Inside IRIS
A technical guide for roster builders and staff — how IRIS is structured, how it makes decisions, what it can do, and what stays with you.
Structure First, Then Shifts
IRIS doesn’t just fill empty cells. Before it places anyone on a roster, it already understands your department from four angles — the better your setup, the better every suggestion.
Who You’re Rostering
Roles, craft groups, and scope of practice — so the roster reflects real clinical capability, not just headcount.
Where They Work
Departments (streams) and services — so coverage matches your operational reality, not a generic template.
How Demand Behaves
Patterns across the week — Monday ≠ Friday, Fast Track ≠ Resus. IRIS knows the difference and staffs accordingly.
What Must Be Protected
Fatigue, training, leave, and contracts — so flexibility doesn’t turn into compliance risk or clinical chaos.
The Five Levels — What You Need to Know
IRIS works through five distinct layers. Keep Levels 1–4 well maintained and Level 5 — the living roster — is where IRIS helps you build, fill, and validate.
Hard Rules vs Soft Rules
IRIS is designed never to break a hard rule. Soft rules are optimised when possible — and when they flex, you always see why. Use Roster Health to review the full picture at any time.
Always Protected
IRIS is designed never to suggest an assignment that violates a hard rule. These represent absolute constraints — rest, scope, and leave are non-negotiable.
- Minimum rest between shifts (e.g. 10 hours)
- Maximum consecutive days or nights
- Scope of practice — right role, right shift
- Approved leave blocks all assignment
- Regulatory and contractual constraints
Balanced and Transparent
IRIS optimises soft rules when it can. If it ever needs to flex one, it shows you the reason clearly — so you can accept, modify, or override with your own judgement.
- Preferred shift types (e.g. “prefer mornings”)
- Ideal weekend balance across the team
- Night shift distribution
- Personal patterns and preferences
- Fairness targets across 7 dimensions
What You Can Ask IRIS
Open IRIS from the Dashboard or The Living Roster and type in plain English. Use suggestions as a starting point — accept, modify, or reject each one. You stay in control.
Coverage & Roster Generation
Fairness & Compliance
Assignments & Edits
How-To (Platform)
IRIS Assists. You Decide.
IRIS never publishes, approves, or finalises anything on your behalf. Every decision stays with you — IRIS makes those decisions faster and better-informed.
🤖 IRIS Can
- Generate a complete, optimised roster in under 30 seconds
- Suggest individual assignments and gap fills
- Flag rule violations, conflicts, and coverage gaps
- Run fairness audits across 7 dimensions
- Explain every suggestion with its reasoning
- Answer questions about the roster in plain English
- Guide you through any part of the platform step by step
👤 You Keep
- Final review and approval of every suggestion
- The decision to publish the roster
- The right to override with your own reasoning
- Control over how much to rely on AI — full generation, gap-fill only, or validation only
- Clinical and operational judgement IRIS does not have
- All governance and accountability
IRIS Is Here for You
IRIS is your personal assistant inside the app. Ask about your shifts, your leave, your hours, or how to do anything in the platform — in plain English, no special commands needed.
Your Shifts & Roster
Ask what you’re working, when your next day off is, or who you’re working with — IRIS reads your live roster to answer accurately.
Your Hours & Fairness
Check how many hours, nights, or weekends you’ve worked this month. IRIS pulls it straight from your real data.
Your Leave
See what leave you have coming up, how many days you’ve used, or ask how to submit a leave request step by step.
Swaps & Availability
Check pending swap requests, see what availability you’ve set, or ask IRIS to walk you through requesting a swap.
Five Simple Steps
Using IRIS is as simple as sending a message. No training needed — just type what you want to know.
Open IRIS
Find the IRIS chat icon on your Dashboard or in the app sidebar.
Type Naturally
Ask in plain English — “What are my shifts this week?” No special commands needed.
Get a Real Answer
IRIS answers using your live data — actual shifts, leave, and availability.
Ask How-To
For “how do I…?” questions, IRIS gives step-by-step instructions that match the real app.
Check the Screen
If something looks off, go to My Shifts or Leave Planner to verify and take action.
What You Can Ask IRIS
These are real examples — just type something like these in the chat and IRIS will answer using your data.
Your Shifts
Your Hours & Fairness
Leave & Swaps
How-To (Platform)
What IRIS Doesn’t Do
IRIS is here to inform and guide you — but it never makes changes on your behalf.
Can’t Change Your Roster
Only roster builders and admins can assign, remove, or publish shifts. IRIS informs; they decide and act.
Only Sees Your Data
IRIS only has access to your own shifts, leave, hours, and availability. It cannot see other staff members’ private information.
Can’t Approve Requests
IRIS cannot approve leave or swap requests. It can walk you through how to submit them — step by step — but approvals go through your roster builder.
What IRIS Always Stands For
Whether you’re a roster builder or a staff member, these principles never change.
Built for Healthcare
Designed for clinicians, roster builders, department heads, and workforce leaders — by people who understand healthcare rostering from the inside.
Transparent by Design
IRIS doesn’t hide complexity — it handles it responsibly. Every suggestion comes with a reason. Every exception is visible. Every roster remains auditable.
Workforce Data Only
IRIS is technically enforced to hold workforce data only — roster assignments, availability, leave, and shifts. It does not store or process patient data.
Fairness & Trust
Good rostering is about resilience, fairness, and trust — not perfection. IRIS supports that by making rules visible and every decision explainable.
I Want to… Where Do I Start?
| I want to… | Who | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Generate or fill a roster | Roster Builder | The Living Roster → Generate with IRIS, or ask IRIS in chat. |
| Check coverage or fairness | Roster Builder | Ask IRIS (“coverage gaps”, “fairness audit”) or use Roster Health. |
| See my shifts / hours / leave | Staff | Ask IRIS or go to My Shifts, Leave Planner. |
| Learn how to do something | Both | Ask IRIS — “How do I…?” — and it will walk you through step by step. |
| Request leave or a shift swap | Staff | Leave Planner or Shift Deck. Ask IRIS to explain the steps first. |
| Approve leave or swaps | Roster Builder | Leave Planner, Shift Deck. Ask IRIS to explain the approval process. |
| Validate the roster before publishing | Roster Builder | Ask IRIS “any rule violations?” or use Roster Health. |
| Sync my roster to my phone calendar | Staff | Ask IRIS “How do I sync to Google Calendar?” for step-by-step instructions. |
See IRIS in Action
See how IRIS works in a live environment — or book a guided demo with our team.