Explanations of the employee rules

In this article, we will go through all the employee rules one by one. You will be learning what their overall purpose is and what you should consider when using them.


If you staff your rotas by assigning people manually, employee rules can help you with keeping track of certain requirements, as you will be made aware of if any activated rule has been breached.


When using the automatic staffing feature, employee rules function as a way of influencing and customising the results. If no rules whatsoever have been activated, the Smartplan Assistant will generally prioritise these criteria during it's calculation:

  • Leave no shifts unassigned
  • Distribute weekend shifts fairly
  • Distribute shifts at different times of the day fairly
  • Assign the same amount of hours to everybody

Employee rules can overwrite these default principles of distribution and represent a shift in focus and priorities during the automatic staffing.



You can use this index to directly jump to the rule, that you want to learn more about:

Time distribution

Working days

Absence settings

Additional rules for particular users



Time distribution

Wanted number of hours during a week/month

With this rule, you have the option to set up a preferred target for the employees’ working hours. In the dropdown menu you can choose whether you want to set up an hour target per week or per month.


This rule is very useful, when you use the "Suggest staffing" function, and you know beforehand that your employees should work a certain number of hours within a given week or month. The Assistant will then try to reach that target as closely as possible. When the Assistant could not achieve the target, it will in most cases assign too little hours instead of too many (when the target is met, it just stops assigning shifts to the person). The success of the Assistant at reaching your set target depends on how many vacant shifts with matching job positions exist and the amount of other activated employee rules for this person, as they might potentially interfere.

Please note: This rule will not balance working hours out over a long period of time or the full course of your rota. It focuses on each period (week or month) on its own. When the working hours have been exceeded in one week, the system will not automatically try to assign fewer working hours to the person in the following week. If you want to make sure that your employees are not accumulating to many or too little hours over long periods of time, we advise you to use our Time Balance feature instead.

The target is only meant for the automatic staffing, it will not trigger any rule violations during manual staffing. If you prefer to choose the manning of your shifts yourself, you should opt for additionally setting up strict limits for your employees' working hours by using the "Add max." and "Add min." buttons. This way, you will be made aware by the Assistant in the side bar if any of these boundaries have been exceeded.

Obviously, you can also use the "Add max." and "Add min." rules together with the automatic staffing. The Assistant will consider these defined limitations as absolute boundaries. It will never cross your max. limit and it will never go below your min. limit as long as there is a sufficient amount of vacant shift with fitting positions.

Tip: We advise you to create a range of at least 2-3 hours, otherwise the limits will be hard to reach and the Assistant's suggestion might result in a lot of rule breaks.


Max. hours per day

This rule is useful, when you want to limit the working hours per day. That can have legal or personal reasons. In most EU countries you should for example work no more than 8 hours a day on average

Another use case is when you have many small shifts throughout the day, for example between 1,5h - 3h. By setting a limit to the working hours per day, you can make sure that the person will get shifts throughout the day up to the limit of hours you have set. Be aware that this could interfere with the "Min. break between shifts" rule, in case it is activated.

Similar to the max. limit described above, this rule is classified as a "hard rule". If you use the automatic staffing function, the Assistant will under no circumstances exceed this hour limit. Before assigning too many hours to a person, it will rather leave a shift empty.



Min. break between shifts

With this rule you can make sure that after ending a shift, there will be a minimum of hours until the person will be assigned its next shift. In most countries that would usually be 11 hours. The break will also be complied with over the course of two days. Which means that if a person has a night shift that ends at 11 pm, assigning that person to a morning shift at 6 am the next day will result in a rule violation.

If you have a break of for example 11 hours activated, this will mostly result in that only one shift per day is assigned. If you want that the person should be able to take two or more shifts in the course of a day, you should reduce the break between shifts or completely deactivate it.

The break between shifts as considered a "hard rule", which means that, during the automatic staffing process, compliance with this rule will always be a top priority.

Exception: When you have activated the "Wanted number of hours at work at a time" rule (see below), breaks in between shifts of 15 minutes or less will not result in a violation of the min. break rule. Only when the defined target for the consecutive working hours have been met for the day or when the break between two given shifts is longer than 15 minutes, the "Min. break between shifts" rule will be applied again.



