Process Configuration

EFS Employee offers various options for adjusting the survey process to your project situation. Employee surveys usually generate large numbers of different results reports that are designed for different recipient groups and often even personalized for the individual recipients. The flexible rights system of EFS Employee provides precise control of access to these reports. The flexible rights system of EFS Employee also allows you to delegate many of the tasks involved - such as the data maintenance for the individual departments or the distribution of paper-pencil questionnaires - to local staff. The roles and responsibilities of these staff can be largely adjusted to your project situation. The tasks and access rights of the project participants change over the course of the survey process. EFS Employee allows you to map the different phases of the survey process, including the corresponding changes of access rights, in the system.

Configuration

Under the Configuration menu item you will open the Roles tab, the Project phases tab, and the Rights admin tab. Besides the project management, there is usually a large number of additional staff involved in large-scale employee surveys. You can use the Roles tab to plan and control the work of these employees. Via the separate Org Processor login, the staff members involved - the so-called users - have access to those Org Processor views and functions required for their work, restricted to their respective areas of responsibility. Instead of configuring the access rights for each individual staff member, you define so-called user roles: These reflect the respective rights and duties of entire staff groups with identical responsibilities. Subsequently, you allocate the actual staff members to the user roles. The various options for accessing or changing data (e.g. return data or reports) are represented in a specific rights system. You assign these rights to the different user roles according to your project situation.

Roles

You can view and edit the user roles of your project in the menu Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration on the Roles tab.

Open

User roles in standard configuration

The following information are available:

• Name of role

• Reports: The reports allocated to the role.

The following actions are available:

• Edit: Opens the edit dialog

• Copy: The role is copied.

• Rights: Opens a dialog for configuring the rights of the role

• Delete: The desired role will be deleted following a confirmation prompt. Please note: The role “Owner” cannot be deleted, it can only be reconfigured. Roles that have been allocated to a report or to users cannot be deleted either.

Creating user roles

In the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration menu, click on the Create role button on the Roles tab.

Open

• The system automatically assigns an ID to the role.

• Select a label and an abbreviation.

• Specify which reports users 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.

Changing rights for a user role

Open the Projects → { Selected project} → Process configuration menu. On the Roles tab, you can find an overview of the existing roles. Select the role whose rights you intend to change and click the Rights administration icon. A list of the available rights is opened. Rights which can not be changed, e.g. because they relate to a deactivated feature (e.g. Logistics or Action Planner), or because a more general right has been deactivated, are colored in grey.

• Assign the rights as required and confirm with Save.

• Confirm with Save.

Project phases

EFS Employee allows you to map the phases of the survey process, including the changes of tasks and access rights involved, in the system. You can view and edit the phases of your project in the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration menu on the Project phases tab.

In new projects, there are already five default phases that are known to be very frequently required. The table lists each phase along with the following information:

• Title of phase

• Name

• Start date

The sequence of the phases is defined by the start dates: Each phase ends on the start date of the next phase. If you insert a new phase and place its start date before the start date of, for example, the pretest phase, then this new phase will be sorted between the setup phase and the pretest phase. The following actions are available:

• Edit phase: Opens the edit dialog.

• Copy phase: The phase is copied.

• Delete phase: The desired phase will be deleted following a confirmation prompt. Please note: The “End” phase cannot be deleted, it can only be reconfigured.

Project phases in standard configuration

The following table presents the default phases available. Precisely which work has to be done in the various phases depends largely on the respective project. The “Possible applications” column lists a number of frequently occurring operations.

Project Phases Log

All important changes to the phases are logged. To view the change history, click on Log to open the “Log” section of the Project phases tab.

Creating additional phases

In the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration menu, click on the Create phase button on the Project phases tab.

• Enter the title and name of the new phase.

• Select an appropriate start date.

• Confirm by clicking on Save.

Rights admin

You have configured reports, user roles and project phases according to your needs. In the last step, you define how these elements should interact - i.e. which user roles should be granted access to which tab in the Org Processor login during which phase of the project.

The allocation is executed using the grid on the Rights admin tab:

• Each cell of the grid describes a combination of phase, role and tab.

• Clicking on a grid cell opens a layer. In this layer, you can select the roles which are supposed to have access to the respective tab in the respective phase.

