Nearly all Environmental Service Departments uses a "Master Days-Off Roster" concept. A "Master Days-Off Roster" concept is one where the days off repeat themselves every 2, 3, or 4 weeks, and are set according to the schedule, not the person. In this way, as employees terminate or retire, the people that fill their slots also assume their days off. The ES Optimizer Days-Off template is also based on permanent assignments. Once these permanent assignments are determined, we can assign permanent employees to them.
Relief employees will not receive a permanent assignment and consequently will be slotted into relief positions to cover for the permanent position's weekends and days off. However, it is important to remember that some of these employees still work full time. Other relief positions work predominantly on weekends and cover other times that are not necessarily related to vacations and holidays. A relief pool is therefore established to take care of these "unforeseen" events.