Totara Perform Open Discussions

Exploring User Instance Creation Features

 
Patricia Campos
Exploring User Instance Creation Features
par Patricia Campos, Thursday 14 November 2024, 05:34
Groupe Partners

Hi!

We’re implementing a performance evaluation solution for a client with two types of employees with different characteristics. They have office employees who are evaluated by their manager using a traditional method (once a year), and employees working offsite at an amusement park.

The evaluation model (questions and sections) for both groups is the same and clearly defined. The challenge we face is that the amusement park employees have “seasonal permanent” contracts, and their manager evaluates them at the end of their contract. This cannot be automated, so we plan to assign the activity to everyone at once, allowing them to complete it at the appropriate time (anytime throughout the year). Therefore, we cannot use expiration and closing dates.

However, these employees may end a contract and start a new one within the same year, with a new job assignment and a new manager. This could mean they would complete two (or more) evaluations. How can we manage this without manually reopening a completed activity? By creating a new instance for the subject. Would the "Repeat" feature be helpful here?

Have you encountered this type of user profile before? How have you structured the evaluation process for them?

Thank you!

Andrew Metcalfe
Re: Exploring User Instance Creation Features
par Andrew Metcalfe, Thursday 14 November 2024, 13:52
Groupe Most Helpful Contributor 2022

We implemented a system which might satisfy this.
By configuring the manager to select participants (reviewer), new activities created upon completion of previous activity, with no repeating limit, a new review enters the 'select participants' queue after the current activity is completed and closed. Totara has a bug in the 'select participants' process which we uncovered doing this, under certain circumstances.
This works and is quite flexible for the manager. Reporting and the manager dashboard still seems awkward and lacks configurability, particularly with this setup. T17.

Daniel Bond
Re: Exploring User Instance Creation Features
par Daniel Bond, Friday 15 November 2024, 01:12
Groupe Most helpful contributor 2023

Out of interest, which bug did you come across with participant selection? We have had an issue with middle names (where you need to know the person's middle name to find them, or have to put two spaces in the name if they've not got a middle name), but always interested if there's anything else which might be tripping our users up.

Andrew Metcalfe
Re: Exploring User Instance Creation Features
par Andrew Metcalfe, Sunday 17 November 2024, 18:16
Groupe Most Helpful Contributor 2022

Hi Daniel, I believe it has been reported - a system/database error when one of the queued but not yet selected participants changes manager. This casues the 'select participants' list to make the manager view data out of their scope, causing the access error.

Patricia Campos
Re: Exploring User Instance Creation Features
par Patricia Campos, Friday 15 November 2024, 07:22
Groupe Partners

Hi!

Thank you for your message Andrew. Apologies, I don’t quite understand the connection between selecting participants (which happens only once before the activity is opened) and the opening of new activities...

In our case, the solution currently implemented is that the manager selects the evaluator from the participant selection, and only after this selection is made does the activity open. The issue arises when this activity is closed, as it will need to be reopened later with a new evaluator and job position. This happens because the user has completed a temporary contract and starts a new one with a different role.

This is why I was asking about the "Repetition" options in the frequency settings.

Once the activity is closed, with the evaluator already selected by the manager, what other ways are there to open a new activity for that subject with a new evaluation?

P.D.: We haven’t found any issues with the participant selection function so far…

Thank you so much for your help! :)

Ashley Mundy
Re: Exploring User Instance Creation Features
par Ashley Mundy, Sunday 17 November 2024, 11:38
Groupe Totara

Hi Patricia,


One option you can test with your client:
1. Create two different performance activities with identical content. One will not repeat, and one will repeat.

  1. For the activity that repeats, set the repetition criteria to open a certain amount of time after the closure of the previous instance, let's say 2 weeks (any time should work as long as the manager change occurs in that window).

  2. Create two dynamic audiences for your staff; one for permanent employees and one for seasonal.

  3. Assign the permanent employee audience to the activity that does not repeat, and assign the seasonal audience to the activity that does repeat.

  4. What should happen: new instances will be created for seasonal employees after their first review is completed. This means they will have separate records for each of their job assignments.

Can you let me know if this works for you?

We may also be able to make use of the 'job assignment based instances' setting , however this can be a bit more complex to test that the instances are created correctly.


Cheers,

Ashley


Andrew Metcalfe
Re: Exploring User Instance Creation Features
par Andrew Metcalfe, Sunday 17 November 2024, 18:19
Groupe Most Helpful Contributor 2022

Hi Patricia, with a recurring activity, each time the activity is queued for creation (eg after the previous one is completed in this case), the participants must be selected again. In our case this is by the manager, which allows subsequent activites to go to different reviewers for example, and to complete reviews at a frequency they choose.