What is Staff Standard Availability?
In SupportAbility, each Staff Member is set to being available 24/7 by default. However, this can be updated for each Staff Member in the 'Availability' tab of their Staff Account, by those with the required privileges, to ensure their 'Standard Availability' reflects the days of the week and hours that a Staff Member is available to work across a seven day period.
While entering this information is optional, it can be very useful when rostering Staff when either creating a new Activity or updating Staff in an existing Activity as Availability issues are highlighted for reference.
This article explains what Staff Standard Availability is and where this information is displayed in SupportAbility.
Audience: All
Summary
The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
What is Standard Availability?
'Standard Availability' refers to the days of the week and hours that a Staff Member is available to work across a seven day period.
By default, all Staff are set to being available 24/7 with all Days of the week selected and the From Times set to 12.00 AM and the To Times set to 11:59 PM for each day:
However, this may be updated to reflect the actual hours the Staff Member works or is available to be rostered. This is particularly useful if Staff Members only work on specific days of the week and/or times, as entering this information here will display Availability issues (if any) when rostering Staff into Activities.
For example, David works part-time and is not available on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and is only available between certain hours on the remaining days. His Standard Availability has been updated to reflect this:
It is important to note that Staff Members cannot update their own Standard Availability and this must be completed by a Staff Member with Team Leader or Human Resources privileges and access to the Staff Members Account.
Where is Standard Availability displayed?
Standard Availability is displayed in several places in SupportAbility as follows:
- Availability tab of a Staff Account
- Availability tab of My Staff Account
- Step 2 of the Activity creation wizard
- Change Activity Staff window
Availability tab of a Staff Account
The Availability tab of a Staff Account is where all details of a Staff Member's Standard Availability is displayed and can be updated i.e. the Day of the week, From/To Times and related Shared Notes:
This can only be accessed by those with access to the Staff Members Account, as well as the Team Leader or Human Resources privileges.
Availability tab of My Staff Account
When a Staff Member views the Availability tab in the 'My Staff Account' section of SupportAbility, they will only be able to see part of the information relating to their Standard Availability.
The Days of the week and any Shared Notes will display, however, the From/To Times are not displayed and the Days cannot be edited here:
Staff can also add any Notes regarding their Standard Availability, such as upcoming changes required (as above), as this information will be viewable in the Availability tab of their Staff Account by those who can update this. N.B. There is no notification provided of any additions or updates to notes to these Staff Members for reference.
Step 2 of the Add a new Activity creation wizard
When adding Staff to an Activity in Step 2 of the Activity Creation wizard the cell in the 'Availability' column will be highlighted in red for any Staff whose Standard Availability does not correspond to the Day and From/To Times of the Activity:
Selecting the down arrow displays details of the Staff Member's Standard Availability specifically their Availability status i.e. Unavailable along with the corresponding Day and Date of the Activity e.g. Amanda Peyton:
Change Activity Staff window
When updating the Roster in an existing Activity by selecting the Change button, the 'Change Activity Staff' window will open.
As with the Activity creation wizard the cell in the 'Availability' column will be highlighted in red for any Staff whose Standard Availability does not correspond to the Day and From/To Times of the Activity:
Selecting the down arrow displays details of the Staff Member's Standard Availability specifically their Availability status i.e. Unavailable along with the corresponding Day, Date and From/To Times of the Activity e.g. Amanda Peyton:
