Creating Delegates

Delegates allow the creation of reusable groups of targeted users that can be quickly added to courses and assignments, and used as a filter for some reports.

Delegates allow for a level of filtered targeting the other sections are unable to offer.

Sample Delegate groups used by clients have included:

1. All Users with an Active standard user group
2. All Employees of a Particular Job Type, e.g. Managers
3. All Employees in a particular Region or Division, e.g. California Team.
4. Specific members of a cross functional team
5.  All employees in their first year of service

How to view

The Delegate feature can be accessed from the Advanced View in the User Management > Delegates. 

This will bring you to the Delegate List page where you can view, edit, delete unused, and create new Delegates.

The Delegate List uses the standard list view found in many elements of the Learnsoft LMS system. The data can be searched by specific starting letter or delegate name. Some header rows are click sortable (one click for ascending; a second click for descending). Each row lists key data pertaining to each specific delegate, as well as links to accessing further details, viewing an associated report of members or deleting the delegate. Below is a brief listing of each column.

1. ID - System generated number delegate ID number based on order of creation.
   The default sort order is by ID, ascending
2. Name - Creator defined name for the delegate
3. Description - Creator defined description of the delegate.
4. Assignment Count - number of assignments
5. Report - A link to a separate report which provides a listing of all the user-members of the delegate
6. Delete - A link to delete the delegate if it is not associated with any assignments.

Add a New Delegate

To create a new Delegate, Access the Delegate list by navigating to the Advanced View > User Management > Delegates drop down menu as shown in the previous section.

Click on the [New Delegate] button.

This will launch the Delegate details page. Delegate details page has two main sections: Delegate Info and Selectors.

Delegate Info

The Delegate info section of the Delegate Details page lets you name and describe the Delegate list to be created and determine if the delegate list should be associated with specific employment and leadership levels.

The only required entry in Delegate info section is a Name for the delegate list.

By default, delegates will be further detailed and refined in the Selector section of the Delegate Details page, however, two special categories of predefined groups, Employment Type and Leadership Level can be selected in this section.

Explanation of Fields

1. Name* - Creator defined name for the delegate list.
2. Description - Allows for a delegate description (For Administrator Reference).
3. Employment Type - Part of the Scope Process. Allows the creator to limit the delegate to users meeting a specific employment type or types from those predefined for your organization (e.g. Full Time Employees & Interns). If no selection is made, then any employment type is eligible to be in scope (subject to other scope restrictions made elsewhere in the assignment).
4. Leadership Assessment Level - A specific Leadership type or types from those predefined for your organization (e.g. Emerging Leaders, Enterprise Leaders) If no selection is made, then this is not part of the scope process.

Selectors Section

In the Selectors section of the Delegate Details page, the creator is able to choose a scope by which groups of users can be added to the delegate list. Additionally, the creator can both add and exclude specific individual users.

Job Class, Job Code and Job Position

These selectors allow the creator to specify a particular job class / codes / positions or groups of job classes / job codes / job positions to include in the delegate. Job Class, Job Code and Job Position information is usually provided by the company's HR system and associated with individual users and updated within the LMS as part of the User Import service which runs daily.

By clicking the Add button to the specific selector, the system will launch the Lookup list for the selected item in a new popup window. Here, creators will be able to search and select Job Classes, Job Codes or Job Positions in which to include as part of the scope of the assignment. These can be added one at a time or in multiple selections (by using the check box) then pressing the Add Job (Class, Code, Position) button.

Once Job Classes, Job Codes and / or Job Positions are added they will appear in the corresponding selector textbox window.

They may be removed by first highlighting the specific Job Classes, Job Codes and / or Job Positions to remove and clicking the Remove button (While items can be added in bulk, they must be removed individually).

Scope of Users Selectors - Availability

The Availability selector, which uses a tree structure and usually represents some type of company organization chart, allows the creator to specify which parts of the organization to include in the Delegate list. The Availability tree is automatically built based upon data imported into the LMS as part of the User Import service which runs daily. The definitions are usually established as part of the initial LMS installation and deployment process (Please contact your project manager if changes to the Availability tree structure are required).

In the default view, the Availability selector is just below the Job Position selector.

By clicking the (+) button the tree will expand to show deeper levels of the organization. (The Sort By Name, Dept, ID radio buttons allow sorting of the tree view for easier lookup for some organizations.) The creator can select which part of an organization will be eligible to be part of the Delegate list by simply clicking the checkbox next to that listing (location, division, department, etc.)

