Importing Employees

The Import Employees link allows you to add many employees at once. Use this function if you have a large number of employees to add. If you need to add only a small number of employees, please see the Create Employee Accounts page of this user guide.

To import employees:

• Create a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel (or another spreadsheet program) to enter your employees in using the format in the example image below.
  

• The columns with red headers are required fields. Below is the list of column headers, with descriptions.

  • FirstName: The employee’s first name.

  • LastName: The employee’s last name.

  • EmployeeNumber: RosterApps uses employee numbers to identify employee records.

  • UserName: RosterApps username for the employee. Best practice is to use the employee's e-mail address.

  • Password: RosterApps password for the employee. Must be at least 6 characters long.

  • EmailAddress: The e-mail address that RosterApps will use to communicate with the employee, usually their work e-mail. This is RosterApps's main way of communicating with employees. Though employee users can elect to receive text messages, texts are in addition to directly-sent e-mail messages from RosterApps. RosterApps automatically e-mails employee users notifications about many different things, such as if they are awarded a bid line, receive a shift, successfully trade a shift away, etc. Having valid e-mail addresses for your employees that they check regularly is important.

  • HireDate: The official hire date of the employee. This is commonly used to determine seniority for bidding purposes.

  • SeniorityOverride: This field is used for purposes of tie-breaking when resolving seniority. For example, if two employees bid on the same open shift, and they both have the same hire date, RosterApps uses this field to break the tie. If you do not need to use this field, enter a zero.

  • Phone: The employee’s phone number.

  • ClassificationDate: Another date field used to differentiate from a company hire date, or an adjusted hire date. This field can be used as a seniority determination method.

• If you are importing multiple work groups, create a separate worksheet in the Excel file for each work group. Copy and paste the column headers into each new worksheet to ensure that your information is in the correct format for RosterApps to use.

• Enter the information about your employees.

• Save the file.

• Click on the Employees tab in RosterApps.

• Click on the blue text link Import Employees.
  

• Click the grey Browse button and find the Excel file you created. Select the file and click the blue Next > button.
  

• If your file is in the correct format, RosterApps displays the contents of your first worksheet. If you have multiple worksheets in your Excel file, RosterApps displays a drop-down menu listing your worksheets. Select the worksheet that you want to import and click the blue Next > button at the bottom of the page.
  

• RosterApps takes you to the next page. Complete the sections on this page with information about your imported employees.
   Your selections will apply to all of the imported employees. Below is a list of these sections with descriptions:

  • Work Group: Select the work group that the new employees belong to. This drop-down menu displays all work groups available at your location.

  • Activation Date: Select the date the new employees’ records become active in RosterApps. This can be different than the employees' hire dates or today’s date. If you choose a future date, the employees will not yet appear on the employee lists (or elsewhere in RosterApps) until that calendar date. However, many places in RosterApps allow you to choose the date effective, so that you can see what will happen in the future, when the employees become available.

  • Job Title: Use this drop-down menu to select the job title for your imported employees. Each member of the group you import will have that job title. The Company Admin creates this list of job titles, so if you don't see a job title that should be there, please consult your Company Admin.

  • Employee Status: Select the status of your imported employees. You will likely select either Active FT or Active PT, as those are the only active statuses in RosterApps. The drop-down menu displays all employee statuses available. These may include:

    • AP—Active PT (active status)

    • AF—Active FT (active status)

    • LO—LOA/OJI/FMLA (not an active status)

    • MD—Medical (not an active status)

    • TM—Terminated (not an active status)

    • VR—Voluntary Resignation (not an active status)

    • SP—Suspended (not an active status)

    • LD—Light Duty (not an active status)

    • ML—Military Leave (not an active status)

  • Shift Rule Set: Select the shift rule set that applies to the imported employees. It is best practice to assign employees to their work group's rule sets—that way if you need to make a change to employees' rule sets, you can make that change in one place and it immediately applies to all members of that work group. Use individualized rule sets only in exceptional situations (such as disciplinary action, probation, suspension, etc.). To use the work group's rule set, select (take from work group) in the drop-down menu.

  • PTO Rule Set: Select the PTO rule set that applies to your imported employees. It is best practice to have employees use their work group's rule sets by default. To use the work group’s rule set, select (take from work group) in the drop-down menu.

  • UTO Rule Set: Select the UTO rule set that applies to your imported employees. It is best practice to have employees use their work group's rule sets by default. To use the work group’s rule set, select (take from work group) in the drop-down menu.

  • VTO Slot Rule Set: Select the VTO rule set that applies to your imported employees. It is best practice to have employees use their work group’s rule sets by default. To use the work group’s rule set, select (take from work group) in the drop-down menu.

  • PTO Bank: Use this field to give your imported employees a certain amount of PTO Bank hours, if you would like. Typically, you will do this after you import your employees, but if you need to give an initial amount of PTO hours to your employees, you can do that here.

  • Overtime Bank: Use this field to give your imported employees a certain amount of overtime bank hours, if you would like. Typically, employees will accrue overtime bank hours as they work overtime shifts, but if you need to set an initial amount, you can do that here.

  • Pay Rate: Use this field to enter the pay rate for your imported employees, if you would like. RosterApps does not currently use this information, but you may enter it for your own records.

  • Employee Skills: Use this section to add a skill (or skills) to all of your imported employees. Which skills the employees have is important, as each shift in RosterApps has a skill (or skills) associated with it, and if an employee does not have the required skill(s), they cannot work the shift (or pick it up from the trade board, receive it from a co-worker, etc.) This selection displays a list of the available skills at your location, with check-boxes beside them for you to select. If you do not see a skill listed that you think you should, please consult your Company Admin.

    • To give employees a skill, find the skill in the list and check the box next to it.

    • To take away a skill, find the skill in the list and un-check the box next to it.

    • To give employees all of the skills in the list, click the blue text link All.

    • To clear all of the selected skills, click the blue text link None.

  • Group Trade Permissions: Use this section to select which work groups the imported employees can trade shifts with. By default, employees can trade shifts with other employees in the same work group, but you may want them to have the ability to trade with additional work groups. Additionally, each shift is associated with a certain work group, so an employee cannot work a shift from a work group that they do not have permission to trade with. If an employee does not have permission to trade with a certain work group, they will not see open shifts from that work group on the Trade Board.

    • To add a group trade permission:

      • Find the work group that you want to add a group trade permission for in the Available Groups list (left-hand box). Click the work group.

      • Click the right-pointing arrow button. The work group will move into the Selected Groups list (right-hand box).

    • To remove a group trade permission:

    • Find the work group that you want to remove group trade permission for in the Selected Groups list (right-hand box). Click the work group.

    • Click the left-pointing arrow button. The work group will move into the Available Groups list (left-hand box).

  • Employee Notes: Use this field to enter any notes you want to make about imported employees. You can view these notes later in Employees tab > Notes (blue text link in the table of employees), or Employees tab > Edit > Add Notes

• When you finish entering information, click the blue Create Employees button at the bottom of the page.