LMS Specialist FAQs

What are Operating Codes?

Operating codes are identifiers that link multiple departments or job classes for the purpose of consolidated reporting.

Operating codes let you identify departments that are tracked in one division (on your P&L), but are actually the operational responsibility of another. For example, the phone department may be a separate division on your P&L, but the Front Office Manager oversees phone operations. In this case, the Front Office operating code is selected for the phone department.

Operating codes are particularly helpful when the management structure doesn't conform to the accounting structure. For example, one individual may be responsible for dishwashing functions at several restaurants; however, each restaurant is an independent department with its own dishwashing function and pay code. In order to plan and evaluate total dishwashing labor usage, an operating code would be established.

What are Environments?

Environments are simply used to separate the history for individual KBI's from the statistical or calculated forecast so as not to distort the forecast due to unique volumes for certain KBI's.

For example, assume that there was a huge outdoor concert yesterday that affected the Pool Snack Bar but no other operations at the property. The KBI’s associated with the Pool Bar can be configured to reflect that this type of “environment” should not be used when forecasting for days when there is no special concert at the Pool Bar.

Environments increase forecast accuracy through segmenting out “abnormal” data in the system (ie: holiday weekend, special events, weather related issues).

Environments can be accounted for prior to the situation, such as the scheduled concert, or they can be accounted for after the situation, such as a severe weather condition that affected the outdoor Pool Bar, but nothing else.

What are Events?

Events are identifiers for special circumstances (by day) that significantly impact the forecast of all statistical KBIs for your entire property. When you create an event, Watson automatically attaches it to every statistical KBI and calculated KBI specified for the property.

Creating events allows for segregating historical data, so the data from the event can be excluded from the normal conditions at the property. This feature lets Watson provide more accurate forecasts. For instance, New Year’s Eve each year is totally sold out throughout the property and all outlets are busy. Therefore, all KBI's in the property are affected.

What is the “Sub-only” box in Employee Maintenance?

This Sub-Only box is used in situations where employees have multiple jobs.  The option specifies whether the system should auto schedule for any/all of the other roles that the employee is qualified to work. If the Sub-Only box is marked No the system will auto schedule for that job role.  Watson’s default is to auto schedule all jobs.

If the Sub-Only option is marked Yes, the system will not auto schedule for that job role.  However, the manager can still manually schedule that employee for that specific job. 

What are Permanent and Regular schedules?

Permanent schedules and Regular schedules are used to provide a consistent schedule of hours and days for an employee and can be set for any number of days or hours in a work week. The difference between Permanent and Regular schedules is as follows. A Permanent schedule means the employee will be automatically scheduled for those hours and days regardless of whether the forecasted business volume indicates the need for that employee. A Regular schedule means that the employee will be automatically scheduled for those hours and days ONLY if the forecasted business volume indicates a need for that employee.

How is coverage percentage calculated?

Coverage percentage is shown at the bottom of the scheduling feature and is a calculation of what percentage of the system projected hours are scheduled. The caveat here is that if there is a shift needed from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM (7 hours) and the manager schedules someone from 6:00 AM to 1:00 PM, the system will show 7 hours projected and 7 hours scheduled. However, since there is one hour where someone should be scheduled but isn’t, the system will show 85.7% coverage. By clicking on the Coverage number, a chart will be presented that shows at what times a person is needed and where (if any) coverage is short. Also, the system will never generate a number higher than 100%. There are other sets of hours shown at the bottom of the schedule and they are:

Scheduled –Reflects the number of hours/shifts that are scheduled

Projected  - Reflects the number of hours/shifts Watson, R.M. has calculated based upon the forecast

Manager – Reflects the number of hours/shifts the manager has scheduled

Unfilled – Reflects the number of unfilled shifts for that schedule

What are Schedule Groups?

Schedule Groups are an organizational reporting tool used in a variety of Watson, R.M. screens and reports.  For example, if you have 150 Room Attendants, but would like to separate out the morning Room Attendants from the night Room Attendants, Schedule Groups could be created for each so that viewing items and/or printing the schedule can be done for either of those two subsets of the entire Room Attendant population.

What’s the difference between deactivate/delete jobs?

In Employee Maintenance, deactivating a job from an employee allows the manager to remove the employee from being scheduled for that job for a targeted period of time. Deleting a job will remove the employee from being scheduled in that job permanently.  If there is ever a chance the employee would need to be scheduled in this job role do not delete. 

What are the different Sort Order Options for scheduling?

Sort Order describes how Watson will sort through (schedule) the employees for that specific job role

Full-time. Schedules full-time employees in this job first, and part-time employees second.

Job Date. Schedules employees in this job by the date the employee was trained for the job. Employees who have worked in this job the longest will be scheduled first.

Job Rank. Schedules employees in this job by skill level. Higher-skilled employees (1 being the highest and 100 the lowest) are scheduled first.

Hire Date. Schedules employees in this job by hire date/seniority. Employees employed the longest will be scheduled first.

Alpha. Schedules employees in this job alphabetically. Seniority issues are disregarded.

Assignment Rank. Schedules employees in this assignment by skill level.

Employee Type. Schedules employees by Employee Type during the scheduling process.