# Participant Preferences Source: https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/scheduling/setup/participant-preferences > Set Participant matching preferences like age, gender, and ethnicity as nice-to-have or must-have. Scheduling add-on - This feature requires the Scheduling add-on, which is available on Astalty Premium. See How to enable Scheduling. ## Overview Participant Preferences in Astalty allow you to set specific criteria for matching Participants with supports. Preferences can include factors such as minimum age, maximum age, ethnicity, and/or gender. Each preference can be marked as either Nice to Have or Must Have, and you can also add additional background information to the Participant's profile. There is also the ability to define a Participant's preferences using the Support Worker Compatibilities, allowing you to define whether a specific individual is preferred or incompatible with the Participant. Preferences inform matching. A **Must Have** preference records importance; it is not itself a universal block on assigning a worker. Incompatibilities, qualifications, conflicting shifts and award alerts have separate checks. ![A Participant's profile with Preferences highlighted in the side menu and an arrow to the highlighted Preferences and Support Worker Compatibilities cards, with Add Preference and Add Compatibility buttons, above the Required Qualifications and Desired Skills cards.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/preferences.png) ## Finding Participant Preferences To locate a Participant's Preferences, open the [Participant](https://app.astalty.com.au/participants) menu in Astalty and select the Participant's profile. Once in the Participant's profile, navigate down towards the bottom Participant Profile menu, and select Preferences. ![A Participant's profile with Preferences highlighted in the side menu and an arrow to the highlighted Preferences and Support Worker Compatibilities cards, with Add Preference and Add Compatibility buttons, above the Required Qualifications and Desired Skills cards.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/preferences.png) ## Setting Up Participant Preferences After navigating to the Participant's Preferences within their profile: - Select 'Add Preference' within the Preferences menu. ![The Preferences card of a Participant's profile with one Minimum Age preference of 30 and an arrow pointing to the highlighted Add Preference button at the top right.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/image1-1757977459.png) - Select and Configure the Preference - Preference Type - Choose the relevant preference type (e.g., age range, gender, ethnicity). - Value - Enter the value for the preference (e.g., Female, 18-25 years old). - Importance - Mark the preference as Nice to Have or Must Have. - Additional Details - Add any extra background information if required. ![The Add Participant Preference drawer with Preference Type set to Minimum Age, Minimum Age (e.g. 35) set to 30, How important is this preference? set to Nice to have, and Background Information filled in.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/image3-1757977403.png) - Save the Preference - Once all details are entered, click Create Preference. When rostering a Participant, Astalty shows their preferences to help you choose a suitable Support Worker. ![The Support Worker and Preferences columns of the suggested Support Workers table, with Christophe Walsh showing an Under preferred minimum age of 30 warning badge.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/image2-1757977368.png) ## Setting Up Support Worker Compatibility Record whether a Support Worker is preferred or incompatible with the Participant. Support Worker compatibilities can be defined by who is Preferred or Incompatible. - Follow the steps above to access Preferences. - In the Support Worker Compatibilities section, select Add Compatibility. ![The Support Worker Compatibilities card of a Participant's Preferences, with an empty list and an arrow pointing to the highlighted Add Compatibility button at the top right.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/compatibilities-1.png) - Configure the compatibility details - Support Worker - Type - Incompatible or Preferred - Details - Enter any relevant notes for the scheduler (e.g. Client request, Key worker) - Click Create. ![The Add Compatibility drawer with Marcus Webb selected as the Support Worker, Type set to Incompatible, a note in Details, and the Create button at the bottom right.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/compatibilities-2.png) The Support Worker will now appear in the Support Worker Compatibilities list alongside any other Support Workers who are designated as either Preferred (green) or Incompatible (red). ![The Support Worker Compatibilities list showing three Support Workers marked Preferred in green and Alexzander Nader marked Incompatible in red, with an arrow pointing to the reason entered in the Details column.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/support-worker-compatibility.png) When scheduling a shift for this Participant, any relevant Preferences - including incompatibilities - will be highlighted. If a Support Worker is marked as **Preferred** or **Incompatible**, the scheduler can hover over this marker to view the extra detail or reason provided. ![The Select Support Workers panel for a shift, searched for Nader, with the highlighted row for Alexzander Nader showing a red Incompatible marker in the Preferences column while he is otherwise Available.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/compatibilities-4.png) > **Prevent Selection vs. Warn Only** > > The **Incompatible Support Workers** option on the **Worker Assignment** card in [Scheduling Settings](https://app.astalty.com.au/settings/scheduling) controls the response to incompatible workers when enforcement is available. You can select between: > > - Warn only (default behaviour) - Incompatible workers will still appear in selection results and can be chosen, but a warning will be displayed. > - Prevent selection - Incompatible workers will be greyed out and disabled within the selection list, preventing them from being scheduled. > > See [Scheduling Settings](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/scheduling/setup/scheduling-settings) to change this setting. If the Support Worker selected has been identified as having future shifts where they're assigned to support this Participant, Astalty will provide a warning and required confirmation prior to being able to create the incompatibility. ![The Add Compatibility drawer with Adam Nguyen selected and Type set to Incompatible, and a highlighted warning that there are 9 upcoming shifts scheduled with this Participant and Support Worker, above an I understand, proceed anyway checkbox and a greyed-out Create button.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/compatability-2.png) If the user confirms this and creates the incompatibility, Astalty will also flag the amount of future shifts this Support Worker is still assigned to where they're supporting the Participant. ![The Support Worker Compatibilities list with Alexzander Nader marked Incompatible and flagged by an orange 1 future shift badge, whose tooltip asks you to review and reassign the upcoming shift assigned to this Support Worker.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/compatability-guide.png) Creating an incompatibility does not remove the worker from existing shifts. Review the listed future assignments and reassign them where needed. ### Preferred Teams Mark workers as **Preferred** when they are a good match for the Participant, such as workers with relevant training or qualifications. The preference remains visible when staff choose who to assign. ![The Support Worker Compatibilities list for a Participant, showing Ceasar Hegmann, Rozella Russel and Marlee Walker marked Preferred in green with notes such as Key worker for weekday community access, and Alexzander Nader marked Incompatible in red.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/preferred-worker-guide.png) To add Support Workers to a Participant's preferred team, select Add Compatibility and select the Type for preferred. ![The Add Compatibility drawer with the Type dropdown open on its two options, Incompatible and Preferred, and Preferred highlighted and selected.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/preferred-worker-4.png) ## Desired Skills If your account has the [Skills](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/scheduling/setup/workers/skills) feature enabled, the Preferences page also has a **Desired Skills** card, sitting just below Required Qualifications. This is where you record the capabilities you want a worker to have for this Participant - for example *Auslan* or *Meal Preparation*. - Follow the steps above to access Preferences. - Scroll to the **Desired Skills** card and click **Edit**. - Tick the skills you want in the **Select Desired Skills** list, then click **Update Desired Skills**. When you roster, each suggested Support Worker shows how many of these skills they hold. A missing desired skill is a fit indicator and does not by itself block selection. See [Skills](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/scheduling/setup/workers/skills) for how matching works and how to build the skill catalogue.