Group Creation & Management

Updated August 13, 2024 17:52

Groups can be used to organize Users within the system if the Department hierarchy or User custom fields are not able to provide the structure needed. Admins can perform bulk actions, filter training, and limit Admin's access to certain Users within the LMS by using Groups. Admins can be manually manage Users within Groups or they can be set up to automatically add Users to the Group.

Groups are located in the User menu of the Admin Interface. Selecting Groups takes you to the Group Administration page where you can:

Add new Groups
Manage existing Groups
View Users who are associated to Groups
Message Users within Groups

Groups do not create a new hierarchy in the LMS, where there would be sub Groups or a parent/child relationship. You would need to create this type of hierarchy in your Department structure.

Be aware that modifying the Scoped Department field setting within a Group can affect current Course Enrollments.

Groups are a great resource for complex Enrollment Rules. If you are regularly setting up the same Enrollment Rules for your Courses, Billboard, or anything else that requires the use of Availability Rules, you could create a Group that has an automatic Rule setup to add Users. Groups allow you to define a specific set of filters that Absorb uses to automatically collect Users under a specific Group name. Groups use all of the same Rules and refinements as you would find under self- or automatic Enrollment options, with the exception of other Groups. You cannot select other Groups to add to the Group you are creating.

Example: If you have 50 Courses that need to have an Enrollment Rule that contains 10 different Departments, 5 different Job Titles, and a Hire Date and excludes 2 different Locations. You could set this up as a Group and then assign the Group to your Enrollment Rules within the 50 Courses.

Performance Advisory

Absorb takes performance seriously, so we group large volumes of changes together and process them at 10 minute intervals more efficiently than one-at-a-time. This has the potential to introduce a short delay before you see the results but ensures that your Portal is more responsive to one-off Admin actions and Learner activities.

Group Creation Instructions

Creating a User Group.gif

Sign in to your Admin Portal, select Groups from the Users section of the Admin Menu.
Scope Department
Then select Add Group in the right side ActionMenu.
This will launch the Add Group workspace, where the Admin can begin by adding the Name of the Group.
The Scoped Department is an optional field, which provides Admins the ability to restrict Groups to only Admins who Manage Users within a certain Department tree and only include Learners who belong to the Scoped Department hierarchy. Adding a Scoped Department will restrict what Groups show up for assignment in rule builders, such as the Enrollment Rules or the Availability of a Global Resource. It will also only allow you to automatically add Learners who are part of the Scoped Department hierarchy.
- To view a scoped Group for selection within a rule builder, the Admin will need to have the View Group permission within their Role and be an Admin that manages the Scoped Department assigned to the Group. Any Group without a specified Scoped Department will be available for selection in rule builders to any Admin who has the View Groups permission in their Role.
  - For instance, if your LMS contains multi-tenant Admins who are restricted to seeing only the Department they manage in the LMS and wanted the Admins to utilize Groups, you could set up your Groups so that they all had Scope Departments. Adding a Scoped Department to each Group, will restrict your Admins to only Groups that are assigned to the Department the Admin manages in the LMS.
The Assignment section allows you to select Manual or Automatic. Selecting Manual will prompt you to find and select all the Users you would like included in this Group. Selecting Automatic will prompt you to enter in Assignment Rules. Further instructions on Manual and Automatic Assignment can be found below.
Continue adding Rules as needed.
Select Save to create your new User Group.

In the User field, begin typing the first User's Name, Username or Email.
A set of Users who match your entry will display in the drop down. Select the User you are looking for.
Click in the User field again, to search for more Users. Continue until you find all the Users you would like included in this Group.

Select Add Rule from the Assignment Rules section.
The first drop down will allow you to select a field from User Management. This will include Custom Fields and Groups. Choose the Field you would like to filter by.
The next drop down is the operator, where you can specify how you would like to identify the value. For instance,
- Date Fields will have the option to filter by Dates After, Before or Between your selected Dates.
- Text Fields, including Custom Text Fields, will provide the option to Start With, Contains, Does Not Contain, Does Not Equal, Ends With or Equals the value you enter into the next field.
- Department will provide the option for Add Sub-Departments and Is Only for the Department you select in the Select Department field.
- Note: Competencies do not have an operator option to select from.
If you have additional Rules that pair with the first Rule, you will want to select Refine Rule. This will require the Users to have the first Rule and this next Rule in order to qualify for the Group.
- For instance, you could select Job Title Contains Manager for the first Rule and Date Hired is After January 1, 2022 for the second Rule. This filter will only add Users who have Manager in their Job Title and have a Hire Date of January 1, 2022 or later into the UserGroup.
If you would like add a new Rule that does have to pair with the first Rule, you will want to select Add Rule again. This will require Users who have the first Rule OR the second Rule.
- For instance, you could select Job Title Contains Manager for the first Rule and then Job Title Contains Supervisor for the second Rule. This filter will only add Users who have Manager or Supervisor in their Job Title into the User Group.

