UM 06 Dispatch Page
Page Contents
The Dispatch Page brings together the worker sign-ins and the work assignments for a given day. Users can filter by skills need, by whether a worker was requested by the employer, by work order status, and by referral service program.
The page shows two tables, one for sign-ins and one for assignments. When using filter buttons, both tables will be filtered. For example, selecting the Skilled filter will only show workers with special skills and only show assignments requiring special skills (such as roofing). The page shows assignments, not work orders, because the assignments represent a worker needed (an order can have multiple assignments).
Dispatch overview
The Dispatch Page allows for assignment of Workers to Work Assignments, by day. Additionally, Sunday assignments are visible when viewing information for Saturday.
Machete allows for any worker to be assigned to a work assignment, but also supports a lottery for assignment. In most cases, there are more workers seeking work than jobs that need to be performed, so a method of distributing work fairly is needed. Organizations using Machete will have to determine how to distribute jobs to job-seekers, and are free to use their own method or follow the model used by the Machete's first client organization, Casa Latina.
Casa Latina's lottery model uses ID cards and a large opaque bucket. First, the ID cards for each worker seeking work are publicly placed into the bucket. Then with all the workers present, the bucket is shaken to mixed up the cards, then they are publically drawn out at random to determine who gets work.
Lottery dialog
Machete supports this system through a lottery dialog that records which workers were drawn at random and what order they were picked. The membership number is entered and the correlating Sign-in record for the day is marked as picked. The mark is a timestamp so the order can be preserved even if a lottery pick needs to be cleared.
Machete provides a number of ways to filter workers and assignments in the Dispatch Page. In smaller organizations, they may not be necessary, but larger organizations can make use of them to quickly match skill sets and language requirements over a large number of workers and assignments.
Dispatch filter buttons
The dispatch page has buttons that affect the records displayed:
- Lottery: Opens the lottery dialog to record lottery results
- Assign: Assigns a worker to a work assignment
- Remove: Removes a work from a work assignment
- Clear: Removes the row selections from both tables
- Requested (Active): Shows active assignments that have a work request associated wit the work order
- Skilled (Active): Shows active assignments that require a specialty skill
- Open (Active): Shows all active assignments that are not assigned with a worker
- Assigned (Active): Shows all active assignments that are assigned with a worker
- DWC: Show sign-ins and assignments for DWC workers
- HHH: Show sign-ins and assignments for HHH workers
- All: Shows all assignments (removes all filters from the button group)
The Lottery button opens the lottery dialog. This dialog is used to record the daily lottery drawing for work assignments. The lottery order is stored as a timestamp on the worker sign-in record.
The Assign button assigns a worker to a work assignment. To use the Assign button, you need to select an unassigned worker from the workers list and an unassigned work assignment from the assignments list.
If the user attempts to assign a worker to a work assignment that is already filled, an error occurs and the assign action is canceled. Similarly, if the user attempts to assign a worker to a work assignment and the worker is already assigned, an error occurs.
The Remove button removes an assignment between an worker and a work assignment. To use the Remove button, you only need to select the worker or the work assignment. The Remove button only needs one side of the connection to find it and remove it.
The Requested (Active) button filters both the worker list and the assignment list. In the worker list, it shows only workers who have been requested in a work order for the day. In the assignment list, it shows only active work assignments that have a work request associated with the work order.
Requested filter
When the button is clicked, the requested workers column is revealed. If multiple workers are requested for the work order, each worker will be listed with every work assignment in that work order because in most cases the worker will be able to fill either assignment in the order.
The Skilled (Active) button filters the worker list and the assignment list. In the worker list, it shows only workers who have specialty skills in their worker record. In the assignment list, it shows only active work assignments that require the worker to have a special skill.
Skilled filter
The specialty skills do not prevent an unskilled worker from being assigned to a skilled assignment. A user can assign an unskilled worker, or a worker with a skill other than the skill required to an assignment, through the other filters. The skilled filter facilitates assigning available skilled workers to assignments, but leaves ultimate control with the user.
The Open (Active) button filters the worker list and the assignment list. In the worker list, it shows only workers that are not assigned to a work assignment.
In the assignments list, it only shows work assignments that are active and unassigned.
The Assigned (Active) button filters the assignments list to show only assignments that are associated with a worker and still active.
The Assigned (Active) filter
The additional columns are the assigned worker, and requested worker column. This filter easily shows who was requested vs. who was assigned.
The All (Completed) button filters the assignments list based on the order status.
The All (Completed) filter
The green row indicates that the assignment is part of a work order that is marked as complete, a worker is assigned to the work assigment, and the work assignment is associated with a worker sign-in record.
The yellow row indicates that the assignment is part of a work order that is marked as complete, a worker is assigned to the work assignment, but the work assignment is not associated with a worker sign-in record.
The orange row indicates that the assignment is part of a work order that is marked as complete and no work is associated with the assignment. This state should be avoided.
The All button clears all status, requested, skilled, open, and assigned filters from both tables.
The orange row indicates that the assignment is part of a work order that is marked as complete, but no worker is assigned to the work assignment. This should be avoided. See the Completed Orders, Orphaned & Unassigned section for a discussion of the problems caused by completed & unassigned work assignments.