An availability reporting tool has been built into the SIMS Portal in order to help SIMS Remote Coordinators ensure proper coverage for incoming field requests. The form asks members to self-report when they are available to work on tasks for which their skill sets might be applicable, and the Portal then aggregates that information on the emergency record. By offering this consolidated view over the coming week, SIMS Remote Coordinators are able to better identify key gaps when they see new requests coming in. This can be especially helpful heading into weekends and holidays by ensuring we can meet the operation’s needs on tight deadlines.
Automatic Requests
The Portal’s Slackbot will send an automated message on Monday morning to the Slack channel set up for the operation. All users in that channel will be alerted to the request for reporting, and can click the included link to be brought straight to the form. Members are asked to check the box for all dates when they will be available to work on tasks in their qualifying support profiles.
Manual Updates
Given the realities of most people’s schedules, it can be hard to set availability very far into the future. That’s why we decided to only ask people to report weekly, and use the Slackbot referenced in the section above to solicit inputs. However, members can also navigate to the emergency page and access the availability reporting tool from the sidebar. Accessing the report later than Monday will only include dates from that point on. For example, accessing it on a Friday would mean you would only see three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).
Additionally, some users may want to report their availability for the upcoming week. This functionality becomes available on Thursday of each week. It is not available earlier than that in order to prevent people from reporting on days further into the future when their schedules are inherently less clear.
Updating Previous Reports
In order to maintain a complete log of reports, they cannot be edited or deleted. However, if a user wishes to change the dates that they had previously reported for a given week, they can simply create a new report, and the system will only reference the latest version.