Purpose Statement
Personnel Movement Rules allow administrators to configure how personnel are selected and moved to fill required vacancies. By replacing the previous hardcoded movement logic with configurable rules, agencies can prioritize staffing based on assignments, qualifications, shared groups, and organizational boundaries while ensuring vacancy requirements are always enforced. This feature provides greater flexibility for staffing operations without modifying scheduling automation or time-based workflows.
Background Information
Personnel Movement Rules introduce a configurable, rule-driven engine that determines how personnel are moved to fill required positions. Rules are evaluated in a defined priority order, allowing agencies to customize staffing behavior while maintaining deterministic and predictable movement decisions.
Each rule allows administrators to:
- Define which vacancies are evaluated first.
- Determine which personnel are eligible to move.
- Restrict personnel from specific assignments.
- Configure how far the system searches for eligible personnel.
- Preserve required staffing constraints such as Position Qualifiers and Shared Group requirements.
To maintain backward compatibility, every agency receives a seeded System Default rule that mirrors the previous movement behavior.
This feature only controls personnel movement logic. It does not affect scheduling automation triggers, call shift processing, or other scheduling workflows.
Required Permissions
- Scheduling → Access Setup
Video
Step-by-Step Guide
Navigate to Personnel Movement Rules
- Navigate to Scheduling → Setup
- Next, Navigate to Automation → Movement Rules
- Review the existing rules displayed on the page.
- Understand the System Default Rule
- Every agency receives a seeded System Default rule.
- The System Default rule:
- Preserves existing movement behavior.
- Appears at the bottom of the rule list.
- Can be edited.
- Can be deactivated.
- Cannot be deleted.
- Any custom rules created by administrators are evaluated before the System Default rule.
Create a New Rule
- Select Add Rule.
- Enter a descriptive rule name.
Configure the Rule Scope
Select how the rule determines which vacancies are evaluated.
Available Scope Types include:
- All Assignments
- Applies to every required vacancy.
- Assignment
- Select one or more assignments.
- Any required vacancy within those assignments is evaluated by the rule.
- Qualifier
- Applies only to vacancies requiring the selected qualifier.
- Shared Group
- Applies to assignments associated with the selected shared group.
The selected scope determines which vacancies are evaluated first. It does not override vacancy requirements.
Configure the Movable Personnel Pool
Choose which personnel are eligible for movement.
Available Pool Strategies include:
- Unassigned Only
- Non-Required Only
- Combined (Unassigned + Non-Required)
If desired, configure Excluded Assignments.
Excluded assignments:
- Remove personnel assigned to those assignments from the eligible movement pool.
- Do not exclude vacancies from being evaluated.
If staged movement behavior is required, create multiple rules using different pool strategies.
Configure Tier Expansion
Select the organizational levels the system searches when looking for eligible personnel.
Available tiers include:
- Assignment
- Station
- Division
- Agency
The system evaluates tiers in the following order:
- Assignment
- Station
- Division
- Agency
If no eligible candidate is found within the current tier, the system automatically evaluates the next selected tier.
If the Agency tier is not selected, the search stops at the highest selected tier and any remaining vacancies remain unfilled.
Save the Rule
- Review all configured settings.
- Select Save.
- Once active, the rule immediately becomes part of the movement evaluation order.
Review Rule Priority
Rules are always evaluated from the top of the list downward.
Administrators can:
- Reorder rules.
- Activate and deactivate rules.
- Edit existing rules.
- Delete custom rules.
Inactive rules remain in the list but are skipped during evaluation.
New rules are always inserted above existing rules.
Understand Vacancy Constraints and the Rule Evaluation Process
Vacancy Constraints
Personnel Movement Rules never override vacancy requirements.
During every evaluation the system validates:
- Position Qualifier requirements
- Shared Group staffing deficits
For example:
If a vacancy requires a Paramedic and the assignment requires an additional Diver to satisfy staffing requirements, the selected employee must:
- Possess the Paramedic qualifier.
- Belong to the Diver shared group.
If no candidate satisfies every requirement, no movement recommendation is generated.
Rule Evaluation Process
During each movement execution the system performs the following sequence:
- Gather all required vacancies.
- Evaluate rules from highest priority to lowest priority.
- Match vacancies based on the configured Rule Scope.
- Build the eligible Movable Personnel Pool.
- Apply Position Qualifier requirements.
- Apply Shared Group staffing requirements.
- Search each selected Tier Expansion level.
- Return the optimal movement recommendation.
- Continue until all required vacancies have been evaluated.
- Evaluate non-required vacancies if eligible unassigned personnel remain.
Best Practices
- Place highly specific rules above more general rules.
- Keep Assignment-specific rules above All Assignment rules whenever priority staffing is required.
- Use Qualifier scope for specialized certifications and credentials.
- Use Shared Group scope to maintain required staffing balances.
- Limit Tier Expansion whenever possible to minimize unnecessary personnel movement.
- Exclude assignments that should never provide personnel to other assignments.
- Periodically review inactive rules to ensure they remain necessary.
- Test rule order whenever new rules are introduced.
Troubleshooting & FAQs
Q: Why wasn't a vacancy filled?
A: No eligible personnel met every vacancy requirement within the configured Tier Expansion.
Q: Why wasn't an employee considered for movement?
A: The employee may have been excluded because they:
- Were assigned to an excluded assignment.
- Were not part of the selected Movable Personnel Pool.
- Did not possess the required Position Qualifier.
- Did not satisfy a required Shared Group staffing requirement.
Q: Can Personnel Movement Rules override qualification requirements?
A: No. Position Qualifiers and Shared Group staffing requirements are always enforced regardless of rule configuration.
Q: What happens if multiple personnel qualify for the same vacancy?
A: The optimization engine determines the best eligible candidate. User-configurable tie breakers are not available in the initial release.
Q: What happens when a rule is inactive?
A: Inactive rules remain visible but are skipped during rule evaluation.
Q: Can the System Default rule be deleted?
A: No. The System Default rule cannot be deleted, although it may be edited or deactivated.
Q: Are non-required positions evaluated?
A: Yes. After all required vacancies have been processed, the system may evaluate non-required vacancies using the same rule order if eligible unassigned personnel remain.