Skip to main content
Documentation
Documentation
Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-10-17
Steps: Set Up High-Level Scheduling Organizations

Steps: Set Up High-Level Scheduling Organizations

Security:
Set Up: Scheduling: Maintain Scheduling Organizations
 domain in the Scheduling functional area.
You can configure settings for high-level scheduling organizations (HLSOs) that determine many aspects of schedules including:
  • The appearance of the schedule for managers and workers.
  • The options that are available for managers when they create schedules.
  • Schedule tags that can be assigned to workers and defined for labor demand.
  1. Access the
    Edit Scheduling Settings
     task.
    Select an existing effective-dated configuration snapshot or create a new one. Workday prevents you from making changes that could potentially break an existing schedule or labor demand by locking certain fields on the configuration snapshot.
    The effective date for the configuration snapshot takes effect on the first day of the week. Example: You have your latest schedule generated from the week starting on Sunday, January 1, but then add a new snapshot starting Monday, January 2. The new snapshot won’t have any fields locked as it doesn’t take effect until the first day of the week (Sunday, January 8).
  2. As you complete the
    Settings
     tab, consider:
    Option
    Description
    Start Day of Week
    Select the day on which each work week begins.
    If you use Workday Payroll or Time Tracking, Workday recommends that you use the same start day of week that you've configured in those product areas.
    Workday only applies schedule settings overrides if they're effective as of the first day of the scheduling week.
    Example: If your week starts on a Monday and you change someone's minimum and maximum weekly hours overrides as of Tuesday, those changes won't be effective until the next Monday.
    Location
    Select a location.
    The location you select must have a time zone configured. Workday applies the time zone of the location that you selected to the schedule.
    This time zone is the anchor time zone for the HLSO and all SOs beneath it. You can use locations as subgroup organizations to support different time zones within the same HLSO.
    Demand Period Length
    Select the interval of time for which you can define labor demand for schedules.
    Example: Your restaurant needs 3 servers from 6:30PM-7:00PM but 5 servers from 7:00PM-7:30PM. You select
    30 minutes
     for the
    Demand Period Length
    .
    For best performance, select an interval of 60 minutes.
    Meal Break Rule Set
    Select a meal break rule set that determines the number, length, order, and placement of meals and/or breaks in a shift.
    The Optimization Engine follows the rule set when generating schedules. It staggers breaks to minimize any overlapping.
    Example: You create a rule for an 8-hour shift. The rule requires 1 meal break for 45 minutes that must be at least 3 hours after the beginning of the shift, and at least 3 hours before the end of the shift.
    Predictive Scheduling Rule Set
    Select a predictive scheduling rule set to apply to the HLSO.
    You can configure a predictive scheduling rule set to calculate the penalty for changing a worker's schedule without advance notice, as required by some local and state laws.
    Borrow Workers Rule Set
    Select or create a new rule set to define the HLSOs that this HLSO can borrow workers from.
    Include Leader as Part of the Schedule
    Select to include the manager or scheduler in schedules when they sit outside of the organization.
    Include Members Based On Organization
    Specify the pool of workers that can be scheduled when generating a schedule.
    • With Scheduling Organizations
      • Workday includes workers from subordinate organizations and every organization under them.
    • Without Scheduling Organizations
      • Workday includes workers from subordinate organizations, and all of the organizational hierarchy under them, until a SO is encountered. If Workday encounters an SO, it ignores any workers within it, as well as those in the organizations under it.
    • Only Current Scheduling Organization
      • Workday includes only workers from the current selected SO.
    Borrowed workers are impacted. Organizations that are borrowed from a different HLSO use the HLSO configuration to determine the workers for which they can manually search. Adjacent organizations are not impacted. Example: HLSO 1 contains SO 1. HLSO 2 contains SO 2 and another organization under SO 2 called Org 1. Under Org 1 is SO 3. If the
    Without Scheduling Organizations
     setting is selected on HLSO 2, and if HLSO 1 is borrowing from HLSO 2, the manager is unable to manually search for workers from SO 3 because of the HLSO 2 configuration.
