Introduction to people¶

In this area you manage everyone with an account in Janison Academy, and the structures that organise them. You add and import users, set the roles that control what each person can see and do, build the organisational structure your site reports against, gather users into groups, and send messages out to them.

To work in this area, select Manage People.

How your people are organised¶

Two structures sit side by side, and most of this area exists to maintain them.

The organisational structure is a strict tree. An organisation contains organisation units, and each user belongs to exactly one organisation unit. It mirrors how your business is actually arranged, and it's what scopes roles, restricts catalogue access, and shapes reporting.

Groups are flexible cohorts. A user can belong to many groups at once, and a group doesn't have to sit inside a single organisation or organisation unit. Groups handle the cohorts your structure can't describe — a project team drawn from 3 departments, or everyone due for the same compliance training. Group types categorise the groups themselves, so Maths, Science and English might all belong to a Subjects group type.

Each user also carries a role, which sets what they can see and do, and optionally a position, which places them in a reporting hierarchy.

flowchart TD
    T[Tenant]

    T --> O[Organisation]
    O --> OU[Organisation unit]
    OU --> U[User]

    T --> GT[Group type]
    GT --> G[Group]
    G -.->|many groups<br/>per user| U

    U --> R[Role and scope]
    U --> P[Position]

    U -.-> L[Enrolments and learning]

    classDef tenant fill:#00a88d,stroke:#00a88d,color:#ffffff,font-weight:bold
    classDef structure fill:#e6f6f4,stroke:#00a88d,color:#002c41
    classDef person fill:#e6eaed,stroke:#002c41,color:#002c41,font-weight:bold
    classDef attribute fill:#f3f4f6,stroke:#6b7280,color:#002c41
    classDef external fill:#f9fafb,stroke:#9ca3af,color:#6b7280,stroke-dasharray:5 5

    class T tenant
    class O,OU,GT,G structure
    class U person
    class R,P attribute
    class L external

Enrolments and learning are shown dashed because they belong to the Manage Learning area. Everything you set up here determines who can be enrolled, and who can be reported on.

Users and roles¶

A user is anyone with an account. What they experience depends on their role and the scope that role is granted over — a basic user never sees the forms an administrator works in every day. You can also give a user extra roles when one isn't enough.

Roles themselves are defined in Settings > Roles. You assign them in Manage People > Users. See Users for assigning roles and scope, and Manage users for the rest of the account lifecycle.

Management hierarchies¶

Where managers need visibility over their people's learning, you build a reporting hierarchy. Janison Academy supports 2 kinds:

Positions — items in the hierarchy are positions, so the Factory Manager position reports to the CEO position. A position can hold several users, and users inherit the reporting line from the position they hold.
Report To User — items in the hierarchy are individual users, so User B reports to User A directly.

Positions suit organisations where roles are stable but the people in them change. Direct user relationships suit smaller or flatter structures. See Positions.

Important

Positions only appears in the Manage People menu when Relationship Management Type is set to Positions in Settings > Tenant Settings > Organisation. If your site uses Report To User or None, the item isn't there.

Working at scale¶

Adding users one at a time doesn't scale past a small site, so several bulk tools sit on the Users list under the Actions menu:

Import Users — add or synchronise users from a spreadsheet, or map and sync data from your HR system
QuickAdd Users — a cut-down form for creating accounts fast, with usernames and passwords optionally generated for you
Run Bulk Action — regenerate passwords, activate or deactivate accounts, send welcome emails, or clear notification history for a filtered set of users

Organisations, organisation units, groups, group memberships and positions can all be imported from a spreadsheet too, each from its own list.

Note

QuickAdd Users and Run Bulk Action are plugins. If either is missing from your site, contact your account manager.

See Manage users for importing and quick add, and Bulk Action for the bulk tools.

Keeping users informed¶

Announcements broadcast a message to a targeted set of users, either as an email or as a sticky note that pops up inside the system. You can schedule an announcement for a future date, save it as a draft, clone one you've already sent, or build a template for messages you send regularly.

What learners see¶

Most of this area is administrative, but My Learning Transcript is the learner's own view of their progress. Learners reach it from the Home page, where it shows their catalogue items by completion status and exports to PDF. Administrators can view a user's transcript from that user's record.

Topics in this area¶

Users and access

Manage users — add, quick add, import, archive and inspect users, and reset passwords
Users — assign a primary role and scope, and add extra roles
Bulk Action — apply password, activation, welcome email and notification actions to many users at once

Organisational structure

Organisations — the top-level structures attached to your tenant
Organisation Units — the divisions within an organisation
Positions — management hierarchies and reporting lines

Cohorts

Groups — collections of users that can cross the organisational structure
Group types — categories that organise your groups

Communication and learner views

Announcements — email announcements and sticky notes
My Learning Transcript — the learner's record of their own learning

Settings¶

Administrators configure the following settings under Settings. Together they determine what the People area looks like and how it behaves.

Roles (Settings > Roles) — define the roles you can assign to users, and their permissions across each securable area of the application.

User Settings (Settings > User Settings) — choose which fields and columns appear on the user forms and lists, set the default group membership for new users, and configure the self-registration form.

Password Settings (Settings > Password Settings) — set password complexity, expiry and reuse rules, and enable generated passwords. Generated passwords must be enabled before Regenerate Passwords is available as a bulk action.

Quick Add User Settings (Settings > Quick Add User Settings) — control how the quick add form generates usernames and passwords, and which fields it shows.

Tenant Settings (Settings > Tenant Settings > Organisation) — set Relationship Management Type, which chooses between Positions, Report To User and None. The same section holds Ensure group selection is restricted by organisation and org unit, which controls whether a group can take users from outside its own organisation.

Spreadsheet Import (Settings > Spreadsheet Import > User Import) — set the defaults for user imports, including whether an import may create new groups and how it treats existing group memberships.

Message Templates (Settings > Message Templates) — edit the content of notification emails, including the System-FirstLogon welcome email sent by the Send Welcome Email bulk action.

Email Settings (Settings > Email Settings) — set the sender address and the notification categories users can receive.

Scheduling (Settings > Scheduling) — schedule recurring jobs, including HR system imports and bulk password actions.

Menu (Settings > Menu) — rename, reorder or hide items in the Manage People menu. If your menu doesn't match this page, check here first.