Preference Report by Group And Sort Key
The Preference Report by Group And Sort Key will report the replacement employees in the order that they will be called out by the system. Information that will displayed on this report includes employee name and number, dispatch status, dispatch group, sort key, employee category, employee status, and last activity date. Employees can be selected by dispatch group and dispatch status.
Group Key
Enter the dispatch group that you want to report on.
Preference Status
Enter 'A' to include only employees whose dispatch status is active.
Enter 'I' to include only employees whose dispatch status is inactive.
Enter 'B' to include employee regardless of their dispatch status.
| Employee | Employee Name and Number |
| Status | Active or Inactive |
| Group Key | Dispatch Group |
| Sort Key | Will contain the last phoned or last worked dates depending on how system is configured. |
| Category | Category |
| Lst Act Dat | Last activity date shows **-***-**** if the date is blank. The last activity date is updated the first time ADS calls an emp re work each date. The last activity date is cleared out in the Replacement Employee Reset Process. |
| C# | The number of calls made on the system date, i.e. current number of calls – typically calls made during the morning call out for the current date – this is tracked to see if exceed the number of calls per day before job is unavailable. |
| F# | The number of calls made on any future date i.e. future number of calls – typically calls that are made during the evening dispatch for a future date – this is tracked to see if exceed the number of calls per day before job is unavailable. |
| P | Shows whether an employee is ‘IN PROCESS’ – which indicates that a replacing employee is in the middle of receiving a call out by ADS. |
How is the Sort Key established?
The SORT_KEY is used by ADS to determine what order to call replacement employees in.
· It commonly contains either the last phoned or last worked dates/times depending on how their system is configured.
· It can also contain a seniority equivalent value if employees are called out in seniority order
· This value is updated by the following programs:
| Program Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Preference Index Rebuild Process | Loads SORT_KEY with last phoned or last worked dates depending on 11,4,2,2 PHASE 3 & 4 SORT ORDERS C or W. |
| Index Update With Seniority | Loads SORT_KEY with seniority equivalent value. |
| Quick Entry Screens | Initializes SORT_KEY to blank when adding a new employee if QE screen has substitute/casual preference fields. |
| Absence/Dispatch Maintenance | When deleting a dispatch, the SORT_KEY will be cleared out if: · 10,2,6 field 2 is Y · Dispatch starts on or after day · 11,4,2,2 UPDATE DISPATCH SEARCH INDEXES set to Y |
| EA Seniority And Call-Out Update | Loads SORT_KEY with seniority equivalent value. |
Sub/Cas Maintenance | If you type LAST at the field to change prompt, you can manually update the last phoned/worked value which will be loaded in the SORT_KEY field. |
| Do Not Consider If Fully Unavailable | Replacement employees considered as fully unavailable for the current date have their SORT_KEY field loaded with <current_date>240100000. This tells the ADS search engine to NOT consider calling them. |
| VMS ADS Server | · Blanks out SORT_KEY when deleting a dispatch · Sets SORT_KEY to yesterday’s date when closing a dispatch · Updates SORT_KEY with current date/time when replacement employee logs refusal · Updates SORT_KEY with current date/time when ADS calls replacement employee
|
| ADS Search Engine | · Updates SORT_KEY with current date/time when replacement employee refuses during manual search · Updates SORT_KEY with current date/time when replacement employee is marked as phoned during manual search · Updates SORT_KEY with current date/time when replacement employee considered if move employee down in rotation profile option is turned on · Updates SORT_KEY with current date/time when replacement employee is phoned too many times in a day for a same-day call out
|
| Absence/Dispatch Creation Global Code | Updates SORT_KEY with current date/time when dispatch is created
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Why do employees have a sort key one day and not the next?
· Any of the above programs could have updated the SORT_KEY field for any of the above-mentioned reason.
· The most obvious reason would be that a dispatch was cancelled, at which point ADS tries to put them back at the top of the list where they would have been at the time they accepted the dispatch that was just cancelled on them.