    Enable Subgroup Organizations
    Select to further divide this organization into subgroup organizations. This enables you to divide labor demand and labor cost in a more granular way.
    Subgroup Organization Type
    Select a location or custom organization that is enabled as a financial worktag (1-10).
    Access the
    Custom
     tab of the
    Maintain Organization Types
     task to edit or create organizations for use as a financial worktag.
    Subgroup Organizations
    Select subgroup organizations. Workday displays organizations that belong to the organization type you've selected.
    When you select organizations, Workday displasy them as additional subtabs on the Labor Demand tab of a schedule and in filtering options on the schedule.
    Use Subgroup Organization Time Zone
    When you select the
    Location
     subgroup organization type, you can select this check box to have Workday apply the time zone of the location to schedules for workers in that location. This enables you to support multiple subgroup time zones for a single HLSO. If you don't select the check box, Workday uses the HLSO time zone.
    Apply Daily Overtime
    Apply Weekly Overtime
    Select to enable Workday to account for the cost of daily overtime, weekly overtime, or both when creating schedules. Also enables validations when a worker is scheduled for hours that exceed the daily or weekly overtime configuration.
    This value is also used in the Labor Budget calculation but doesn't necessarily reflect what the worker will actually be paid. Workday applies the configured overtime rate for hours above the overtime thresholds for the projected scheduled and projected actual costs.
    The options you configure here don't impact Workday Time Tracking.
    Overtime Threshold
    Enter the number of daily hours, weekly hours, or both, beyond which a person is scheduled for overtime.
    The options you configure here don't impact Workday Time Tracking.
    Overtime Rate
    Enter the overtime rate used to estimate the cost of schedules.
    The options you configure here don't impact Workday Time Tracking.
  3. Create schedule validations.
  6. Configure the schedule options that are available for managers.
  7. Configure additional options for workers. As you complete the
    Worker Experience
     tab, consider:
    Option
    Description
    Enable Shift Bidding
    Select to enable workers to bid on open shifts. After the worker submits a bid, the manager is notified and selects a worker to take the shift. You can’t modify this setting if there are in-progress Cover Shift events.
    You must also configure the
    Cover Shift Bidding Event
     business process with the
    Select Worker to Cover Shift
    action step to use this feature.
    Allow Workers to Cover or Swap Overlapping Shifts
    Select to allow workers to cover shifts that overlap with shifts in their schedule. Workday warns the worker but allows them to take the shift. If you don’t select this option, Workday prevents the worker from covering overlapping shifts.
    Enable View My Team's Schedule
    Select to enable workers to view the published schedules of other workers in their scheduling organization by accessing the
    View My Team’s Schedule
     task. Workers can see other workers’:
    • Shift start times and end times.
    • Schedule tags.
    • Meals and breaks.
    Number of Previous Days Workers Can View
    Enter a value to control the number of days in the past for which a worker can view their team’s schedule. Example: A worker can’t view their team’s schedules that are more than 7 days in the past.
    Days Before Shift to Lock Worker Actions
    Enter the number of days before a shift's start date during which workers can't take action on the shift. If you enter 1, workers can't take shift actions starting 1 day before the shift. If you enter 0, workers can take shift actions even on the day of the shift.
    Allow ~Workers~ to be On Call
    Enable workers to indicate whether they’d like to be on call. Workday displays an
    Available on Call
     check box for workers to select on the
    Change My Schedule Preferences
     task. The indicator is used on the
    Good Faith Estimate
     report, which shows workers that have chosen to be on call.
    Enable Voluntary Standby List
    Enable workers to indicate whether they’d like to be on a voluntary standby list. Workday displays a
    Voluntary Standby List
     check box for workers to select on the
    Change My Schedule Preferences
     task. The indicator is used on the
    Good Faith Estimate
     report, which shows workers who have volunteered to be on standby.