Residential: Scheduling Shifts
This course will focus on the process of adding and validating shift schedules. Shift Scheduling in OnTarget allows you to assign clients, employees and shifts to specific sites. Eligible staff are scheduled for designated shifts at each site, typically a group home or similar setting that requires 24/7 staff coverage. The schedules can be validated to ensure staffing requirements are met for the corresponding services. Notes can be launched from the shift schedules and each staff member associated to the shift can sign off on the note. Staff can pick up shifts or add themselves to shifts as needed, per appropriate security permissions. Staff can also be required to clock-in and out of shifts for time and attendance.
We will now walk through the process of adding shift schedules. You must configure the system for shift scheduling so if you have not already completed the shift scheduling configuration, you will need follow the processes outlined in the “Configure Shift Scheduling” course to do so.
Otherwise, begin by going to Scheduling.
- +Add Schedule (drop-down).
- Add Shift Schedule.
- Enter the Date and select the Site.
- Click Add.
The shift scheduling window will then appear. This is where you select the caregivers and clients for individual shifts.
- Starting with the Caregivers cell select the checkboxes beside each caregiver scheduled for the corresponding shift. Notice that schedules are presented from left to right in chronological order starting w/ any 12am shifts first.
- Directly below each Caregivers cell are the Clients cells for corresponding shifts. Note that All Client checkboxes are selected by default – this is a result of assigning the client to the home facility in the client record. You can adjust the selection as needed by removing selected checkboxes for the client in the event they will be not be served for that particular shift.
Missed shifts are typically indicated the Clients cell when . Select the missed shift reason/description from the dropdown as needed to record when and why a client didn’t receive service. Notice that this can be recorded at the at the Caregivers cell as well in the event you’re interested in tracking staff history – such as when they call out or didn’t work the shift they were scheduled for and for what reason.
A Status drop-down and Comments box are available for each shift – both are optional.
Flex Shifts are useful when you need to add a non-standard shift to the schedule “on the fly”. To add a flex shift, click on “Add Flex Shift”, enter a Start Time and End Time, and click the “Create Flex Shift” button. This should be used sparingly for those random shifts that get introduced at the last minute but don’t warrant being setup as a regular shift because it is so sporadic.
Click Save to save the shift schedule for the date selected. Or, you can click on Recurrence to select a Recurrence pattern and r Choose specific dates for shifts to be saved to the calendar over a specified period of time.
Once shift schedules have been saved, they will display within the Calendar view of the Scheduling desktop.
There are Filters available from Scheduling that are specific to shift scheduling.
- Site filter: This filter allows you to filter the calendar view by site.
- Shift filter: This filter allows you to filter the calendar view by shift.
Note that once you have entered the filters as needed, click Search to refresh the calendar view.
The Validate Shifts function allows you to display shifts that do not meet pre-defined staffing requirements. Use the schedule filters as needed to pre-filter the calendar view prior to running shift validation. Once filtered,
- Click on Validate Shifts (bottom left of calendar view).
- Enter a Start Date and End Date.
- Click Run Validation.