Settings relevant for the whole feedback process are configured in the menu Process configuration.
The tab Overview in the Settings submenu which is opened automatically shows the basic settings.
On the other tabs in the Settings submenu, you configure the most important features of the process: The feedback center can be activated and you can define feedback statuses and roles.
In the Report definition submenu, reports are defined and allocated to roles.
If the project has an external view, the features and layout are configured in the Feedback center submenu.
This chapter describes all the work steps involved in the configuration of the feedback process:
You will find tips and hints for your project planning.
It provides a brief explanation of how to define reports.
It explains how to map the participant constellations of a multisource feedback using EFS Leadership roles.
It explains how to map the steps of a feedback to EFS Leadership feedback statuses.
Planning and Organization Tipps
A multi-source feedback is a complex process that requires careful preparation. The following guiding questions and tips will help you with your planning and organization.
Dashboards and Reports
The presentation and distribution of the feedback results via dashboards and conclusive reports is actually the main part of a multi-source feedback.
Planning the presentation of results
Think about how the results of the feedback are to be edited and presented.
Do you intend to use dashboards?
Do you intend to use reports?
Who is to have access to which results?
In which phase shall the results be available?
Determining the demand for additional documents
In addition to the results reports other documents are often also provided, such as general information on the aim of the feedback process or on the protection of data privacy.
Are there any plans to issue such documents?
Who is to have access to which documents?
In which phase shall the documents be available?
Planning downloads
There are two options for organizing downloads with EFS Leadership:
Downloads can be performed directly in the feedback center.
The content of dashboards can be downloaded formatted as a DIN A4 PDF.
Role Distribution
The establishment of appropriate feeback roles and the careful configuration of access rights are essential for smooth conduct of the multi-source feedback.
Defining roles
Think about who is to have access to the feedback center, and for which purposes.
Identify the participant groups and list the respective access rights and functions these groups require.
Allocate appropriately configured roles to represent the participant groups.
Access rights of the feedback participants
Plan the allocation of roles to the content and features of the feedback center and the feedback phases.
Which roles are to have access to which dialogs in feedback center?
In which phases do these roles require this access?
Plan the allocation of roles to the reports and dashboards.
Which roles should receive which reports?
Which roles can access which dashboards?
Process Progress
Based on the considerations above, determine the appropriate feedback statuses.
Which feedback statuses fit for your feedback process?
Specify which situations in a specific feedback match which dedicated status, which work steps should cause a change of status and which data (e.g. questionnaire, return, reports) the persons involved should be able to access with a given status.
Should specific changes of status be triggered centrally for all feedbacks?
Should specific changes of status be triggered automatically at specific dates?
Do you want to receive an e-mail notification if an automated change is executed?
Defining Reports
In the first step, you should define the reports that will be generated on the basis of the feedback results. This is necessary at this early stage of the feedback process for several reasons:
In the next step, you will define the roles used in the feedback process and their respective rights. In order to do so, you should already know which reports the various groups are to access later on.
In addition to the result data, other documents are often also provided, e.g. information regarding the feedback process or the protection of privacy. These documents should be available to the users already at the beginning of the process.
Configuring Feedback Roles
The various roles which a participant may have in specific feedback constellations, as e.g. “self-assessment”, “superior”, “direct report” or “peer”, are specified at the beginning of the project.
Each role is automatically assigned an unambiguous ID by the system. Via this ID, participants can be allocated to their roles e.g. during import.
The roles can be labelled bilingually, e.g. in English and German. Furthermore, acronyms can be defined in both languages, which are used e.g. in overview tables.
The role defines if a participant in this role may get a questionnaire or a report. Access to feedback center functionalities or to a Data Voyager dashboard is roledependent, too.
The roles are defined in the menu Process configuration on the tab Roles.
This chapter will teach you how to create and configure the roles your project requires.
It explains the role administration.
It provides an overview of the default roles.
It will teach you how to create new roles.
Overview of the Existing Roles
You can view and edit the roles of your project in the menu Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration on the Roles tab.
The following chapter presents the default roles available when creating a new project.
The table lists each role along with the following information:
ID: unique identifier of the role.
Role: Label and abbreviation.
Gets questionnaire: This column shows if the role occupants themselves participate as feedback providers in the survey.
Min / Max: If the role occupants are focus persons, these values show how many feedback providers should be allocated to each of them at least / at most.
Reports: This column shows if and which report the role occupants receive.
The following actions are available:
Edit: Opens the edit dialog.
Copy: The role is copied.
Delete: The desired role will be deleted following a confirmation prompt. Please note: The role “self-assessment” cannot be deleted, it can only be reconfigured.
Roles in Standard Configuration
The following table presents the default roles available.
The role “self-assessment” cannot be deleted. But the configuration can be modified.
Role | Abbreviation | Meaning in standard configuration |
|---|---|---|
Self-assessment | SA | Self-assessment The role occupants are the subjects of a feedback, i.e. the focus persons, and they are evaluated by the feedback providers. If configured accordingly, they will themselves receive a self-assessment questionnaire. In each feedback constellation, there can be only one person allocated to this role. |
Superior | SU | Superior The role owner is the direct superior of the respective focus person. In each feedback constellation, there can be only one person allocated to this role. |
Direct reports | DR | Direct reports The role owners are subordinated managers or subordinated staff of the respective focus person. |
Peers | PE | Peers The role owners are on the same hierarchic level as the focus person. |
Creating Roles
In the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration menu, click on the Create role button on the Roles tab.
The system automatically assigns an ID to the role.
Select a label and an abbreviation.
Specify which reports participants with this new role are to receive.
Confirm by clicking on Save.
Changing the Allocation of Roles to Reports
You can change the allocation of roles to reports later. To do so, go to the role overview and use the Edit icon to open the editing dialog. In the “Allocation of role to report” section, you can find all defined reports. Change the allocation as required.
