How to efficiently setup a shift pattern to allow weekly rotation?

clarkchong · ‎09-27-2017

Hi experts

I have been struggling to find the most efficient way to setup the various shifts I have. Would love to hear from the experts.

4 shifts in my team, there are 2 members each shift.

0800-1600

1200-2100

1500-0000

2000-0800

1. The system does not allow overlapping shift. What would you recommend me to reflect my overlapped shift patterns in reality?

2. Everyone in the shift will be rotated to do a different shift on a weekly basis. Which way is more effective: to create a new schedule every week and reflect the members on duty that week? or keep updating the team members manually one by one on a weekly basis? or there is a smarter way to reflect this?

3. I notice when I am putting a time off for a night shift member who works from 1 Oct 8pm to 8am 2 Oct. When i update the time off in 1 Oct, the person will be reflected as time off HOWEVER on 2 Oct (2nd half of his shift) he is still reflected as On call.

4. I understand there is no DELETE option for me when I have screw up a schedule. However this "Filter out" option is not working perfectly - given though it is being set to INACTIVE it would still appear in the calendar after sometimes.

5. The oncall calendar is only showing name. Any way we can reflect the personnel's contact number so it would make it easier for someone who can contact this person straight after looking at the calendar?

Please advice. Appreciate your help.

andrew_och · ‎10-04-2017

There is no option to create an empty schedule where you can insert names on a weekly basis. In theory it is possible to set it up that way, by populating the On-Call Data Model manually but the complexity of doing so would make you question why you are not using a spreadsheet. The point of the application is that you create a rota definition that rotates a group of people (a roster) on a weekly basis for you automatically. Manual work is then limited to allowing people to take holidays, cover for another person, someone leaving, someone joining etc, and that manual work being delegated to the group's manager or members of the rota with rota_manager role.

Which version of Servicenow are your instance on?

clarkchong · ‎10-04-2017

Thanks @andrew och

I am on Istanbul

Strangely, I am getting a different window at occasions when attempting to modify a rota:

There is no customization made to the rota.

When I attempt to replace someone on the rota, it only offers the option to replace the person for the entire day 00:00 to 23:59 instead of a specific shift.

Not sure if there is anything in the setup that is missing, that leads to many different behaviors that seems to be different from all the guides I found

andrew_och · ‎10-16-2017

From your initial image I guess you had the following property set to true: com.snc.on_call_rotation.show_legacy_calendar

However from second image I assume you set that particular property to false to get the new DHTMLX library based calendar.

The Manage Rota actions, which I assume you are refering to, provide common usage for rota managers:

Provide Coverage - replace one member (currently on-call) with somebody else (because that person is ill or on holiday) n.b. it does not need to be for whole shift

Schedule Extra Time - Extend the time coverage is needed e.g. on a 9-5 you need to cover from 5-7pm on a particular day

Schedule Time off - An on-call member requests/sets their holiday

However to do anything more complex, you will need to go to the cmn_rota record (form) which you can do via Edit Rota rather than manage rota, and start making modifications there.

Here are some links to more complex use cases:

On-Call Scheduling Members available from and to

On-Call Scheduling changing a rotation start and/or end time

On-Call Escalations: taken apart and put back together

Laukik Udpikar · ‎06-26-2020

Hi andrew,

What I've understood from my research on On-Call Scheduling Is :

It is a way to notify the members of the incoming support work so that it will not be missed or delayed.

And People are misunderstanding it with shifts and roster creation template for organization use, which it is not. It simply is a tool for notifications.

Please correct me if I'm wrong with my analysis. And do share your thoughts.

Regards,

pradeepgupta · ‎10-10-2017

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for sharing above information related to On-Call Scheduling. I am working to build On-Call Scheduling feature POC in my personal instance, appreciate if you can share any reference document which can help me to drive the configurations. Various components related to On-Call scheduling, Various roles involved , there responsibility & relationship with each other, best practice etc.

Additionally, I am referring below URL doc, however some how not able to relate.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/jakarta-it-service-management/page/administer/on-call-scheduling/...