Manage vacation plans
Vacation plans define the time off plans assigned to agents. You can create multiple vacation plans to manage time off for various types of agents (for example, part-time agents and full-time agents). Vacation plans use Vacation Types to describe how agents track their time off (see Manage vacation types ). How this is managed is specific to your contact center.
BEST PRACTICE Individual vacation plans are intended (but not required) to span an entire year (January 1 through December 31).
NOTE The Vacation Plans page is present only in systems that do not use HRMS integration. Systems that do use HRMS integration get their vacation plans from the HRMS (see Integrate with a human resource management system).
Create a vacation plan
- Enter a unique name of the plan in the Plan Name field.
- Enter a plan start date in the Start Date field.
- Enter an end date in the End Date field.
- Select a Vacation Type to assign, and allocate hours to it. For more information about creating vacation types, see Manage vacation types .
- Assign agents to the vacation plan.
- Click Save.
Edit a vacation plan
- Select a vacation plan from the Select Plan drop-down list.
- Change the values in any of the vacation plan fields.
- Click Save.
Copy a vacation plan
NOTE Copying a vacation plan copies all information in the original plan (including its assigned agents). If there is any date overlap between the new and original vacation plans, all agents will be deleted from the original plan.
- Select a vacation plan from the Select Plan drop-down list.
- Enter a vacation plan name in the New Plan Name field. If the new vacation plan is the same as the original plan with the next year’s dates, you do not need to change the new vacation plan name.
- Enter a plan start date in the Start Date field.
- Enter an end date in the End Date field.
- Click Save.
Delete a vacation plan
- Select a vacation plan from the Select Plan drop-down list.
- Click Delete.
Vacation plan examples
Your company will define the requirements for each vacation plan. For example, the following might be the attributes of a vacation plan for full-time entry-level agents (vacation types have been defined on the Vacation Types page):
Field | Value |
---|---|
Plan Name | Full-time day shift (entry level) |
Start Date | January 1, 2016 |
End Date | December 31, 2016 |
Vacation Types |
|
Assign Agents |
etc. |
You can create vacation plans with overlapping dates. However, agents can only be assigned to a single vacation plan on any given date.
Example 1: Overlapping vacation plans without common agents
These are valid vacation plans, because although they overlap, there are no common agents between the two plans.
Example 2: Moving agents between vacation plans
In this example, the customer has set up vacation plans that vary based on the level of agent experience. On April 1, three agents will qualify to be added to vacation Plan 2. An administrator wants to proactively move these agents into vacation Plan 2 on March 1.
Changes to vacation plans go into effect immediately, and agents cannot simultaneously be in Plan 1 and Plan 2. The system displays an error message.
You can take two actions in this situation:
- Assign the agents to Plan 2 on March 1. After the agents have been assigned to Plan 2, they will no longer be assigned to Plan 1 and will be active in Plan 2. From March 1 to April 1, they will have the vacation privileges assigned to Plan 2 (although they have not yet earned them). Other existing agents in Plan 1 will not be affected by the change.
- Cancel the change, and on April 1, add the agents from Plan 1 to Plan 2.
Field descriptions
Use the Vacation Plans page to assign, create, edit, copy, or delete vacation plans.
NOTE An agent can be assigned to only one vacation plan on any date (the same agent cannot be assigned to overlapping vacation plans).
The fields on the Vacation Plans page are described below.
Fields | Description |
---|---|
Plan Name |
A unique name for the plan. EXAMPLE An example of a valid name is “Full-time up to 5 years service.” |
Select Plan | Select the plan you want to copy, edit, or delete. |
Start Date |
The starting date for the vacation plan, in YYYY-MM-DD format. Alternatively, you can choose a date using the date selector. |
End Date |
The ending date for the vacation plan, in YYYY-MM-DD format. Alternatively, you can choose a date using the date selector. |
Vacation Types/Allocated Hours |
Select an available vacation type and allocate the number of hours for that type. Repeat for each vacation type to which you want to allocate hours. You can add up to 20 vacation types to one vacation plan. |
Assign Agents |
Select the agents to whom you want to assign this plan. An agent can be assigned to only one plan on any given date. |
New Plan Name |
The name of the new vacation plan into which you want to copy values. This field only appears when you select the Copy Plan option. |