Contents
Workers
Updated
by Mike Nolan
Purpose
This article is written to help you learn about the concepts of Workers within DRS.
What are Workers?
Workers (or Resources) are the assets that DRS uses within its Scheduling Solution to plan and allocate Jobs to. A Worker or Resource can have one or many Ability attributes and these Abilities dictate the availability for the Scheduling Solution to allocate Jobs to the Worker.
Viewing a Worker
To access a Worker, click on the Workers menu item from the left hand navigation to be taken to the Worker screen.
From here you can click on any Worker to be taken to the Worker Details screen.
Detailed Fields on Workers
The following table details the possible options within the Worker. Fields marked in BOLD are mandatory.
Field Name | Description |
ID | The worker is auto sequenced by DRS on creation as Wxxx this doesn’t need to be changed and is used within mobile systems to request jobs from DRS using this value. |
Name | This is the full name of the Worker |
Max Number of Tasks | Set as default to 1, this value can be used as a quota to only allow x number of tasks into an operative diary |
Max Duration Emergency | Quota value for the maximum emergency quota that can be accepted if using quotas, usually set to the full working day value e.g., 420, 450, 480. |
Max Duration Urgent | Quota value for the maximum urgent quota that can be set if using quotas, once this threshold has been met with Standard and Urgent quota duration values the difference can be left to accommodate Emergency jobs. E.g., 350, 390. |
Max Duration Standard | Quota value for the maximum standard quota that can be set if using quotas, once this threshold has been met with Standard quota duration values the difference can be left to accommodate Urgent & Emergency jobs. E.g., 300, 320. |
Trade | Free Text box usually populated with a trade value. |
Project Planner Worker | If using Project Planner set to Yes for the Worker to be considered by Project Planner and enable the option to add Project Planner Abilities. |
Duration Adjustment | Default value set to 100, this is global for all jobs the operative will attend. If set to 100 this will honour the original duration of the job to indicate the operative needs 100% of the time to complete. This can be adjusted to 80 for example which will result in all jobs the operative attends only needing 80% of the duration time to complete. You can also set this the other way to be higher for apprentices or workers on light duties if they require more time – 120 would set it to require 120% of the original duration for example. |
Day off Calendar | Set this to be the day off calendar required in the system, this will pick up all the unavailability within that day off calendar once applied. If there is a default configured at Agency level this will automatically populate. |
Reporting Group | This is an Business Data attribute where the Closed List values can be defined. Is sometimes used to associate Supervisors or Areas to an operative. |
Creating a Worker
Clicking ADD will require you to select the Agency (if you have multiple) that the Worker will be aligned with.
Once you have selected the Agency, If you have multiple Worker Templates then it will request you choose one
Enter the required attribute values and mandatory fields (denoted with a red star) as per the above list of fields.
You will also be required to add the Postcode of the Worker. This is used to calculate travel time for the start and end of their day if their working hours calendar states they start from home.
Select the Sectors that they are required to work in.
Add the Abilities they require such as Skill, Contract etc.
Click on Save
Adding a Calendar to a Worker
Once a Worker has been created, as associated working hours calendar will need to be added to the Worker to determine their working pattern and allow jobs to be scheduled to them.
Select the relevant Worker and scroll down to the Working Hours Calendar section.
Click on Add and select the relevant Working Hours Calendar from the Drop Down menu.
Define a start date of when the Worker will start that Calendar and if required define an end date.
Click Save.
This will now be showing on the Worker and if there was a previous open Working Hours Calendar it will automatically close it off prior to it starting the next one.
Adding Worker Unavailability
To add Unavailability to a worker, Click on Add in the unavailability section
This will bring up the unavailability pop up box, from here select the reason and dates for the unavailability and add any comments if needed, click on Save to apply this to the worker.
Once Added this will show against the worker and can be edited or deleted by selecting the line and clicking on Edit or Delete.
Using Daily Unavailabilities
You can apply daily unavailability to one or multiple workers over a period of time and on certain days within that period. To add Daily unavailability, select a single or multiple workers in the worker screen and click on Daily Unavailability
This will launch the Daily Unavailabilities pop up window, from here you can set the start and dates/times of the unavailability. From the Reason drop down select a reason for the unavailability and add a comment to reflect what the Unavailability is for.
Conflict Resolution Mode
This is where you need to specify what should happen if there is a conflict with jobs being present in the window selected. You can choose to:
- Abort the operation and this will allow you to amend jobs in the diary.
- Suspend the jobs which will remove all jobs present in the diary and put them into a suspended state
- Force the jobs which will add the unavailability in and overlap/force the jobs in the diary on these days.
Under the Days section you can select the days that need to be covered across the window, anything highlighted green will be made unavailable any days that are red will not.
Based on the example above it would create a team meeting in the diary of the three workers on a Monday morning between 8am and 9am between the 9th Jan 2025 and 3rd Jan 2026.
Under Workers will be a list of those selected you can click on the bin next to any resource to remove this resource. To add any resources, click on the + symbol and select from the pop-up list. Select the operatives and click select to apply them back in the screen.
Click Apply
This will show the progress window, this will display the success rate or errors.
Once completed click on Close
Editing a Worker
Select a Worker by placing a tick in the check box and selecting edit (or by right clicking your mouse on the entry), this will take you back to the Worker Details screen for amendments to be applied, once done click save.
Deleting a Worker
Workers can only be deleted if they have no Jobs assigned to them. This includes all past Jobs also and therefore is recommended not to delete them in order to retain the history of who has done what Jobs in the past.
It is recommended for those workers that have left that you do the following:
- Set the end date against their Working Hours Calendar to ensure it closes off when they leave.
- Remove all Sectors
- Remove all Abilities
- Change the Trade to Left or Leaver - this is so you can exclude this Trade in your Worker views and therefore only see the active Workers in the system.
