Frequently Asked Questions

Transcription

1 Frequently Asked Questions The HealthStream Competency Center TM October 2012 HealthStream, Inc th Avenue South Suite 450 Nashville, TN Copyright October 2012, HealthStream, Inc.. Reproducible by permission only.

2 Why is it a good idea to have categories?...1 Are categories required?...1 Is there a limit to the number of categories I can create?...1 Can I delete a category?...1 Why do I need to enter a default value when adding a rating level?...1 Is there a limit to the number of rating scales I can create?...1 How are rating scales applied?...1 How many rating scales can be used in an assessment template?...2 What does Comment Required mean when applied to a rating level?...2 Will adding Not Applicable to the rating scale affect scoring?...2 Do changes to rating scales or rating levels affect my published assessments?...2 Is there a limit to the number of resources I can create?...2 Is there a limit to the number of resources that can be added to a statement?...2 Is there a required format for file resources?...2 Can I add a Web site as a resource?...3 Do changes to a resource affect all the statements that use it?...3 Can I add a resource to a section?...3 When I am creating statements, what character limits should I be aware of?...3 Is there a limit to the number of behavior criteria that I can add to a statement?...3 Is there a limit to the number of resources that I can add to a statement?...3 What are the assessment states?...4 Can I change the assessment configuration once I have started building the assessment?...4 Can I run reports based on assessment configuration?...4 When employee self-assessments are enabled, can raters see employee s ratings and comments while the employee is still working on the assessment (that is, before the employee submits the assessment)?...4 If peer reviews are enabled, but not employee self-assessment, what can the employee see while the assessment is in the Evaluate state?...5 How can I rearrange the statements in the section?...5 Can I change a section to a dynamic section and keep any statements, along with their advanced options, provided that I do this while the assessment template is unpublished?...5 If a dynamic section is weighted, and no statements are added to it during the evaluation process, will this affect the overall assessment score?...5 Can I use dynamic sections with the performance template configuration?...5 If the Enable Employee Self Assessment option is not selected, will employees be able to view their as-

3 signed assessment?...6 If a non-shared rating scale is part of a shared assessment template, can administrators at subsidiary institutions edit the rating scale?...6 If I share an assessment template, but do not allow any overrides or the ability to copy, what can administrators at subsidiary institutions do with the template?...6 If I share an assessment template and enable subsidiaries to copy it, but do not allow any overrides, what can administrators at subsidiary institutions do with the template?...6 There is a goals section on my assigned assessment, but I have no goals in my goal library. This is preventing me from submitting my assessment. What do I do?...6 Can department managers enter goals for their department?...6 Are there rules for adding goals?...7 When an assessment is sent to an approver, who then accepts or rejects the assessment, how does the rater view the approver s comments and recommendations?...7 Can I exempt an employee from an assessment if he or she has already started it?...7 How do I delete an assigned assessment?...8 A manager wants to make a peer the alternate rater. Is this possible after the peer has already submitted his or her ratings and comments?...8 Can an administrator edit an assignment and select multiple peer raters (bulk assignment)?...8 Can the remote signoff option Require employee Signoff be changed once the signoff process has begun? 8 When do employees and supervisors receive notifications?...9 What happens when an employee is made inactive?...9 When an employee transfers to another department and gets a new supervisor, what happens to the assessment due date?...9 When an employee transfers to another department and gets a new supervisor, does the employee s access to the assessment change?...9 When an employee transfers to another department and gets a new supervisor, does the original supervisor still have access to the assessment?...9 When an employee transfers to another department and gets a new supervisor, does the new supervisor have access to the assessment?...10

4 Categories Why is it a good idea to have categories? Categories are like tags or folders: they enable you to organize assessment templates and building blocks (like statements and rating scales). Categories can also help you search for assessment templates and building blocks more easily. Are categories required? No, you can use or not use categories as you need. Is there a limit to the number of categories I can create? No, you can create as many categories and sub-categories as you need. Can I delete a category? Yes, but first you must delete all the assessment templates and building blocks associated with that category. Rating Scales Why do I need to enter a default value when adding a rating level? A rating level s default value is the number that the system adds to the overall assessment or section score when that rating level is selected. For example, if a section uses a rating scale that has two levels, Meets Expectations, with a default value of 2.00, and Does Not Meet Expectations, with a default value of 1.00, then when an employee, peer, or rater selects Meets Expectations, the system adds 2 to the section score. Is there a limit to the number of rating scales I can create? No, you can create as many rating scales as you need. How are rating scales applied? Rating scales are applied to each section in the assessment, and to the assessment as a whole. All statements in an assessment section use the rating scale selected for that section. 1

