Introduction: LMS reporting Structures
To grant a user administrative or managerial oversight, Portal Administrators can choose between two different types of reporting relationships between LMS users: a Position-to-Position hierarchy or a direct Person-to-Person structure.
In Position Code reporting, position codes are created to establish Superior/Subordinate relationships that determine user oversight. These relationships enable users with superior positions (managers) to view training, approve course enrollment requests, and set and manage training goals for subordinate users (students) as appropriate. This reporting style is best used when the reporting structure designates subordinates to report to a specific superior position consistently throughout the organization.
Person-to-Person reporting enables Portal Administrators to set up reporting relationships based on Username, rather than Position codes. With Person-to-Person reporting, a user may have zero, one, or multiple managers, similar to the way many organizations are structured today. These relationships also enable managers to view training, approve course enrollments and set and manage user goals in the same way they can with for Position Code Reporting.
Latitude Learning uses Position Hierarchy as the reporting structure standard for new portals. Even Portal Administrators who select Person-to-Person for user and training management must still rely on the LMS Position structure to generate Training Progress Reports, assign Certifications and Curriculums, and approve Self Registrations.
Whether you're considering implementing Person-to-Person in your new LMS or transitioning an existing LMS to this new reporting structure, please consider contacting Latitude Support for consultation services.
Configure Person-to-Person Reporting Hierarchy
It is important to understand that enabling Person-to-Person functionality will instantly change your LMS end user experience. Managerial Hierarchy will drive data found under user's Employees and Approvals tabs. It will also scope the list of users a manager can see in Enroll Others and progress tracking features.
Portal Administrators can follow these steps to switch from Position Code to Person-to-Person:
- From left navigation menu, open Site Management => LMS Information.
- Use the Reporting Hierarchy option to select the preferred setting: Position Code or Person-to-Person
- Click Submit.
- Populate managerial relationships between users. This can be done manually through the Add/Edit Profile feature.
- To update large sets of user data, please contact Latitude Support to learn about data migration options.
NOTE: The LMS can toggle between reporting structures as necessary with no impact to user account or profile data. A user's Position and/or Manager assignments for both reporting hierarchies are maintained in the database.
Build Reporting relationships between users
Once Person-to-Person is enabled, Portal Administrators must build a direct reporting structure between LMS users for administrative or managerial oversight. Each user profile can be assigned:
- One manager – When a user has one manager, the profile relationship is flagged as "Direct Manager".
- Multiple managers – Administrators can assign users a Direct Manager using the radio button. Add Alternate Managers as necessary. (At this time the "Direct Manager" flag is purely informational, as Direct and Alternate managers have same scope of user oversight.)
- No managers – Manager assignment is not required, which means there may be some users at the of the P2P hierarchy that are unmanaged.
Manager assignments work in conjunction with the three standard profile elements: Organization, Position, Role. Portal Administrators must consider the way each profile assignment controls user rights in the system, and who within the LMS will have training responsibilities beyond a "student" role. Read more here: User Account and Profile Records - Modify, Deactivate, Reactivate.
NOTE: A manager’s Username may be associated with more than one Profile or Location. For a seamless managerial experience, choose the user's profile in the same location as the employee whenever possible. This ensures the manager can approve courses, view certification and curriculum status, and set goals without switching profiles. (See "Location Remains Key" below.)
Import New Users with Managers Assigned
The User Import Template includes to columns for Person-to-Person reporting: Manager Username and Alternate Manager Username(s). Portal Administrators can add one Direct Manager and may choose to add one or more Alternate managers in these columns. When adding multiple Alternate Managers, separate the usernames by commas.
Add Manager Assignments to Existing User Profile
Begin from the left navigation menu by selecting User => Search Users. Using the available selection criteria, find the targeted user and click Edit User Profile.
- Click Add a Manager to expand the section.
- Click Select a Manager to open a User Search picker and select the appropriate manager's profile.
- Assign as Direct Manager, set the Effective Date, or enter optional End Date for this managerial relationship.
- Click Add Manager to submit changes.
Example of multiple manager assignments to single user profile below.
Location Assignment Remains Key to Employee Oversight
We have retained the general focus on Organization Structure and the importance of Location-based Profile assignments in the LMS. The system tracks user transcripts by Location, restricts visibility of employees by Location, and reports on training compliance by Location. By design, the Latitude LMS grants a manager visibility of other users within his assigned Location using the home page Employees and Approvals tabs. For simple training and tracking needs, we recommend avoiding cross-location reporting scenarios.
If you must set up a single user to manage employee training across multiple organizations, you can still employ Person-to-Person reporting. This graphic helps illustrate employee oversight across multiple profiles:
In the example above, both Susan and Andre manage Jean at the Albany location. If Susan's primary profile is in Boston and Andre's primary profile is in Buffalo, both Susan and Andre require an additional profile at Albany in order to have visibility of and approval/enrollment rights for Jean under their Direct Reports.
The Manager Experience
Any LMS user who is a manager of other users will have “Employees” and “Approvals” tabs enabled on his or her homepage. These dynamic information feeds allow training oversight of all users assigned to the same Organization with direct reporting relationships, as well as easy management of their approval requests.
Employees Tab
The Employees tab is visible for managers in a supervisory Person-to-Person relationship.
The Location Employees view is the default view on this page. The manager’s role will determine who is displayed in this list at the supervisor’s Default Location.
- Those who have a Portal Administrator, Administrator, or Location Administrator role in their Default Location profile will see all employees at that location.
- Those who have the Location Manager role will only see their direct report employees at their default location.
All Managers, regardless of their roles, can use the All Direct Reports view to see employees at all locations who report directly to them.
The Department Certification view allows managers to view and set Goals for subordinates. The Department Curriculum view allows a manager to monitor progress of employees working toward department-wide curriculum goals. NOTE: Department Certification and Department Curriculum will only display subordinates at Manager’s default profile location or at a secondary profile location, if it has been activated on the My Details page.
Approvals Tab
The Approvals tab allows managers to approve pending Interests, Self Registration, and Enrollment requests from subordinate users in the manager's Default Location. To manage approvals outside of their Default Location, managers will have to open the My Details tab and activate other profiles.
Enroll Others
When a user is assigned subordinates and has the "Role" of Location Manager and above, the manager can enroll their employees in courses. On the Enroll Others page, a manager can open the Choose Students picker and search for subordinates to enroll. User Search results will only display users who directly report to this manager from the same location. Learn more about this in by reviewing Enrolling Others in a Course.
Automated Messages
Under Site Management => Edit Messages, the portal administrator can configure a specific message to send a carbon copy (CC) to a user’s manager under these conditions:
- The manager must have the LMS role Location Manager or Location Administrator
- The manager must be listed on the user’s profile as a Direct or Alternate (Indirect) Manager
Once a CC is enabled for a message event, the direct and alternate managers with those roles for any user will receive the message when appropriate. There is no way to fine-tune which Location Managers and Location Administrators get the message for some users, but not others. One means of determining who in those roles will receive notifications for particular users is to view a manager’s Employees tab “All Direct Reports” view. When a message’s CCs are turned on for those roles, a manager will get copied on that message whenever it is sent to someone listed in their “All Direct Reports” view. Learn more here: Edit LMS Messages and Manage Automated Notifications.
The Administrator experience
LMS users assigned a Role above Location Manager -- Location Administrator, Instructor, Administrator, Portal Administrator -- have full oversight of all users within their assigned organizations. Ultimately, the list of users administrators will find in the Employees, Approvals and Enroll Others features is not restricted by either reporting hierarchy.