Plan requirement
| Subscription | Any plan |
| Also required | Workforce Management or Workforce Engagement Management |
| Access | Admin |
How a schedule is put together in Zendesk WFM, and why publishing it is a commitment rather than a save.
What goes into it
- The forecast, saying how many people are needed when.
- Availability: contracts, hours, approved time off.
- Shifts, defining the patterns you use. A shift can run from five minutes to twenty-four hours, so an overnight shift fits and a two-day one has to be split.
- Skills, where not everybody can handle everything.
The schedule is the arrangement that satisfies all four, or comes closest.
Draft and published are different states
A draft is yours to change freely. Publishing tells people when they are working, and after that a change is a change to somebody's plans.
That distinction is the most important thing about this feature.
Publish on a rhythm
The same day each period, far enough ahead that people can arrange their lives. Two weeks is common, four is better, and irregular publishing is what makes a workforce tool resented.
The ceiling is 90 days ahead, so a quarterly rhythm is the longest this supports. Publishing reaches the same 90 days forward and 30 days back, which is how a correction to a schedule that has already happened gets recorded.
Perfect coverage is not the goal
A schedule that matches the forecast exactly usually does so by treating people as interchangeable units. Slightly imperfect coverage with humane shifts produces better service, because the people are still there in six months.
Handle time off first
Approve absence before generating, not after. Building a schedule and then removing people from it produces gaps you have to fix by hand.
Changes after publishing need telling
Somebody who does not know their shift moved will work the old one. The system knowing is not the same as the person knowing.
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