Managing Schedule Elements | Eleveo User Guides

Overview

Schedule elements represent work, other activities, or non-working times, for example: lunch, break, training, meeting, or sick.

Default elements are predefined and cannot be fully edited.
Custom elements (manually created) behave the same way as other elements and can be used to:
- Build schedules tailored to your business needs.
- Differentiate between channels of the same type (sub-channels).

Only users with the WFM_EDIT_SCHEDULE_ELEMENTS role can add or modify schedule elements. This role is included by default in the WFM_ANALYST composite role.

Users with the WFM_VIEW_SCHEDULE_ELEMENTS role can view the elements. This role is included by default in the WFM_SCHEDULER composite role.

Read more about Workforce Management Roles.

Displaying Schedule Elements

To display schedule elements that already exist in the system, expand the Administration module in the navigation tree, then click Schedule elements. The Schedule elements screen will display.

Information about each element is displayed in the following columns:

Color – Visible in the schedule, used to differentiate items.
Name – Name of the element, must be unique.
Default duration – Default length of time, modifiable when manually creating a schedule.
Contributes to tags – Productive items require a tag.
Paid – Indicates if the element is considered as paid time; by default, ‘Lunch’ is not considered as paid time. Custom elements can be paid or unpaid.
Productive – Indicates if the element is considered productive or not. If productive is selected, then additional options will be available (tags can be added to the element).
Show in overview – Items are displayed as a list in the user’s calendar.
Show in overview big – The element is displayed prominently on the agent's calendar. Commonly used for full or half-day activities, such as Vacation or Sick days.
Shift – Indicates if the element is part of a shift, used by the backend when creating schedules.
Vacation – Indicates if the element is time off (used in reports).
Paid time off – Indicates if the element is paid time off.
Sick – Indicates if the element is considered as Sick time, and therefore non-productive (used in reports).
Pinnable – If selected, the element can be pinned. If not selected, the element will not be pinnable.

Default Elements

The application contains a set of default, commonly used schedule activities. Each schedule element has the following parameters assigned: default length, type, and whether paid or unpaid. Length can be easily modified, whereas type and whether paid/unpaid are fixed values.

Default elements can be one of the following types:

Productive – Time spent working (for example, being available for incoming calls), only the Voice, Chat, and Email elements have this type assigned.
Non-productive – All other work-related activities, when a person is not performing their primary task (for example, is not available for incoming calls due to a meeting, training, or break).

The table below contains basic information about all default schedule elements:

Name	Description	Default length	Type	Paid?	Pinnable?*
Voice	Basic work element representing time spent answering calls (channel type: voice).	2 hours	Productive	Yes	No
Chat	Basic work element representing time spent answering chats (channel type: chat).	2 hours	Productive	Yes	No
Email	Basic work element representing time spent answering emails (channel type: email).	2 hours	Productive	Yes	No
Lunch	Unpaid lunch break.	30 minutes	Non-Productive	No	No
Break	Any work break which is paid.	15 minutes	Non-Productive	Yes	No
Vacation	An element representing paid time off requested by a person.	24 hours	Non-Productive	Yes	Pinned by default
Sick	An element representing a day off due to illness.	24 hours	Non-Productive	Yes	Pinned by default
Training	Time spent on training.	1 hour	Non-Productive	Yes	Yes
Meeting	Time spent in a meeting.	1 hour	Non-Productive	Yes	Yes
One on One	Time spent in an individual meeting with a supervisor/leader.	30 minutes	Non-Productive	Yes	Yes
Holiday	An element representing all non-working days, like public/national holidays, Christmas etc. (not a user's paid time off).	24 hours	Non-Productive	Yes	Pinned by default
Task 1	An element representing any other custom activity	1 hour	Productive	Yes	Yes
Task 2	An element representing any other custom activity	1 hour	Productive	Yes	Yes
Task 3	An element representing any other custom activity	1 hour	Productive	Yes	Yes

Note that by default the Vacation element is set to one day:

If a person has no elements assigned for a given day, the Vacation will automatically extend to cover the whole day.
If another element is already assigned to a person and then vacation is assigned for the same day, the Vacation element will start from the end of the previous element until the end of the day.

Custom Elements

Eleveo’s default schedule elements may not suit your business. Creating custom elements lets your business define default activities that fit your specific business needs. Create elements such as administrative tie or federal holiday, for example, or create Lunch 1 hour if the default lunch 30 minutesdoes not suit your needs.

Adding New Elements

To add a new element, click Add New. The Add element pane will open.

Fill in the following details:

Name – Give the new element a unique name.
Color – Select a color to associate with the element.
Default duration – Select the time period to associate with the element. Use 15-minute intervals ranging from 0:15 to 23:45.
- Or use the checkbox to indicate a 24h interval (whole day element).
Element parameters – Select one or more parameters from the list. Available parameters are: Paid, Productive, Show in overview, Show in overview big, Shift, Vacation, Paid time off, Sick, and Pinnable. Refer to the Displaying Schedule Elements section above for a description of each.
Contributes to tags – Select which tag to link to the element (tags available will depend on what has been configured; refer to the page Managing Queues for more details).
Save/Cancel – Save or cancel your changes.

Note: Tags assigned to elements will also appear in the Schedule Studio.

The new item will be visible in the list of elements.

And it will be available for use when creating a schedule.

Editing Elements

Element parameters can be edited only if they are not used in any schedule or adherence settings. Items that can not be edited will be greyed out if the element is in use.

The following can be modified even if the element is part of the schedule or adherence settings:

Name – Name of the element must be unique.
Default duration – Use 15-minute intervals ranging from 0:15 to 23:45.
- Checkbox for a 24h interval (since it's not possible to choose this in the time field).
Color
Show in overview
Show in overview big
Pinnable.

Moving or Removing Elements

Click on the three dots menu to the right side of each listed item to reorder, edit, or remove an item.

The following options are available:

Detail – View details about the item.
Move up – Move the item one line higher.
Move down – Move the item one line lower.
Delete – Delete the item. It is only possible to delete items if they are not currently in use in a schedule or adherence setting. If the element is in use, the following error is shown: "This schedule element cannot be deleted because it is currently used in a schedule or adherence setting".

Moving elements up or down in the list also changes the order in which elements are displayed in the Scheduling studio.

Limitations/Restrictions

The following combinations/options are not supported. An error message will display if they are selected/combined.

An element marked as Vacation or Sick cannot be a shift.
An element cannot be marked as both Vacation and Sick. Select only one.
An element cannot have both Shift and Show in overview big parameters checked.
Productive cannot be checked along with Vacation/Sick.
Productive cannot be checked together with Paid time off (these options are mutually exclusive).
Shift cannot be checked together with Paid time off.
Contributes to tags is applicable only for productive elements:
- The tag section is disabled when Productive is unchecked.
- Only one tag can be assigned to a schedule element to correctly calculate the work contribution.
Shift elements cannot be marked as Show in overview big.
Existing Default schedule elements are not editable nor deletable.

Common Errors

After filling in all relevant details, click Save. If any errors are present, the system will highlight them. It is not possible to save an element with errors.