Groups - Dynamic: Create, Edit, and Delete

Article Links: Introduction | Static and Dynamic Group Comparison | Create a Dynamic Group | Edit a Dynamic Group | Delete a Dynamic Group | Field 1 Selections |

INTRODUCTION

Groups allow you to schedule and deliver cross-functional training when you are unable to assign training to an organization unit.

They are generally a collection of users that are spread across your organization that have the same training need.

You know you need a group when you have multiple employees that need the same training and they are assigned to different organization units across the company. Not everyone in those organization units have the same training need.

Groups are not a part of your organization structure; they are in addition to your structure.
Note: The Express LMS is a basic features LMS and does not include Groups.

Features

Groups have the following characteristics:

• You can create an unlimited number of groups.
• Groups can have an unlimited number of users.
• Users can belong to an unlimited number of groups.
• You can assign training to groups.
• Users "inherit" any training assigned to the groups they are added to.
• You can run reports on groups.
• Deleting a group DOES NOT delete a completion records for users nor does it delete the user record.  This is because a group is not a part of your organization structure.

Examples

Examples of groups which may require task or job specific training are:

New Hires • Forklift Operator • Emergency Responders • Leadership or Management • Supervisory • First Aid Training • Shift Training (1st, 2nd 3rd) • Hourly Employees • Salary Employees • Compliance Training •

In each of these examples, the employees that require task or job-specific training may be spread across your organization.

An LMS Administrator can create a group, add the employees that need the training, and then assign, track and report on training for that group.

Employees can be added and removed from the group at any time. This means that you don't have to make assignments individually which can become cumbersome to manage and report on.

Refer to the Groups: Sample Dynamic User Rules article to view some of the most common examples for creating a Dynamic Group.

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STATIC AND DYNAMIC GROUP COMPARISON

Static Groups

A static group is a group in which users are added or removed manually from the group by the LMS Administrator.  You can also change group membership by user by editing the user record. 

Refer to the Users: Create, Edit and Delete article to learn how to manage an individual user's group memberships from their user record.

Refer to the Groups - Static: Create, Edit and Delete article to learn how to create and manage a dynamic group.

Dynamic Groups

A dynamic group is a group in which users are added or removed automatically from the group.  Users will be added or removed automatically from the group by setting rule(s) in the group record which matches data contained in the user record. Any field in the user record can be used to create a dynamic group.

Below are a few examples of when you would be likely to create a dynamic group.  

• Team. For example, you may want to add multiple teams together into a Shift A, Shift B, and Shift C group so that supervisors can easily run reports and see the training progress of their employees by shift
• Job title
• Date of Hire: For example, you may want to add employees to a new hire group to assign your company's new hire orientation
• Hourly vs. salary
• Compliance training required, i.e. MSHA, OSHA, DOT or some other compliance training
• State of residence.  For example, employees in California may have a different safety training requirement than employees located in other states due to state specific law
• Sequential Qualifications. Automatically assign multiple qualification(s) that require completion in a specific order. For example First Aid Training - Beginning, First Aid Training - Intermediate, First Aid Training, Advanced 
• And more options available will be described in the Create a Dynamic Group article below

If your company uses HR sync, you may be able to include the specific data in the synchronization file. Please contact our support team at support@convergencetraining.com to confirm what can and cannot be included in the synchronization file.

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CREATE A DYNAMIC GROUP

Follow these steps to create a dynamic group:

Fields in red are required entry fields.

Fields denoted in black are optional entry fields.

