Newsletter dated 30.09.2024
Product Updates
Half Vacation Days in Nesto
Starting next week, you can also request and account for half vacation days in Nesto. Once this feature is activated for you, half vacation days can be entered as absences. In the payroll, the half day will then be compensated accordingly with half the daily rate and deducted from the vacation entitlement.
To set up this function, please contact Nesto Support at support@nesto-software.de. Please also specify whether your employees should be able to view and request half vacation days in the myNesto app.
Product Information
Recurring Shifts – Why Are They Important and How Do They Relate to Automatically Generated Shift Proposals?
Does your company have fixed shifts, such as every Thursday from 7:00 to 12:00? Or do you have employees who are only scheduled on certain days for specific tasks?
In this case, you can set up such recurring shifts as Serienschichten.
Why Recurring Shifts?
By defining fixed shifts as Serienschichten, you lay the foundation on which Nesto can automatically plan additional shifts using Artificial Intelligence. Therefore, Serienschichten should always be created first before using the automatic staff scheduling.
Finding the Right Balance
It is important to find a good balance:
Too many Serienschichten: There is not enough flexibility for Nesto to create a demand-oriented schedule.
Too few Serienschichten: You will have to intervene manually more often in the schedule because regular shifts are not automatically considered.
Our tip: As many Serienschichten as necessary, but as few as possible!
In our example, there is an employee who comes every morning from Monday to Friday from 5:00 to 8:00 to clean. We have assigned him by name as a fixed Serienschicht.
A detailed guide on setting up Serienschichten can be found in our manual: https://help-portal.nesto-software.de/help-portal/serienschichten
Settings for the Automatic Schedule
For Nesto to optimally plan around your Serienschichten, correct settings are important. You can find these under Local Settings – Automatic Schedule in the Schichtvorschläge tab. Here you can define the following parameters:
Allowed start and end times of shifts
Shift lengths per Station
Break lengths and break times
Times when shifts should not start or end
Example: Cash register vs. kitchen
If you have part-time employees or marginally employed staff at the cash register, shorter shifts (e.g., 3 to 5 hours) make sense. In the kitchen, where many full-time employees work, you can schedule longer shifts (e.g., 5 to 8.5 hours).
These specifications are fixed parameters for Nesto – only shifts that comply with these rules will be planned.
Automatic Generation of Shift Proposals
Once all settings are made, the question arises: How do the automatically planned shifts – or as we call them, the shift shells – get into the schedule?
It's simple: Every night, our Artificial Intelligence automatically generates these shift shells. Unfilled shifts are recalculated and planned based on demand. Manually created Serienschichten and already assigned shifts remain unchanged.
If you don't want to wait until the next night, you can also generate the Schichtvorschläge manually. This option is also found under Local Settings – Automatic Schedule by clicking the button Generate Schichtvorschläge.
We hope this excursion into the world of Serienschichten and the generation of Schichtvorschläge was helpful for you! Feel free to write to us about how and for what you use Serienschichten.
If you want to read more in detail about Serienschichten and the procedure for creating schedules, we recommend the following articles in the Nesto manual:
https://help-portal.nesto-software.de/help-portal/faq – FAQ: What is the process for writing the schedule?
https://help-portal.nesto-software.de/help-portal/teil-1-schichtgerust-bauen – Building a shift framework
https://help-portal.nesto-software.de/help-portal/best-practices – Best Practices