Scheduling Fire Marshalls can be done with the Drafting Bench and is as simple as adding a regular shift requirement. Before that happens, we need to create a Skill called Fire Marshall and assign it to those employees who are the dedicated company Fire Marshalls.

This guide will look at:

• Enabling Skills in System Setup
• Creating a Fire Marshall Skill
• Assigning the Fire Marshall Skill to employees
• Adding Fire Marshalls to shift requirements
• Allocating Fire Marshalls to the Rota

Enabling Skills in System Setup

1. Select ‘System’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select ‘System’ from the System Tree.
3. Select ‘System Setup’ from the System Folder.
4. Select the ‘Employees’ tab.
5. In the General section, tick ‘Skills’. This results in the Skills tab now being visible in the Employee Form.

Optional - Ticking ‘Show Skill Badges on Employee Form’ results in Skills that have been assigned to an employee showing in their Employee Form underneath their name.

Creating a Fire Marshall Skill

1. Select ‘Rules’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select ‘Skills’ from the Rules Tree.
3. Select ‘Create New’.
4. Name your Skill ‘Fire Marshall’.
5. Select an icon to represent the Fire Marshall.*
6. If you don’t want to select an icon, select a colour to represent the Fire Marshall instead.*
7. Save.

* In our example, we have chosen a fire extinguisher to represent the Fire Marshall. If you choose an icon, then you do not need to choose a colour. If you don’t choose an icon, the Fire Marshall will be represented as a circle containing the letters ‘FM’. The circle will be the colour that you selected. Otherwise, the circle will remain white.

Assigning the Fire Marshall Skill to employees

1. Select ‘Employees’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select the required employee from the Employees Tree.
3. Select the ‘Skills’ tab.
4. Tick ‘Fire Marshall’.
5. Save.

Adding Fire Marshalls to shift requirements

1. Select the required day in the Drafting Bench to add a Shift Rule.
2. In the Bench Shifts box on the right of the screen, select the shift (Shift Rule) that you wish to add the Fire Marshall to.
3. In the ‘Skill’ menu, select ‘Fire Marshall’.
4. Change ‘Required’ to the number of Fire Marshalls you need for that shift. The number you require will depend on your company policy and/or HSE guidelines.

5. You can now add further staffing requirements (those with no Skill requirement). In the example, 1 x Fire Marshall and 3 x other staff are required for the same shift.

Allocating Fire Marshalls to the Rota

1. In ‘Options, Filters & Preferences’, tick ‘Show Skills’. This shows any Skills that an employee may have underneath their name. It acts as a visual aid when allocating shifts to the Rota. In our example, the Fire Marshalls are signified by a fire extinguisher icon.

2. Drag the Fire Marshall requirement from the Drafting Bench into the Rota. All employees who have Fire Marshall as a Skill will be highlighted. You will be prevented from dropping the shift on employees who don't have Fire Marshall as a Skill.

3. Drop the shift in the Rota opposite your chosen employee. The Drafting Bench will now show that the Fire Marshall has been allocated.

Additional information

If you change your mind and wish to move the Fire Marshall allocation to another employee, simply drag and drop the shift. If ‘Restrict to Drafting Bench’ is enabled, you must drag and drop it back into the Drafting Bench before reallocating.

It will make your scheduling easier if you allocate all shifts with Skill requirements first before any other shifts.

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