Wanted number of hours at work at a time

This rule is especially designed for those that work with a series of consecutive “mini shifts”, often lasting less than an hour. In these kind of companies, employees will often work more than 5 shifts consecutively, each of them most likely with a different job position.

Without this rule, our Assistant is generally trying to assign shifts fairly and evenly to employees by spreading them out throughout the weekdays and hours of the day. Which means that someone could be assigned to a shift between 7-8 am, between 1-2 pm and again between 9-10pm on the same day.

By setting up a target for the aggregated work duration, you can determine an average amount of hours that your employees should work in one go. The Assistant will then give your employees as many consecutive shifts as are needed to reach that defined target.


Important note: In order to be recognised as consecutive shifts, the breaks in between should be no longer than 15 minutes. Otherwise, you risk not receiving a rule violation, even when the target of consecutive working hours hasn't been reached.

The same goes for the automatic staffing: The Assistant will begin to hand shifts out to other people instead, if the break between two shifts is longer than 15 minutes.

Additionally, this is also important to remember when using the "Min. break between shifts" rule. When this rule is activated and you have assigned a person to shifts with breaks longer than 15 min., it will trigger a rule break.



Working days

Max. workdays in a row

You can set up this rule so that employees will work max. the number of days in a row, that you have defined. The number is including, so when you type in 3 workdays in a row, the Assistant will assign a maximum of shifts 3 days in a row, if needed.

This rule comes in handy if you would like to comply with certain labour laws within your country. In the UK for example, employers are generally not entitled to let their employees work more than 6 days in a row. In that case, you can instruct Smartplan to keep track of that requirement for you.

You can also use this rule, if you want an alternating manning of your shifts. By setting the max. workdays in a row to 1 day for example, you can make sure that the employees are evenly spread out on the days of the week.



Wanted number of workdays per week

You can set up a target for the preferred working days per week. This comes in very handy, when you have made certain contractual commitments towards the working days of an employee or when you have received certain boundaries by your countries labour legislation.

Similarly to the target on working hours (see Wanted number of hours during a week/month), with this rule the Assistant will most likely assign fewer working days to your employees than too many during the automatic staffing. It can be seen as a soft limit, where the target you have defined will only be exceeded in exceptional cases. So, in the end, your preferred target will most likely be what you will be ending up with on average.

Important note: Please make sure that this rule is not colliding with the above rule "Max. workdays in a row". If said limit is set to max. 1 workday in a row, there will be at least 3 or 4 days without shifts in a given week. If, at the same time, you set your workday target to be 6 days per week, this target can not be met by the Assistant and will result in rule breaks.



Workdays must be coherent

With this rule you can specify, whether employees should receive their workdays consecutively or not. Consecutively in this context means, that the Assistant will always assign a minimum of two workdays in a row to each person.

Usually, the Assistant will not pay attention to consecutive workdays and rather be focussed on assigning shifts in an evenly and regulated fashion. As an example, the results of the automated staffing function could therefore lead to a week with shifts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.


Please note: This rule is closely connected to the rule "Days off must be coherent". As mentioned, “consecutive” workdays only correspond to a minimum of 2 days in a row. So, in theory, the Assistant could plan a week like this:

In order to prevent this splitting of the workdays, you can combine both the rules on consecutive workdays as well as on consecutive days off. In this case, both the working days as well as the days off would always be grouped together. Sticking to the example above with 4 workdays, the Assistant’s results would look more like this:



Max. number of weekends with shifts, in a row

You can use this rule, if you want to limit the number of weekend shifts, that your employees should work. The number is including, so when you type in max. 3 weekends with shifts in a row, the Assistant can assign shifts on 3 weekends in a row, if needed.

If you want, that your employees never work 2 weekends in a row (so every other weekend or less) you can set this rule to max. 1.

Please note: Only Saturdays and Sundays are considered as "weekend". Also, this rule does not distinguish between how many shifts a person has during a weekend or whether the employee works on one or both days of the weekend. Meaning that, with this rule, you can not specify how many hours or shifts an employee is allowed to work during a given weekend.



Absence settings

Comply with approved absence

This rule is about taking the registered absences into account when assigning shifts.

An approved absence is any absence request, that was confirmed by an admin or any absence, that was directly created by an admin.

When you are selecting the staffing for shifts manually, you will by default be made aware of the employees that are absent during that time. They will be in a separate category in the dropdown staff list.

