Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

Hi Sierra, 

what is the issue you are having with Scheduling Activity Plan Sessions and Break/Meal activities? 

You are correct that the flow generates the optimal schedule based on the Work Plan configuration and Service Goal templates and runs Activity Plans afterwards. This ensures that in the first pass of the schedule all of the "must have" Work Plan Activities are scheduled and catered for before adding the additional Activities from Activity Plans. In simplified terms, we are looking for the periods of the day with "additional capacity" where we can schedule the meeting training sessions.

Paul

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

Hi Paul,

We are trying to use activity plans to schedule team huddles, which are every Tuesday-Friday at a specific time of day. We cannot put these in work plans because the time of day is different by team and there are people across different teams who share the same work plans. We also are finding that we can't use activity plans for this because the huddle will not be scheduled if it would overlap a break or lunch. Is there a better way we could do this?

Thanks!

Hi Sierra, 

what is the issue you are having with Scheduling Activity Plan Sessions and Break/Meal activities? 

You are correct that the flow generates the optimal schedule based on the Work Plan configuration and Service Goal templates and runs Activity Plans afterwards. This ensures that in the first pass of the schedule all of the "must have" Work Plan Activities are scheduled and catered for before adding the additional Activities from Activity Plans. In simplified terms, we are looking for the periods of the day with "additional capacity" where we can schedule the meeting training sessions.

Paul

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

depending on how fixed the huddles are I'd suggest opening up the Session Availability constraints to cover the full day or longer period. This will help the Best Time For process find a session around the breaks and lunches at the optimal time to support service goals.

Another option might be to make your break and lunch Activity Codes "is Interruptable" this would allow the Activity Plan to schedule over the breaks and lunches. The drawback with this method is any overwritten breaks or lunches would have to be added back into the schedule manually as the rescheduling process doesn't consider shifts that have an external activity, Activity Plan or Coaching session, scheduled.

Hi Paul,

We are trying to use activity plans to schedule team huddles, which are every Tuesday-Friday at a specific time of day. We cannot put these in work plans because the time of day is different by team and there are people across different teams who share the same work plans. We also are finding that we can't use activity plans for this because the huddle will not be scheduled if it would overlap a break or lunch. Is there a better way we could do this?

Thanks!

Hi Sierra, 

what is the issue you are having with Scheduling Activity Plan Sessions and Break/Meal activities? 

You are correct that the flow generates the optimal schedule based on the Work Plan configuration and Service Goal templates and runs Activity Plans afterwards. This ensures that in the first pass of the schedule all of the "must have" Work Plan Activities are scheduled and catered for before adding the additional Activities from Activity Plans. In simplified terms, we are looking for the periods of the day with "additional capacity" where we can schedule the meeting training sessions.

Paul

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

The problem with this is that the huddles have to be at the same time every day, so we can't let the system schedule during the best time available.

That was what I was afraid the suggestion would be... With over a thousand agents, manually going through everyone's schedules every day to check that they all still got all the breaks they need is not an option for us. Is there no other way to make this work? And if not, is there a way we could ask for there to be a feature implemented in the future that would allow for set meeting times?

Thank you

depending on how fixed the huddles are I'd suggest opening up the Session Availability constraints to cover the full day or longer period. This will help the Best Time For process find a session around the breaks and lunches at the optimal time to support service goals.

Another option might be to make your break and lunch Activity Codes "is Interruptable" this would allow the Activity Plan to schedule over the breaks and lunches. The drawback with this method is any overwritten breaks or lunches would have to be added back into the schedule manually as the rescheduling process doesn't consider shifts that have an external activity, Activity Plan or Coaching session, scheduled.

Hi Paul,

We are trying to use activity plans to schedule team huddles, which are every Tuesday-Friday at a specific time of day. We cannot put these in work plans because the time of day is different by team and there are people across different teams who share the same work plans. We also are finding that we can't use activity plans for this because the huddle will not be scheduled if it would overlap a break or lunch. Is there a better way we could do this?

Thanks!

Hi Sierra, 

what is the issue you are having with Scheduling Activity Plan Sessions and Break/Meal activities? 

You are correct that the flow generates the optimal schedule based on the Work Plan configuration and Service Goal templates and runs Activity Plans afterwards. This ensures that in the first pass of the schedule all of the "must have" Work Plan Activities are scheduled and catered for before adding the additional Activities from Activity Plans. In simplified terms, we are looking for the periods of the day with "additional capacity" where we can schedule the meeting training sessions.

Paul

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

Hi Sierra,

My organization runs the same way as yours. I've tried all sorts of configurations on the Work Plans and Activity Plans and this new Activity Plans does not suit the needs. 

I've resorted to going back and adding in fixed huddles manually. 

The problem with this is that the huddles have to be at the same time every day, so we can't let the system schedule during the best time available.

That was what I was afraid the suggestion would be... With over a thousand agents, manually going through everyone's schedules every day to check that they all still got all the breaks they need is not an option for us. Is there no other way to make this work? And if not, is there a way we could ask for there to be a feature implemented in the future that would allow for set meeting times?

