Skill Management - Part 3 - Adding Skilled Staff to a Document, Equipment, Materials and Reagents

Adding Skilled Staff to a Document

This is one way to set skilled staff. The important thing to remember is that adding skilled staff to a document only allows doing it on a document by document basis. It’s primarily used when it’s only needed to add skilled staff to one or a few key documents, on an ad hoc basis or, to add skilled staff to Equipment, Materials and Reagents. To add multiple staff to multiple documents that are expected to live on through ongoing revisions, the recommended method is to use Skilled Groups.

To add skilled staff members to a document:

1. Open the controlled document via, Laboratory Records > Controlled Documents > Search
2. Click the Skilled tab
3. Click one of the following two options:

The Skilled tab also contains the following buttons: Permission Check; Manage Skilled Groups (documents only, for users with permission to manage Skilled Groups); Assign Competency Test (documents only, shown when no competency test has been assigned to the document yet); and Export PDF, next to Export CSV in the header area of the list of skilled staff members.

• [+] Add Trained Staff - Staff who have read the document and don’t need to confirm it (for example, the author or editor) can be added by clicking this button. The system won’t generate a task for this instance but when a new version of the document is authorised, a new skill confirmation task will be issued to staff members added this way. It will continue to do so with every new version, as long as the staff members are listed under the Skilled tab.
  
  If the OU Preference, “Require verification of skills from user without tasks”, is switched on, staff added this way are given the status Awaiting Review rather than Confirmed, until their skill is verified.
  
  If the OU Preference, “Reissue skilled tasks only on Major revision”, is switched on, skilled tasks are not reissued when a Minor revision is authorised; staff keep the skill status they held on the previous version, unless the Reissue skilled task checkbox is ticked when the Minor revision is authorised.
  
  To add trained staff:
  1. Click the [+] Add Trained Staff button
  2. Enter a staff name (even partially) in the Search field and it should appear in the results below. Staff who already hold a current skill on the item, and disabled staff, are not listed. In enterprise accounts, only staff belonging to the item’s facility are listed.
  3. Before selecting the user from the results, to ensure a Completed Date appears in the skill record, enter a Completed Date by clicking in the field and selecting one from the pop-up calendar. The date can’t be in the future and must be in the format DD-MM-YYYY. If no date is entered, the Completed Date in the skill record shows Not set.
  4. Click the plus (+) sign in the Add (Trained) column for the selected user
  5. More users can be added (and the same date can be left selected) before clicking the “X” in the top right to close the pop-up window
     
     
     
• [+] Add Untrained Staff - Staff added by clicking this option will be issued a skilled task and the same as added ’trained staff’, they will continue to receive one every time a new version is authorised (subject to the “Reissue skilled tasks only on Major revision” OU Preference described above). If it’s a ‘Draft’ document the staff member is added to the skilled list and the skilled task is prepared but not issued. Once the document is ‘Authorised’ the skilled task will be issued for the staff member.
  
  The following parameters are available in the pop-up window that opens when this option is clicked:
  
  
  
  
  1. Select users from distribution lists (Distribution lists to send this task to) and/or individual users (Users to send this task to) by ticking the appropriate checkboxes next to any of the available choices in both filters provided. Members of distribution lists can be viewed by hovering over them. Staff already listed under the Skilled tab of the item, and disabled users, are not shown. In enterprise accounts, only users and distribution lists belonging to the item’s facility are shown.
     
     

     Note

     If a user is a member of multiple distribution lists selected and/or is also selected as an individual, the system will only add them once to the skilled staff members list.

     
     

  2. The overall OU Setting, “Time interval for Due Date on system reissued skilled tasks” (described in the guide, Permissions & Settings), can be overridden by selecting a different date in the future from the pop-up calendar in the field, Due Date
  3. Users can be copied in this task by ticking the checkbox under, “Copy users into this task?”; a new filter appears to select users. Information about this can be found by clicking the down arrow in the bar, Assigning and copying tasks
     
     
     
  4. The task can be made private by ticking the checkbox under, “Make this task private” so that only the creator and recipient can view it
  5. The associated skilled task can be sent out immediately (if the document is authorised; if not, when it gets authorised) by leaving the field, “Active Date” blank or, at a determined date (in the future) by selecting one from the calendar that pops up when clicking the “Active Date” field
     
     

     Note

     It is not possible to be skilled on a ‘Draft’ document. When untrained staff is added to a document in Draft state, the skilled task is prepared but not issued until the document is authorised (and approved if the workflow includes an Approval step). If the document is already authorised, the task is normally issued immediately. However, if an ‘Active Date’ is set in the future, then the skilled task will be held until the activation date is reached.

     
     

  6. A Priority can be set for this task; the choices are, Low, Medium, High and URGENT; the default is, Low
     
     
     
  7. The Description field constitutes the body of the email that the tasked user will receive; it can be edited to suit requirements
     
     

     Note

     Text entered here will appear in the task reminder box which appears under the General tab of the document, when the tasked user opens it: <img src="/images/user_guides/skill_management/sk_task_custom_in_doc_3-5-2.png" width=“1000” height"185"> Custom messages can only be entered for the first time tasks are issued to staff members, when they are added to the document’s Skilled tab. Subsequent tasks, reissued manually or automatically (when a new version is authorised or the time interval to reissue the task lapses), will contain standard text generated by the system.

     
     

  8. Scroll down and click Create Task to finish. At least one distribution list or user must be selected; otherwise the message, “Please select at least one Distribution List or User”, is shown and the task isn’t created.

Adding Skilled Staff to Equipment, Materials and Reagents

The process is basically the same for Equipment, Materials and Reagents as it is for controlled documents. The only obvious difference is that these don’t undergo reviews, like documents do. Therefore, skills in this area can only be reissued manually. They can include a verification step, according to the OU Preferences set.

Next Step:

The next article covers Importing Skilled Staff in Bulk

Previous Step:

The previous article covers Permissions & Settings