The Directory is a hub for employees to connect and share, and the Directory tab provides Admin control of all the associated functions. Employee Directory has essential contact information, and social profiles allow users to have conversations through online chat and message walls, follow colleagues and colleague activity, share status updates, and personalize their profiles with private bookmarks, alerts and widgets.
The four areas of the Directory tab primarily focus on employee-centered information such as the Employee Directory and their wall. Details of each of the areas are provided below.
Settings
The Settings section of the Directory tab mainly deals with the Employee Directory. Settings can be altered as follows:
- Display & Sorting - customize the look and feel of your Employee Directory by changing its name, introductory text or header graphic; or altering the Firstname Lastname employee display or the order of sorting.
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Manage Fields - this is a key area for setting Employee Directory fields. This screen allows an Admin to:
- choose whether all fields will display (1)
- decide whether users can edit all fields (2)
- rename any of the display labels (3), for example changing Job Description to About My Job
- click the boxes for each field to choose:
- whether it will display (4); greyed-out fields are essential for the directory and can't be removed
- whether users can edit it; note that if your directory is synced with AD your users won't be able to edit any fields that are synced regardless of the user edit settings here; a common admin decision is to allow users to edit their picture and personal information/social fields while leaving core contact and position details managed by either the AD sync, CSV import or by manual administration by Admins or profile managers
- whether the field will show in a Table when an Advanced Search of the directory is performed.
- scroll down to the Birthday and Anniversary fields and select whether users can send greetings on these occasions, and whether the year will show or only the month and day
Video: Did You Know...
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Employee Card Settings - Employee Cards show within the Employee Directory and provide a summary overview of employee information. Settings allow an Admin to alter:
- the overall height and width of Employee Cards (1) - this will affect the number of cards which will display on each row on the Employee Directory page
- the width of an employee photo and whether a photo is shown on cards (2)
- up to four information fields (e.g. department, title) and whether a label will show for this field (3)
- which icons will display on the card (4) - icons show deeper information when you mouse over or click
- whether a status shows and how much status text is revealed (5)
- number of Employee Cards displayed per page (6)
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Employee Profile - the Employee Profile provides a combination of information pulled from Active Directory and information provided by employees themselves; learn more about Employee Profiles. In this area, you can enable or disable Employee Profile options to receive alerts when new content has been added, create a page of widgets within their profile area, change their default home page from the site Home Page, or change their site colors. Settings here will override any settings users choose.
- If someone in the Employee Directory doesn’t have a profile photo, a grey and white default image will show, as below (1).
- It’s possible to modify the default image so it’s more specific to your organization. The image is located in a web root folder accessible to your IT staff, ../Intranet/Graphics/Administration, and is called PL_blankpic.jpg. Keep a copy of this original default image, rename it (e.g. PL_blankpic-old.jpg), and prepare a new square jpg image at least 100px in size, name it PL_blankpic.jpg, and get your IT staff to replace it in the web root folder. You’ll now have a customized default image in place (2).
- Advertising Options - if you're using AD sync this setting isn't relevant; if you're creating employees, this allows you to have various sections advertised to a What's New feed on the intranet Home Page. Learn more about the What's New feed.
Social Settings
Social Settings allow you to toggle on and off various interactive features of the intranet, and alter their settings. Changes you make here will affect all intranet users.
- Live User Chat - live chat is an instant messaging feature of the intranet. Systems alerts can also be sent using this feature; learn more about Chat and System Alerts and their Admin settings.
- Wall Options - wall is an optional area on each employee profile page that allows users to post messages and exchange information with other users; learn more about the employee Wall. You can choose whether to enable the employee wall, comments on posts, show post date, set the limit on the number of posts, or allow users to edit or delete their own or others' posts and comments. If your organization has guidelines about appropriateness of wall posts, you can add those here as well. Click Save after making changes.
- Colleague Options - Colleagues is a way to follow a coworker(s) and/or have them follow you so you can see wall posts by a select group of people (or vice versa). To enable the Colleagues function, click Colleague Options, check the box for Enable Colleagues, and click Save. Learn more about Colleague functions.
- Employee Tagging - tags can be a way for employees with similiar interests to connect (e.g. golf), or to advise of a particular skill (e.g. Spanish). You can choose whether to enable tags, then whether to allow users to either add or remove tags. Click Save after making changes.
- Status Updates - a status update can let coworkers know where an employee is or what they're up to (see #2 in above image). You can choose to enable status updates, set the maximum number of characters, and whether to allow no status to be chosen. You can also allow for future status with a start and end date. Click Save after making changes.
- Manage Status Icons - choose the order of icons for employee status updates, the specific icons, and whether or not they will be available (i.e. display) for users. Click Save after making changes.
Employees
If you're using AD Sync to import employee emails and other information, you won't need to touch the Employees area, as all employee information will be managed within Active Directory. You can, however, use this area to Find an Employee.
Other settings allow you to:
- Create an employee and all their associated information fields
- Turn on or off Active Directory (AD) synchronization
- Import employees using a CSV
- Merge orphaned employee and login records into a single user profile
Departments
If you're using AD Sync to import employee emails and other information, you won't need to touch the Departments area, as all department information will be managed within Active Directory.
If you're not using AD Sync, the settings in this area allow you to:
- Create a new department to categorize employees
- Manage existing departments - see all departments at a glance and edit or delete them
- Manage department security by applying security or synchronizing security to update employees or departments which have been moved