1. Click the Administration tab at the top of the screen.
2. Click Organization, then Groups on the left menu bar.
3. Click the New button at the top of the Manage Groups screen.
4. Location: Click the Select button to the right of the Location field.
   Note: A Location is a unit within your organization. A location is where in the LMS you want to store the group. Saving a group to a location influences which LMS Administrators can view, modify, or delete a group.  The LMS compares the location of the item to the security role target of the Administrator.  An Administrator will have access to this group if the target of their security role meets or exceeds the location the group was saved to. For example, if an LMS Administrator's security role target is Region 1 and you save the group to the Organization level; that administrator will not be able to see the group because it is saved at a location higher than their security role target.
   1. Click the Look for field drop down list.
   2. Select the desired organization unit in the Look for field from the list of available selections which may include: Region, Site, Department or Team.
   3. Search and locate the desired location by entering all or part of the organization name in the search field.
   4. Double click on the desired location to move the group to the Selected Records table.
   5. Click the Select button in the upper left corner of the screen.
   6. You will be returned to the Create Groups screen.
5. Name: Type the name of the Group.
6. Complete any optional fields as desired.  Most optional fields are self-explanatory.  The following optional fields are explained as follows:
   1. External ID:  Leave this field blank.  This field will be automatically populated when the LMS has been set up to synchronize with your Human Resources system (AKA HR Sync). Do not change the value of this field unless directed to by a support team representative. Changing the value in the field will cause the import data from your HR system to populate incorrectly in the LMS.
   2. Description: Enter a description of the group. For example, this group was created for New Hire Orientation training.
   3. Notification E-mail: When the Training Completed notification is turned on, the notification will be sent to the email address listed in this field.  The LMS will attempt to send this notification to any email address in the Notification Email field listed in the Team record first.  If no email address is entered in the Notification Email field on the Team record, the LMS will attempt to send an email to the Notification Email address entered for successively larger organizational units.  If the LMS cannot find an email address entered in any Notification Email field at any organization level it will not send the Training Completed notification.
   4. Supervisor: Selecting a supervisor will allow you to filter by supervisor on two reports: Qualification Completion Matrix by Supervisor and the Activity Due Date reports. This is helpful when you have supervisor that that manage multiple teams or departments.  Instead of having to remember which departments and teams they supervise, you can filter by supervisor and all employees they supervisor will appear on the report.
7. Target Location. The Target location defaults to the same entry made the Location field.  
   Notes: A Target Location is the unit within your organization where the dynamic group will be populated.  The Target Location controls who you want to "target" or include in the group. You would change the Target Location when you want the group to only be populated from users in that target location. 
   For example, a dynamic group's Location is the Organization. The Target Location is Region 1. This means that the group can only be edited by administrators that have a security role target of the Organization Level. And, the dynamic group will be only populated with users in teams located in Region 1.  
   
   
   1. Click the Look for field drop down list.
   2. Select the desired organization unit in the Look for field from the list of available selections which may include: Region, Site, Department or Team.
   3. Search and locate the desired location by entering all or part of the organization name in the search field.
   4. Double click on the desired location to move the group to the Selected Records table.
   5. Click the Select button in the upper left corner of the screen.
   6. You will be returned to the Create Groups screen.
8. Set the Dynamic User Rules as follows:
   Notes: (1)You may have more than one rule.  (2) Refer to the Groups: Sample Dynamic User Rules article to view an article that provides examples to set up the most common dynamic rules.
   
   
9. ALL = Select ALL when you want the LMS to include ALL the dynamic rules. If there is more than one rule, this means the LMS will include and exclude users based on ALL the rules listed. For example, you set two rules: Hire Date and Employment Status = Part Time.  By selecting ALL, the group will be populated only with users that meet or exceed the hire date AND their Employment Status field in their User Record is set to Part Time.
   
10. ANY = Select ANY when you want the LMS to ANY ONE of the dynamic rules.  If there is more than one rule, this means the LMS will include and exclude users based on meeting ANY ONE of the rules listed. For example, you set two rules: Team = Project Management  and Job Title does NOT equal Project Administrator. By selecting ANY, the group will be populated by any user that is in the Project Management team OR any user that does not have a job title of Project Administrator.
11. Select Field 1, 2, and 3 as follows:

1. Field 1: Click the drop down and make a selection. This will determine which field in the user record or other data point you will use to populate the group. Please refer to the  Field 1 Selections section of this article for an explanation of the options available in this drop down.
   Note: These fields match the fields on the user record and are listed in alphabetical order.
   
   
2. Field 2: Click the drop down and make a selection. This field sets the condition that specifies how you will include or not include users in this group.  This field will contain one or more of the following options based on the selection you made in Field 1 above:
   Equals = data typed in Field 3 must be an exact match for the user to be included in the group.
   Greater or Equal = data typed in Field 3 must be greater or equal to the entry in the user record for the user to be included in the group
   Less or Equal = data typed in Field 3 must be less or equal to the entry in the user record for the user to be included in the group
   Does Not Equal = data typed in Field 3 does not equal the entry in the user record for the user to be included in this group
   Contains = data typed in Field 3 must contain all or part of the entry in the user record for the user to be included in the group
   Does Not Contain = data typed in Field 3 does not contain all or part of the entry in the user record for the user to be included in this group
   Is Null = any user that has NO entry in the user record for the selection made in Field 1 above will be included in this group 
   Is not Null = any user that has ANY entry in the user record for the selection made in Field 1 above will be included in this group
   
   
3. Field 3: Enter the data to be filtered on.
   Note: (1) This field is case sensitive and must match the spelling exactly as entered in the user record.  For example, if you want to filter on job title of Engineer, then the spelling must be identical to the spelling in the job title field in the user record.  For example, if the user record is spelled "engineer" and you enter "Engineer" in this field, the group membership will not populate. (2) Dates must be entered in a MM/DD/YYYY format.
4. Click the Save button.
   
5. Click the OK button on the Alert screen.
   Note: The alert states that the group membership will not be updated automatically.  Group memberships are updated each night during a nightly job at 2:00 am.  If you would like to update your group membership, go to the next step.
   
