While organisations can 'group' users using Custom Fields (particularly the 'List' type) or via the Team Leaders features, another alternative is our Groups feature.
The Groups feature has a very specific use-case - it is used to limit Admin and Assessor visibility of users to only users within their groups. As such, the Groups feature tends to be useful to larger organisations which may have 'regional' or 'divisional' Admins or Assessors and the organisation would like to restrict the user visibility of those Admins or Assessors (for privacy or preference reasons).
Groups tend to be created for locations, divisions or cohorts - clearly defined sets of users.
FEATURE ACCESS - ACTIVE OR CREATOR 50 PLAN OR LARGER
Please note that the Groups feature is only available on Active 50, Creator 50 or higher plans. This feature is not available on Starter 10, Creator 10 or lower plans. Please contact our team at [email protected] if you would like access to this feature but it is not activated on your plan.
How do I enable the Groups feature?
First, Groups must be enabled in your plan (see above).
Second, Super Admins can then go to Admin → Account → Subscription to enable Groups.
Only Super Admins can enable or disable Groups.
What happens when I enable Groups?
Enabling Groups will activate some new options in your portal:
On the Admin → Account → Fields page, a new Custom Groups panel will appear. Super Admins can create the list of Groups in this panel.
When viewing the table of people on Admin / People, a new Groups column will appear, showing group membership for each person. A new Bulk Action 'Add to group' will also become available on this page.
A new My Groups filter will also appear on reports in the Admin area. All admins will see this filter and be able to select their groups.
When viewing a person in the Admin area, a new Group Membership panel will show on their profile which can be edited to add people to groups. The Upload People function will also have a new Groups field to manage groups via upload.
When Assessors are viewing assessable items, they will also see a new My Groups button to filter assessable items by group membership.
Since no groups will exist when you first enable Groups, the above changes will not yet impact user visibility.
How do I create my groups?
Once you enable Groups, your next step is to create a list of groups. Only Super Admins can create a list of groups.
Your group list is created in Admin → Account → Fields in the Custom Groups panel.
Super Admins can click the 'Edit Custom Groups' link in the title bar of this panel to edit, add or delete groups.
You can also create and update groups in bulk via the 'Groups' bulk upload option.
How can I add people to groups?
Now that you have defined your groups, your next task is to add people to groups. People can be assigned to no groups, one group or many groups.
Super Admins are assumed to be a member of all groups, even if they are assigned to only specific groups. This is to ensure Super Admins can always access all users.
Only Super Admins can add or remove people from groups. This is to allow Standard Admins to be limited to taking action with their existing groups.
There are several ways to assign people to groups.
Edit an individual person. Once Groups are enabled, each person will have a new Group Membership panel. This panel can be edited by Super Admins to add or remove the selected person from selected groups.
Add people to groups via a Bulk Action. Once Groups are enabled, a new Bulk Action appears for Super Admins on the table of people on Admin → People - 'Add to groups'. Super Admins can select multiple people and use this Bulk Action to assign those people to one or more groups. Note that people cannot be removed from Groups in this way.
Add people to groups via Upload People. Once Groups are enabled, a new field appears for Super Admin in Step 3 of the Upload People process - Groups. This allows a cell in the CSV to update the group membership for each person.
Group names must exactly match an item in your Custom Groups.
Multiple groups can be listed, separated by a ; (no spaces - e.g. Brisbane;Sydney).
The upload will fully update the list of groups for each person. So if a group is omitted from the upload, then that person will be removed from that group.
If the upload has a blank cell for Groups for a person, then that person will be removed from all groups.
Add people to groups via the Public API, Zapier API or Managed Integrations. Groups can also be managed via any of our integrations. The API accepts a Groups field where group membership can be listed (once again, listing multiple groups with a ; and no spaces).
What happens once people are added to groups?
Once a person is added to a group, some restrictions may apply to them.
Learners. There are no restrictions on general learners UNLESS you set up a new catalogue rule using a Group field (as is normal with any catalogue rule involving custom fields). Learners are otherwise unaffected.
Admins. IMPORTANT. Once assigned to a group, ALL ADMINS (except Super Admins) will have their visibility in the admin area restricted to seeing only other people in the same groups as them.
Example: If an admin is assigned to the 'Brisbane' group, then they will only see other people also assigned to the 'Brisbane' group. This will impact all reporting in the admin area.
If an admin is assigned to multiple groups, they will see other people who are members of any of those groups.
If an admin is assigned to no groups, they will see all people. So if you wish to continue to allow a specific admin to see all people, do not assign them to any group.
Assessors. IMPORTANT. A similar restriction applies to assessors - once assigned to a group(s), assessors will only see people in the same group(s) as them. If assessors are not assigned to any group, then they will continue to see all people.
How can admins and assessors filter between their groups?
Once Groups are enabled, a new filter appears on reporting pages for both admins and assessors called My Groups. This filter lists all the groups the admin or assessor is a member of - this may be just one group or several groups.
By default, reports will now automatically be restricted to the admin or assessor's groups. The My Group filter can further filter the reports to select groups, when an admin or assessor is a member of multiple groups.
How can we remove people from groups?
Super admins cam remove people from groups via three methods:
View a person in admin and edit their Group Membership panel.
Use the Upload People function to update Groups.
Use an integration (Public API, Zapier API, managed integration).
Can we use Groups with catalogue rules?
Yes, you can use the groups feature to set up catalogue rules just like any other filter on the Admin → People page.
Note that admins can only create rules with the options in the My Groups filter. So for admins restricted to certain groups, they can only create rules for those groups.
A Super Admin (or an admin who is not a member of any group) would be able to see all groups and create rules for any group.