is often complex, so visual alerts and status indicators can warn or block an action that goes against requirements.
When , there are some standard rules that apply across the board – for example employees can usually only work one shift at a time, so shift clashes are something that Ento will automatically flag and warn of on a schedule.
Other alerts can vary – where one businesses will want to be warned when overtime is triggered, another may want to put a block in place to prevent of any overtime. Another company may expect to pay overtime and not want it highlighted on the schedule at all. To support such varied business needs alerts can be customised, and alerts may even vary for employees from the same company on different employment contracts.
Alert colours
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]Red – critical alerts[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-9″]Critical alerts are used for shift clashes, and can be set for compliance failure with major employment contract rules. Examples could be trying to schedule employees after a hard set maximum number of hours per week, qualification non-compliance or the minimum time between shifts requirement not being met.[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]Orange – low alerts[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-9″]Often used as warnings, alerting those when they are about to perform an action that it would be better to avoid, for example where an overtime rate has been triggered, or where a scheduled break is not long enough, but where would still be allowed.[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]Green – no alert[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-9″]No alerts indicating any compliance issues.[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
Alert types
Shift confirmation
If your employee permission profiles are set to require shift acknowledgement, publishing a roster will result in schedule full of red icons with a white bell – indicating that the shift has not yet been acknowledged.
As employees receive their roster summaries and acknowledge their shifts, the red bell icons will disappear. If you are in contact with employees and they advise that they acknowledge their shifts, you can click on the icon and acknowledge either a single shift or all their shifts by selecting ‘Confirm shift’, or ‘Confirm employee ’s shifts’ on their behalf.
Shift borders
Coloured shift borders provide a visual indicator of potential issues. A colour other than green warns of an alert.
Hover over the shift label and the pop up message will provide information on the alert, the ones below show a shift clash in red – a critical alert, and an orange one indicating overtime has been triggered – this is a low alert.
Alert icons
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]Alert[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]Icon[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]Description[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]No employee assigned – red[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]
[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]No employee is assigned to work this shift[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]No employee assigned – green[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]
[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]No employee is assigned to work this shift, but an employee has advised they can work this shift[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]Pending shift swap – red[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]
[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]employee has requested to swap this shift with another employee , it is pending manager approval[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]Pending shift trade – orange[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]
[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]employee has requested to swap this shift with another employee . Manager has approved the trade, it is pending acceptance by the other employee [/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]Pending shift cover – red[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]
[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]employee has requested another employee cover this shift, it is pending manager approval[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]Pending shift cover – orange[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]
[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]employee has requested another employee cover this shift. Manager has approved the cover, it is pending acceptance by the other employee [/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]Pending shift drop[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]
[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]employee has requested to drop this shift, it is pending manager approval[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
[bs_row class=”row”]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-4″]Leave – pending approval[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-3″]
[/bs_col]
[bs_col class=”col-sm-5″]Leave has been entered and is pending Manager approval[/bs_col]
[/bs_row]
Click on any of the icons to see the available actions – for shift covers, drops and swaps this will be approve or deny, for unassigned shifts you will be able to use the Fill-in Finder feature to assign the shift.
Alert severity
Alerts may vary from employee to employee , based on their employment contract, which is where most alerts are configured. Alerts may exist for minimum consecutive days off, maximum days to be worked consecutively, minimum number of hours required between shifts or break requirement for shifts of a certain length are the types of alerts. This is also where an alert is categorised as either a low or a critical alert. Read more in the employment contract settings article.
Alerts and manager permissions
What a manager can do in instances of low or critical alerts when is controlled in each Manager permission profile. In some cases there may simply be a warning, in other instances the action may be blocked.
This allows for hierarchical overriding, so while a manager’s permission may block them from creating a shift where a low alert is triggered, while an operations manager’s profile may only give a warning when triggering a low alert, but still block for critical alerts.
Your Ento administrator will be able to access the tab of your Settings > Manager permissions profile to determine what attempting to schedule low or critical alerts will do. More on this in the Manager Permissions article.