Thank you

depending on how fixed the huddles are I'd suggest opening up the Session Availability constraints to cover the full day or longer period. This will help the Best Time For process find a session around the breaks and lunches at the optimal time to support service goals.

Another option might be to make your break and lunch Activity Codes "is Interruptable" this would allow the Activity Plan to schedule over the breaks and lunches. The drawback with this method is any overwritten breaks or lunches would have to be added back into the schedule manually as the rescheduling process doesn't consider shifts that have an external activity, Activity Plan or Coaching session, scheduled.

Hi Paul,

We are trying to use activity plans to schedule team huddles, which are every Tuesday-Friday at a specific time of day. We cannot put these in work plans because the time of day is different by team and there are people across different teams who share the same work plans. We also are finding that we can't use activity plans for this because the huddle will not be scheduled if it would overlap a break or lunch. Is there a better way we could do this?

Thanks!

Hi Sierra, 

what is the issue you are having with Scheduling Activity Plan Sessions and Break/Meal activities? 

You are correct that the flow generates the optimal schedule based on the Work Plan configuration and Service Goal templates and runs Activity Plans afterwards. This ensures that in the first pass of the schedule all of the "must have" Work Plan Activities are scheduled and catered for before adding the additional Activities from Activity Plans. In simplified terms, we are looking for the periods of the day with "additional capacity" where we can schedule the meeting training sessions.

Paul

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

Hi Sierra,

When first configuring activity plans we had the same issue.  We had to go through all our work plans and ensure that the breaks and meals are flexible enough to allow movement of those activities around a meeting.  Example:  You have it set that a break is to be between 10:00 and 10:45 but your meeting is 10:00-11:00, it will not schedule the meeting.  But if your break is highly flexible and can be 9:45-11:15 you will still have an opportunity to have the meeting and the break.

Also during the activity plan configuration, make sure that you favor scheduling all agents over meeting Service level.

One final tip-  change the activity code for break to be interruptible.  Now if you do that- it is entirely possible that a break may not generate if it overlaps the meeting time.  But in our contact center, that was a best case scenario for us.  Missing a few breaks here and there was ok.  And the agents are sure to point that out to you or their manager for an easy correction.

------------------------------
Jodi Maffitt
NA

Original Message:
Sent: 11-26-2024 12:46
From: Sierra Steiner
Subject: Activity Plans - relationship between breaks, meals, and meetings

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

#Scheduling

------------------------------
Sierra Steiner
na
------------------------------

Hi Jodi,

Thanks for the suggestion, but making the breaks more flexible doesn't seem to be working for me. See below for an example. The bottom schedule had the huddle scheduled correctly at 1pm, the top schedule did not get a huddle added due to the first break overlapping. The start time of breaks and lunches can be flexed 45 minutes (so start time could've been anywhere between 12:30-1:15) and the minimum contiguous work time is 1 hour. With that being the case, I can't see why it couldn't have put the first break at 1:15 or 12:45 so it wouldn't overlap the huddle.

Let me know if there's something I might be missing. Thanks again for the tips!

------------------------------
Sierra Steiner
na

Original Message:
Sent: 11-27-2024 10:25
From: Jodi Maffitt
Subject: Activity Plans - relationship between breaks, meals, and meetings

Hi Sierra,

When first configuring activity plans we had the same issue.  We had to go through all our work plans and ensure that the breaks and meals are flexible enough to allow movement of those activities around a meeting.  Example:  You have it set that a break is to be between 10:00 and 10:45 but your meeting is 10:00-11:00, it will not schedule the meeting.  But if your break is highly flexible and can be 9:45-11:15 you will still have an opportunity to have the meeting and the break.

Also during the activity plan configuration, make sure that you favor scheduling all agents over meeting Service level.

One final tip-  change the activity code for break to be interruptible.  Now if you do that- it is entirely possible that a break may not generate if it overlaps the meeting time.  But in our contact center, that was a best case scenario for us.  Missing a few breaks here and there was ok.  And the agents are sure to point that out to you or their manager for an easy correction.

------------------------------
Jodi Maffitt
NA

Original Message:
Sent: 11-26-2024 12:46
From: Sierra Steiner
Subject: Activity Plans - relationship between breaks, meals, and meetings

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

#Scheduling

------------------------------
Sierra Steiner
na
------------------------------

Hi Sierra, 

with tight constraints like this, finding the sweet spot that meets your criteria and business goals can be challenging.
The only other suggestions I have are:

• Increase the minimum group size - this will try to find a time when more attendees can be scheduled
  • This could result in no sessions being found if set too high.
• Use the "Is Interruptable" option when configuring your Break Activity Code.
  • This will allow the Activity Plan to see the Break period as "free time" and overwrite the Break with the Huddle Activity Code
  • This could result in having to review the Breaks manually and add them back into the schedule.

Please take a look in the Genesys Ideas Lab to see if there are any enhancement suggestions that might help your use case. You can also submit your own ideas for future consideration.

