Give'em a Break

Email Notification Exercises

Give'em a Break's email notification features provide management a helpful and valuable tool to communicate and archive important break time operations throughout the workday shift. Email notifications can be sent to employees prompting them to start their breaks. Email notifications can also be sent to Relief Employees prompting them to provide a relief break to a different employee. Any emails sent to employees can also be sent to management as a BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) which allows for management to keep track and be constantly updated of real-time break activities. The Send Broadcast Email Notification feature will send important or emergency email communications to all employees and management simultaneously. Additional email types can also be sent to management including the Final Break Report and Shift Scheduler Reports as well.

Prior to starting these Email Notification Exercises, the Outgoing SMTP Email Settings must be configured. The Email Notifications Options must be activated (check marked). At least one employee must have their email address entered into the Employees Work Schedule worksheet. These exercises will use one email address only. In these exercises, the email address will be the address that management would use to send and also receive email notifications. Use your Email Host's Outgoing SMTP Email Settings and also input the email address that you are using with the Email Host. Here is a visual depiction example of these required configurations for these exercises.

*If needed, complete Exercise 1 in the Main Dashboard Operation Exercises first before adding the employee email addresses as shown below.

After the above has been setup, activate the main dashboard interface into Preparation Mode by navigating to Scheduler on the menu/Preparation Mode and then click Activate. Give'em a Break will automatically shutdown, modify the Break Duration Minutes of all employees to the 1 minute value for the First Break, Lunch Break and Last Break columns and then start back up.

Exercise 1 - Manually send emails to employees to start their breaks in Manual Tracking Mode

Example: The current time is 9:55AM. Using your mouse, highlight all employees in the Employees list and assign their First Break start time to 10:00AM. Lunch Break start time to 12:00PM. Last Break start time to 2:00PM.

Next, click on Employee F to highlight that employee and then hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on Employee H to highlight that second employee only. Within the Please select... combo box drop down list choose ON FIRST BREAK. Give'em a Break will start the first breaks for Employees F and H. As soon as those two employees start their breaks, Give'em a Break will automatically and simultaneously send a separate Email Notification to each of those employees prompting them to take their breaks because their correct email addresses exist in the Employee Work Schedule Information worksheet as shown further above. In addition, since there is a checkmark in the checkbox adjacent to the To: (Email Address) setting that is located in the Outgoing SMTP Email Settings as shown above, Management will receive a BBC email of email notifications sent to employees.

Go ahead and reset the First Break's for Employees F and H without ending those breaks by completing this step. With only those two employees highlighted in the employees list, remove the checkmark from the checkbox that is located at the top left area adjacent to the First Break label in the First Break column. Now, immediately re-add the checkmark. Employees F and H's first break will now be reset and those two employees will return to their job positions that were assigned to them before they started their first break's. Please note: Email Notifications will not be sent to employees when their break is manually reset or when they have completely ended their breaks. Email Notifications are only sent to employees when they start their breaks.

Here's a different example:

The current time is 9:40AM. Select all employees in the Employees list and set their First Break Start Times to 10:00AM.

Next, click on Employee I to highlight that employee and then hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on Employee J to highlight that second employee only.

Change the First Break Start Times for employees I and J to 9:45AM.

Click on the Red sort button labeled F.

Employees I and J will now display at the top of the Employees list because their First Break Start Times are scheduled to start before the remaining employees in the list.

Use your mouse to highlight Employees I and J only.

Within the Please select... combo box drop down list choose ON FIRST BREAK. Give'em a Break will start the first breaks for Employees I and J only. As soon as those two employees start their breaks, Give'em a Break will automatically and simultaneously send a separate Email Notification to each of those employees prompting them to take their breaks because their correct email addresses exist in the Employee Work Schedule Information worksheet as shown further above.

Within the Please select... combo box drop down list choose END FIRST BREAK for Employees I and J.

Exercise 2 - Manually send emails to employees to start their Relief breaks in Manual Tracking Mode

In this exercise, we'll assign employees to provide relief breaks to different employees. Prior to starting a break for an employee, we'll manually send an email notification to the employee's Relief Employee prompting the Relief Employee to provide a relief break to the designated employee.

The current time is 9:50AM. Click on Employee B in the employees list to highlight that employee. Confirm that Employee B's First Break Start Time is set to 10:00AM. Change Employee B's Relief Employee from Employee B to Employee C. Employee C will now provide a First Break relief to Employee B at 10:00AM.

Click on Employee C in the employees list to highlight that employee. Confirm that Employee C's First Break Start Time is set to 10:02AM. Change Employee C's Relief Employee from Employee C to Employee B. Employee B will now provide a First Break relief to Employee C at 10:02AM.

At 9:55am (which is before Employee B is scheduled to take their First Break at 10:00AM), Click on Employee B in the employees list to highlight that employee. Within the First Break column, Click on the blue colored button labeled E and then select Yes to the prompt to send an email notification to the Relief Employee C to provide a relief break to the selected employee (which is Employee B). Give'em a Break will then immediately email Employee C.

*At 10:00AM, don't forget to start the First Break for Employee B.

At 10:01AM, end the First Break for Employee B.