1. Multiple selections can be made by selecting multiple checkboxes.
2. The tree structure is recursive, that is, if a higher level of the tree is selected; all lower levels in the direct line will be included in the scope, as well.
3. Items can be deselected by simply clicking again to remove the checkbox.

Scope of Users - Available Users

The Available Users selector allows the creator to add specific users to a delegate. These users would persist as static members of the delegate regardless of the other selectors added to the delegate.

To Add a specific user or group of specific users:

1. Click the Add button.
2. The User Lookup / User List Screen will popup.
3. Use the search screen to find the users to add.
4. Check the checkbox at the left of their records.
5. Click the Add User button.
6. The User Lookup / User List Screen will close and the Delegate details page will be shown with the selected users added. If there are sufficient selected users a scroll bar will also appear.

Users may be removed by first highlighting the specific selected Available User to remove and clicking the Remove button or click Remove All to clear the full list.

Scope of Users - Exclude Users

The Exclude Users selector allows the creator to exclude specific users from a delegate list. This allows for more refined targeting of Delegate members.

For example, suppose the creator wants to create a delegate lists which includes all users of a specific job position (e.g. Manager), but wants to exclude 3 specific managers. They can use the selector Job position to select the Manager position and then use the Exclude users selector to select the three specific managers to remove from the delegate list.

To Exclude a specific user or group of specific users:

1. Click the Add button.
2. The User Lookup / User List Screen will popup.
3. Use the search screen to find the users to add.
4. Check the checkbox at the left of their records.
5. Click the Add User button.
6. The User Lookup / User List Screen will close and the Delegate details page will be shown with the selected users added. If there are sufficient selected users a scroll bar will also appear.

Users may be removed by first highlighting the specific selected Available User to remove and clicking the Remove button or click Remove All to clear the full list.

Do not add users to Exclude list who were entered in the Available Users section. Only exclude users who would be included using the auto selectors (e.g. job code).

Scope of Users Selectors - Filters

In addition to being able to select (or exclude) people (or groups of people) who belong to a certain group (e.g. cost center, job class, or job code), a delegate list can also be created by using FILTERS. These filters comprise more detail level elements or FIELD TYPES from a user's profile (such as zip code or date hired).

Field Types represent variables that are typically found in a User's profile and are usually generated by the company's HR system and imported into the LMS system as part of the daily User Import service. The detailed level of Field Type in the filters section is far greater than those available in the above selectors or in similar distribution features, such as reports or assignments, allowing for greatly detailed selection.

These filters can be defined using operand CONDITIONS (such as equal to "=", greater than ">"and containing) as they relate to a defined equivalency condition or FIELD VALUE.

For example - select users to be included in a DELEGATE LIST whose Date hired > 1/1/2011

Note: The system supports the entry of multiple equivalency field values which need to be separated by a comma (e.g. Job Code = 76578, 98342, 76548).

To create a filter

1. Select a Field Type from the Field Type Drop Down menu.
2. Select an operator from the Condition dropdown box.
3. Enter a value in the Field Value textbox
4. Click the Add button to enter the formula into the filter.

To remove, simply highlight the filter formula and click the Remove button.

If multiple formulas are being used for even greater refinement, repeat steps 1 - 4 above. 

Multiple Formulas, by default, use an AND function, that is both formulas must be True for a user to be added to the delegate.
For Example if the following two filters were entered:
Date Hired Greater than 1/1/2024
First Name Equal to John
Based on the above, by default only users hired after 1/1/2024 AND whose name was John would be included.

Creators can select (check) the Or Between Statements checkbox if desiring to use an OR rather than an AND function between multiple filter formulas. Based on the above, users hired after 1/1/2024 or users named John would be included.

Save and Review your Delegate

Once you have configured the delegate criteria, scroll to the top of the page and click the [Save] button. 

A new set of buttons will appear in the header of the page including options to:

[Enroll the Users] in the cohort into a learning object,

[View Users] report of the cohort members,

[Upload file] to add additional users,

[Edit] the delegate properties,

View the [Audit Trail], and

[Exit] to return to the Delegate list. 

Additionally, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, the Selected User field will be populated with a preview of up to 100 users in the cohort. 

See also: 

How to View Delegate Members

How to add a Delegate to Learning Object/Course Instance