Setting My Preferences

See topic: My Info: Preference Tab
An Employee Preference Profile must be set in the person General tab > Preference Profile field in order for employees to use preference features in this application.

Preference Profile settings that appear are configured by your organization. This means the display options and behaviors are based on configuration inputs supplied by your organization. Preference Locks can be set when configuring a Preference in the Setup area to prevent employees from editing a specific preference.

This application is designed to always return the person’s highest priority that matches the “rule”, or “job allocation”¹ criteria for further processing. For example, suppose your preference choice for job X are as follows:

#1 Choice: Shift 3 in Unit 4
#2 Choice: Any shift in Unit 4
#3 Choice: Any shift in any unit.

Suppose your organization has set the rule in the first preference pass to return your number one choice. If there is no X job opportunity available on “Shift 3 in Unit 4”, then the application will return zero jobs for you. Moreover, suppose the second rule pass is set to return an employee’s number one choice or greater than their number one choice. The application finds X job in Unit 4, which in this case returns the highest priority that matches the rules criteria, your #2 choice.

Simply put, the application returns the highest matching preference, your number one choice, then it evaluates your number one choice against the rule, or the job allocation criteria. For example, if the rule is set to >=2 (greater than or equal to two) and a job matches Preference one, two, and three, then this application returns the number one which is your number one choice. Since the number one is not greater than or equal to two, the criteria will fail the criteria of greater than or equal to 2 which indicates “qualify the second choice or greater”.

A single preference number will be returned from all rule or job allocation checks against preferences. The application will always return the highest matching preference number. If a vacancy matches preference number one, two, and three. The number one preference will be returned for further processing. After the number one preference is returned, the result is compared to the Where condition (or filter modifier for job allocation). If Where is set to >=2 (greater than or equal to two), the number one will fail. If Where is set to >=1 (greater than or equal to one), then the number one will pass. As you can see it is important to understand your company’s preference qualification criteria when setting your preferences so that you don’t miss out on job opportunities.

This task will cover how to set a shift preference with editable controls and how to order a set of preferences. The image below shows a Preference that allows the user to set their shift preferences for a date range. Step results below are hypothetical examples to illustrate how preferences and rules may affect staffing rules, and how they can work together. The task steps below show how the Preference was set in the image shown. However, keep in mind that your settings and Preference Profile behavior is driven by your organization’s configuration.

Click the Preference Profile menu box, and click Add New Preference Set.
Click +Add to open the Preference Profile. The screen redraws based on the configuration setting for the selected Preference Profile. The default is 1, meaning your primary choice.
Click 1 to show the Preference Profile items configured. In the image, the user can choose any shift. The user’s primary preference is to work Shift 1, 2, or 3 equally, meaning no preference sort should any of these shift opportunities come their way. Type % symbol in the search box, or type the name of the shift to return selectable shift items. Select each shift, in this case we selected Shift 1, Shift 2, Shift 3. Then supply the date range. Date ranges are not required. Click Save to confirm your selections.
What does this mean to the user? It depends on how your organization fills vacancies or jobs, because rules could be set to return positions that match the user’s #1 choice, in this case the user has more opportunities because number one means, Shift 1, 2, or 3.
To indicate another shift preference, click +Add > click 1 > choose a shift. The second preference on the image shows the user has only one choice, Shift 1. Select one shift and supply the date range. The date range cannot overlap the previous preference. Click Save again.
What does this mean to the user? Depending on how your organization fills vacancies or jobs, rules could be set to return positions that match the user’s number #1 choice, this means only Shift 1 positions would apply, or your organization could set a pass that returns #2 and subsequent choices, in this case no positions would return for this user and for this date range.
The third preference on the image shows the user a shift order from 05/06/2017 through 05/12/2017. The person prefers jobs on Shift 1, next jobs on shift 2, followed by jobs on shift 3. To indicate this pattern:
1. Click +Add > Click 1 > Select a Shift > Provide a date range > Click Save.
2. Click 2 > Select a Shift > Click Save.
3. Click 3 > Select a Shift > Click Save. To reorder your selections, use the double- headed arrow.
What does this mean to a base user? Depending on how your organization fills vacancies or jobs, rules could be set to return positions that match a person’s number one choice first, then followed by their number two choice and so on; or your rules could be configured with a more global pass, such as return positions that match the person’s preference using a greater than or equal to one ( >=1 ) matching criteria. This means a person could potentially work a job in Shift 1, Shift 2, or Shift 3.