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Setting up new self-roster customers

If you are using HosPortal for self-rostering, such as in a private hospital environment, the setup process is very quick.

Charles Lynam avatar
Written by Charles Lynam
Updated over 4 months ago

Welcome to HosPortal! This article outlines the process to set up a new customer who is using our self-roster functions, explains the different roles for you and the HosPortal team, and outlines the information we will need to assist you get up and running.

Overview and timing

We normally expect that a setup process will take a couple of weeks, depending on the complexity of the roster and the availability of your administrative staff. For self-rostering customers our slowest phase is often finalising the way that your roster quotas will work.

The exact timing will need to be confirmed after we have the checklist of information described in the next section below.

The general approach is:

  1. HosPortal will work with you so we understand your rosters, your rostering approach and quotas. This allows us to guide you on the various rostering configurations and the pros and cons of various alternative approaches.

  2. HosPortal will set up a basic structure of your site and give your main roster administrators and super-users access. We would also help you upload the details of all the people you want on HosPortal so you have the data you need to start.

  3. We would set up a draft self-roster and jointly review it with you to see if there are any issues that need addressing.

  4. We would undertake a final review once we all feel that the system is ready to go.

  5. HosPortal will prepare a set of welcome instructions for your users. These instructions are reasonably similar from site to site, but we can customise them for your users.

Information to get started

To enable the first review, and before starting the activities on a more detailed setup checklist, please send us:

  1. A copy of all the rosters you want entered into HosPortal: the structure and timing of all your shifts, and how they occur on holidays.

  2. An overview of your quota approach: who needs to participate, how are quotas determined. If you use spreadsheets with calculations then it can help to see those.

  3. A full staff list in in Excel table, listing names, email, mobile, role (e.g. Consultant, Administrator), and their quotas.

  4. Those staff who should be given admin rights.

  5. The target dates. There are three main dates of importance:

    1. The first date for which HosPortal will be the authoritative source of roster information, e.g. you would like to have your new rosters built on HosPortal from 1 August, with your existing roster tools being used until 31 July.

    2. The date by which you want to finalise your rosters. For a roster starting 1 August you may want or need the final roster published by 30 June.

    3. The dates over which you want your staff to select their shifts/preferences.

When setting up the self-roster

  • Use self-roster for any type of roster: Call, Allocations or any other type of roster group.

  • Include shifts from multiple rosters in the one self-roster process for preference-based rostering. Previously multiple rosters were only permitted for selection-based rostering.

  • Decide how you want shifts that are already filled to be treated by your self-roster process:

    • Ignore them: the self-roster process will only involve unfilled shifts.

    • Count them: the shifts will count to each participant's quota, but they cannot de-select them.

    • Convert them: the shifts will count to each participant's quota and be pre-selected but they are treated like any other shifts. Users can de-select them if they want.

  • Create complex quota groups that can include or exclude almost any day from the roster, or arbitrarily group any combination of days to be treated in a particular way (e.g. treat Easter holiday shifts differently to Christmas holiday shifts). With these quota groups:

    • Give arbitrary points value to any shifts. For example, holidays could be worth 4 points, a night shift 2 points and a day shift 1 point.

    • Give minimum quotas to each type of shifts. For example, it could be a requirement that each person picks a public holiday and two Sundays.

  • Create different selection windows that can have different rules, such as:

    • Different limits on the selection of shifts, for instance users can only pick 50% of their quota in the first window

    • Different quota requirements in each window

    • Different participants in each window, for instance to allow some users to get early picks at shifts, or open shifts up to a wider group once the core staff have had an opportunity to make their selections.

  • Track changes made to each person's quota over time, as an audit log.

  • Decide whether shifts are published immediately that the selection period closes, or left in draft.

  • Require an acknowledgement of the final email or SMS confirming the shifts that are finally assigned to each user.

  • Format the instructions to be included in reminder emails. Previously these customised instructions could only be in plain text.

During the selection process and in building the roster

  • Monitor the number and dates of selections and preferences for each user, both while the window is still open (to track progress, or monitor people who have been tardy in participating) and after the window has closed.

  • Use HosPortal's powerful new conflict rules to influence the automated shift selections, e.g. if your rostering rules prohibit consecutive night shifts, or prevent night shifts immediately after certain types of clinical allocations.

  • Build automated rosters that reflect approved leave. Previously HosPortal assumed that users could be available for after-hours shifts even when they had booked leave.

What next

Once we have the 'getting started' information we will review it and get back to you with any questions. To assist with that we will talk to key personnel to better understand their rostering approach and assist in any decisions that they need to make regarding the configuration and setup.

Training and help

Over the years we have found our approach to training to work best for most users:

  1. For normal users, such as doctors and view-only users, the online support and the online help pages they receive in their welcome message when they first sign up has been proven to be enough. All users have access to our help files at any time, and access to our live chat support tool during most waking hours.

  2. For roster administrators we find that the collaborative and iterative process we use to set up the rosters by phone and Zoom allows them to become familiar with what they need by the time we go live. Where they need additional support after the setup is complete the online files and live chat are also available.

Admin users also have access to our 'Mirror' site, which uses a copy of your data on a site that you can edit and experiment with without affecting your live rosters or your users. Further details can be found here.

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