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Solver Profiles

A solver profile tells Smart Schedule and Fill gaps how to weigh the scheduling rules against each other - for example whether covering every need matters more than an even workload, or how strongly to honour shift preferences and rotation patterns. Every workplace uses one profile for Smart Schedule and one for Fill gaps.

Solver profiles are managed by administrators in Settings > Configuration > Solver Profiles.

Profiles and workplaces

A workplace has two profiles. Set them in Settings > Configuration > Workplaces > the workplace > Settings tab, section Solver Constraint Profiles:

Field Used by
Constraint Profile Smart Schedule. Only profiles of the type Standard are offered.
Fill Gaps Profile Fill gaps. Only profiles of the type Fill Gaps are offered.

Leave β€” Use default β€” to use the system's default profile of that type.

WFM comes with ready-made system profiles - for example Coverage first, Balance first and Preferences first for Smart Schedule, and Fill Gaps default for Fill gaps. System profiles can be edited, but not deleted.

Create a profile

  1. Go to Settings > Configuration > Solver Profiles.
  2. Click New Profile, or click Duplicate on an existing profile to start from a copy of it.
  3. Fill in:
    • Name - must be unique
    • Description - optional
    • Profile Type - Standard (for Smart Schedule) or Fill Gaps (for Fill gaps). The type cannot be changed after creation.
    • Workload balance - see Workload balance. Shown for Standard profiles only.
  4. Set the Constraint Weights - see below.
  5. Save.
  6. Assign the profile to a workplace (see Profiles and workplaces).

Workload balance

How the solver spreads hours among employees:

Option Meaning
Equal hours for everyone Everyone gets the same hours until their contract is full; the rest goes to larger contracts.
Proportional to contract size Everyone fills the same share of their own contract, so a half-time contract gets half the hours.

With Proportional to contract size, each employee's target for the period is derived from the strictest of their monthly, weekly and daily hour limits. Days of approved absence are left out of the target. On-call (emergency) contracts are not counted.

A Fill Gaps profile has no setting of its own: Fill gaps balances the workload the way the workplace's Standard profile says.

Constraint weights

Each rule has a Value and a Level:

  • Hard rules must be satisfied. Soft rules are minimised - the solver may break them when it has to, and breaks the ones with the lower value first.
  • Within a level, a higher value makes the rule more important.
Rule What it does New profile
Respect Unavailability Don't assign agents during their unavailability 3 hard
Minimum Rest Period Keep minimum rest between consecutive shifts (the rest itself is set on the workplace) 3 hard
Match Required Skills Assign shifts only to agents with the required skills 2 hard
Match Allowed Shifts Respect the agent's allowed shift types 2 hard
Required Shift Coverage Cover all required shifts 50 soft
Balance Workload Distribute the workload across agents, as set in Workload balance 5 soft
Respect Shift Preferences Honour agents' shift preferences 10 soft
Max Consecutive Same Shift Limit how many days in a row an agent gets a shift starting at the same time - see Consecutive Shift Limits 20 soft
Weekend As A Block Keep Saturday and Sunday of the same weekend with one person instead of splitting it 1000 soft
Shift Variation Within A Week Keep an agent on one kind of shift for the working week or the full week - see Schedule Stability 1000 soft
Shift Rotation Between Weeks Move an agent to another kind of shift after N weeks on the same one; needs Shift Variation Within A Week to be set 1000 soft
Work Variation Within A Week Keep an agent on one kind of work for a whole week; needs a Work type on the skills 1000 soft
Rotation Pattern (Preference) Prefer to give a shift prescribed by a rotation pattern to the person whose pattern it is 1000 soft
Rotation Pattern (Binding) A rotation shift marked binding stays with its person or stays empty 2 hard
Contract Priority Give shifts to priority 1 contracts until they are full, and only then to priority 2 and 3 - see Contract Priority 150 soft

The last column is what a new profile starts with. System profiles carry their own values.

Note

Some rules work against Balance Workload and only take effect when their weight is high enough to beat it. Contract Priority needs about 30 Γ— the Balance Workload weight. Rotation Pattern (Binding) must stay above Required Shift Coverage, otherwise leaving the shift empty and giving it to a colleague score the same.

Delete a profile

A profile cannot be deleted while:

  • it is a system profile - duplicate it and change the copy instead, or
  • it is assigned to a workplace - assign a different profile to the workplace first.