekend days off, and Work and rest cycle.
• Rest time: Minimum time between shifts, Total rest time, and Rest time in time range.

For example: one rule says all shifts must be between 8 and 10 hours long, and another says people need at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in each 7-day period. You might add a separate rule for someone with an HR accommodation.

Event rules

Event rules describe events that must happen during a shift, such as lunches, breaks, meetings, or prep time, and how much flexibility each one has. An event rule sets:

• Event type: the event to place, such as Lunch.
• Event length: a fixed length, or a range such as 30 to 45 minutes.
• Repeats: Every shift, Every week, Every month, or During custom date range, and how many times.
• Timing: when the event can happen, relative to the Person’s shift (such as at the start, halfway through, or at least 2 hours from the start), a Specific event (such as at least 1 hour after lunch), a Time block, or a Specific time.
• Conditions (optional): apply the rule only when the event or shift meets certain properties, such as shifts longer than 9 hours.
• Define event across schedules: whether people attend together. Individual lets the event happen at a different time for each person, Separate requires a different time for each person, Shared puts everyone at the same time, and Per team gives each team its own shared time.

For example: in one site, lunch must be at a fixed time every day. In another, lunch can be anywhere in a 3-hour window. Create an event rule for each site, so each follows its local labor laws.

Productive work rules

Productive work rules describe what kind of work each person should do during their shift. Use them to guarantee coverage for a channel or queue, set priorities for certain people, or reduce context switching between types of work.

You don’t need productive work rules to generate a schedule. Without them, Assembled uses your forecast and each person’s eligible channels, queues, and skills, and schedules people for any productive work they’re qualified for. Before you create one, check that each person’s eligible channels, queues, and skills are up to date in Manage team > People management.

What rules can’t express

• Highly individual start times. If many agents each have their own start time with no natural groups, they’re hard to express as shared rules.
• Conditions that depend on other events. For example, “schedule 1 hour of project time, but only 30 minutes if there’s also a meeting that day” can’t be set up as a rule.
• One event type split across a shift. Placing one block of an event before a break and another after it takes two rules with timing constraints, and may not always produce the exact result you want.

Create a rule

1. Go to Configure > Scheduling rules.
2. Select Add rule, then Create manually.
3. Under What do you want to manage?, choose the rule type.
4. Set up the rule to match your requirement or policy.
5. In the assignment section, select Add group and choose who the rule applies to: specific people, or everyone who shares a team, site, queue, channel, or skill. To apply the rule for a limited time, set a Start date and an End date for the group. Add more groups to apply the rule to different people at different times.
6. Fix anything flagged at the bottom of the form. Assembled checks the rule as you build it.
7. Select Save rule.

The rule appears on the By rule tab. Assembled starts checking schedules against it straight away.

To create a rule like an existing one, select the three-dot menu on its row and select Duplicate.

Review broken rules on the Staffing timeline

When your current view has rules that are broken, the Staffing timeline shows how many, such as 3 schedule-rule violations.

1. Go to Schedule > Staffing timeline.
2. Select Show 3 schedule-rule violations to highlight them on the schedule.
3. Hover over a highlighted row to see which rules are broken and why.

To show only agents with problems, change All rows to Rows with broken scheduling rules. To hide the highlights again, select Hide 3 schedule-rule violations. For more on the Staffing timeline, see Staffing timeline.

Manage rules

On Configure > Scheduling rules, you can filter by rule type, status, team, site, channel, queue, and skill, and choose a date range to see the rules that apply during that time. There are two views.

By rule

Shows all your rules. Use it to:

• Find duplicate rules.
• Spot rules that contradict each other, such as one that requires 2 breaks in each shift and another that requires 3.
• Check who updated a rule recently.

To change a rule, select the three-dot menu on its row, then Edit, Duplicate, Delete, or History. To assign several rules at once, select them and then select Assign rules.

By person

Shows each person’s rules for the week you select. Use it to:

• Make sure everyone on a team has the right rules, with no duplicates or conflicts.
• Find people who are missing working hours, using Rows with missing working hours.
• Find and resolve conflicts, using Rows with predicted conflicts. Select Resolve > on a conflict to choose which rule applies.
• Check that everyone in a site has a legally required meal period.

Tips for event rules

Let agents move an event that has a default time

If a rule says an event happens at a specific time, such as 1:30 PM, the event is locked in place, and agents can’t request to move it. To give agents a default time they can still change, do one of these:

• Add the event to the schedule as a recurring event, and remove the specific time from the rule.
• Replace the specific time with a window, such as between 12:00 PM and 2:30 PM.

Get consistent timing relative to another event

If an event doesn’t land where you expect relative to a break, choose After or Before instead of Before or after in the rule’s timing. A single direction gives more consistent results.

Make sure weekly rules are placed

A rule that repeats Every week is placed only when the date range you schedule includes a complete calendar week, starting on your company’s first day of the week. A 7-day range from Thursday to Wednesday doesn’t include one, so the event isn’t placed.

To place an event regardless of week boundaries, repeat it During custom date range and use the schedule assistant.

Place a one-off event

Use During custom date range to place an event once, such as a team meeting sometime in the next 5 days. These rules are used by the schedule assistant only. To include an event in every schedule generation run, repeat it Every week or Every month instead.

Spread out breaks that bunch together

Instead of one rule for 2 breaks per shift at any time, create two rules:

1. A rule for a break at least 1 hour after the shift starts, and before the meal.
2. A rule for a break at least 1 hour after the meal.

You can also require each break to be at least 30 minutes from any other break.

Limit when events are placed during the day

You can restrict when default events, such as breaks, are placed during the day. Productive work rules control eligibility and time limits, but not operating hours, so you can’t stop productive work from being placed after a channel closes at a certain time of day.