Auto assignment occurs using the following criteria, in order of priority:

Group Membership: This is the most important criteria which must be satisfied before any others. Staff members must belong to the Houdini ESQ user group which is assigned via the Intake Customization form in order to be eligible for Auto Assignment. For DFEH, this group is the "Investigation" group. Staff Members that are not part of this group e.g. Mediation, Management, etc. will not be auto assigned cases, even if they meet the other criteria. User groups are configurable in Houdini ESQ. For more information on Staff group membership, click here.

Location/Division: Staff members must belong to a DFEH office that provides service to the respondent or complainant's location.  If the respondent's location isn’t specified by the Complainant then the complainant’s location will be used.  Each staff member must belong to a division in Houdini ESQ.  A Division is nothing more than a location or office  e.g. Los Angeles, Sacramento, etc.  Each location specifically services one or more zip codes.  The zip code is the data that will be used to determine if the staff member should be considered for auto assignment of the case. For more information on defining a Division's zip codes, click here.

Case Type: The staff member must have the case type as a skill set, e.g. Employment, Housing, etc. to be selected for that case. Staff Skill Sets are configurable in HoudiniESQ's Staff form. Each Staff Member can have up to 6 complaint/case/matter types defined. For more information on the Staff Permissions and Skill Sets, click here.

Language: If the above criteria are satisfied for more than one Staff member, then the Staff member’s language skill will be used as the deciding factor. The complainant’s language is used only as a suggestion.  If the complainant speaks Vietnamese then a Staff Member that speaks the language would take precedence, assuming all the other criteria are met.  Each Staff Member can have up to 5 language skills defined, and they can be defined in the Skill Sets portion of the Staff form. For more information on the Staff Permissions and Skill Sets, click here.

Staff Case Load: To be assigned a case via Auto Assignment, a Staff Member must not have a full case load.  Staff case loads are determined by the number of open cases assigned to the Staff Member and the Max Case Load assigned to the Staff Member. A staff member must also have at least one current open case to be considered for Auto Assignment as well.

To ensure fair distribution of cases the staff member with the lowest score will be assigned the case.  The following algorithm will be used.

open_cases  / max_case_load =  score

In the above case Jane will be assigned the case with a score of .56 assuming all other criteria is met.

You can modify a Staff member's case load in the Staff Permissions form. Click here for more information.

Availability: Staff member must be available within 14 days of the case being submitted and opened (DFEH has jurisdiction and Complainant has submitted their complaint). An Alert will be created for the investigating Staff member when they are assigned a case, and another Alert will be created for 14 days after the assignment. If action has not been taken, then the case may be re-assigned to another Staff member.

The following diagram illustrates different scenarios: