Generate Schedules from Work Patterns

In Centralized Schedules, you can schedule employees automatically using the fixed shifts defined in their work pattern. This functionality is available only in the single week view for location-based operational templates.

Role feature access:  Schedules > Work Patterns

Dayforce creates shifts only for days in the employee’s work pattern with Shift selected in the Shift Type drop-down list. It doesn’t create shifts for fixed hours days. For example, an employee has three shifts in their work pattern: two fixed shifts from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Monday and Tuesday, and one fixed hours shift from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Wednesday. Because Monday and Tuesday contain fixed shifts, Dayforce creates shifts only on these days.

Dayforce respects the meals and breaks in work patterns, and ignores the meals and breaks in the employee’s punch policy in Pay Setup > Punch Policy. Additionally, Dayforce respects approved time away requests, and doesn’t create shifts on days with approved requests.

To schedule employees based on their work pattern:

1. Go to Centralized Schedules and load a template.
2. Expand the location grouping in the hierarchy, then expand the Employee section.
3. Click Generate > Work Patterns and select the days of the week to load work patterns for.
4. (Optional) Move the Delete existing shifts? slider to specify the shifts that Dayforce removes when it loads work patterns:
   • Overlapping with Existing Shifts: Dayforce checks to see if shifts overlap with incoming shifts. If they overlap, Dayforce doesn’t create a shift. If there’s no overlap, the shift rotation is created.
   • Previous Work patterns: Dayforce checks to see if existing shifts originated from work patterns. If so, Dayforce deletes those shifts and replaces them with the current pattern. If not, the shift is left alone.
   • Note: This is true for any shift created from work patterns, not just overlapping ones.
   • All Shifts: Dayforce clears the entire schedule and loads work patterns.
5. (Optional) Click View Filters and then click Add Filter to add filters that specify which employees to schedule.
6. Click OK.

You configure work contracts in HR Admin > Work Contracts and assign them to employees in People, in the Work > Work Contracts screen. See the following topics:

• “Configure Work Contracts” in the Dayforce Implementation Guide.
• “Assign Work Contracts to Employees” in the Manager Guide.