• By clicking a radio button in the “Active” column, you activate that phase instantaneously. Please note that the rights of Org Processor users are affected strongly by a change of phase. Never change the phase of a running project just to find out what might happen!

• If you want a phase to start automatically when reaching the start date, activate the checkbox in the column “Start automatically”.

• The start date can be changed using the calendar icon.

  • You can move the start dates en bloc. To do so, activate the “Actions” checkbox for the required phases, select the period by which you want to move the start dates in the drop-down list and click Execute.

Download Platform

When realizing employee surveys with EFS Employee, you have a default download platform at your disposal. On this platform, the recipients of reports can log in and download their reports. The download platform can be activated if required, and adapted according to the requirements of the respective project. The functions for designing the download platform are placed in the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration → Download platform menu.

You can find the functions for designing the download platform in the admin area of EFS Employee

• Security settings: On this tab, you can configure the behavior of the system during the login process.

• Access restrictions: On this tab, you can define role- and phase-specific restrictions for the individual pages of download platform.

• Language settings: On this tab, you can edit the language versions of the download platform.

• Messages: On this tab, you can edit the messages used on the download platform and create additional messages.

• Structure: On this tab, you can edit the templates of the download platform.

Activating the download platform

The download platform can be activated or deactivated separately. If it is deactivated, nobody can log in anymore. The Process configuration → Download platform menu in admin area will still be available, your settings will not be changed or reset.

Open the Options tab in the Org Processor→ Configuration menu and activate resp. deactivate the “Activate download platform” checkbox. Per default, the download platform is activated in new projects.

Settings

On the Settings tab, you can configure the behavior of the system during the login process. To improve usability for the users on the one hand, and simplify management of users who work only on the download platform on the other hand, the rules for password security differ slightly from those for the admin area resp. Org Processor:

• You can decide yourself if a change of password is required after first login.

• Passwords of download platform users do not expire, similar to the passwords of Org Processor users.

• In contrast to Org Processor and admin area, there’s no brute-force protection.

• It is up to you to decide if a “Password forgotten” process should be used: if yes, you can create and select a mail template.

For checking password security, the same algorithms as for the Org Processor login are applied. They are specified in the Org Processor → Configuration menu on the Settings tab.

Configuration Options

Access Restrictions

On the Access restrictions tab, you can define role- and phase-specific restrictions for the individual pages of download platform.

Overview of existing access restrictions

• If a role-dependent access restriction has been defined, you can find the roles with access rights in the “Restrictions of access” column.

• The first traffic light icon in the “Properties“ column shows if the page is active.

  • Green = active

  • Red = not active

• The second traffic light icon shows if the participant must be logged in.

  • Green = needs to be logged in

  • Red = it is not necessary to log in

Changing access restrictions

• Click the Edit icon.

• Use the field “Only for logged-in persons”, you define if a participant must be logged in to see the page.

• In the field “Is the page active?”, you define if the page should be available at all. If a page is not active, a participant trying to open it will be routed to the template “Error message ‚page not found’”.

• If you want to define a role-specific restriction, click the Add button.

• Select the role which should have access.

• Decide in which status of the the focus person the selected role should have access.

• Confirm by clicking Save.

Creating access restrictions for additional pages

• Click the Create page button.

• Enter the name of the page.

• Decide if the page should be available only for logged-in persons.

• Decide if the page should be active.

• Confirm by clicking Save.

Language Settings

On the Language settings tab, you can edit the language versions of the download platform. The overview on the Language settings tab lists all existing language versions and their online status.

Per default, the download platform exists both in German and in English, both are automatically online in a new project. The following actions are available:

• Edit: Opens the edit dialog, in which you can change the properties of the language version.

• Deactivate language / Activate language: These icons enable you to take a language version offline or to put it online.

Properties of language versions in detail

A language version has the following properties:

• Language ID: Identification number assigned by the system. This number can not be changed.

• Acronym: Internal label.

• Language: Name which is displayed on the download platform in the drop-down list.

• Status: Shows if the language version is online, i.e. if it is accessible via the internet or not.

Creating a language version

• Click the Create language button.

• The edit dialog is opened. The ID of the new language version is assigned by the system. Enter acronym, language name and status.

• Confirm with Save.

Activating and deactivating language versions

There are two options to activate or deactivate a language version:

• By clicking the Deactivate language icon in the overview, you can take the respective language version offline. For reactivation, click the Activate language icon.

