Assigning a Work Pattern or Roster
It is possible to assign a fixed roster to staff for a period of time in the Personnel screen. Each employee must have a roster assigned to them in Softworks, even if it is a basic roster of 'days off' such as the standard "Rest Day" roster. Softworks needs to have a base roster to allow employees to be absent in the future. If the employee has no roster, or expected hours of work, then they have nothing to be absent from.
Regular Work Patterns
In most organisations, staff work fixed hours. When employees work fixed work patterns, such as "09.00 - 17.30 Mon - Fri", this can be assigned to the employee in the personnel screen. A Work Pattern may also be suitable for Shift Work, where staff will work a week of earlies followed by a week of lates. This Work Pattern can be assigned to the employee so that the system knows when they are expected to work.
A Work Pattern can be up to 1000 days long in Softworks, meaning that Work Patterns up to almost 3 years in length can be accommodated for. The basic rule of Work Patterns is that if the Work Pattern is fixed and repeats itself, then it can be programmed into Softworks.
Irregular Work Patterns
If staff work irregular Work Patterns in your organisation, such as is the case in most shops, hotel, hospitals...etc, then you should use Roster Manager for your rostering. However, each employee still requires a base Work Pattern.
In the Personnel screen, open the "personnel" tab. You will now see this screen:
Click on the Work Pattern drop down list to select from the available work patterns
Select the Work Pattern you require, and click on the blue "save disk" icon. This will update the Work Pattern for the employee from the next day.