5 How many rating scales can be used in an assessment template? There is one rating scales for the assessment as a whole, and one for each section. You are not required to use the same rating scale for the assessment template and all its sections (although you can): if necessary, you can use a different scale for each section and the overall assessment. What does Comment Required mean when applied to a rating level? If you select Comment Required when creating a rating level, then employees, peers, and raters must write a comment when they select that rating level on an assessment. The comment is usually an explanation of why they selected the rating level. Will adding Not Applicable to the rating scale affect scoring? No. What is the rating level translator? An assessment can contain several different rating scales, each with its own rating levels. The rating level translator enables you to associate each of your custom rating levels with one of five standard terms (Exceed, Partially Exceed, Acceptable, Partially Acceptable, or Unacceptable), in effect telling the system whether the rating level should be considered good or bad (or somewhere in between). Rating level translator terms are not visible on assessments: employees, peers, managers, and alternate raters will see only the custom rating level and/or numeric score that your organization has defined. Do changes to rating scales or rating levels affect my published assessments? Yes. Changes to rating scales and levels will affect all non-closed assessments. Resources Is there a limit to the number of resources I can create? No, you can create as many resources as you need. Is there a limit to the number of resources that can be added to a statement? No, you can add as many resources to a statement as you need. Is there a required format for file resources? No. You can add documents in most frequently used formats, such as Adobe PDF, Mircrosoft Word, and Excel. 2

6 Can I add a Web site as a resource? Yes. One of the resource types is online. When you add an online resource, you enter the Web site s URL (Web address). Note: The URL must begin with Do changes to a resource affect all the statements that use it? If you edit a resource, the changes will be visible in statements that are part of unpublished assessment templates. Statements that are part of published assessment templates will not be affected. Can I add a resource to a section? No. Resources are added to statements, and then the statements are added to assessment template sections. Statements When I am creating statements, what character limits should I be aware of? Statement name: 128 characters. Statement description: 1,000 characters. Behavior criteria: 1,000 characters. Is there a limit to the number of behavior criteria that I can add to a statement? No. You can add as many behavior criteria as you need. Is there a limit to the number of resources that I can add to a statement? No. You can add as many resources to a statement as you need. 3

7 Assessment Templates What are the assessment states? Evaluate - The assessment is in progress: employees, raters, peers, and/or approvers are entering data. Approval - The assessment is waiting for approval by a manager or HR approver. Review - All ratings and comments (employee, rater, peer, approver) have been submitted and the assessment is ready for employee/manager review. Closed - The manager (or alternate rater) and employee have reviewed and signed off on the assessment. What are assessment configurations? Assessment configurations are pre-built assessment templates whose available visibility settings and their defaults have been optimized for specific uses: Competency - The competency template configuration is best suited for competency assessments. Performance - The performance template configuration is best suited for performance assessment. Universal - The universal template configuration contains available possible visibility settings, with no defaults set. Use this configuration if you want to create an assessment template from scratch. Can I change the assessment configuration once I have started building the assessment? No. You must click the Return to Search link to return to the Search Assessment Templates page, and then click the Add Assessment Template link to start a new assessment template. Can I run reports based on assessment configuration? No. Visibility Settings When employee self-assessments are enabled, can raters see employee s ratings and comments while the employee is still working on the assessment (that is, before the employee submits the assessment)? No, unless the assessment template is also configured for multi-rate and sharing. 4

8 If peer reviews are enabled, but not employee self-assessment, what can the employee see while the assessment is in the Evaluate state? While the assessment is in the Evaluate state, it appears on the employee s My Assessments page, but the employee cannot open it. Section Properties How can I rearrange the statements in the section? You can drag and drop the statements within a section to rearrange them. You can also drag and drop the sections on the assessment builder page. Dynamic Sections Can I change a section to a dynamic section and keep any statements, along with their advanced options, provided that I do this while the assessment template is unpublished? No. If you change a section to a dynamic section, you will lose any statements that you might have added. This is because a dynamic section, by definition, cannot have statements added at the template level: statements can only be added to a published, assigned assessment. If a dynamic section is weighted, and no statements are added to it during the evaluation process, will this affect the overall assessment score? If a dynamic section s rating scale does not include the Not Applicable option, you cannot submit an assessment for review without adding at least one statement to the dynamic section. If the rating scale does include the Not Applicable option, you can mark the dynamic section as not applicable and the section will be ignored. The weights of the other sections will be increased proportionally to compensate, so not adding statements to the dynamic section will not adversely affect the overall score. Can I use dynamic sections with the performance template configuration? No. Dynamic sections are only available with the competency and universal template configurations. Self Assessments 5