• Alternatively, you can open the edit dialog of the language version and change the setting of the field “Status”.

Messages

On the Messages tab you can edit the messages used on the download platform and create additional messages. The messages are integrated into the download platform by inserting the respective wildcards into Smarty templates, the same way as it is done in EFS Survey.

Display

In multilingual projects, you can choose to edit the messages of one language version or all language versions at the same time. To do so, select the language required in the “Language selection” section and confirm with Edit language.

Creating a message

Open the dialog for creating a new message by clicking on Create message. After entering the data, click on Save.

Structure

On the Structure tab, you can edit the templates of the download platform. One set of templates is available per language version. The templates are the same sort of Smarty templates which you might know from the Pro editor. Please follow the same rules when editing them. For detailed documentation on Smarty, please see http://www.smarty.net.

Overview of the templates

The overview lists the templates of the language selected. For each template, the following information is provided:

• Template

• File

• Size

• Last modification

• Modified by

The following actions are available:

• Todo: Clicking the Todo icon opens a pop-up window which can be used to annotate the respective template. If a note has been saved, the icon is highlighted.

• Edit: Opens the edit dialog.

• Copy: You can copy an existing template.

• Delete: The default templates can not be deleted. User-defined templates can be deleted.

Display

To change to another language version, change the language in the drop-down list in the “Language selection” section and confirm with Edit language.

Default templates

Editing templates

To edit a template, click its title or the Edit icon in the overview. The following auxiliary functions are available:

• Print: Creates a HTML version optimized for printing and activates the print function of your PC.

• Mark all: Marks the whole content of the template.

• Delete content: After a security prompt, the whole content of the template is deleted.

• Show HTML entity table: An overview of HTML special characters and the respective codes is displayed.

• Media library: Opens the media library which should be familiar from EFS Survey.

Creating a template

• Click the Create template button.

• Enter template name and file name.

• Confirm with Save.

Exporting and importing templates

You can export and import templates:

• Export: You can download the whole set of templates in a ZIP file. To do so, click the Export button in the header of the overview table and Save the file locally.

• Import: You can import both a single template and a ZIP file which contains several templates. To do so, click the Import button in the header of the overview table. Select the appropriate character set, select the file and enter a description. Confirm with Upload file.

The functional scope of the download platform

The download platform is per default equipped as follows:

• Login

• Download page: On this page, the report recipients download their reports during the reporting phase. The allocation of reports to the respective units and recipient roles is managed in the background via the Org Processor.

• All pages exist both in English and German. They feature a language change function and are filled with sample text.

• URL: If the download platform is activated, you can access it via the internet by invoking the project URL with /download.php attached.

The functions for designing the download platform are placed in the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration → Download platform menu.

Report Definition

You can find the report management functionalities of EFS Employee in the Projects → {Selected project} → Process configuration → Report definition menu.

Reports

Open the Process configuration → Report definition menu. The Reports tab contains an overview of all existing reports. A “Standard report” exists per default in all new projects.

For each report, the following data are displayed:

• ID: Report ID

• Name: Name of the report

• Report type: Describes what type of report it is: system-generated report, externally generated report or common information.

• Number of reports: Number of the report files allocated to this report definition.

• Minimum number of answers to create report: Anonymity criterion for the whole report. Only if the number of completed participations (i.e. disposition code 31, 32) reaches this minimum number, the report will be generated.

• Minimum number of answers per item: Anonymity criterion for individual questions or items. Only if the number of answers for a question or an item (i.e. disposition code 31, 32) reaches this minimum number, results will be shown for this answer or item in the report. Otherwise the question or item will be blackened.

Creating report definitions

In the Process configuration → Report definition menu on the Reports tab, click the button Create report.

• Enter the data:

  • Name

  • Report type: You can choose between the report types “System-generated report”, “Externally generated report” and “Common information and documents”.

• Define in which phase of the project the report should be available.

• By defining the minimum number of answers for the creation of the report and for specific items, you define anonymity criteria for the reports.

• Save the report definition.

Defining title patterns

To open the editing dialog of a report, click its name or the Edit icon in the report overview. In the “Report language” section in the column “Title pattern”, you can enter a title pattern for each report language. The pattern can be personalized using wildcards. In an employee survey, you can use all variables of the participant administration (u_xxx).

