Skill transfers and synchronisation Guide
Briefing
One common action within FireServiceRota is moving personnel between different stations.
Sometimes, a user can have different sets of skills in different places. Someone may be a certified Driver for a particular station, but may not possess the certification in another station.
FireServiceRota provides many different mechanisms to move personnel across. These are:
- Assigning a shift to another station through the Group Rota.
- Transferring a user temporarily or permanently using a Personnel Transfer.
- Requesting an Extra Shift, which moves a user from his home station to another station
- Manually adding someone to another station.
How each mechanism handles the transferring of skills has been a source of confusion. To simplify this process, we are introducing some general guidelines. These are contained within this document.
Skill Synchronisation - What is it?
In our most recent update (March 27th, 2020), we have introduced the concept of Skill Synchronisation. This feature can be enabled on a Cluster or Region level.
When enabled, users will have a single set of skills that are shared across all stations within the specified scope.
Examples:
Skill Synchronisation OFF
On-Call Station A |
On-Call Station B |
Wholetime Station |
|
John Williams |
Driver, Firefighter |
Firefighter |
Firefighter, Officer |
Skill Synchronisation On for On-Call Cluster
On-Call Station A |
On-Call Station B |
Wholetime Station |
|
John Williams |
Driver, Firefighter |
Firefighter, Officer |
Skill Synchronisation On for the whole Region / Service
On-Call Station A |
On-Call Station B |
Wholetime Station |
|
John Williams |
Driver, Firefighter, Officer |
Setup
Please contact us at info@fireservicerota.com to activate Skill synchronisation within any Region or Cluster in your service.
Skill Transfers - What is it?
The process in which skills are transferred when a member is moved from one station to another through one of our mechanisms. In our most recent update (March 27th, 2020), we have unified the way this works.
When moving a member from one station to another, all skills in the destination will be REPLACED with those of the origin station for the duration of the move.
Below you will find general examples for each mechanism.
Assignment to another station through the Group Rota page.
Scenario 1: The user has never been a member of the Destination Station
Time |
Skills in Origin |
Skills in Destination |
Before 8:00 |
Firefighter |
none |
8:00-18:00 |
Firefighter |
Firefighter |
After 18:00 |
Firefighter |
none |
Scenario 2: The user was a member of the Destination Station
Here, we assume that the user had the “Commander” skill before the transfer happened
Time |
Skills in Origin |
Skills in Destination |
Before 8:00 |
Firefighter |
Commander |
8:00-18:00 |
Firefighter |
Firefighter |
After 18:00 |
Firefighter |
Commander |
Create a temporary or permanent Personnel Transfer.
Scenario 1: The user has never been a member of the Destination Station
See Scenario 1 above.
Scenario 2: The user was a member of the Destination Station
See Scenario 2 above.
Request an Extra Shift, which can be performed by people outside the station.
The main difference here is that this type of move does not have an Origin Station. A user simply accepts the shift and is added as a member of the station if he wasn’t before. For this scenario, the skill transfer will only happen if the user is NOT already an active member of the Destination Station.
For this process, the system will internally decide the Origin Station from which to carry over the skills. This is evaluated based on any specific skill required for the extra shift and will prioritise permanent memberships.
The mechanism for assigning skills is the same as discussed above. The skills in the destination station are replaced by those from the origin station for the duration of the Extra Shift.
Manually add someone to another station.
Finally, we have the case of manually adding someone to a new station. Here, there won’t be any skill transfer. However, if the Skill Synchronisation feature is enabled on the cluster or region, the skills will be automatically synchronised.
Existing member of |
Skills |
New member of |
Skills |
Skill Sync OFF |
|||
Station A |
Firefighter |
Station B |
none |
Skill Sync ON |
|||
Station A |
Firefighter |
Station B |
Firefighter |
FAQ
How can I see there are future changes scheduled for a Skill in the Destination Station?
A notification is shown in the skill management page of the Destination Station that there are scheduled changes for this skill. Note that any manual changes will override those planned changes.
If I transfer someone from one cluster to another, will the skills be transferred?
Yes, if the transfer is made through one of the mechanisms described above.
If I transfer someone from one cluster to another, will the skills be synchronised?
If the Skill Synchronisation setting is enabled on the REGION level, then yes. However, if the setting is individually enabled for both clusters, but NOT in the region, there will only be a skill transfer, and NO synchronisation will take place between clusters.
I want to transfer someone with a skill that is not available in the destination Station. What will happen?
While the user will get the skill carried over to the destination station, the skill will be disabled, and will not affect in any way the system.
Someone is a Commander on the Wholetime Cluster, but not in the On-Call one. I want to do a transfer from an On-Call Station to a Wholetime Station. What will happen?
Since the user is NOT a Commander at the origin station, when the transfer is complete, the Commander skill will be REMOVED from the Destination station for the duration of the transfer. If the user is expected to preserve the Commander skill, it will have to be manually added again.
What happens if a skill is not correctly transfered?
If a skill was not correctly carried over during your transfer, extra shift request or "Assign to" movement, you can now override skills yourself (scheduler or above role required).
Go to the top navigation menu and click on the Members menu item, and in the dropdown go to Skills.
You'll see the skills assignation in the station, and you have two sections now: Current Members and Future members.
If you move someone in the future and would like to ammend their skills (either add or remove), here you'll be able to do it:
If skills sync is enabled, then these changes will reflect in all rotas within the cluster or region (depending on your settings). You can check in which rotas the skills will be synched by looking at the info badge shown at the top of the this (Skills) page:
(Hover your mouser over the "i" icon to display list of rotas)
If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.
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