   
6. Click the Update Now button located at the top of the Users in this Group section to manually update the group membership. The Users in this Group section will be populated with all users that match the criteria set in the dynamic user rule.
   Note: This is an optional step.  Group membership is automatically updated each night at 2:00 a.m.
   
7. Click the Add Rule button located above the Delete button to add an additional rule and follow Steps A-F and repeat until all rules have been added.
   
8. Click the Preview/Export button located at the top of the Users in this Group section to export the Users in this Group to an Excel spreadsheet. This spreadsheet can be used to determine that the rule created in populating all the users that you expect.
   Note: This is an optional step.
9. Click the Close button once you have completed setting up the group.

10. You will be returned to the Manage Groups screen.

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EDIT A DYNAMIC GROUP

Edit a dynamic group when you want to change the name of the group, change the dynamic user rules, change the location, change the target location, name of supervisor of the group, etc.
Note:  Refer to the Users: Create, Edit Delete article to learn how to manage an individual user's group memberships from their user record.

Follow these steps to edit a dynamic group:

1. Click the Administration tab at the top of the screen.
2. Select Organization, then the Groups link on the left menu bar.
3. Search and locate the group following the directions provided in the Using Search article
4. Click the Edit button to the left of the desired group name.
5. Make the desired changes to any required or optional field on the Edit Group screen
6. To delete a dynamic user rule:
   1. Click the Delete button to the right of the desired rule(s) to be deleted.
      Note: Proceed to Step 2 if you are deleting ALL dynamic rules otherwise proceed to Step 3.
   2. Change the Type from Dynamic to Static.
   3. Click the Save button on the menu bar.
   4. Click the left arrow to move them to the Available Records table
7. To add a dynamic user rule:
   1. Click the Add Rule button,
   2. Set the Dynamic User Rules as follows:
      Notes: (1)You may have more than one dynamic rule.  (2) Refer to the Groups: Sample Dynamic User Rules article to view an article that provides examples to set up the most common dynamic rules.
   3. Select the drop down to select the user record field to be filtered on.
      Note: These fields match the fields on the user record and are listed in alphabetical order.
   4. Select the drop down to select the method the data will include or exclude
      Note: The selections in this drop down will vary based on the selection made in Step A.
   5. Enter the data to be included or excluded.
      Note: This field is case sensitive and must match the spelling exactly.  For example, if you want to filter on job title of Engineer, then the spelling must be identical to the spelling on the user record.  For example, if the user record is spelled "engineer" and you enter "Engineer" in this field, the group membership will not populate.
   6. Click the Save button.
   7. Click the OK button on the Alert screen.
      Note: The alert states that the group membership will not be updated automatically.  Group memberships are updated each night during a nightly job.  If you would like to update your group membership, go to the next step.
   8. Click the Update Now button to update the group membership.
      Note: This is an optional step.  Group membership is updated each night at 2:00 a.m.
   9. Click the Add Rule button to add an addition rule and follow Steps B-H and repeat until all rules have been added.
   10. Click the Preview/Export button to create an Excel spreadsheet with the users based on the saved dynamic user rules defined for the group.  The spreadsheet will display which dynamic user rule(s) apply to each user.
       Note: This is an optional step.
   11. Click the Yes button to print the Excel Spreadsheet.
8. Click the Save button located on the menu bar.
9. Click the Close button after the Changes Saved confirmation appears.
10. You will be returned to the Manage Groups screen.

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DELETE A DYNAMIC GROUP

Unlike regions/districts, sites, departments, teams and users, you can delete a group without affecting a user’s completion record or deleting the user from the system. You can delete a group any time you no longer need the group.  Keep in mind that the assignment to the group will no longer apply to those added to the group but completion records will be maintained.

Follow these steps to delete a group:

1. Click the Administration tab at the top of the screen.
2. Select Organization, then the Groups link on the left menu bar.
3. Search and locate the group following the directions provided in the Using Search article.
4. Click the red Delete button to the left of the desired group name.
   Note: If the red Delete button is inactive, you have been assigned the Admin security role and will be unable to delete groups.  You must have a Master security role to delete groups. Contact your Master Administrator and ask them to delete the group or determine if you can have permissions added to your security role to delete the group.
5. Click the YES button on the Confirm Delete screen.
6. Click OK on the Delete Succeeded confirmation screen. The group will be deleted from the LMS.

Should a group be deleted in error, email support@convergencetraining.com. Support can generally restore the deleted group. If deleting groups is part of a larger re-organization effort, contact support@convergencetraining.com. They may be able to provide assistance to automate the reorganization.

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FIELD 1 SELECTIONS

The table below provides an explanation of each of the selections available in the Dynamic User Rules Field 1 drop down as listed in alphabetical order and when you might use them.

Most are self-explanatory but there are a few that require some explanation.

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