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Your Workers and Resources

Andrew Dotto Updated by Andrew Dotto

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 Worker’s postcode. This is used to calculate travel time at the start and end of the worker’s day when their working hours calendar indicates they start and finish from home.

Select the Sectors the worker is required to operate in. These sectors define the postcode areas the scheduler will use when matching the worker to suitable jobs.

Add the required Abilities, such as skills, contracts or other qualifications. These abilities determine the types of work the scheduler can assign to the worker.

Once the required information has been entered, click Save to commit your selections.


Adding a Calendar to a Worker

Once a Worker has been created, a Working Hours Calendar must be added to define their working pattern and allow jobs to be scheduled to them.

Select the relevant Worker and scroll down to the Working Hours Calendar section to configure their availability.

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.


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:

  1. Set the end date against their Working Hours Calendar to ensure it closes off when they leave.
  2. Remove all Sectors
  3. Remove all Abilities
  4. 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.

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