How to Change a Staff Member in a Staff Shift

This article outlines how to change a Staff Member in a Staff Shift that has been added to an Activity and provides an overview of the information displayed to help find the most suitable Staff Member to fill the Shift. 

The calculations implemented when displaying the Staff Members' 'Agreed Hours', 'Potential Overtime', 'Work With Preference', and whether or not they are 'Available' are much more refined than those currently utilised in the Staff Hours Report. They are foundational to our future Roster Planning tool and subsequent reporting.

Privileges: Staff with the privileges required to manage Activities

Audience: Rostering Teams, Team Leaders, Managers, Operations Teams


Summary

The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:


Updates to the Change Staff Member modal for Staff Shifts in Activities

Staff with the privileges required to manage Activities will notice that the ‘Change Staff Member’ modal (previously named ‘Change Activity Staff’) looks different from the upgrade to SupportAbility v8.12 (November 13th, 2024) when either filling ‘To Be Filled’ Staff Shifts or changing a Staff Member in a Shift.

Several updates have been made to the 'Change Staff Member' modal for Staff Shift in Activities when either filling ‘To Be Filled’ Staff Shifts or changing a Staff Member in a Shift in the upgrades to SupportAbility v8.12 (November 13th, 2024) and v8.13 (November, 27th, 2024). 

These changes have been made to assist rostering teams, managers, and team leaders in determining which Staff Member is the most suitable to fill the Shift.

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What has changed in SupportAbility v8.12?

The ‘Availability’ and ‘Clashes' columns were merged into one ‘Available’ column in the upgrade to SupportAbility v8.12 (November 13th, 2024), and a new ‘Work With Preference’ column was added. 

The ‘Add’ column has been updated to ‘Change’, and the coloured anchor icons have been replaced with a grey change icon.

New coloured 'Yes', 'No', and 'Maybe' badges replace the blocks of colour depicting Staff Availability. When a Staff Member is not available, more information can be viewed by selecting the down arrow, as demonstrated in the screenshot below. 

These badges also reflect whether the Client/s prefers to work with the Staff Member or not, based on how ‘Prefers to Work With’ and ‘Prefers Not to Work With’ have been configured in the Status tab of the Client record.

When more information is available, an arrow appears, and when selected, more information is displayed about things such as which Clients prefer/do not prefer to work with the Staff Member, the Staff Member's Standard Availability, Leave Exceptions, and any Clashing Activities: 

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Further updates in SupportAbility v8.13

Further to the updates in the last release, the ‘Change Staff Member’ modal has been expanded upon and now displays the Staff Members’ total ‘Agreed Hours’ and ‘Potential Overtime’ risk for their Agreed Period, i.e. Week or Fortnight, both inclusive of the selected Staff Shift, within the Pay Period.

It is important to note that data will only be displayed in these new columns once the Pay Period has been configured. Please see the  Configuring the Pay Period for your organisation article linked below for more information. 

When more information is available, e.g. Leave, an arrow appears, and when selected, more information is displayed about this: 

Please check out the respective sections below for more information about these additions. 

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How to change a Staff Member in a 'To Be Filled' Shift

To change a Staff Member in a 'To Be Filled' Shift, either select the 'To Be Filled' button:

Or, select the contextual menu and select 'Change Staff Member': 

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How to change a Staff Member in a Shift that has already been filled

To change a Staff Member in a Shift that has already been filled, select the contextual menu and select 'Change Staff Member': 

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Change Staff Member modal

The 'Change Staff Member' modal in Activities has been updated to assist rostering teams, team leaders, and managers in understanding which Staff Members are available and the most suitable to fill Staff Shifts: 

In this example, Augustine is available and a Staff Member with whom the Client prefers to work. Should she be added to this Shift, her total Agreed Hours would be under her Agreed Period of 20 hours and would not bring her above 38 hours for the Week or 76 hours for the Fortnight (depending on her Agreement Period); therefore, she may be a suitable match for this Shift. 

The Change Staff Member modal allows you to Search for the Staff Member you're looking for by name or by Employment Type, as configured in the HR tab of the Staff Account. 

The Staff Members' total ‘Agreed Hours’ for their Agreed Period, i.e. Week or Fortnight, are displayed, as well as the ‘Potential Overtime’ risk for the Pay Period (based on their Agreed Period), both inclusive of the selected Staff Shift. 

The Client/s 'Work With Preference' regarding the Staff Members are displayed here, as well as if they are 'Available' for the Shift. 

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Search

To find the Staff Member you're looking for, you can start typing their name. You can also search by Employment Type. 

For example, if you're looking for a Casual Staff Member only to fill the Shift, type Casual here, and only Staff with the Casual Employment Type will be displayed: 

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Agreed Hours

The Staff Members' total ‘Agreed Hours’ for their Agreed Period, i.e. Week or Fortnight, as set in the HR tab of their Staff Account, are displayed here. 

The Agreed Hours includes the duration of the selected Staff Shift to provide an indication of whether or not adding them to this Shift will fall within or exceed their Agreed Hours for their Agreed Period: 

The Staff Shift Hours that are used are Rostered until the Activity Sign Off has been completed, then Finalised is used following this. 

