The Staff Qualifications module allows users to store and keep track of qualifications related to their job and personal professional development. Staff can be tasked to submit specific qualifications and provide evidence by adding attachments like certificates or diplomas, together with their expiry date if applicable. When there is an expiry period for a qualification, the system will keep track of the expiry dates and it will reissue tasks automatically as the dates approach. Verifiers can be assigned to confirm the validity of evidence submitted.
Qualifications and other staff records can be limited to specific Organisational Units (OUs) to protect the privacy of users and contain records within a department when required. Categories can be created and assigned to staff qualifications to further classify them.
There are two permissions that govern Staff Qualifications access: Qualifications:Can view Qualifications and Qualifications:Can Create/Edit Qualifications. Both are restricted to the OUs where they are applied.
The ‘view’ permission is included in the system roles:
- Global Viewer (excluding admin)
- Global Editor (excluding admin)
- Personnel Management Editor
- Personnel Management Viewer
The ‘create/edit’ permission, as well as the ‘view’ permission, are included in the system roles:
- Global Editor (excluding admin)
- Personnel Management Editor
Site Admins always have these permissions in every OU.
There are currently no global or OU specific preferences to adjust staff qualification settings.
Staff Qualifications are found under the main menu, Competency. In addition, each user’s staff profile (Personnel Management > Staff Profiles) has a Qualifications tab where the records pertaining to that person are kept. In the Competency area, they are organised by the name of the qualification and the staff who hold them are listed under each qualification created in the system.
The Competency > Staff Qualifications > Staff Qualifications tab has a search area with the following filters:
The results appear below, displaying the Code, Name, Category and number of qualified Staff. The Staff(Qualified/All) column shows a fraction of the number of qualified staff over the total number of staff added to that qualification. The Actions column on the far right contains familiar icons to view the record (magnifying glass icon) and to mark it as a favourite (heart icon).
Results can be exported in CSV (Excel compatible) format.
This is one of iPassport’s user configurable lists of options which can be edited when the spanner/wrench icon is visible next to the field.
1. Click [+]Add Qualification Categories
2. Enter a Name in the field provided
3. Click, Create Qualification Categories
1. Click the pencil icon in the Actions column
2. Adjust the name
3. Click, Save Qualification Categories
1. If a trash/bin icon is available in the Actions column, clicking it will delete the qualification category; if a category is in use, it can't be deleted
The nature of a qualification is detailed in the General tab. The users who have been asked to confirm they hold that particular qualification are listed under the Staff tab. The Organisational Units tab allows limiting the scope of the qualification to selected OUs.
Each qualification record has a General tab where the main information is gathered (detailed below in the Creating Qualifications section).
The second tab along lists Staff associated with the qualification. The number in brackets next to the tab title corresponds to the total number of staff members associated. There is a search facility that allows selecting already added staff members from a dropdown menu (Search Staff Member).
The results can also be filtered by Status, which include:
- Current - the latest instance, leaving out previous qualifications
- Awaiting Verification - if verification is required and pending
- Pending - if the staff member hasn’t completed a task to submit a new qualification
- Qualified - if the qualification is valid and hasn’t expired
- Not Qualified - all assigned staff who do not hold a current, in-date record for this qualification. Groups the statuses Awaiting Verification, Pending, Expired and Overdue
- Expired - if the qualification has an expiry period and it has lapsed
- Overdue - if the task assigned has not been completed within the stipulated time
An Order Results By field is available (Staff Name A-Z or Staff Name Z-A) and results can be exported in CSV (Excel compatible) format from this page as well.
The results area shows an overview of each staff member’s standing, providing information about the status of their qualification (as detailed above), a due date, a completion date and an expiry date.
