How to use the Day, Area & Tag Context Adding Work
When adding Work within WorkZerk there are always three contexts that can be set as the default. That means these fields will cause new Work to automatically include these filters and settings. For example, if you have the Day Context set to a date, new Work (Scheduled) will be set to this date.
The three Context settings (Date, Area, Tag) also filter the data shown, so if you select an Area Context for example, only that Area’s Work will be shown.
This makes the process of adding Work more efficient, and less prone to errors.
Day Context
The Day Context is always active and is a required field, this is the date that new Work (Scheduled) will use. The actual date that will be displayed when the page is first loaded depends on some ‘behind the scenes’ calculations, like the last accessed date, whether the date is in the past etc. For that reason, it pays to double check you are viewing the correct date before adding Work.
If you make a mistake and add Work (Scheduled) into the wrong day, that’s easy to fix using the Bulk Change feature within WorkZerk to transfer all of the selected Work to another date in one step.
Area Context
Area Context is associated with the Areas added to the underlying Contact record of a Guest (remember that a Guest record always has an associated, underlying Contact record relationship).
Areas come under Contact records where that Contact has the ‘Location’ switched on. The Location switch indicates that the Contact has physical areas that are of interest, because Work may be held there (for example a hotel might have a ‘Ballroom’ Area). Here are those relationships expressed in the logical order they should be setup:
Contact (with Location On) > Areas
Crew (Based on a Contact)
Activity (Area)
Areas in WorkZerk relate to physical Areas or spaces such as sectors, buildings, floors, wings, rooms etc. Areas are not ‘Areas of Responsbility’, these are best setup within the Tag Context below. You can set one Area to one Activity record.
One Contact (Location) can have multiple Areas available to them, and of course there can be many Contacts all with their own multiple Areas. That’s why when you are selecting an Area for an Activity record, you first select the Contact (Location), then all the Areas within that Location are shown.
When you set the Area Context, Activity will filter to that Area, and all new Activity will use that Area Context as the default.
Tag Context
Tag Context is an association between Work and a specific user defined Tag.
Tags are setup on the Tags tab, and are not related to other entities. One Work item can be linked to only one tag.
The Activity Tag is very versatile, because while you can only link one Tag to one Activity, a Crew Member may ‘belong’ to multiple Tags.
When you set a Tag against a Work item, that Work record will only show for Guests who also have that Tag.
So Tags are very useful for limiting or restricting Work to certain groups of people, for example teams, squads, functional areas (back of house, front of house) etc.
While there is a Volunteer flag setting for Guests, it is also very useful to setup a ‘VOLUNTEER’ Tag if you have any volunteers.
Because you can add multiple Tags to one Guest, it is possible to design your use of Tags so that the access is layered. For example, you might setup a Tag ‘Staff’ to include all your Staff Members, and another Tag ‘Volunteers’ to denote your unpaid volunteers. In addition to this, you could setup a Tag ‘SECURITY’ and only assign Security related Work or Compliance.
When you set the Tag Context, Work will filter to that Tag, and all new Work will use that Tag Context as the default.
How to use Contexts
Firstly, make sure you have all your Contacts that are Locations setup with their correct Areas, so these are accessible when adding Activity.
Design how you will use Tags within WorkZerk to associate Tags with Guests to suit your portal scenario. Generally speaking, largers portals with more Guests and Work will benefit fromusing more tags to layer communications and responsibility.
When adding Work, be aware that all three contexts are important, the date, area and tag all contribute to defining the scope of which Guest (through that Guest’s Tags) visibility on the Work on their portal.
