Filtering, Options, and Preference Statuses

• 

• Supervisor

Learn how to filter the items that appear in the Calendar Items view, show or hide columns in the table, and change the status of agent preferences in the Calendar.

Related documentation:

• How Workforce Management works

Filter dialog

Use the Filter dialog box to change which items appear in the Calendar Items module:

1. Select the Calendar tab.
2. Select Calendar Items from the Views menu.
3. Select one or more objects from the Objects pane. An object can be:
   • In the Agents tree: a business unit, site, team, or agent
   • in the Activities tree:  business unit, a multi-site activity, site, activity.
4. Select a date or dates on the Calendar.
5. Click Get data.
6. Click the Filter icon on the Calendar Items module toolbar or select Filter from the Actions menu. The Filter dialog box appears. It has three tabs:
   • Calendar Items lists all exception types, preference types, time-off types, and rotating patterns.
   • Status Requested lists all statuses that can appear in the Status Requested column of the Calendar table.
   • Status Actual lists all statuses that can appear in the Status Actual column of the Calendar table.
7. Clear the check boxes for any Calendar items or statuses that you want to hide from the Calendar display. Or select the check boxes for any currently hidden items that you want to display.
8. Click OK to save your changes or Cancel to restore the existing selections.

   The Calendar view is updated to match your selection.

Tip

By default, if another user adds a new exception type while you have Calendar open, the new exception type is cleared in the Calendar Filter dialog box. To see agents who have an exception of the new type assigned, open the Filter dialog box and select the check box for the new exception type.

Options dialog

Use the Options dialog box to show or hide columns in the Calendar items table.

• Site—The site of the Agent who appears in that row.
• Team—The team of the Agent who appears in that row.
• Shared Transport—The shared transport to which the agent (displayed in that row) is joined.
• Reason—An explanation for why the actual status is different from the requested status.
• Comments/Memo—Any comments or memo made when this calendar item was entered or most recently edited.
• Paid Hours—The number of paid hours for the calendar item.
• Hire Date—The date that the Agent began work for the company.
• Submitted—The date and time that the Calendar item was submitted (by either an Agent or a Supervisor, depending on the type of Calendar item).

To use the Calendar Options dialog box:

1. Select the Calendar tab.
2. Select Calendar Items from the Views menu.
3. Select an object from each pane (Agents/Activities) of the Objects pane.
4. Select a date or dates on the Calendar, and click Get data.
5. Click the Options button on the toolbar or select Options from the Actions menu.
   The Options dialog box opens and lists all available choices.
6. To display a column, select the check box next to its name. To hide it, clear the check box.
7. Click OK to save your settings or Cancel to discard them.
   The main Calendar window re-appears, showing the new settings.

Changing preference statuses

Use the Calendar Items view to change the status of an agent's preference, exception, time off, or working hours (shift and availability) request prior to publishing the schedule.

• Before you publish the schedule, the possible actual status settings are Preferred, Granted, and Declined.  
• After you publish the schedule, the possible actual status settings are Scheduled or Not Scheduled.

What are preference statuses?

Before scheduling, a preference can be Granted, Declined, or Preferred. After a scheduled is built for the dates that include this preference, the status can be Scheduled (appears in the schedule) or Not Scheduled (does not appear in the schedule).

• A Granted preference will appear in the schedule unless it is first removed or unless another preference is added that out-ranks the first one. If this happens, the status of the lower-ranking preference changes to Declined.
• A Declined preference will not appear in the schedule unless it was declined in favor of a higher-ranking preference and the higher-ranking preference is later removed before the schedule is built. If this happens the preference goes back to its original status, which can be Granted or Preferred.
• A Preferred preference may appear in the schedule if it complies with the scheduling constraints and optimization settings that are configured for your site.

Two columns in the Calendar Items module show the preference status: Status Requested and Status Actual. See below for an explanation of the two categories.

To change the status of a not-yet-scheduled item:

1. In the Calendar's item column, click the name of the item you want to change.
2. Click an action button for the item's new status: Prefer, Grant, or Decline.
3. Click OK.
   The new status appears in the Status columns.

Important

The status can be different in each column, and the Actual Status can differ from the status that you just assigned. This is because of the way in which the Requested and Actual Status columns function, as explained below.

Requested status verses actual status

Requested Status and Actual Status refer to the two ways in which each exception and preference is saved.

• Requested Status is the preference's status as entered by the user. If more than one preference is entered on a particular day, each item is saved to the database with the status that it has when entered.  
• Actual Status is the status as resolved by WFM. WFM evaluates all current exceptions and preferences based on their positions in the calendar object hierarchy. If an agent has multiple preferences for a day, the Actual Status indicates how WFM has resolved them.

For example, if an agent prefers a full-day time off, that preference is saved in the database as Preferred. If the agent is then assigned (Granted) a meeting exception for that day, the exception overrides the preference. WFM evaluates the current set of exceptions and preferences, and notes the time-off preference as Declined. However, the database maintains the preference status as Preferred because, until a schedule is generated, the exception can be removed. In this case the preference would again take effect and the preference Actual Status would change to Preferred.

Tip

Rotating pattern assignments are Granted by default, so they do not need a separate status saved to the database.