Staff management expert features
When it comes to expertise in staff management, there's nothing more important than character and wisdom. But some high quality CMMS features don't hurt at all! So, for all you staff managers looking to become experts, commence with reading (and bring your character and wisdom with you).
Password Management: Safely Support Member Password Issues
Making member passwords openly visible poses a significant security risk. All MC users are unable to view other users' member passwords. Because there are times when Administrators need to offer support to their Members around password issues, check out the Password Management article to see tools available to allow Administrators to support their Members without exposing their system to the risks inherent with password visibility.
Single Sign On (SSO) Capabilities: Access All System Sites with One Login
We've all been there. You sign into one system to start your day, work for a while, and then you sign into another one. Work a while a longer, and then your queuing up another set of credentials for yet another application. Let's end the madness, and start talking about Single-Sing-On. Better yet, let's talk about improved password security and fewer IT man-hours to manage employee access to necessary business tools. "Single" never sounded so good!
Cloud Hosted SSO
Cloud Hosted customers who utilize multiple apps/sites alongside Maintenance Connection can purchase Single Sign On capabilities. In simplest terms, this means that you can input login credentials one time and gain access to all the systems and sites you use in your business processes.
Please reach out to your Account Owner to talk about the details of getting this set up at your organization.
Once you have Cloud SSO, go to the following URL to log in
https://www.maintenanceconnection.com/mcv18/online/mc_login_sso.asp
Follow the directions on the SSO log in screen:
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Then, input your domain login credentials to gain access to all your applications:
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On Premise LoginHub Sync
On Premise customers who utilize multiple apps/sites alongside Maintenance Connection can purchase LoginHub Synchronization to connect all their applications to an Active Directory. This creates a domain that stores login credentials for all Members. Members can then use input these credentials one time to access all their applications.
Reach out to your Account Owner for more information about pricing and implementation for LoginHub Synchronization.
Note: For more details about using LoginHub, check out the MC LoginHub article.
Using MC Calendars
Probably without exception, managing staff means managing time. Maintenance Connection's calendar features provide one way to do this well.
Calendars are available in four places: the Work Manager tab on the Home Page, the Labor Calendars tab on the Home Page, the Schedule tab on individual Labor records, and the Assign tab on Work Order records. Generally, these calendars show much of the same data, but each tab offers different options based on their place in the system. Without explaining the differences between each calendar in detail, this segment describes the basic ways to interface with these calendars.
Note: For more information on using the Work Manager, check out the Work Order Administration Tools article, under the "Work Manager" header. And, for more on using the Work Order Assign tab, check out the How to Assign a Work Order article. Finally, to learn how to share MC Calendars with third party calendar programs (Outlook, iCal, etc.), check out the Work Order Expert Features article, under the "Calendar Sharing" header.
Interacting with MC Calendars
For a quick tutorial on how to interact with MC Calendars, we'll use the calendar available on the Labor Calendars tab of the Home Page:
- First, you can use the filters at the top of the calendar to determine the data shown and how it is displayed:
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- Generally, the View filter lets you view different types of calendar records. The Labor Calendar, for example, gives the following options:
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- The Format filter will change how the calendar is displayed, giving you the following options:
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- The Display Tabs As filter determines which tabs are available along the top of the calendar. When set to Labor, as in this example, Labor records will display, allowing you to select a technician to view his/her calendar:
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Tip: The value you select for the Display Tabs As filter will remain in place even after you log off, displaying by default when you log in again. This enables you to get to your most frequently used view right away.
- The remaining filters narrow down the records shown that still fit the criteria given in the previous filters. The filters available will differ depending on the value given in the Display Tabs As filter. For example, the Search field will match the Display Tabs As filter, prompting you to search for items that are in the same category as the tabs shown:
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- Once the calendar is showing the desired set of data, there are a lot of helpful tools to be used on the calendar itself. First, we can use the drag and drop feature to move a record from one date to another:
- To drag multiple records at once, simply click the Multi-Select checkbox and make multiple selections before dragging:
- We can also right-click on a record to make further changes, or simply hover a record to view more details:
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Using the Shifts Feature
For many organizations, shifts are a huge aspect of workflow and staff management. For these organizations, MC's Shift feature can provide a seamless flow between the system and your business processes. You can define different shifts for each Repair Center, and then designate Labor records and assign Work Orders to these shifts. Let's take a look at how this works.
To create a shift:
- Access the Shifts module, and click the New button:
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- Define a Shift ID and Name, and designate it to a specific Repair Center. Fill in other details as needed:
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- Save the new Shift record.
Once the shift is set up, you can designate a technician to it on the Details tab of the desired Labor record:
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Add a value to the Shift field on a Work Order record or Preventive Maintenance schedule in order to designate the work to a particular shift:
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The Shift feature works nicely in tandem with the Batch Update feature, which provides a way to support "pass-downs" at the end of a shift. You can reassign incomplete Work Orders from the outgoing shift to the next shift by selecting applicable Work Orders in the Expanded List view, and then selecting the Update button to utilize the Batch Update feature:
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Note: For more specifics on the Batch Update feature, take a look at the System Admin Expert Features article, under the header, "Using the Batch Update Feature."
Filter Employee List to Active (Custom Module Lists)
Every organization has a turnover rate, and the larger a company grows, the harder it is to keep a running list of active employees. But, did you know you can customize module Lists to show the information that is of most value to your organization? One advantage of this feature is the ability to view only active employees in the Labor List.
To do this, we first need to set up/define the desired report in the Reporter to reflect the information we want to show in the module List. In this case, using standard Reporter conventions, we would customize the Labor List report to show only active Labor records:
This customized List must now be designated to specific Access Groups. This gives you more latitude to decide which people should see which records in a module List. To do this, we would add the Report ID for our new report into the appropriate Access Group rights for the Labor List. Assuming a knowledge of designating Access Group rights, the breadcrumb to follow for this particular setting would be: Access Groups module>Rights tab>Module pane - Labor Module>Type pane - List:
For more information on setting up Access Group rights, check out the Introduction to Access Groups article, under the header, "How to Designate Rights/Privileges for an Access Group."
When Members of this Access Group navigate to the Labor module, the Labor List will reflect the data as defined in the Report Setup, in this case meaning they would only see active Labor records:
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Note: For more detailed instructions on how to set up a Custom Module List, click here to access the help offered in the User Guide.
Staff management can be a daunting endeavor, but we hope these expert features help you excel in the effort. If you're looking for more, please check out the rest of the articles in this section of the Knowledge Base.
For more advanced training in staff management, please consider subscribing to Accruent Academy for on demand, premium learning. You can also reach out to your Account Owner to request one-on-one training.