Creating report versions

In the last step, you create report versions and define details for them. The use of report versions is recommendable e.g. if you want to present a report in various languages or file types (e.g. doc, pdf and xls).

• Per default, one report version is pre-defined.

  • You can access its details by clicking Edit and change it as described below.

  • To create additional versions, click the Create version button.

• In the “Title pattern” field, you can find the already-defined title pattern of the report. Mind that it can not be changed in this dialog.

• Select the appropriate report language.

• Select the file type. PDF, MS Excel, MS Word, MS PowerPoint and ZIP files are available.

• Label of the download link: Define how the link on the download platform should be labeled.

• File name when downloading: Enter the name which should be displayed during download, e.g. report_eng. The file name type is automatically attached by the system.

• Only for system-generated reports: File pattern: Enter the pattern of the file name. For the standard report, this is report_{org_code}_{lang_id}. org_code is the meta name of the unit, lang_id is the language ID.

• Only for system-generated reports: Template: In this field, Globalpark staff enters the file which should be used as template for system-generated reports. Per default, it is “template.tex”.

• Click Save.

• Add further report versions as required.

Uploading reports into the Media Library

Once you’ve created the report definitions, upload the report files themselves into the media library. In the Process configuration → Report definition menu on the Reports tab, select the Upload external reports button. The media library familiar from EFS Survey is opened in a pop-up window. Upload the externally generated reports into the media library. If you have to upload many reports, it is recommendable to compress them in a Zip file for upload.

Report manager

For system-generated reports, the report allocations will require no further editing. But you can access the allocations. Click the Report manager tab.

• Click the Consistency check button to trigger a check of the report allocations.The allocations of newly-uploaded reports will only get visible after running the consistency check!

• All existing reports are shown, including already-existing report allocations and errors.

• Now all reports and common documents uploaded into the media library are displayed, including already existing report allocations and errors. For system-generated reports, the allocations have usually been created by Globalpark, for externally generated reports and common documents, you have to create the allocations yourself. Use the Excel export or CSV export button to download the report allocations in the appropriate format

• Save the file locally.

Content of the exported file

The exported file contains the following data for the selected report allocations:

• Organizational unit: Short label of the organizational unit. When specifying allocations for common documents which are supposed to be available to all users, please take care to keep this field blank.

• Report ID: Unique number characterizing the report

• Language ID: Language of the report version

• File name: Name of the file in the media library, e.g. example.pdf

• File type: Format of the file, e.g. doc, pdf or xls.

• Type of report: Label of the report type. (Options: “System-generated report”, “Externally generated report” and “Common information and documents”.)

• Report title: If you have defined individual titles for the reports, they are also contained in the export file

• File size

• Last file modification

• Error code

Formatting the import file

On the Report manager tab in the Process configuration → Report definition menu, select the Import button. Via Download import template, download a template. The export file can serve as base for filling it. The following allocation data are needed:

• metaname: Meta name of the unit. In the export file, you can find the meta name in the column “Organizational unit”. Please take care not to enter any meta name when specifiying the allocations for common documents.

• report_id: Report ID*: Unique number characterizing the report. On the Reports tab, you can find this number in the column “ID”.

• lang_id: Language ID*: You can find this ID in the Project properties → Survey languages menu.

• type: File type: Format of the file, e.g. doc, pdf or xls.

• report_file: File name: Name of the file, e.g. example.pdf

• Report title: Optionally, you can define a title. Otherwise, the title pattern will be used.

Importing report allocations

• On the Report manager tab in the Process configuration → Report definition menu, select the Import button.

• Select the appropriate character set.

• Search for the source file on your local PC.

• Decide if the first row includes the column label.

• Confirm by clicking Send file.

• Match the data base fields with the corresponding files of the import file.

• Again, confirm by clicking Send file.

• The data are displayed. If you are satisfied with the results, confirm with Import data.

• Run another consistency check.

• Delete still-existing old allocations. While doing so, you can optionally delete the corresponding reports as well if they are really not needed anymore.

Settings

On the Process configuration → Report definition → Settings tab, you can modify the display of the report list in the Org Processor.

Selection of reports

The selection of reports can be handled either with drop-down list or with checkboxes:

• Drop-down list: The recipient can select a single report and download it.

• Checkboxes: The recipient can select several reports simultaneously and download them all together.

Introduction texts

You can enter both a german and an english introduction which is displayed over the list of reportst.