At 10:01AM (which is before Employee C is scheduled to take their First Break at 10:02AM), Click on Employee C in the employees list to highlight that employee. Within the First Break column, Click on the blue colored button labeled E and then select Yes to the prompt to send an email notification to the Relief Employee B to provide a relief break to the selected employee (which is Employee C). Give'em a Break will then immediately email Employee B.

*At 10:02AM, don't forget to start the First Break for Employee C.

At 10:03AM, end the First Break for Employee C.

Here's a different example: This time we'll send simultaneous email notifications to multiple Relief Employees to provide relief breaks to their assigned employees.

Click on Employee H in the employees list to highlight that employee. Confirm that Employee H's First Break Start Time is set to 10:00AM. Change Employee H's Relief Employee from Employee H to Employee F. Employee F will now provide a First Break relief to Employee H at 10:00AM.

Click on Employee J in the employees list to highlight that employee. Confirm that Employee J's First Break Start Time is set to 10:00AM. Change Employee J's Relief Employee from Employee J to Employee I. Employee I will now provide a First Break relief to Employee J at 10:00AM.

At 9:55am, click on Employee B in the employees list to highlight that employee. Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on Employees H and J too. Within the First Break column, Click on the blue colored button labeled E and then select Yes to the prompt to send separate simultaneous email notifications to Relief Employees C, F and I to provide a relief breaks to the selected employees. Give'em a Break will then immediately email Employees C, F and I.

Exercise 3 - Automatically send emails to employees to start their breaks in Automatic Tracking Mode

Example: The current time is 9:55AM. Click on Employee D in the Employees list to highlight that employee and confirm that their First Break start time is set to 10:00AM. In addition, confirm that the Relief Employee is set to Employee D (Self Relief). Click the Pre-Check button to analyze all employees break start times for conflicts. Once pre-checking has successfully completed, click the Start button. At 10:00AM Give'em a Break will automatically place Employee D on First Break and automatically send an Email Notification to Employee D prompting them to take their First Break.

Exercise 4 - Automatically send emails to employees to start their Relief breaks in Automatic Tracking Mode

Example: The current time is 9:55AM. Click on Employee D in the Employees list to highlight that employee and confirm that their First Break start time is set to 10:00AM. Change the Relief Employee to Employee E. Click on Employee E in the Employees list to highlight that employee and confirm that their First Break start time is set to 10:02AM. Click the Pre-Check button to analyze all employees break start times for conflicts. Once pre-checking has successfully completed, click the Start button. At 9:59AM, Give'em a Break will automatically send an Email Notification to Employee E prompting them to provide a relief break to Employee D. At 10:00AM Give'em a Break will automatically place Employee D on First Break and automatically send an Email Notification to Employee D prompting them to take their First Break.

Exercise 5 - Manually email a broadcast message to all employees and management simultaneously.

In this exercise, we'll use the Send Broadcast Email Notification feature to manually send important or emergency email communications to all employees and management simultaneously.

The current time is 1:37PM. If Give'em a Break is currently operating in Automatic Tracking Mode, click the Stop button. Navigate to Tools on the menu and click Options.... Within the Send Broadcast Email section, enter management's message. Click the checkbox in that section to immediately email the broadcast message to all employees in the Employees list and to all management email addresses that exist in the Final Break Report Branding feature window.

Exercise 6 - Manually email the Final Break Report to management

The current time is 4:50PM. The current workday shift ends at 5:00PM. If Give'em a Break is currently operating in Automatic Tracking Mode, click the Stop button. Navigate to Reporting/Email Reports on the menu and click Final Break Report. Give'em a Break will immediately email the Final Break Report to all management email addresses that exist in the Final Break Report Branding feature window and to the email address that exists in the To: (Email Address) setting that is located in the Outgoing SMTP Email Settings as shown further above.

Exercise 7 - Automatically email the Final Break Report to management

The current time is 4:30PM. The current workday shift ends at 5:00PM. If Give'em a Break is currently operating in Automatic Tracking Mode, click the Stop button. Navigate to Tools on the menu and click Options.... Within the End Time for Shift Scheduler settings, change the End Time: to 4:32PM and add a checkmark to the Automatically email the Final Break Report setting. Close the Options and Settings window. At 4:32PM, Give'em a Break will automatically email the Final Break Report to all management email addresses that exist in the Final Break Report Branding feature window and to the email address that exists in the To: (Email Address) setting that is located in the Outgoing SMTP Email Settings as shown further above.

Exercise 8 - Manually email All Shift Schedulers Reports to management

The current time is 4:50PM. The current workday shift ends at 5:00PM. If Give'em a Break is currently operating in Automatic Tracking Mode, click the Stop button. Navigate to Reporting/Email Reports on the menu and click Shift Scheduler Reports. Give'em a Break will immediately email all shift scheduler reports to all management email addresses that exist in the Final Break Report Branding feature window and to the email address that exists in the To: (Email Address) setting that is located in the Outgoing SMTP Email Settings as shown further above.

This email Shift Scheduler Reports feature can take up to 1 minute to complete because Give'em a Break will data mine employee information in real-time, create and populate the necessary worksheets, attach the worksheets to the email and then send the email. *This feature can only be used in Manual Tracking Mode.