The Actions column includes:
- a magnifying glass icon to display the person’s record in a lightbox (pop-up window), which also contains a Changelog button to view the history of that qualification instance and lists any attachments added (only to that instance)
- a trash/bin icon to delete the qualification instance is available when the user has the permission, Qualifications:Can Create/Edit Qualifications
- an icon to reissue a qualification confirmation task (two arrows forming a circle), which shows if the current status is ‘qualified’ or ‘expired’ and there isn’t a newer version of it (pending or not)
The number in brackets next to the tab title corresponds to the total number of OUs to which the qualification is restricted. Only staff members whose Default OU is one of the OUs declared in this area will be allowed to be entered. Also, only users who have access to view qualifications in one of the OUs declared will be able to see them.
The Qualifications tab under a person’s Staff Profile stores all their qualifications. The number in brackets next to the tab title corresponds to the total number of qualifications added (whether valid or not).
The search area for this page includes Search, Status and Order Results By fields, plus a Qualification dropdown filter that only displays qualifications associated with the staff member in reference.
The results area below displays an overview of the staff member’s qualifications, including the following details: Code, Name, Status, Completed On, Expires On (”Not Set” if not applicable) and an Actions column which can show the magnifying glass, trash/bin and reissue icons as described above.
A qualification record must be created before users can be requested to confirm they hold it. Only a Name, Index and Category are required to create one but, other information can be added to specify whether evidence is required (in the form of certificates, diplomas, etc.), whether the qualification must be renewed periodically and whether a verifier is required to check submitted qualifications. This information can also be added after the record is created.
To create a new staff qualification:
Select a user in the field, Require verification from, when evidence submitted needs to be checked by someone
Enter a Description of the qualification
Click Create
Staff can be added to qualifications (as already qualified) directly by a person with appropriate permissions and with all the information required. Alternatively, tasks can be created to request staff to provide evidence and/or expiry dates of their qualifications.
Two buttons are available in the Staff tab of a qualification record: [+]Add Qualified and [+]Create Qualification Task. The permission, Qualifications:Can Create/Edit Qualifications, is required to make them visible. Already qualified staff can be added without generating a task if any required evidence and expiry dates are available to the user doing it. Alternatively, when a staff member is requested to add their qualifications, tasks are generated which must be completed to gain the accreditation.
If a qualification is limited to a given OU, only users with the same ‘Home OU’ will be listed to pick from. Please read below for an alternative process to add users from different OUs.
To add qualified staff in the Competency area:
Click the name of the staff member when it becomes visible
Click in the Completed On field and select the appropriate date from the calendar that pops up
If the qualification has an expiry period declared, click in the Expires On field and select the staff member’s qualification expiry date from the calendar that pops up
Attachments such as certificates can be added by dragging them into the dotted area marked, Drop or browse files here, or by clicking in the area, browsing for the qualification and clicking the Open/Choose button (according to the browser used)
Click Create
To create qualification tasks in the Competency area:
Click the name of the staff member when it becomes visible
Repeat the two steps above to add more staff members
Since multiple staff members can be added, the field, Select Distribution Lists can be clicked to select a group of staff members, collected in a distribution list
A Due Date can be selected from the pop-up calendar if required
Text can be added to the Task Description area if applicable
Click Create
Users with access to staff profiles can add qualifications under the Qualifications tab of a staff member’s profile. Every user has access to their own staff profile (under My Profile in the sidebar) and can add or review their own qualifications there. This allows hiding the Staff Qualifications area from users who don’t need to manage them for others.
Once a user completes a Qualification Confirmation task, if verification has been specified, a Qualification Verification task is created for the appointed verifiers.
If there is more than one verifier, the first one to complete the task will automatically invalidate it for the others.
When a qualification is approved, it’s status displays as, “Qualified”.
If the qualification has a validity period, the system will calculate when to issue the next task, starting from the user’s last declared expiry date, adding the expiry period and then subtracting the time entered in the field, “Reissue task (months) before expiry date”.
Submitted qualification records can be edited by users with the permission, ‘Qualifications:Can Create/Edit Qualifications’.
Users without this permission can only update their own qualifications, giving them the opportunity to correct their own errors or upload additional attachments.
If verifiers wish to edit a submitted qualification before approving it, they must first open the record under the ‘Staff’ tab of the qualification, make the changes and then open the task from the ‘My Tasks’ area to complete the verification task.