Managing Single or Multiple Venues

By default, you will be managing a single venue/outlet. To learn more about what a Venue is check out our overview on Venues here. So, what happens if you are a manager of multiple teams across different venues and you are having to schedule for multiple venues simultaneously? This is where Venue Groups come in.

What is Venue group?

If you oversee a selection of venues across your company you might want to introduce Venue Groups.

A Venue Group is a selection of venues that have been categorised together under one umbrella for scheduling. It is used to help managers (who are in charge of multiple venues) to schedule all of their venues at the same time.You can setup as many groups as you need and each group can have as many venues in it as needed. 

When should you use a Venue Group?

Venue Groups are most helpful in cases where venues have been split into departments or smaller venues within a larger venue. With Venue Groups you can maintain these smaller venues independently but also view them altogether by categorising them under one venue group. This is helpful as in such cases, there might be a single scheduler in charge of scheduling within that building so adding venues helps to organise which venues are relevant for the scheduler, so that confusions don't occur. As you might expect, this venue is most helpful for organisations with many venues and multiple locations.

Can a Venue by in more than one Venue Group?

A Venue can be added to different Venue groups as well. Venues can be shown in as many venue groups as needed, so you can split your different venues in different ways to compare physical locations and venue types. This also allow venues to be grouped into different combinations for use in reports, shift management and time sheets. 

You can also set the order of the venues within the group, allowing you to manage how they will be displayed on various reports. For more information on Venue Groups visit our article here for more details.

Can you create a rota whilst using a Venue Group?

All of the rota creation and shift management screens can be used when managing a single location or a group of venues. 

Creating a Venue Group

To create a Venue Group go to System > Departments and Venues > Venue Groups. From here you can either Create Venue Group or Assign a Venue.  By clicking create new venue you will need to add all the details for the Venue Group, including a title, whether all staff will then have access to all venues within the group or whether there will be a level of separation. 

Once you have saved your Venue Group details you can start assigning venues. 

Assigning Venues

From this page you can add as many venues as part of the group as you like.

Primary Venue Group

When you are assigning Venues to a Venue Group you can assign a selection of Venues as the Primary Venue Group for the Venue Group. You can only have one venue as the Primary Venue Group. 

Assigning a staff member to a Venue

To assign a staff member to a venue or venue group go to their Profile, then from the actions menu select Edit Assignments > Edit Venues. From here, you can then assign that staff member to as many Venues as required, as well as setting a home venue for them. 

Bulk Assign Venues

At the top of the list of venues on the right, you can hover over Venue Groups and select a venue group. This will then automatically select all of those venues, making it easier to assign venues in bulk. Then click save.

Using Venue Groups

Once you have categorised Venues into groups, you can view them by Venue Group on the top right hand corner of the screen in the Venue Selector. In the Venue Selector, select the Venue Groups tab to see all venue groups. Once you've selected a venue group, when viewing your schedule you will see upcoming shifts from all the venues that you have selected to be in this group. 

The popup has two tabs, Venues and Venue Groups. Your currently selected view will be highlighted in green and you can just click on an option to change views. 

From here you can then start scheduling using Venue Groups. This looks a little different than when you are scheduling with multiple venues. We will now explain those differences and how your schedule will look with multiple venues.

Grid View

When you are working on a single venue you will see a list of all shifts running down the side.  When you are working with multiple venues you have two choices you can either all shifts together in a single list or you can choose to split up your schedule by Venue. When using a single list all your shifts are grouped together and a new Venue column can be seen.

Separating your venues creates a clear distinction between them. This is useful if your venues have different staffing needs and roles. To do this click Split Venues next to the View filters at the top right hand side of the page.

Shift Schedule

The other shift scheduling view that will be affected is Shift Schedule. When you go in to Shift Schedule one of your viewing options is to Split Venues. This will work in a similar way to split venues in Grid View, you will see all of your scheduled shifts for one venue, then in the next page section you will see all the shifts for another Venue.

If you view the page as a single list of venues, it will appear as it does normally with all shifts together, ordered by name. However, if you hover over a shift you will be able to view the venue the shift is in.

Other details

Venue Configuration

Additionally, copying Venue Configuration to a Venue Group now includes ratios and quick shift templates. To use go to Manage Venues. Under the more button for each venue choose Copy configuration and the new options will be in the popup.

Automatically assigned to all venues in a venue group

This allows you to ensure that all staff within a venue group's venues can access all other venues. It’s perfect for departments as it prevents managers from manually assigning lots of venues to lots of new staff.

Note that you can only enable this option if you have permission to view all venues within that group.

Departments

Each Venue can also now be assigned to a single Department.

How are Departments and Venue Groups different?
Whilst both features serve a purpose of separating different parts of your organisation, departments offer a more sophisticated and integrated solution. Whilst Venue Groups enable the grouping of specific venues for scheduling purposes, they remain accessible to any personnel with the same access level, so rely on the discretion of the manager to limit the information they view. In larger organisations, handling such vast quantities of data might become overwhelming, particularly ensuring the correct venue group is being utilised. 

Manipulation Rules

Manipulation rules: venue and venue group filters now available. You can specify whether a rule which applies to shifts will be applied across all Venues or more specifically to only Venue Groups or Specific Venues. This allows you to be more careful.

Lone Working Notifications

Lone Worker notifications are designed to help keep single workers safe across a large venue, campus or complex. When enabled, the system will notify staff when they are the only clocked-in members on site or when they cease to be the only clocked-in staff member.

These notifications can be via Push notifications (in the apps or using desktop notifications), using SMS credits or email notifications. You can also choose the priority of the notifications so the system will try one before trying the next notification method.

Configure this feature on a venue group to cover all venues within the group. If you want the feature on a single venue, you’ll need to create a venue group with just that venue in it.

Then, enter the message you wish to show staff when they start working alone and when they finish. Remember that SMS messages are 160 characters so longer messages will take multiple credits.