Versaschedule

Step 1: Who?

Make a list of all your staff including their first and last names and email addresses. You'll need their email addresses because when each staff creates an account on Versaschedule, they'll use that email address to join your schedule.'

In addition, you'll need to know the full-time status of each employee. For example, a full-time employee has a "1.0" FTE status, while someone who is half time has a "0.5" status.

Step 2: What?

Now, that we know who is on the team. We'll need to define what work needs to be done on a daily basis. Make a list of all the main "tasks" (or shift or rotation) that needs to be performed each day. We'll use the term "task" interchangebly with "shift" or "rotation"

If you're schedule has discrete tasks or shifts, make a list of all the different shifts of work or if you have different "rotations" then, make a list of rotations. For example suppose you have a store, you might have a task or shift for cashiers, stocking, cleaning, etc... or if you are at a pharmacy, you may have a shifts such as inpatient, stocking, IV, delivery, etc...

For each task, specify the start time and end time, then preferred number of staff to cover the task, and the days of the week the task is active on.

Step 3: Who can do what?

Oftentimes, each task may only be performed by certain staff members with the right skillset. Since you now have defined your staff and a set of tasks that need coverage, tell us which tasks each employee is qualified to cover.

Step 4: Schedule settings

Next, we'll need to set up your schedule to suit your needs. The schedule can start any day of the week, but usually schedules start on either Sunday or Monday. In many industries, the staff covering the weekend will cover both Saturday and Sunday and in these cases, you'll want to define your schedule to start on Monday.

Also, let us know what day is the first day of your year -- typically, this is January 1st, but rarely, some companies like to use a different date that matches their fiscal calendar. Also, you'll need to define the amount of work required for a full-time employee; typically, this is 40 hours per week of work, 8 hours per day. Finally, let us know how many tasks a staff member can be assigned to simultaneously. Typically, each employee is responsible for 1 task/shift at a time.

Step 5: Make your schedule

Now that you have all the basic information defined, you're ready to create your first schedule. Just go to the "Schedule" page, and click on "Find Best Schedule" and Versaschedule will automatically build the best schedule it can based on your needs. You'll see a preview of your schedule and if you like it, click "Save Schedule".

If you need to make any manual changes, Versaschedule has a user-friendly drag and drop interface to move staff members around on the schedule. Once your schedule is ready, click on "Publish" and it will be viewable to all your staff.