Building a Rotating Reach On-Call Schedule
In this article we'll show you how to:
Creating a new Advanced Schedule
Then, click the Add Schedule button as shown below.
On the next page, complete the parameters as outlined below:
- Name: The name of your on-call schedule (e.g., Plumbing).
- Schedule Type: Select Reach as the Type. Then choose your Reach Message.
- Set your Rotation: Select the Rotating option.
- Time Zone: Select the time zone in which your business is located.
- Start/Stop Time: Choose when you want your on-call schedule to change. Check out this article for more information on start/stop times.
Then, click Save.
Configuring standard calendar settings
Now that you've created the shell of your rotating schedule, you'll be taken to a new page where we can start making updates. On this page, you will see 3 sections, all of which make up one final schedule. Below is a breakdown of what each section represents.
- Rotations: This is your standard rotation.
- Overrides: If you want to make any short-term updates to your standard rotation, you will add the updates to the override schedule.
- Final: This is your final schedule, comprising the data from both your standard rotation and override schedule.
To add data to your on-call schedule, select Add rotation on the right-hand side of your screen.
At the top of the next screen, you'll see the Schedule expires status, the Start / Stop Time (Shift runs from), the Time zone, the schedule Type and the Reach Message that you selected during setup.
Just below this bar, you'll see some different tools to schedule your rotation, including the Date range and Recurring schedule. In this tutorial we will use the Date range, but check out this article for more information on setting dates.
You can choose a label color or you can leave it as is. Choosing different colors for each Group of on-call rotations may help you easily identify who is on-call and when.
Now we need to tell the system how many times to reach out to your staff. The Type tells our system how many times to loop through your on-call list. For example, if we were to call through your list 2 times, you would choose 2x + End. Keep in mind, the number of times our system reaches out is all billable and adds to the usage on your account. The Queue tells our system the number of minutes we will wait between each dial-out call. For example, setting this time to 5 minutes means our system will wait 5 minutes between each outbound call we place to your on-call staff.
- If you have 2 people in your list, your Type cannot exceed 5x + End.
- If you have 10 people in your list, your type cannot exceed 1x + End.
Finally, you'll need to add your staff member(s). You can either choose a Group that you've already created, or you can manually add in your staff member(s) using their Profile(s).
When you are done, click Save. You will then be taken back to the calendar to get an overview of your schedule.
Configuring custom calendar settings
Now that you've created the shell of your rotating schedule, you'll be taken to a new page where we can start making updates. On this page, you will see 3 sections, all of which make up one final schedule. Below is a breakdown of what each section represents.
- Rotations: This is your standard rotation.
- Overrides: If you want to make any updates to your standard rotation, you will add the updates to the Override section to reflect the new changes.
- Final: This is your final schedule, comprising the data from both your standard Rotation and Override schedules.
To add data to your on-call schedule, select Add rotation on the right-hand side of your screen.
At the top of the next screen, you'll see the Schedule expires status, you'll see the Start / Stop Time (Shift runs from), the Time zone, the schedule Type and the Reach Message that you selected during setup.
Just below this bar, you'll see some different options to set your schedule, including Date Range and Recurring Schedule. In this tutorial we will choose Date Range.
You can choose a label color or you can leave it as is. Choosing different colors for each Group of on-call rotations may help you easily identify who is on-call and when.
Now we need to tell the system how many times to reach out to your staff. The Type tells our system how many times to loop through your on-call list. For example, if we were to call through your list 2 times, you would choose 2x + End. Keep in mind, the number of times our system reaches out is all billable and adds to the usage on your account. The Queue tells our system the number of minutes we will wait between each dial-out call. For example, setting this time to 5 minutes means our system will wait 5 minutes between each outbound call we place to your on-call staff.
- If you have 2 people in your list, your Type cannot exceed 5x + End.
- If you have 10 people in your list, your type cannot exceed 1x + End.
Next you'll need to select your schedule type. In this example, we want different staff members to rotate throughout the 24-hour period, so we'll choose Custom.
After choosing your schedule type, we can begin adding staff members. You can either choose a Group that you've already created, or you can manually add in your staff members using their Profiles.
Since we selected the Custom rotation option, you'll notice the system automatically adds the first shift, with your From and To time matching your Start / Stop time. In our example, it will default to 8:00 AM to 8:00 AM.
To update the time blocks, edit the second time slot dropdown. Note that you will not be able to change the first time slot, as that will always reflect your Start / Stop time. In our example, we want Natasha to be on-call from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
After adding your first time slot, click Add shift to add your next on-call shift.
Continue adding your shifts until you've completed a full 24-hour rotation.
To view the specific time slots of your schedule, click on the rotation to see the overview as shown below