Paul

Paul

Hi Jodi,

Thanks for the suggestion, but making the breaks more flexible doesn't seem to be working for me. See below for an example. The bottom schedule had the huddle scheduled correctly at 1pm, the top schedule did not get a huddle added due to the first break overlapping. The start time of breaks and lunches can be flexed 45 minutes (so start time could've been anywhere between 12:30-1:15) and the minimum contiguous work time is 1 hour. With that being the case, I can't see why it couldn't have put the first break at 1:15 or 12:45 so it wouldn't overlap the huddle.

Let me know if there's something I might be missing. Thanks again for the tips!

------------------------------
Sierra Steiner
na

Original Message:
Sent: 11-27-2024 10:25
From: Jodi Maffitt
Subject: Activity Plans - relationship between breaks, meals, and meetings

Hi Sierra,

When first configuring activity plans we had the same issue.  We had to go through all our work plans and ensure that the breaks and meals are flexible enough to allow movement of those activities around a meeting.  Example:  You have it set that a break is to be between 10:00 and 10:45 but your meeting is 10:00-11:00, it will not schedule the meeting.  But if your break is highly flexible and can be 9:45-11:15 you will still have an opportunity to have the meeting and the break.

Also during the activity plan configuration, make sure that you favor scheduling all agents over meeting Service level.

One final tip-  change the activity code for break to be interruptible.  Now if you do that- it is entirely possible that a break may not generate if it overlaps the meeting time.  But in our contact center, that was a best case scenario for us.  Missing a few breaks here and there was ok.  And the agents are sure to point that out to you or their manager for an easy correction.

------------------------------
Jodi Maffitt
NA

Original Message:
Sent: 11-26-2024 12:46
From: Sierra Steiner
Subject: Activity Plans - relationship between breaks, meals, and meetings

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

#Scheduling

------------------------------
Sierra Steiner
na
------------------------------

Hi Paul,

It doesn't seem like I have access to the ideas lab, who would I go to for help with this?

Thanks!

Hi Sierra, 

with tight constraints like this, finding the sweet spot that meets your criteria and business goals can be challenging.
The only other suggestions I have are:

• Increase the minimum group size - this will try to find a time when more attendees can be scheduled
  • This could result in no sessions being found if set too high.
• Use the "Is Interruptable" option when configuring your Break Activity Code.
  • This will allow the Activity Plan to see the Break period as "free time" and overwrite the Break with the Huddle Activity Code
  • This could result in having to review the Breaks manually and add them back into the schedule.

Please take a look in the Genesys Ideas Lab to see if there are any enhancement suggestions that might help your use case. You can also submit your own ideas for future consideration.

Paul

Paul

Hi Jodi,

Thanks for the suggestion, but making the breaks more flexible doesn't seem to be working for me. See below for an example. The bottom schedule had the huddle scheduled correctly at 1pm, the top schedule did not get a huddle added due to the first break overlapping. The start time of breaks and lunches can be flexed 45 minutes (so start time could've been anywhere between 12:30-1:15) and the minimum contiguous work time is 1 hour. With that being the case, I can't see why it couldn't have put the first break at 1:15 or 12:45 so it wouldn't overlap the huddle.

Let me know if there's something I might be missing. Thanks again for the tips!

------------------------------
Sierra Steiner
na

Original Message:
Sent: 11-27-2024 10:25
From: Jodi Maffitt
Subject: Activity Plans - relationship between breaks, meals, and meetings

Hi Sierra,

When first configuring activity plans we had the same issue.  We had to go through all our work plans and ensure that the breaks and meals are flexible enough to allow movement of those activities around a meeting.  Example:  You have it set that a break is to be between 10:00 and 10:45 but your meeting is 10:00-11:00, it will not schedule the meeting.  But if your break is highly flexible and can be 9:45-11:15 you will still have an opportunity to have the meeting and the break.

Also during the activity plan configuration, make sure that you favor scheduling all agents over meeting Service level.

One final tip-  change the activity code for break to be interruptible.  Now if you do that- it is entirely possible that a break may not generate if it overlaps the meeting time.  But in our contact center, that was a best case scenario for us.  Missing a few breaks here and there was ok.  And the agents are sure to point that out to you or their manager for an easy correction.

------------------------------
Jodi Maffitt
NA

Original Message:
Sent: 11-26-2024 12:46
From: Sierra Steiner
Subject: Activity Plans - relationship between breaks, meals, and meetings

Hi there,

I love the idea of the activity plans feature, however it seems to not play nicely with breaks and meals, making it unusable without extensive manual adjustments. Ideally, when generating schedules I would expect it to schedule the meetings described in the activity plans first, then schedule breaks and meals around the meetings so they don't overlap. However, it seems to do the opposite - scheduling breaks and meals first, then attempting to schedule meetings. By doing this, it is either not scheduling the meetings for some people at all or making the meetings overlap the breaks (depending on if "is interruptible" is selected or not).

Is there something I'm missing that would solve this problem? If not, is this a planned feature to be added in the future?

Thanks.

#Scheduling

------------------------------
Sierra Steiner
na
------------------------------