Archived New to myTime Scheduling

[zephyr4]

Hi guys and gals, so my store has a team member leaving for another job (good for her!), and she was the one who spent 8 hours every week making the myTime schedules for the whole store except logistics. I was asked to take her place, and I got to train under her for 2 sessions before she left. I now make the edits to the schedule, and I'm steadily getting better at it week after week.

Are there any shortcuts to make editing the schedules take less time to do? I only know about making set schedules for a few team members to save some time. Should I be paying attention to the coverage metrics for other workcenters except for the cashiers where it's necessary? How do you easily handle the overtime report since myTime doesn't look at it when it automatically generates the schedule? I appreciate any other advice for editing myTime schedules! Thanks!

 

[Producer]

Every store is different in terms of how they schedule and staff a store. Some rely heavily on MyTime's generated shifts, while others (like my own) ignore the automatically generated shifts entirely for every department except cashiers. The only department that gets scored for fill-to-need is Cashiers, so other departments are up to the discretion of the TLs and ETL-HR in terms of how they want to staff those departments.

I'll give you some tips based on how we do the scheduling (which is almost entirely from scratch). Take what you find useful and ignore the rest.

I always start with the cashier schedule because its the most complicated. I ignore availabilities at the beginning and focus solely on getting to 95% fill-to-need for each day while staying under the forecasted hours. Once I've accomplished that, I move shifts around to fit availabilities and any shifts that don't fit anybody's availabilities get dropped into "not assigned" and given to hardlines and softlines team members. Make sure you're making use of the schedule toolbar for moving shifts around, assigning them, and unassigning them as it saves a lot of time (above the schedule click view, then schedule toolbar)

For Hardlines, Softlines, Electronics, Service Desk, Fitting Room, Food Ave, and Starbucks (AKA Service-driven work centers), I start by taking the forecasted hours for each department that is given by the ETL-HR or STL and I divide it by 7 to give me the base hours per day that I can use for the department. I then adjusted down the hours for non-peak days (usually Mon-Thurs) and add them to peak days (usually Fri-Sun). Once I know how many hours I have to work with, then I need my team members. Most people should already be in the correct departments, so when you go to make the schedule for the department, all you have to do is under "show" go to "selected locations" and select the one you're working on. However, you may have team members who work in that department as a secondary workcenter (e.g. softlines tm who's also trained in hardlines). I usually go to "all home locations" and find all of those team members who can work in that department... then I schedule them for a 2am-6am shift on the saturday of the two week out under that workcenter so that they populate in the given workcenter. I then create the schedule for the department and delete the 2am shifts. I repeat that whole process for each department I work on.

It sounds like a lot of work, but I'm usually able to complete the entire store schedule from scratch (with exception to the trailer unload which is a set and the cashier schedule which I only make edits to) in about 5-7 hours.

If you have any specific questions or issues, I'd be more than happy to help you out.

 

[zephyr4]

Every store is different in terms of how they schedule and staff a store. Some rely heavily on MyTime's generated shifts, while others (like my own) ignore the automatically generated shifts entirely for every department except cashiers. The only department that gets scored for fill-to-need is Cashiers, so other departments are up to the discretion of the TLs and ETL-HR in terms of how they want to staff those departments.

I'll give you some tips based on how we do the scheduling (which is almost entirely from scratch). Take what you find useful and ignore the rest.

I always start with the cashier schedule because its the most complicated. I ignore availabilities at the beginning and focus solely on getting to 95% fill-to-need for each day while staying under the forecasted hours. Once I've accomplished that, I move shifts around to fit availabilities and any shifts that don't fit anybody's availabilities get dropped into "not assigned" and given to hardlines and softlines team members. Make sure you're making use of the schedule toolbar for moving shifts around, assigning them, and unassigning them as it saves a lot of time (above the schedule click view, then schedule toolbar)

For Hardlines, Softlines, Electronics, Service Desk, Fitting Room, Food Ave, and Starbucks (AKA Service-driven work centers), I start by taking the forecasted hours for each department that is given by the ETL-HR or STL and I divide it by 7 to give me the base hours per day that I can use for the department. I then adjusted down the hours for non-peak days (usually Mon-Thurs) and add them to peak days (usually Fri-Sun). Once I know how many hours I have to work with, then I need my team members. Most people should already be in the correct departments, so when you go to make the schedule for the department, all you have to do is under "show" go to "selected locations" and select the one you're working on. However, you may have team members who work in that department as a secondary workcenter (e.g. softlines tm who's also trained in hardlines). I usually go to "all home locations" and find all of those team members who can work in that department... then I schedule them for a 2am-6am shift on the saturday of the two week out under that workcenter so that they populate in the given workcenter. I then create the schedule for the department and delete the 2am shifts. I repeat that whole process for each department I work on.