However, when you activate this rule, you will be made aware of a rule break, any time you assign somebody despite him or her being absent during that time.

If you use our automatic staffing, the Assistant will automatically leave the person out of shifts during his or her absence period. Instead he will assign these shifts to other employees or leave it as vacant.

Good to know: Hourly absences are taken into account as well. This means that when there is an hourly absence registered for a person, the rule will only be valid during that specific time frame. It is still possible to assign the person to a shift at any other time that day, given that the shift does not collide with another absence.



Assign a day off per weekend shift

When you have activated this rule, Smartplan will make sure that for each day on the weekend where a person has been assigned a shift, he or she will get a free day in the following week between Monday to Friday.

A weekend shift is categorised as any shift, which is placed on a Saturday or Sunday. The number of shifts on the weekend is not decisive. If a person has been assigned to a shift on Saturday and two shifts on Sunday that same week, the person will still only get 2 days off in the following week between Monday to Friday. The days off should be seen as a minimum - depending on the number of available shifts and other intervening employee rules, the person might end up with more than 2 free days in the following week.

Be aware that this rule can potentially be overruled by other settings. For example, if you have set a target for the number of hours per week, the Assistant will try to comply with this rule first. If necessary, he will assign shifts to the person on any given day until the target is met.



Comply with employees off-time requests

When we talk about "off-time requests" we refer to the info that employees have provided regarding their individual availability through the "Manage requests" function.

When you are selecting the staffing for shifts manually, you will by default be made aware of the employees that have requested time off during that shift. They will be in a separate category in the dropdown staff list. However, when this rule is activated, you will be made aware of a rule break at any time you assign somebody despite him or her having requested time off during that time.

If you use the automatic staffing, the Assistant will automatically leave the person out of shifts during his or her requested off-time period. Instead, he will assign these shifts to other employees or leave it as vacant. We have rated off-time request as a "hard rule", which means that, during the automatic staffing process, these requests will always be considered a top priority.



Days off must be coherent

With this rule you can specify whether employees should receive their days off work consecutively or not. Coherent in this context means, that the Assistant will always assign a minimum of two days off in a row to each person.

This is especially relevant if you have a lot of part time workers or temporary staff. Most of these probably prefer to have several days off in a row, instead of having to prepare to show up at work every other day.

Usually, the Assistant will not pay attention to that the days off are all in a row and rather be focussed on assigning shifts in an evenly and regulated fashion. As an example, the results of the automated staffing function could therefore lead to a week with shifts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Please note: This rule is strongly associated with the rule "Workdays must be coherent". As mentioned, “coherent” days off only correspond to a minimum of 2 days in a row. So, in theory, the Assistant could plan a week like this:

In order to prevent this division of the days off within a week, you can combine both the rules on consecutive workdays as well as on consecutive days off. In this case, both the working days as well as the days off would always be grouped together. Sticking to the example above with 4 days off, the Assistant’s results would look more like this:



Additional rules for particular users

It is possible to customise the general employee rules by clicking on the respective person in the list to the left. Here you have not only the option to adjust the value of each rule, but also to activate or deactivate rules only for that person. In that case, the custom settings for that person will overwrite the default settings.


Exclude the employee from the automatic planner

You will find this option at the very top of the employee-specific rules. This means, that the person will not be assigned to any shifts whatsoever during the automatic staffing of the Assistant.

This can be useful, if certain persons should not take part in the current rota. But it can be helpful as well, when you want to combine manual and automatic staffing and you have already distributed certain persons manually in the rota. Then you can make sure through this function, that these persons will not be assigned anywhere else by the Smartplan Assistant.

Please note: If you just want that the default rules will not be applied to that person, you should deactivate all rules manually instead by unchecking all the boxes instead of excluding him or her from the planning completely.


Rules for weekdays

Through weekday rules you can register certain times of the week, where the person in question cannot work in general. That could for example be the case for a single mother, who needs to pick up her son from daycare every Monday between 3-4pm. So, you should choose this function to tell the Assistant at what times employees should be left out in the planning in general, while the absence and off-time request functions should be used to register nonrecurring events.


Your weekday rules should be based on the time block at which the person is not able to work. After that you can select all the days for which that time slot applies. You can make a new rule for each time block. Additionally, you can choose the weekly pattern for the rule, so whether the rule should apply in all weeks of the year or only in the even or odd weeks.

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