Understanding Request Access Configuration: An Example

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Understanding Request Access Configuration: An Example

The following example will give you a better understanding of configuring request access. It does not include every step necessary to configure requests. See Configuring Requests for detailed information.

Charles is the scheduler for 6N MedSurg. He is configuring request access for 6N MedSurg and the employees who float to that profile.

Step 1: Configuring Request Settings

Charles logs in to Clairvia Web and opens the Request Settings page. Of the four options most important to Charles right now, three are under Manager Settings and one is under Employee Settings.

Manager Settings
- Allow requests to be approved/denied for the next X days: Charles needs to set a limit on how far in advance managers can approve or deny a request. He enters 182 to allow request approval for the next 182 days (6 months). This is a rolling period, which is honored if Managed Access to Schedules is not configured.
- Allow float employee requests from the selected profile/skills: Charles wants all employees of 5W MedSurg to be able to make float requests in his profile, so he selects the check box in front of 5W MedSurg in the Available Profile/Skills list. This selects 5W MedSurg and all its skills. Next, Charles clicks Add; this adds 5W MedSurg to the Mapped Profile/Skills table. Charles also wants RNs from the 9E ICU profile to be able to request float assignments to his profile. In the Available Profile/Skills list, he expands 9E ICU and selects the check box in front of the RN skill. Next, Charles clicks Add; this adds the 9E ICU profile RN skill to the Mapped Profile/Skills table. Allowing float employee requests is the first step to managing which floats can make requests to 6N MedSurg. Once Charles enables one or more skills, he can manage access at the individual employee level through the Staff Manager Client Employees dialog.
- Allow Float Employee to Request: Charles only wants float employees to request skill-based tasks, so he selects the check box beside Skill-based Tasks and leaves the check box beside Non-skill-based Tasks deselected. This is the most common scenario, where certain float employees from specific units are able to request work shifts but not paid time off, which employees would typically request on their home profile. (Employees with defined jobs in multiple profiles automatically have access to make requests in those profiles. The Allow Float Employee to Request option is specific to employees with a specific profile as one of their float to profiles. You can assign float profiles to employees using the Employee Info dialog box Float tab in Staff Manager Client.)
Employee Settings
- Allow requests to be entered/edited for the next X days: Charles wants to limit employee requests to the next six months, so he enters 182 in the next days box. This is a rolling period.

Having finished his changes, Charles clicks Save Configuration. A window opens with the message Are you sure you wish to save these changes? He clicks OK to save his changes.

Step 1A: Configuring Float Employee Request Permissions

In addition to configuring his Request Settings to allow float employees to see the 6N MedSurg schedule and make requests, Charles (or the managers of the profiles employees are floating from) also has to go into Staff Manager Client and give employees permission to float to 6N MedSurg and to make requests to 6N MedSurg. Charles does this by opening Staff Manager Client and selecting Employee Info from the Maintain menu. This opens the Employees dialog box.

Charles selects an employee from the Employee list and clicks the Float tab. The tab lists the profiles the employee can float to and whether the employee can make requests to that profile. The default setting for Allow Requests is No. Charles selects Yes for 6N MedSurg and clicks OK to save his changes.

Note: You should be aware that even if you give employees the permission to make requests on this dialog, those employees still might not have the ability to make requests based on the float to profile's configuration. For employees to have access to make requests in a float profile, the employee must have Allow Requests set to Yes in Staff Manager Client and the float to profile must allow float employees to make requests. In other words, permission configuration at the employee level and the profile level are both required in order to make float requests.

Step 2: Obtaining Permission to Manage Access Schedule Periods

Using Staff Manager Administrator, Charles's manager assigns him to a security group with the Access Schedule permission set to Full Access. This means Charles can configure access schedule periods for requests.

If Charles only had Read access for the Access Scheduler permission, he would be able to see the Access Schedules settings but not change them. If Charles had None access, Staff Manager would not let him see the Configure Requests Access Schedule Periods menu item.

Step 3: Configuring Access Schedule Periods

Charles opens the Access Schedule Periods page. There are two types of Access Schedule Periods Charles wants to set up.