9 If the Enable Employee Self Assessment option is not selected, will employees be able to view their assigned assessment? No. The assessment name appears on the My Assessments page, but employees cannot open it while it is in the Evaluate state. They can, however, open their assessment when it is in the Review State. Sharing If a non-shared rating scale is part of a shared assessment template, can administrators at subsidiary institutions edit the rating scale? No. They can create their own rating scale and then replace the rating scale used in the assessment template, provided that the proper override permissions have been granted. If I share an assessment template, but do not allow any overrides or the ability to copy, what can administrators at subsidiary institutions do with the template? They can only use the template as-is. If I share an assessment template and enable subsidiaries to copy it, but do not allow any overrides, what can administrators at subsidiary institutions do with the template? When an administrator at a subsidiary institution makes a copy of the assessment template, the subsidiary becomes the owner of that copy and can make any changes they wish. Goals There is a goals section on my assigned assessment, but I have no goals in my goal library. This is preventing me from submitting my assessment. What do I do? A goal section must contain at least one goal. You can create a fake goal whose sole purpose is to satisfy this requirement and then add it to the assessment. Can department managers enter goals for their department? Give the manager the Goal Builder Admin role and restrict their access to their department; then they can create and assign goals for their department. 6

10 Are there rules for adding goals? Goals can only be added to an assessment if it contains a goals section. Only the employee and the rater can add goals to an assessment. Only an administrator can add Departmental, Developmental, and Strategic goals to a goal library. To be added to an assessment, a goal must first be in a goal library. The goal can be created before the evaluation process begins, or during the evaluation process by clicking Select Goals link to open the Manage Goals page, and then clicking the Add Goal link. Raters can only add goals to individuals. Administrators can only assign goals to student groups; these goals appear in the employees goal library. The Approval Process We have two HR approvers and two education approvers for our institution, but none of the assessments that are sent for approval show up on their Approvals page. Why? There can be only one institution-wide HR approver and one institution-wide education approver. If there are more than one, none of them will see assessments on their Approvals page. Make each approver responsible for different departments, rather than for the whole institution. When an assessment is sent to an approver, who then accepts or rejects the assessment, how does the rater view the approver s comments and recommendations? The rater should launch the assessment and click the Approver Comments link on the summary page. Assignments Can I exempt an employee from an assessment if he or she has already started it? Yes. You can exempt the employee through the group assignment. 7

11 How do I delete an assigned assessment? 1. From the Assessments tab, click the Manage Group Assignments link. 2. Search for the assignment. 3. Open the assignment. 4. Click Delete. 5. When prompted to confirm the deletion, click OK. 6. Select the assessment status(es) to delete. 7. Click Continue. Peer Raters A manager wants to make a peer the alternate rater. Is this possible after the peer has already submitted his or her ratings and comments? Yes, provided that the assessment is still in the Evaluate state. The peer s ratings and comments will be preserved and appear as the alternate rater s. If the assessment were closed, the manager would have to revert it to the Evaluate state first. Can an administrator edit an assignment and select multiple peer raters (bulk assignment)? No. Only managers can bulk assign peers and alternate raters. If the manager wants to assign a peer or alternate rater from another department, the manager must be assigned the HCC Admin Multiple Department role. Remote Sign Off Can the remote signoff option Require employee Signoff be changed once the signoff process has begun? Yes. The rater can open the assessment, click Begin Signoff Process and then modify the signoff option. Reverting Assessments Can an alternate rater revert a closed assessment? No, only the original rater can revert a closed assessment. 8

12 Notifications When do employees and supervisors receive notifications? Employees receive a notification when An assessment has been assigned to them. An assessment assignment is due soon. An assessment assignment is past due. Supervisors receive a notification when an assessment assignment is past due. Inactive Employees What happens when an employee is made inactive? The employee is automatically removed from any student group. The employee is automatically removed from assignments. Individual assignments, however, remain on the employee s profile visible from the Assignments link. Any incomplete assessment(s) will still be visible from the Manager s Assessment page with an Assignment Deleted due date. The employees no longer appears on reports. Employee Transfers When an employee transfers to another department and gets a new supervisor, what happens to the assessment due date? The due date does not change. When an employee transfers to another department and gets a new supervisor, does the employee s access to the assessment change? No, the employee can still access the assessment. When an employee transfers to another department and gets a new supervisor, does the original supervisor still have access to the assessment? Yes. The original supervisor still has access to the assessment and is still responsible for completing and closing it. 9

13 When an employee transfers to another department and gets a new supervisor, does the new supervisor have access to the assessment? The new supervisor can open and launch the assessment from the My Assessments page, but cannot rate statements or make comments. 10