Inactive Users and Automatic Groups

When creating a Group via automation, Inactive Users are discounted from the resulting list of Users. If a Group requires the inclusion of Inactive Users, it must be created as a Manual Group.

Exclude Departments

Using the Is Not operator, it is possible to create a Group through the process of excluding specific Departments.

The above configuration will exclude the chosen Department from the Group. Creating a Group this way is an easy method of confirming only the correct Users are included.

User Groups and Role Management

Managing Users who are or who you would like to be Admins in the LMS can be done in User Management, Users > Edit User > Account.

User_Adding As Admin.png

Groups can be used for Role Management in the LMS. Assigning a Group to an Admin in the LMS determines what Users the Admin can manage in the LMS. Admins can only be assigned to a single Group.

A User Group is needed for a set of regional trainers. They need to manage Users who fall under the same Location, but not in the same Department. An automated Group can be created, using Location as the filtered field. All Users that have that specific Location will be automatically added to the appropriate Group. Then when setting the regional trainers' Admin security, these Groups can be used under User Management. When assigning Admin permissions to a User in the LMS, you will have the option to select either a single Group, one or more assigned Departments OR All Users for the Admin to Manage in the LMS. A Department(s) can be used as a filter within an automated User Group as well. If you need an Admin to see Users in a specific Department, but not manage the full hierarchy of that Department tree, you could use the Group.

Using the example above where the regional trainers needed to manage Users in specific Locations, let's say these regional trainers needed to manage Users in specific Locations, but also those who fell in a specific Department. An automated Group could be setup to filter by the Location and the Department they fall under. If these regional trainers worked for a grocery store, you could have a Group set up where Users in the Southeast Location and in the produce Department were added to the Group. So if Jimmy was in the Southeast Location and in the bakery Department, he would not be eligible for this Group. If Mary was in the Southeast Location and in the produce Department, she would be eligible for this Group.

Please advise Admins who have the Produce Department assigned in the User > Account > Admin > User Management section of their User account will also see these users, along with Admins who have this Group assigned in the User > Account > Admin > User Management section of their User Account.

Departments vs Groups

Departments are a required feature which is used to organize and classify Users. Users can only be in one Department, and also must belong to one. Groups are an optional feature that can be used in instances where your Department structure does not capture a subset of Users that you need to administrate or report on. Users can be in more than one Group, or none.

Here are a few scenarios that will guide you through deciding whether you should use a Department or a Group in certain situations:

Scenario	Department or Group?
You want a unique Learner Interface experience for your Learners.	Departments allow you to customize the Learner Experience for each Department, whereas Groups do not. Additionally, you can have a unique URL Route for each Department. So, if you would like a unique Learner Experience for your subset of Learners, then it is best to use a Department.
You want to automatically sort your Users into subsets based on a specific criteria. For example, you want a subset of employees including everyone in California that was hired after 2021 and afterwards.	Groups have a feature which automatically assigns Users to a Group based on specified criteria.
You need to manage a subset of Learners that are all in different Departments. For example, you have a committee in your organization which includes employees from various Departments and job roles.	Users are only able to be in a single Department, whereas Groups allow you to add Users to multiple Groups. In this example, it would be best to use the Groups feature to supplement your existing Department structure.
You want your LMS to mirror your organization's structure as much as possible.	Departments allow you to create a tiered hierarchical structure, so it is possible to mirror the departmental structure of your organization as well. This may make internal discussions with your people leaders easier since everyone easily understands how your employees are sorted in the LMS.

Roles and Permissions

Below are the required Role Permissions Admins will need to View and/or Modify Message Templates within the LMS and the suggested Role Permissions Admins may want to have in combination of what is required.

Please note that your environment may use customized Roles, Permissions, or a combination of both to perform these activities. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact your local System Administrator to review your current Permissions.

Required Role Permissions

Users > Groups	View and Modify Permissions
Users > Users	View Permission

Suggested Role Permissions

Users > Departments	View or Modify Permissions
Users > Users	Modify or Manage Administrators Permissions