Charles wants to set up a calendar-based period that defines exactly when 6N MedSurg employees can request paid time off (PTO).
Charles also wants to set up some scheduled-based periods. He is planning to create three schedule-based periods. The first allows the most senior employees to make requests starting six weeks before the schedule start date. The second allows moderately senior employees to make requests starting five weeks before the schedule start date. The third allows less senior employees to make requests starting four weeks before the schedule start date. For all three groups, schedule access ends one week before the schedule start date.

Step 3A: Creating a Calendar-Based Period

The 6N MedSurg vacation policy is that employees must make all PTO requests for the year before March 31 of that year. Employees can begin making PTO requests on October 1 of the previous year. This gives Charles the basic information he needs to create a calendar-based period for making PTO requests.

Charles names his new calendar-based period PTO Yearly Requests so he will remember the purpose of this access period. Staff Manager automatically treats calendar-based periods as recurring periods, so Charles only has to set up one yearly request period for it to be available over all the following years.
Under 1. Access Type, Charles clicks the Calendar-based button to select it.
Charles sets the Date Range with a Start Date of 1/1 (January 1) and an End Date of 12/31 (December 31). This allows employees to request any date within the calendar year.
Charles sets the Access Begins option to 3 Months Before Start Date. This allows employees to start making PTO requests on October 1 of the year before the request.
Charles sets the Access Ends option to 3 Months After Start Date. This stops employees from making PTO requests on March 31 of the request year.
Charles enables the option Allow employees to view schedule during access periods. This allows employees to see the schedule as of their requested dates.
Charles clicks Save. A window opens with the message Are you sure you wish to save these changes? He clicks OK to save his changes.

Later, Charles will assign access groups and tasks to the new PTO Yearly Requests period so that 6N MedSurg employees will only be able to make requests for PTO tasks during the access period.

Step 3B: Creating a Schedule-Based Period

Charles wants to create three schedule-based periods.

The first allows the most senior employees to make requests starting six weeks before the schedule start date.
The second allows the moderately senior employees to make requests starting five weeks before the schedule start date.
The third allows less senior employees to make requests starting four weeks before the schedule start date.

Later, Charles will assign access groups and tasks to the new access periods so that the 6N MedSurg employees with the most seniority are able to make requests first, then the group with the next level of seniority are able to make requests, and, finally, the newest 6N MedSurg and float employees are able to make requests. For all groups, Charles wants schedule access to end one week before the schedule start date, so that he will have time to make final adjustments before publishing the schedule.

Charles names his first new schedule-based period Advance: 6 Weeks, so he will remember that this period lets employees make requests starting six weeks before the schedule starts.
Under 1. Access Type, Charles clicks the Schedule-based button to select it.
In the Access Begins (Days before) box, Charles enters 42, since 42 days equals six weeks.
In the Access Expires (Days before) box, Charles enters 7, since 7 days equals one week.
Charles enables the option Allow employees to view schedule during access periods. This will allow employees to see the schedule as of their requested dates.
Charles clicks Save. A window opens with the message Are you sure you wish to save these changes? He clicks OK to save his changes.

Charles repeats these steps to create the access schedule periods Advance: 5 Weeks and Advance: 4 Weeks, changing the Access Begins (Days before) box to 35 and 28, respectively.

Step 4: Configuring Access Group Definitions

Now that Charles has set up his schedule access periods, he needs to define the employees to be associated with each of the defined access periods. These groups are called access group definitions. He needs three access group definitions to connect to his three access schedule periods, but Staff Manager is going to save Charles a step. Staff Manager automatically puts all employees not assigned to a defined group into a group called Unassigned. This group is not visible on the Access Group Definitions page, but it is visible when Charles assigns his groups to access periods and tasks. Therefore, Charles only needs to define two groups.

Charles opens the Access Group Definitions page by going to the Configure menu and selecting Requests > Access Group Definitions.
He selects his profile, 6N MedSurg, from the Profile menu.
He clicks the Add link to create a new Access Group.
Charles names the group Senior Staff. This group can access the schedule six weeks before the schedule start date. To remind himself of that, Charles enters the Description Access 6 weeks before for Group 1.
Charles assigns the employees by clicking the check boxes in front of their names in the Available Employees list, and then clicking Add. Staff Manager moves the selected employees into the Mapped Employees list.
Charles clicks Save. A window opens with the message Are you sure you wish to save these changes? He clicks OK to save his changes.