It sounds like a lot of work, but I'm usually able to complete the entire store schedule from scratch (with exception to the trailer unload which is a set and the cashier schedule which I only make edits to) in about 5-7 hours.

If you have any specific questions or issues, I'd be more than happy to help you out.

Thank you for the reply Producer! I will check to see if I'm unknowingly using the schedule toolbar, as I find myself going into each individual shift to unassign them. I will have to try your method of taking the forecasted hours for each department and divide by 7 for daily base hours. I actually do something similar with scheduling fake shifts for tm's with secondary work centers.

With the tm's working in multiple workcenters, can you use the pre-plan schedule maker to add those fake shifts? Is there an easier way to get through finding the specific departments in the dropdown list when transferring between departments (I'm always having to go through the dropdown list for region, group, district, store, etc)?

 

[Producer]

With the tm's working in multiple workcenters, can you use the pre-plan schedule maker to add those fake shifts? Is there an easier way to get through finding the specific departments in the dropdown list when transferring between departments (I'm always having to go through the dropdown list for region, group, district, store, etc)?

Yes, you can use preplan to add those shifts. You just have to remember to check them every week and make sure they're deleted. When I first started, I would have team members ask me why they had to be at the store at 2 in the morning to cashier, haha.

There's multiple ways to transfer between departments that allow you to bypass Region->Group->District...

1. If you click on the down arrow on the dropdown list under "transfer", it will show you the last five workcenters that you've transferred people into. The most recent one will be on top, followed by the second most recent and so on.

2. Now say you need to transfer someone to Hardlines and it doesn't appear on the last five workcenters... You can still select one of those workcenters, then when you go to transfer the shift, it will already be on the correct store and all you have to do is change the workcenter.

3. My favorite way to transfer en masse is to do 2. for the first person, then right click on their shift, select "copy", and then paste them into every other person's schedule. It works just like copy paste on Word. Once it's copied, you can paste over and over.

 

[zephyr4]

That helps a lot Producer, thank you!

 

[Sanzano]

Thanks Producer those tips were extremely helpful. I've also taken on the schedule writing and am trying to get more efficient at it. If anyone else has any pro tips please do share.

 

[zephyr4]

I don't know if you utilize myTime for this, but can you change a team member's workcenter within myTime? I have a few team members training and transitioning into different workcenters, and it would be easier to schedule them week by week into the workcenters they're going for. Also I've noticed a few team members automatically get scheduled by myTime a few short shifts every week because they have personal security obligations. Since myTime recognizes this, is there a way to change the way myTime schedules an individual team member without changing availability or set schedule to fill a certain number of hours per week?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I know that you can change the workcenters on the time clock for the tm. In my time, you should be able to, as long as the hours are there to get. Your stl might take the hours & put them somewhere else.

 

[Producer]

I don't know if you utilize myTime for this, but can you change a team member's workcenter within myTime? I have a few team members training and transitioning into different workcenters, and it would be easier to schedule them week by week into the workcenters they're going for.

Yes. When you schedule the shift, you need to edit it (either double click the shift, or right-click -> edit). Then go to transfer on the right side of the screen and click the drop down. Then press 'Search.' You then have to select your Region, then Group, then District, then Store, then Department, then Job. It's a pain, but MyTime saves the last five "transferred" workcenters in the drop-down list. If you select one of them, it automatically takes you to your store so when you press 'search' to change it to the proper department, you don't have to select Region, Group, etc.

Just make sure you transfer each part of the shift. MyTime separates shifts with breaks, so you have to transfer each part of the shift (except for the breaks of course).

Also I've noticed a few team members automatically get scheduled by myTime a few short shifts every week because they have personal security obligations. Since myTime recognizes this, is there a way to change the way myTime schedules an individual team member without changing availability or set schedule to fill a certain number of hours per week?

Yes there is. It's a little more complicated and I don't remember the steps off the top of my head. If you go into Wed-Thurs Create Schedule, you can click on the little blue 'down arrow' on the top right of the screen and that will bring up the MyTime Genie. I think you go to MyTeam -> Person and select the person you want to edit. There are individual settings for Maximum/Minimum hours per day, Max/Min hours per week, Preferred Hours/week, etc. You can use those to customize their scheduling.