The administrator creates a shift optimization rule for the Alpha organization that includes any or all request types.

An employee in the Alpha organization submits a request that adds or removes time from a shift.

The request is approved.

The system verifies that the shift assignment has shift events that can occur either anytime or relative to the start of the shift.

At this point, the system checks if the shift assignment is eligible for the shift optimization process, based on the definitions of the existing shift optimization rules.

Under Request Management > Shift Optimization, the system verifies the following:

1. Request Types: Does the type of employee request to change the shift match one of the selected request types for the rule (Shift Request & Change, Shift Bidding, Shift Swap, and Time Off / Flex Time)? If yes, proceed to #2.

2. Optional. If Time Off / Flex Time is selected, does the type of time-off request in the employee request match the Available Time Off Types specified for the rule? If yes, proceed to #3.

3. Under Optimization, does the duration of the shift assignment match the duration specified in the rule? For example, if the shift is 6 hours, does the duration range in the rule include 6 hours? (such as 0:00-7:00)? If yes, proceed to the next step.

If the request types and shift duration range defined in the rule match the shift assignment, the system applies the shift events specified in the selected shift template for the rule in the following way:

• If Optimize non-working shift events (breaks) only is selected, the system removes non-working shift events from the shift assignment, and applies the non-working shift events specified in the shift template to the shift assignment.

• If Optimize working shift events only is selected, the system checks if the activities of the working shift events in the shift assignment are also defined in the shift template. If the activities are not defined in the template, the system does not optimize these working shift events. The system leaves these working shift events in the shift assignment as is. If the activities of the working shift events are included in the template, the system merges the working shift events in the shift assignment with any other working shift events defined in the template.

  The system first removes the event from the original shift, and then places it back into the shift in potentially a different time slot and order, according to the shift event Time period in WFM when employees are scheduled for specific activities, other than the main shift activity. Shift events can either be productive or unproductive, and can be associated with activities such as Phone, Email, Break and Lunch. rules. For example, it is possible that according to the rule, the event needs to be placed on top of another working shift event. However, the system cannot schedule two overlapping working shift events. Therefore, the solution is that the system merges these two working shift events together, which can be done by making one shift event shorter to fit in the other shift event.

• If Optimize non-working shift events (breaks) and working shift events is selected, the system applies the shift optimization logic to both working and non-working shift events.

Optional. For shift assignments with working shift events and gaps (custom or system) that splits the shift into segments:

For each activity Core component of both schedules and time records in Workforce Management (WFM). When an employee performs any kind of work, activities specify the scheduled work and capture employee adherence to their schedule. associated with the working shift events, the system checks the activity parameter, When the day contains multiple shift assignments (under Work Administration > Activities > Activities > Request Management Usage):

• If this parameter is set to Do not optimize the activity, the system does not optimize the working shift events associated with the activity.

• If this parameter is set to any other setting (Optimize the activity in the first shift, last shift, first and last shift, or Always optimize), the system first checks to make sure that the shift template used to optimize each segment has the same shift event as the segments. If it does, the system removes the activity from all shift segments, and places the activity back in the defined shift segment (first, last, first and last, or all). If the shift template does not have the same shift event as the segments, it does not optimize the shift event in the segments.