Using PMAMhcm for Policy Distribution, Testing and Recordkeeping.

Transcription

1 Using PMAMhcm for Policy Distribution, Testing and Recordkeeping. PMAMhcm is a training tool that can be used in many different industries to train a diverse workforce and provide proof of receipt of that training as well as test for comprehension. Because it was designed to be used in a multitude of industries, it must sometimes be configured to meet the needs of individual users. PMAM Corporation is an Alarm Management Service Company which is headquartered in Irving, Texas, and allows any entity to use this software at no charge. The software is maintained by the sale of advertizing which shows up on a small portion of each screen. This free tool can be used by Police Departments to distribute policy, training, operational orders, shift assignments, and for many other functions. It also allows the manager to develop a test and require that employees take and pass the test thereby proving that not only did the employee receive the policy, training, etc., but also understood the content. Set-up of the system for use by a police department is relatively simple and for medium size departments (50-60 employees) may take an afternoon of work. Once set up, the system is easy to use and will serve the department well for many years. This guide will discuss a method of setting up the system for use in a Texas Police Department. Prior to setting up the system, thought should be given to the best method of establishing the system internally. If a Training Sergeant is tasked with this duty, he may set up the system using his personal and password. This will work fine until that Sergeant is transferred to patrol or some other function. While it is possible for him to go in and modify the authority of any person in the system (making someone else an administrator) the department may want to establish a permanent generic address for this purpose such as Training@sppd.com or Administration@sppd.com. This will allow the administration of the system to change simply by providing a new person with the password and showing them how it works. Step 1: Register on PMAM Go to and spend a few minutes clicking on different parts of the website to learn about the uses and terminology. For instance, the term Certification is actually the testing portion of the site. After becoming familiar with the layout of the site, click on the red Register Now Its Free button. You will need to fill out the data on who you are and your agency and agree to the Terms of Service. (If you have decided to use a department such as Training@... You may want to use the department name such as Bellevue Police as the First Name and Department as the last name) Step 2: Login, Skill Set, and Upload Logo Once you have Registered, you will need to come back to the main page and sign in. When you have signed in, you will notice your name at the top center of the page (or the name of the entity which you

2 signed in under such as Bellevue Police Department. You will notice a dark blue section going across the page which identifies the different modules within the program. This is the dashboard. First, click on Administration, then click on Skill Master, then Add New. As your first skill, enter None as the title and none again in the description box. Click on the blue Default Rating Description and then OK, then scroll down and hit SAVE. This will create a generic Skill which is required before adding or editing any Designations which we will talk about next. When you decide to use the Skill Section of this Software, you can always come back and edit this section to add or change any skills. Using the system for policy distribution and training does not require you to use the Skill Master section of the program. Optional: Click on Administration, then click on Logo Upload. Find a copy of your badge or patch and upload the logo. It will now appear on the your PMAMhcm Home Page. Step 3: Customizing Field Names Before you begin entering your employee or training data, you may want to change some of the field names or add data to drop down menus. Click on Employee and then Add New. Look at the fields and determine if you want to change any of these field names. Note them if you do, and what you want to change them to. The below fields are just informational and can be changed to whatever you want. (leave the others as they are) Employee Code could be changed to Employee Number Department Name could be Changed to Current Assignment Business Name could be changed to Current Rank To make these changes, click on Administration, then click on Customize, then Employee-Edit, make the changes to the field names and scroll down and click SAVE. Do the same to the Employee-Add section using the same titles. Step 4: Entering Designations Designations allow you to categorize employees into groups to make it easier to assign training by groups. Before entering you re your employees you will need to enter a list of Designations. Later, when you intend to assign a new training or policy, the system will automatically pull up a list of all employees. You then have to check a box next to each individual employee s name or check the box next to Employee Name in the header row to check all employees. The system will also pull up a list of all Designations in a small box to the left on the Assign Training page. (It won t be there until you actually create designations and have employees in them) You can

3 check a box next to a selected designation and only those employees who are in that designation will appear, then you can select all of those by clicking the Employee Name box in the header. This would make it easier to assign training to small select groups within the department without having to look through all members of the department and select only those that you want. Because you must select the designation before saving and employee, this also means you will need to set up the list of designations before you begin entering and editing employees. Unfortunately, at present, you can only select one designation per employee, so some thought should go into their selection. For instance, you could have the following list of Designations in addition to the All Administration Patrol Traffic Investigations SWAT Dispatch Records Reserves Some of these Designations are sub-sets of others. For instance, the officers assigned to SWAT may also be part of Patrol and Traffic and Investigations. If you assigned an officer to SWAT and sent out training to all Patrol, the SWAT officer would not get the assignment. If you checked the Patrol Designation Box and the SWAT box, then all Patrol and SWAT employees would show up and you could check the Employee Name box and all names would be selected for assignment. So.. Click on Administration, then click on Designations, and add all the designations you want to start with. You can add or edit these at any time. Step 5: Entering Employees Now you are ready to enter your employees. You can import employee names using an excel spreadsheet but you have to use the format supplied. Even using this method, you will still need to edit each employee to assign positions and supervisors. It may be easier to simply assemble the required data on each employee and manually enter the information. Prior to entering the information, the department employees should be informed of the process and told that they will be receiving an from PMAMHCM Login Details and that they should keep this and refer to it when logging into the system. To make it easier for assigning supervisors (not having to go back and edit later), enter the employees in rank order from highest (Chief) to lowest. When you enter an employee s data, you will need the following information: First and Last Name Date of Birth Employee Number (Employee number for non-sworn, badge number for sworn) Full time or Reserve