Charles repeats these steps to create Mid-Level Seniority, the group that will access the schedule 5 weeks before the schedule start date. In the Description box, he enters Access 5 weeks before to remind himself of the access he wants for this group.

Charles will link the Unassigned group to the last schedule access period, Advance: 4 Weeks.

Step 5: Assigning Access Groups and Tasks

Assigning Access Groups and Tasks is the last step in managing employee access to requests. Charles begins by opening the Assign Access Groups and Tasks page. He goes to the Configure menu and selects Requests > Assign Access Groups and Tasks. When the page opens, the Assign Access Groups tab is active by default. The four access schedule periods Charles created are listed in alphabetic order in the Access Schedule Periods box with the first item, Advance: 4 Weeks, highlighted.

Tip: All Access Schedule periods are global. Once a user sets up a period, it is available for all users to see and use, if they have the right security permissions.

Step 5A: Assigning Groups and Tasks to a Calendar-Based Access Schedule Period

The first thing Charles wants to do is set up the yearly PTO Request groups.

In the Access Schedule Periods box, Charles selects PTO Yearly Requests.
In the Available Access Groups list, Charles selects the check box beside 6N MedSurg to select the entire profile.
Charles clicks Add to move 6N MedSurg to the Selected Access Groups box. (Organizations setting up an access group across their facilities like the PTO Yearly Requests example here should have the Staff Manager enterprise administrator set it up once and add all profile groups to the Selected Access Groups option.)

Now Charles selects the tasks employees can request during the PTO Yearly Request access period.

Charles clicks the Assign Tasks tab to open it.
He wants employees to be able to make requests for PTO only, so under the Non-Productive assignment, Charles selects the check box beside the PTO task and clicks Add. Staff Manager moves the PTO task to the Selected Tasks list. It is common to also allow employees to request meeting or conference time this far in advance.

Having assigned access groups and tasks to the PTO Yearly Requests access schedule period, Charles clicks Save to save his changes. A window opens with the message Are you sure you wish to save these changes? Charles clicks OK to complete his assignments.

Step 5B: Assigning Groups and Tasks to a Schedule-Based Access Schedule Period

Charles has three scheduled-based access periods to assign. He starts with the Advance: 6 Weeks period; he wants the employees with the most seniority in 6N MedSurg to be able to make schedule requests six weeks before the schedule starts.

Charles selects Advance: 6 Weeks item in the Access Schedule Periods box.
Charles clicks the Assign Access Groups tab to open it.
In the Available Access Groups list, Charles clicks the plus (+) sign beside 6N MedSurg to expand its list.
He selects the check box beside Group 1 and clicks Add. This moves Group 1 to the Selected Access Groups box.

Now that Charles has his access group selected, he assigns the tasks.

Charles clicks the Assign Tasks tab to open it.
He wants employees to be able to make requests for any tasks except for some non-productive tasks, such as PTO (since PTO is already covered by his PTO Yearly Requests access schedule period) and Tracking tasks. Charles does this the fastest way: he selects the check box beside All to select all tasks, and then he expands the Non-Productive list and deselects the check box beside the PTO, Sick, and Jury Duty tasks. He also deselects the check box beside the Tracking group.
Charles clicks Add. Staff Manager moves his tasks to the Selected Tasks list.
Charles clicks Save. A window opens with the message Are you sure you wish to save these changes? He clicks OK to save his changes.

Charles repeats the steps for 6N MedSurg Group 2 and the Advance: 5 Weeks access schedule period, and then he repeats the steps one last time for the 6N MedSurg Unassigned group and the Advance: 4 Weeks period. Charles clicks Add, assigning the remaining 6N MedSurg employees (and all floats to his unit) to the Advance: 4 Weeks access schedule period.

By default, anyone who is allowed to float to 6N MedSurg is assigned to the 6N MedSurg Unassigned group and thus is assigned access to make requests based on that group. Remember, however, that because Charles configured his request settings so that only RNs from 9E ICU can make requests on 6N MedSurg, only employees with the 9E ICU Float to Profile and the RN skill are able to see and make requests for the 6N MedSurg schedule, as explained in the preceding section Step 2: Configuring Request Settings.