Stations form

This form may be opened from the Settings group, the HOME form's To-do list, or by selecting FORM | OTHER FORMS | STATIONS from the menu.

Purpose of the Stations form

Stations are also known as job categories; use the Stations form to define the stations that will be scheduled in your location.

You may enter as many stations as you like but we recommend that you only enter the stations that are actually used in your location. You should also avoid breaking a station into categories e.g., Kitchen into Breakfast Grill, Reg Grill, etc., as it can lead to over scheduling and unscheduled shifts. It will also make your schedule appear disorganized and hard to read. We recommend you give the station one name and then let the manager on duty assign the people scheduled where they want them to work.

Editing the Stations form

You may add, remove or modify stations but you must do this with caution because the information on this form is used on many other forms throughout the program.

Add a Station

To add a station to this chart click anywhere in the top row labeled, Click here to add a new row, and fill in the following information. After you have entered the information, you save it by moving to a different row or by selecting the button at the bottom of the screen. The following information is required for each station:

ID: a short-form name for the station that will be used entering it on other forms. Each station must have its own unique name, which is limited to no more than four characters. Tip: use a name that will be easy to remember for that station.
Name: a longer, more descriptive, name for the station that appears on some reports.
Variable Hours: any station that is considered to be variable labor should have a checkmark in this box; for non-variable labor stations this box should be left unchecked. A variable labor station is one where the number of people required to work it is directly related to the hourly volume. Stations that are required at specific times of the day regardless of the hourly volume are generally not considered variable labor. Designating whether or not a station is variable labor does not affect the final schedule; it only affects how labor is reported and subtotaled on the STATISTICS report.
Only stations designated as variable labor will appear on the positioning guides all other stations must be scheduled by fixed shifts.
Required rating: the overall skill level required for the station at any given time. Enter a number from 1.0 to 4.0 in increments of 0.1. In general, a rating of 2.5 will produce a schedule with a good balance of most and least experienced crew. The rating here defines the average of all the people scheduled at the station at any given time; when scheduling, ESP attempts to blend the employees scheduled to achieve this desired rating. However, it's important to note that this is not considered a minimum rating; if the only employees available do not meet this criterion they will still be scheduled because ESP never leaves a shift unfilled if there is someone available to fill it.
Type: defines the station as either a crew position or a management position. You are given five options: Floor crew; Floor manager; Other crew; Other manager, and Unknown. This entry is used to determine the crew-to-management ratio on some reports and helps you determine times of the day when you may be able to cut or add labor based upon the presence of management personnel.
Description: a longer description of the station.
Group: this is for a future release and will be used to define groups of stations that are similar in nature.

Delete a Station

To remove an entry from this form, simply click inside the row that you want to remove and press the button at the bottom of the screen.

Cancel a change

You cannot undo a change after it has been saved. If you are making a change and decide you want to cancel it press the button at the bottom of the screen.

Modify a Station

To make a change to any information on this form, click inside the field that you want to change, make your change, and then save it by moving off the row or by selecting the button at the bottom of the screen.

Sorting your stations

Caution, don't change the order of stations by typing over the original information as it will overwrite the original station. To change the order a station is listed, use the sorting option on the toolbar.

The order that the Stations appear on this screen is the same order that they will appear on most schedule reports. To change the position of a Station click inside the row of the Station that you want to move and then press the arrow for the direction that you want to move it. Keep pressing the direction arrow until the Station has moved to your preferred position.

Advanced options

This form features an Advanced form, which can be opened from the Advanced button at the bottom of the main form. Use this advanced form to tell ESP if there are times when a station has a different desired rating from the rating defined on the main form.

For example, if you wanted ESP to schedule your strongest people on Drive-Thru during the busy weekend lunch hours, and the strongest Kitchen people during the weekend breakfast hours, you would specify that on Saturday and Sunday between 6:00 AM and 11:00 AM the Kitchen station rating should be 1.5 (as opposed to 2.0 that is requested on the main Stations form). In addition, you would specify a 1.5 rating for Drive-Thru on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. ESP will take these entries into account when assigning crew at these times.

When setting up exceptions you must consider your own staff. It doesn’t make sense to specify that you want to increase the rating for Drive-Thru from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM if you don’t have enough highly rated people to satisfy that request. ESP can only choose from the available employees, it cannot make them better. So, it is important to note that ESP will try its best to satisfy your request. However, a shift will not be left unscheduled just because the employees who are available are poorly rated. ESP fills all shifts with the best available choice.

Return to original page: Online help, The Stations form