Open Shifts

SOS (Send Open Shift)

Need to fill a scheduling hole quickly in a client home and are stuck trying to find an employee that can cover this open shift? The SOS tool is designed to help reduce the amount of time it could take to find the right employee for the right shift, and increase communication about the details of the shift while making it super-easy to fill the shift when the right employee has been chosen.

We define an “Open Shift” as a scheduled shift that does not have an employee assigned to it. These display as a red-colored shift in the client view of the schedule.

Overview of Steps:  Open Shift is created on a client’s schedule -> Supervisor uses SOS Dashboard to Find Coverage -> Supervisor chooses specific employees to Send Open Shift to -> Employees receive SOS and replies: Accept/Decline/Partial Accept via QSMobile -> Supervisor is alerted when employees reply -> Supervisor uses SOS Fill Shift tool to pick the employee they want to fill the shift -> Open shift is automatically filled in the schedule with the chosen employee -> The chosen Employee is automatically alerted they’ve been picked to fill the open shift -> Those employees not picked get an alert that they were not chosen to fill the open shift.

Setup

This feature needs to first be activated per Security Role. Go to Utilities -> Security Maintenance -> Dashboard Module: SOS Dashboard Maintenance. There only 2 attributes: Update and Access. Enable Access and Update for the admin/supervisor type roles that will be sending the open shift request to employees. Use Access only for the employee roles that will be replying to the SOS.

SOS Notifications

The most optimal way to use the SOS feature in its entirety is to configure its six SOS notifications via Utilities -> Notification Maintenance.

SOS Dashboard Tracking Tool

All open shifts that exist on client schedules will automatically populate to the SOS Dashboard.

1. By default the grid loads using the “Show my caseload” filter, which displays any clients the logged in user is the “Case Manager” of according to the Case Manager field in the Client Info 2 tab of a client’s profile.
2. By default the grid loads all open shifts that exist in the “Next 7 Days” based on “today”. There is the option to see the Next 14 and 21 days as well.
3. Only one open shift can be chosen at a time unless there are multiple consecutive open shifts with the same client.
4. When the red open shift has been selected, click “Find Coverage”. A new screen opens up while QSP runs a process to calculate all employee’s scheduled hours for the week of the chosen open shift. Depending on how many employees your agency has this could take a few minutes. There is also the option to not run the weekly OT calculation process.
5. After the SOS is sent, and during the time an open shift is waiting to be filled, (i.e. pending coverage) it remains orange in the SOS dashboard.
6. As replies from employees come in, they can be viewed, per open shift, in the “Replies” column. Clicking the reply link is the required step to fill an open shift.

SOS – Find Coverage

After the “Find Coverage” button is selected from the SOS Dashboard, the Find Coverage screens opens and gives additional several filters and options to communicate the Open Shift.

1. The details of the chosen Open Shift display at the top
2. Several optional filters can be used to filter the listed employees based on certain criteria. Once all filters have been applied, select the “Filter” button
   1. Office – Sort employees by a certain office
   2. Training Type – Filter employees that have a specific training type with the client the open shift is for (learn more about how to add a new training here).
   3. Secondary Training Type –  Include a secondary training type filter to further sort employees that have both training types
   4. Male/Female Only – Select a gender only option to filter employees that are male or female (if defined  in their employee profile)
   5. Available – Use to filter employees that are not scheduled (i.e. “available”) during the time of the chosen Open Shift. Availability includes any Time Off Requests and Unavailable Schedule Preferences for each employee.
3. An optional note to the employees can be included when the Open Shift is sent
4. The “Hrs Scheduled” column shows the number of hours each employee is already scheduled during the week of the Open Shift. The “In OT” column uses the company OT settings to determine if the employee is are already in weekly overtime (“Yes”), or not yet (“No”). The “Hrs Before OT” column shows the number of hours an employee can be scheduled before going into weekly overtime.
5. Lastly, when the “Send SOS” button is selected, the Open Shift details are sent to the selected employees. This communication can only be sent if the SOS notifications have already been configured.

Employee SOS Experience in QSMobile

1. When activated, employees will see the Open Shifts module in the QSP mobile app. The red badge indicates the number of Open Shifts available for reply
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2. Full details of each Open Shift are listed.
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3. Client details can be viewed, including the face sheet.
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4. If “Partial” is selected, an employee has the option to indicate which part of the Open Shift they can fill
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5. Once an employee submits their reply the Open Shift turns orange and is pending
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SOS Tracking

Open Shifts can be filled as soon as employees begin to reply to the SOS, and the SOS tracking tool makes it easy to do with just one click of the “Fill Shift” button. The status of each employee’s reply is tracked in the Status column and color-coded. All “Accepted” replies are positioned at the top, then any  “Partial” replies, then “Declined”, and then “No Reply”. When “Fill Shift” is selected for the chosen employee, QSP automatically schedules that employee into the appropriate shift! It is still best practice to check for any overtime, overlaps, etc as these are not checked at the time “Fill Shift” is selected. Also, if the SOS notifications are configured, an alert is sent to the chosen employee letting them know they’ve been picked to fill the shift, as well as another alert is sent simultaneously to the other employees not chosen (except those that “Declined”) letting them know they were not picked to fill the shift.