Defining Report Groups
A report group is aggregated from several roles. Report groups can be used e.g. to modify the role definitions for analysis and report generation, or to aggregate the results of several feedback roles if their individual return is too low.
E.g. to create a report group „Direct reports / Peers“ based on the roles 3 “Direct reports” (DR) and 4 “Peers” (PE), you can proceed as follows:
Configure the roles “Direct reports“ and “Peers” as described above.
Go to Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration->Report definition → Report groups.
Define the new role “Direct reports / Peers” with the following criteria:
– Minimum return rate
– Minimum number of answers per itemIn the section “The report group contains the following roles”, select “Direct reports” and “Peers”.
Confirm by clicking on Save.
Anonymity rule: To generate a report, there must be sufficient return for each individual feedback role. The minimum number of returns per feedback role is configurable. It is recommended to use at least “3”. This prevents that the focus person can find out what a specific feedback provider has answered by clever splitting. The role “Superior”, on the other hand, is an exception: it is allocated unambiguously and therefore the answers can be identified.
You can find the actual returns for the feedback in the statistics in the focus persons overview.
Configuring Feedback Statuses
Feedback statuses are used to map the complex workflows of a feedback process into EFS Leadership.
The feedback statuses describe both the progress of the overall feedback process (Feedback phase → Reporting phase → Closure of process) and the progress of individual participants (Feedback phase → Feedback finished) in a specific feedback constellation.
In the following Chapter, the default feedback statuses are introduced as implemented in a new multi-source project.
The features for administrating statuses and creating new statuses are explained.
It is explained, how to use the statuses for process control.
Feedback Statuses in Detail
The following table lists the default feedback statuses. The processes related to the various statuses depend on the specific feedback scenario: The column “Default scenario” describes the process which runs in a default multi-source project without any customization.
The default statuses are fix, only the labels can be changed.
The sequence of statuses is defined by the ID.
Additional user-defined feedback statuses should be in the range between 5 and 100, i.e. between the fixed start and end phases “Initial” (5) and “Process closed” (100).
Only additional user-defined feedback statuses can be deleted.
ID | Label | Default scenario |
|---|---|---|
5 | Initial | Initial status of the feedback. When the focus person gets the invitation, he or she can log in to the feedback center. |
10 | Password changed | The focus person has logged in to the feedback center and changed the initial password. |
20 | Validation | The focus person has to validate the selected feedback providers. |
30 | Approved | The selected feedback providers have been approved. |
50 | Feedback | The feedback providers are invited to the feedback and complete the questionnaire. If the return is not satisfactory, reminders are sent. The focus person can access the return data and the dashboard. |
55 | Feedback finished | The feedback providers cannot access the questionnaire anymore, i.e. the result data of the feedback cannot change anymore. Usually, the focus person is still able to access the return data and the dashboard. Project management prepares the reports for download. |
60 | Reporting | The focus person and maybe other report recipients as well can download the reports in the feedback center. |
65 | Reporting finished | |
100 | Process closed | The feedback process is completely finished. The persons involved cannot access the reports in the feedback center anymore. If all feedbacks in the project have reached this phase, project management can finish the project. |
Overview of the Existing Feedback Statuses
You can view the feedback statuses of your feedback process in the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration menu on the Feedback status tab.
In new projects, there are nine default statuses.
The table lists each status along with the following information:
ID
German and english label of the status
Name
Delete: User-defined statuses can be deleted.
Creating Additional Feedback Statuses
In the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration menu, open the Feedback status tab.
The last line is blank: Enter the ID and the german and english label for the new status.
Confirm by clicking on Save.
The status will be inserted at the appropriate position according to its ID.
Changing the Feedback Status
The statuses can be changed at several places.
Manually:
The participants of all or selected waves can be set to another status manually. Participant administration → “Actions” drop-down list.
All or selected focus persons can be set to another status manually. Participant administration → {Selected wave} → “Actions” drop-down list.
The status of a single focus person can be changed manually in the detail view. Participant administration → {Selected wave} → Edit focus person → Process information.
Automatically:
All participants of a specific wave can be set to another status automatically.
All participants of a specific wave with one or several specific statuses can be set to another status automatically.
Automating Status Changes
EFS supports automated status changes at predefined dates. Depending on the feedback scenario, the change may affect all participants in a wave or only participants with specific statuses.
To specify a status change, please proceed as follows:
Open Participant administration → Wave.
Search the wave you want to modify and click the Edit wave icon.
Click on Define status change.
In the field “Execute date”, you specify when the change should be triggered.
In the field “From status”, select the status(es) that participants should have to be included in the status change.
– If you select “All”, the status of all participants in this wave will be changed.
– If you select one or selveral statuses, the change will only affect those participants who have this status at the execute date.Set the target status in the field “To status”.
Depending on the target status, additional fields may appear. A change to target status “Feedback”, for example, can include an immediate dispatch of invitation mails. For this purpose, you have to activate “Send invitation mails” and select the appropriate mail template.
Optionally, you can enter your e-mail address into the “E-mail” field. Then, you will receive a notification as soon as the status change has taken place.
Confirm with Define status change.
Using Statuses for Access Control
Access to data and features in feedback center depends on the statuses:
During report definition, you specify the status participants should have to download the report.
Access control for feedback center is dependent on the statuses, too.
Setting up and Configuring the Feedback Center
Multi-source feedbacks include a default feedback center. Depending on the feedback process used, the feedback center can serve e.g. as central login for feedback participants or as a download platform.
Usually Questback will set up and configure the feedback center.
Frequently, feedback processes require strong customizations, i.e. special programming for which a fee is required. This are offered and realized by Questback, too.