In the above example, we can see that if Abel were to be added to this Shift, it would result in him having worked the same number of hours as his Agreed Hours for the period. 

On the other hand, Augustine would be well under her Agreed Hours for the period. 

However, we can see that adding Athena to this Shift would result in her Agreed Hours for the period being exceeded. 

Important - the Staff Member's Agreed Hours currently includes any hours in Shifts that are marked as 'Not Paid'. 

Please let us know via support@supportability.com.au if your organisation would prefer any 'Not Paid' Shifts to be excluded, and we will register your feedback for our Product Team to review for a potential future enhancement. 

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Per Week

When a Staff Member has a total number of Agreed Hours (e.g. 20) per Week set in the HR tab of their Staff Account, for example, Augustine: 

The Staff Member will either be in Week One or Week Two of the Pay Period, and the Agreed Hours reflect how many Shift hours they have been added to, including this Shift, in the week. 

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Per Fortnight

When a Staff Member has a total number of Agreed Hours (e.g. 60) per Fortnight set in the HR tab of their Staff Account, for example, Avis: 

The Agreed Hours display the total hours of Shifts they have been added to in the current fortnight, including this Shift, based on the Pay Period dates. 

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Grey question mark icon

A grey question mark icon in this column indicates that the Agreed Hours could not be calculated:  

This is due to one of the following reasons. 

The Agreed Hours have not been configured, but the Agreed Period is set, e.g. 0 Hrs per Week:


The Agreed Hours are configured, but the Agreed Period hasn't been set, e.g. 20 Hours per '-':

The Agreed Period is set to an option other than Week or Fortnight: 

If a grey question mark icon appears here, it is an indication to review how the above has been configured in the HR tab of the Staff Account.

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Potential Overtime

The Staff Members' ‘Potential Overtime’ risk for the Pay Period is displayed here. This is determined based on how their Agreed Period has been set:

When a Staff Member's Agreed Hours are set to 'per Week', any Shift hours that exceed 38 hours in the current week of the Pay Period are displayed in red to indicate a risk of Potential Overtime. 

When a Staff Member's Agreed Hours is set to 'per Fortnight', any Shift hours that exceed 76 hours in the current fortnight are displayed in red to indicate a risk of Potential Overtime.

These rules have been implemented based on information from Fair Work Australia and are most applicable to Part-time and Casual employees. 

The Staff Shift Hours that are used are Rostered until the Activity Sign Off has been completed, then Finalised is used following this. 

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Leave

When a Staff Member has a pending or approved Leave Exception in the Pay Period, the Potential Overtime cannot be calculated as SupportAbility does not know if the leave is paid or not. 

In such a case, an amber 'Leave' badge is displayed, along with a drop-down arrow to view more information about this to help determine if this could result in Potential Overtime for the Pay Period: 

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Missing data

If data is missing in the 'Potential Overtime' column for a Staff Member, e.g. Christian:

This cannot be calculated due to one of the following reasons. 

The Agreed Hours are configured, but the Agreed Period hasn't been set, e.g. 20 Hours per '-':

The Agreed Period is set to an option other than Week or Fortnight: 

If no data appears here, it is an indication to review how the above has been configured in the HR tab of the Staff Account.

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If a Staff Member's Agreed Hours have been exceeded, why isn't this showing as Potential Overtime?

If a Staff Member's Agreed Hours have been exceeded, this doesn't automatically trigger Potential Overtime, as Potential Overtime is triggered based on the Agreed Period for the Staff Member. 

For example, we can see that if Athena were added to this Shift, it would exceed her Agreed Hours, but it has not resulted in a risk of Potential Overtime: 

This is due to Athena's Agreed Period being 'per Week': 

Considering that adding Athena to this Shift would bring her to a total of 31.5 hours in the Pay Period, Potential Overtime would only be triggered if this exceeded 38 hours, as outlined above. 

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What happens when a Staff Shift spans two Pay Periods?

If a Staff Shift spans two Pay Periods, the Shift hours are included in the calculations for the Pay Period where the Staff Shift commenced.

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Work With Preference

Coloured badges reflect whether the Client prefers to work with the Staff Member or not, based on how this has been configured in the Status tab of their record: 

Please see the  How to link or unlink Staff Members a Client Prefers or Does Not Prefer to Work With article linked below for more information.  

In the instance of a Group Activity, the number of participants is displayed next to the header e.g. 'of 3' as per the screenshot below. 

A number is listed against each badge to reflect the number of Clients who prefer to work with or do not prefer to work with this Staff Member, and the arrow can be selected to view more details: 

In the above example, we can see that Tim prefers to work with Abel, whereas Pina does not by selecting the disclosure arrow button to show more information. 

As Candice is a preferred Staff Member for all three participants, and she is available, she may be the most suitable person to fill this Shift. 

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Available

Coloured badges indicate which Staff Members are available for the Shift in this column: 

When a Staff Member is not available or may not be available, more information can be viewed by selecting the down arrow: 

In the above example, we can see that Aisha isn't available on Wednesday between 12 pm and 1 pm, Alejandro is usually available on Wednesdays but has a pending Leave Exception, and Candice is rostered into a different Activity at the same time.

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