Availability options form

This form can be opened from the Staffing task group or by selecting FORM |OTHER FORMS | AVAILABILITY OPTIONS from the menu.

When the form opens, you will see that it is a very simple form with two columns. The left column lists each of the labor categories that you assign your employees to and the right column entitled, Active availability, indicates which availability, regular or alternate, ESP will use when generating shifts for your employees for the current schedule.

Purpose of the Availability options form

The Availability options form provides you with the ability to quickly switch between the regular and alternate availability for groups of employees.

Every employee can have two distinct availabilities: a Regular availability, which is used most often; and an Alternate availability, for use during holidays and other special times of the year. For example, you may wish to set up two sets of availability for your school-age employees. During the school year you would use their Regular availability and during the summer when there is no school you would use their Alternate availability. You could also use the Alternate availability during the Spring Break or other holiday weeks. Keeping both availabilities on file saves you from having to update your employees' availabilities multiple times throughout the year. Instead of switching each employee's availability individually at these times, you can use the Availability options form to switch the availability set that applies to an entire labor category at once.

Changing availabilities

For each defined labor category, use the Availability options form to specify the availability set to be used for the upcoming schedule. When you view employee information, ESP will automatically display the correct availability. Only change the availability for affected labor categories. For example, if you have a labor category defined for students, you can switch them to use to Alternate availability in the summer, while continuing to use the Regular availability for your adult employees, as shown below.

Form setup for the school year:	Form setup for the summer:
Regular availability to be used for all Labor categories.	- Regular availability for Adults and Managers; - Alternate availability for Minors.

To change the availability to be used for a labor category, select the correct option and save the change by moving off the field or by selecting the post icon at the bottom of the form. Remember, the changes you make are saved and the availability will be used for all future schedules until you change it again.

When to modify this form

Although you may change the availability at any time, there are certain times throughout the year when this option will be most useful:

• Spring school break
• End of the school year
• Start of the new school year
• Christmas break
• Other Festival or Holiday breaks

In most jurisdictions, college and university students have a different school year than high-school students. You may wish to design a separate labor category for employees who are college/university students so that you can switch their availability options at the appropriate time without affecting other employees. It is a good idea to review the availability options every week before you generate your schedule to ensure that you are using the proper availability for all your employees.

If you change the Availability options after you have already generated shifts for the week, your employees' availability on the current schedule will be updated. This may result in many of the shifts becoming invalid due to the change in availability. You should avoid changing the availability options after generating the shifts because it will create unnecessary editing work for you as you will have to carefully review the schedule and correct these errors before you can print the reports.