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Direct Supervisor: An Extension to Site Roles
The “Direct Supervisor” functionality was added in version 3.7.1 of PD Place™ and is a very useful tool for extending the functionality associated with Site Roles.
First we will look at how “Direct Supervisor” functionality is enabled and then we will take a closer look at how it can be used.
To enable “Direct Functionality” the following new preferences have been added to the User preferences. The following four new preferences exist:
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The “Direct Supervisor – Enable System” flag needs to be set to “Yes” to enable this functionality on your system. The second two preferences allow you to change the labels associated with this feature to match your preferred terminology.
The “Direct Supervisor – Overrides Site Roles” we will discuss in more detail below. For now, let’s set the value to “YES”.
Once the functionality is enabled, a new field will appear in the user profile for Supervisors/DEAs as shown below:
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Here you can assign any individual as a direct supervisor, or search the user database to assign an individual. Remember that this feature, like Site Roles, is limited to internal staff only.
Once assigned as a direct supervisor, the individual will have access to screens typically used by the Site Roles. The screen below shows a typical screen where the individual is a direct supervisor and assigned a Site Role too.
The highlighted item “Users Managed by Direct Supervisor”, under User Group Selection shows the list of all staff the user directly supervises.
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But how is this functionality most effectively used?
If the preference “Direct Supervisor – Overrides Site Roles” is set to “YES” the following can be achieved:
a) If you have someone within the team or location that must get approved from someone other than the standard Site Roles, the “approver” can be set for each of these unique individuals. An example might be the principals or managers themselves.
b) If there are individuals who are part of a special group but all work in different locations or team, a single supervisor could be assigned to manage the approval of this group.
If the preference “Direct Supervisor – Overrides Site Roles” is set to “NO” the assigned “Direct Supervisor” or the Site Roles can be part of the approval process. In this situation, either can approve or decline the requests. This can be used in the following situations:
a) A special individual may want to know what certain individuals need approval to take specific in-services. By entering this individual as the direct supervisor, they as well as the Site Roles will be notified of the approval requests.
The direct Supervisor functionality adds a new dimension to the Site Roles and Approval process for in-services. This is a feature you should investigate.
PD Place version 3.7.1 also provides the capability to import “Direct Supervisors” through the standard import routines.
If you would like more information about the Direct Supervisor Role in PD Place or have any questions please let us know: PDPlace_Support@coresolutions.ca
- Ron Grigg
