Creating and editing on-call groups
Adding on-call groups is a great way to quickly populate a schedule without having to enter individual employees each time you need to make updates. Groups are easy to create and even easier to use. In this tutorial, you'll learn about:
- Adding an On-Call Group
- Setting Group Details
- Adding Employees
- Editing an Entry
- Saving a Group
- Editing or Deleting an Existing Group
Adding an On-Call Group
1. From the on-call app, scroll down to the Groups section.
2. On the far right, click the green Add group button.
Setting Group Details
A pop-up will open where you'll set a few details before adding your employees.
1. Name: First, give your group a name. For example, "Weekend On-Call."
2. Description: The description can be the same as the Name, or you can include a slightly more detailed description. For example, "Weekend On-Call - Jane, Jim, Robert."
3. Type: Select from four types - Reach, Warm Patch, Cold Patch, or Email Only. For more information on the function and limitations of each type, visit this article.
4. Color: Click one of the colored squares to select a group color.
If you create each group with a distinct color, you'll be able to see who is on-call at a glance by seeing what colors are displayed on the full calendar. For example, if you set a weekend on-call schedule in the color red, then you'll see that time frame blocked in the corresponding color.
Adding Employees
Now that you've set the Name, Description, Type and Color, you can begin adding employees.
Below the Type, you'll see the Staff heading. For all groups with the exception of Email Only, you will also see Telephone number and If / Then voicemail settings.
1. Use the drop down lists to add each staff member in the order you would like them contacted.
Note that the order does not apply to Email Only on-call groups, as all employees will be emailed simultaneously.
2. Use the If / Then columns to let the operators know what to do in the event that we reach your voicemail. For the message options associated with each on-call type, visit this article.
3. Once you have set all of the drop down values, the yellow Add to schedule button will become operational. The text will be slightly different depending on the type of group you are building.
4. Click Add to schedule, and then continue adding staff in the appropriate order.
Editing an Entry
Once added, to the far right of each entry, the blue Edit button will become operational.
1. To edit staff details, click Edit and the line will be highlighted in yellow.
2. Update the necessary drop down values, and then click Save.
3. You can also update the on-call order by clicking and dragging the green Crosshairs button that you'll see in the # column to the left of each entry.
Saving a Group
Now that you've added all of your group members and made any necessary edits, click the blue Add Group button in the lower right corner of your list. (Or, to discard this list and start over, click the yellow Cancel button.)
You'll see your new group listed in the Groups section.
Editing or Deleting an Existing Group
If you need to make changes or delete a group, click the blue Edit or red X buttons to the right of the Description column.
1. Clicking Edit will reopen the pop-up. Note that in edit mode, you can change everything except the Type of group you have created. This drop down will be greyed out.
2. Make any necessary updates, and then click the blue Save changes button in the bottom right corner.
Note that updates made to any group list will not affect the use of these lists in any active schedules. If you have used a particular group in an active schedule, you will need to edit the specific date or dates from the Schedule page.
To Delete:
There are two ways to delete a group:
- You can click the red Delete button that will appear in Edit mode as in the image above.
- You can click the red X button to the right of the Description column.
Both options will result in the same pop-up.
Note that as the pop-up states, deleting a group will not affect your staff members list or any active schedules that were built using the specific group.
Using a Group to Build a Schedule
Now that you've created your on-call Groups, you can begin using them to build out your on-call schedules! Check out this tutorial for step-by-step instructions.