Staffing

Overview

The staffing section of the program allows you to manage the scheduling of employee working hours in the business.  You can enter any number of staffing departments (ie Front Desk, Management, Hair, Nails, etc), and control how many employees you need in those department at any given time, as well as scheduling the employees that will be working at those times.  You can also put in 'Scheduled' staffing that automatically sets up your future staffing needs.

Turning On the Staffing Option

The staffing option is not turned on by default.  Go to Utility, then File Utility, then click the box marked Salon on the screen.  Finally, click in the File Name box and type in STAFF0.YES and click Create to turn this feature on.

Getting Started

The first step in using the staffing section is to set up the departments that you will be scheduling.  Two departments come already set up - Vacation and Leave of Absence.  These two departments allow you to both keep track of who is currently off and to also track how often an employee is scheduled for both.  In addition to these, you will want to add every single department you wish to track - from front desk staffing to your booking room, from hair stylists to nail technicians, each one of these categories should be entered in as a department by clicking on the Add Department button and typing in the name of the new department.

Managing Department Staffing

To get into the staffing management section, first click on the department that you wish to work with, then click Manage Department Staffing.  This will take you to an overview of the month for the selected department.  Each date on the month's calendar gives the total number of 15 minute timeslots that are already staffed, the total number of 15 minute timeslots that need to be staffed that day, and the percentage staffed that the department is for that day.  Clicking on any one of these dates takes you to the screen to add in the actual staffing information for that day.

Using the Daily Department Staffing Screen

Before adding staffing or department needs to the system, you'll want to examine what information has already been entered and also check to make sure the employees you're about to schedule aren't already working somewhere else.  To do this, you'll use the area on the far right hand side of the screen.  The first box shows the department that you're currently working with.  If you wish to see the staffing for other departments for this date, you can simply change the department that's showing in the first box.  If you would like a listing of what times and departments a certain employee is working in, simply choose that employee in the second box down.  When you're looking at a list of the times for a certain department, you'll see a listing for each time slot during the day with the current staffing levels (2 / 4 for example means that 2 people are scheduled for this time out of 4 people needed).  Clicking on any of these lines will give you the information about which employees are working at that time at the bottom of the screen.

Adding Department Staffing Requirements

Your first step in actually setting up your staffing is to tell the system how many employees you need throughout the day.  Click on the Department Staffing button on the left, then pick the desired department from the list near the top-left side of the screen.  Pick how many employees you need, and the start and end time for this staffing level, and click Add.  For example, if you needed 3 people from 7am - 9am, and 5 people from 9am to 5pm, you would first choose your department, then fill in 3 people for the staffing required, 7am for the start time, 9am for the end time, and then click Add.  Then you would change the staffing required to 5, the start time to 9am, the end time to 5pm, and click Add again.

Also, you may want to add a staffing requirement that is the same every week.  To do this, click on the Scheduled Department Staffing button instead of the Department Staffing button.  You'll fill in the same information as if you clicked on Department Staffing, but in addition to that you will need to fill in the Next Date, Frequency, and End Date.  The Next Date is the next date for this staffing requirement to be used.  The Frequency is how often this staffing requirement should be used (weekly, every other week, etc.).  Finally, the End Date is the last date that this staffing requirement should be used.  If the End Date is left blank, then the scheduled staffing requirement would continue to be used for as long as it is left in the system.  Please note that all Scheduled Department and Employee Staffing changes do not happen immediately...they only take effect once they have been put into the system through the Advance Scheduled Employee Staffing button on the main screen in staffing (which is explained later).

Adding Employee Staffing Times

To set up the hours that an employee is working, first select the employee from the list near the top-left side of the screen.  Select your start time and your end time, and then click Add.  If you want to remove times from an employee's schedule, go through the same steps but click the Remove box before clicking Add.  For example, to set an employee up to work from 7am - 5pm, simply click that employee's name, select 7am as the start time, 5pm as the end time, then click Add.

Also, you may want to add staffing information for an employee that is the same every week.  To do this, click on the Scheduled Employee Staffing button instead of the Employee Staffing button.  You'll fill in the same information as if you clicked on Employee Staffing, but in addition to that you will need to fill in the Next Date, Frequency, and End Date.  The Next Date is the next date for this staffing requirement to be used.  The Frequency is how often this staffing requirement should be used (weekly, every other week, etc.).  Finally, the End Date is the last date that this staffing requirement should be used.  If the End Date is left blank, then the scheduled staffing requirement would continue to be used for as long as it is left in the system.  Please note that all Scheduled Department and Employee Staffing changes do not happen immediately...they only take effect once they have been put into the system through the Advance Scheduled Employee Staffing button on the main screen in staffing (which is explained later).

Deleting Scheduled Employee Staffing

You can use the Delete Scheduled Employee Staffing button to get rid of scheduled employee staffing information.  To do this, click on the Delete Scheduled Employee Staffing button, then select the employee.  Finally, select the scheduled employee staffing entry that you want to delete, and click the Delete button.