4 Work and Personal (personal is optional) Date of Hire Current Assignment (patrol, investigations, dispatch, etc.) Home address (optional and not advised for sworn without signed waiver) (You can also upload an employee photo, however sworn officers must also sign a waiver. Not recommended.) When you enter an employee, the employee will automatically be sent an with a link to the sight and a system generated password. Step 6: Entering Training (A Department Policy, Order, or Actual Training) Before entering a Training, we need to identify all the training types for the system. Go to Administration, then click on Training Types. Click on Add New and one at a time add the following: Department Policy Department Personnel Order Department Operational Order Department Information Training Class Roll Call Training (Any other type of distribution anticipated, can be edited anytime) Hit save and go back to the Dashboard. Now, let s enter a training but in this case it will be a new Department Policy. (OK, maybe it is an old one that you are going to send out to test this system.) Go to the Dashboard and click on Training, then click on Manage Training. Now since there is nothing there yet, click on Add New Training. (below is an example- you will need to edit for whatever you are sending out.) Enter a Training Name: General Order 7.15 Vehicle Pursuits Enter a Description: This is a revision of General Order 7.15 on Vehicle Pursuits. All personnel should read and be familiar with its content. All personnel must complete the required Feedback form and complete the Certification successfully within the next 5 days. (or similar) Enter the number of days to complete the assignment and the number of grace days given if any. Upload a copy of the new General Order and hit Save. You have now Created a Training. Step 7: Selecting Training Feedback Form

5 The Feedback Form is a great tool to ensure the employee responds indicating receipt and intended compliance. For Police Departments it can prove receipt, understanding and intended compliance with a new policy or training. From the Dashboard, click on Manage Training, then on the blue box Add New Training Feedback Form. Select Copy and Existing Feedback Form and use the drop down menu to select Training Feedback (you can choose to create or modify your own if you choose.) The program will title your Form as Training Feedback -1. Preview the form to see if it will work for you or if you want to go back and edit it. Using the one Training Feedback 1 form will work, but you may want to go back and create a second form called Policy Distribution to use for policy and delete all the training related questions. To do this, just go back to Manage Training, Add a New Training Evaluation Form, click on Edit Existing, title the form Policy Distribution, and hit continue and delete all the training related questions one at a time. Then hit the button Configure Your Feedback Form. You now have two feedback forms, one for training and one for policy. Step 8: Creating Certifications You have now configured the system to allow you to send out policy and training. Before sending out any Training or policy, you need to decide if you want to Test on this subject. If you do, you need to prepare the Test before assigning the training to employees. Due to the highly critical nature of most police tasks, it is a good idea to create tests to ensure officers know the material. While it may not be necessary for distribution of a personnel order or a department information sheet, it is critical when distributing policy on critical issues such as the use of force or vehicle pursuits. The questions need not be hard or intricate, but should show mastery of the subject. To add a Test, click on Manage Certifications and then the blue box Add New. Enter a Certification name and link it to the appropriate Training using the drop down menu. The system will now display a small Add a new Question and you click on it. Add as many questions as you wish. You can set the Certification to ask all the questions or to randomly select a number from the total. You must also set the Threshold value or passing score. To do this you go to the Dashboard and click on Administration, then on Threshold Value. Enter the threshold value. This will be applied to all your training and policy questions. As a defendant, you may not want to try to defend a lawsuit by saying that you accept 70 or 80 percent correct on knowing the Deadly Force Policy or other critical training. If an officer misses a question on the certification, they only have to study the material and answer the questions again. I would recommend setting the threshold at 100 but hat is up to your agency. Step 9: Assigning Training You have now Created a Training, (uploaded a policy), created feedback forms, and created a Certification (test), now it must be assigned to individuals within the agency. First, go to Manage Training and select the training you are going to assign, then make sure your days to complete and grace days (optional) are appropriate, select the Light Blue box Feedback and Certification, select the appropriate Feedback Form and Certification from the drop down menus and Save.

6 You are now ready to assign the training. From the Dashboard, go to Assign Training. Click the small box of the training you want to assign. (The most recently added will usually be on top.) Now Click on the blue box Assign Training on top of the list and a list of all employees will show up. If you want to select all employees, just click on the small box in the header next to the words Employee Name. Or you can select one or a number of the designations in the list on the left side of the page and get only the employees in those designations. You can also go through the list and de-select individuals. Once the employees have been selected, click on Continue; now you will have to select the starting date for each employee on the list. This is tedious but goes fairly quickly. PMAM has been asked to develop a start date for all and may make that modification soon. Until then, select a start date for each employee (today) and then hit save. The system will automatically send an to all the assigned employees telling them they have the assigned training. They will sign-in to the program using their and password assigned (or changed by them) and complete the training, the feedback form and take the test. What Happens Next: As employees sign on and complete the training, a record is kept of their completions. This can be done at work, at home, and even in the car if their mobile computers allow internet access. If an employee does not complete the training within the specified time period, a reminder is sent to the employee and their designated supervisor. After some period of time, the department PMAMHCM administrator will need to check the status of the training. Setting a reminder in your calendar or Task list in Microsoft Outlook is a good way to make sure it gets done. Developing a system for keeping Policy Documentation: After all employees have completed the assigned training, you can produce a report for that training. From the Dashboard, go to Reports and select Training Certification Report. Select the Certification you want to record and the associated Training, but leave the employee at ALL--. The program will create a list of all employees that have completed the training and their test scores. You can Print this report and place in a historical file in the event you cannot access the PMAMHCM site. Adding Additional Trainings: Once the system is set up with all employees, designations, training types, etc., it will be easier to distribute training. You will not have to re-enter this information. To add new Trainings, you will simply have to create the training, upload the training, create (or use existing) Feedback Form, create a test and assign the training. It still sounds like a lot but usually can be done in less than 20 minutes, and you have a permanent tracking, reminder, and documentation system.