Task Search Workspace

Use this workspace to perform searches for tasks that match the availability and skills of a certain employee.

The Task Search tab displays one employee at a time. Use the Search action to have Maconomy search for tasks that match the skills and availability defined for the employee in question. You can modify each search via a number of different selection criteria, such as how precisely the tasks should match the skills of the employee, or that the task should require a certain number of hours. The Search Results sub-tab displays the results of each search.

In many respects, this workspace is similar to the Task Staffing workspace. However, the starting point is different: In the Task Staffing workspace, you begin with a task and search for employees who fit the criteria for performing that task. In this workspace, you begin with an employee and search for tasks that match his or her availability and skills profile.

In the following, the term "task" is intended as the equivalent of a job budget line.

When you have found a suitable task for an employee, you can book him or her for a specific number of hours within a specific period by entering the required number of hours for a task in the Task Search tab, specifying the period and various other booking information in the Booking island, and using the Book action.

When you perform a search, Maconomy evaluates the lines of the latest approved revision of the planning budget of every job that the selection criteria identify. Maconomy only evaluates lines on which time activities are specified. For every line, Maconomy looks for a task, taking into account the skills required, the employee category, and the timing information specified on the job budget line, and compares this to the skills and the available time and potential overtime for the employee in the Task Search tab. The results of a search display the degree to which the task on the line matches the skills of the employee, including the number of skill level requirements that are not met and the number of skill level requirements for which the employee is overqualified. It also displays the number of hours as yet unstaffed.

Based on this information in the search results, you can pick the task that suits the employee best. You can then enter the number of hours of the employee's time you want to allocate to each task in the Search Results tab and use the Book action to allocate the employee to the tasks in the detailed resource plan.

If you have not entered skills and skill levels for the current planning budget line, Maconomy disregards employees' skills when you perform the search. For instance, you can search for tasks to be completed within a certain date, and where the number of unstaffed hours is less than a particular number of hours.

Note that the search results only provide an up-to-date picture when you perform the search, and after some time they may no longer be relevant because some of the tasks displayed in the Search Results sub-tab may have been allocated to other employees, or their skill specifications may have been changed. In addition, if you change the selection criteria in the Task Search tab, the search results in the sub-tab are not automatically updated. To see the results of the modified selection criteria, use the Search action again.

Note that job budget lines that you put on hold in the Job Planning workspace in the Job Cost module are not displayed in this workspace.