Our Certificates component is intended to allow you to house and administer the certifications, qualifications, and other documents your Workers need to be compliant in their work.
Creating a Certificate Type
Creating a Certificate Type is a cinch! To get started, log into your account and, from your Admin dash, open your Certificate component.
In the top right corner, you'll see a button that says Add Certificate. Clicking that button will open a new page for you to populate with your Certificate's details.
There are many options on this page that allow you to control how this Certificate appears to the Worker and how it will be administered.
At the top of the screen, you'll see the Certificate Name field. This is where you can enter what this Certificate will appear as to your Workers. Beneath the name field you'll see a host of Certificate Settings:
The Inactive/Active toggle is how you control whether this Certificate appears for your Workers. Active will display in the Certificates panel to Workers who have been assigned this Certificate as a requirement, while Inactive will hide the Certificate from Worker view. Inactive Certificates Types will still appear in the Certificates list for admins to find and use.
The Certificate Category dropdown will allow you to choose which Category this Certificate will appear within. Those Categories won't affect the appearance or use of your Certificate Types, so choose whatever feels correct!
There are several settings below the toggle that you can alter:
Applies to: the options in this field include Employee, Contractor, or Employee + Contractor. This can be useful if you have Certificate Types that only one applies to one of those groups.
Suggested Expiry: this field is where you can enter the length of the validity period for the Certificates. This field is entered in number of months, so the validity of a Certificate can be as short as one month or, if you choose to leave the field blank, will not expire.
Auto Approve Submissions: this option will allow you to choose whether a Worker's uploaded Certificate is approved immediately after their submission or if you would like the submissions to be approved by an admin
Allow multiple pending submissions: allow Workers to upload multiple submissions for one Certificate Type
Flag as expired when Worker is made inactive: will mark the Certificate show as expired if you deactivate a Worker. This can be useful if you have seasonal Workers that you want to be able to refresh the credentials of if you bring them back for the next season of work.
Make the Expiry Date a required field: If the Certificate Type is one that has an expiration period, you can make this field mandatory to track the expirations of the submissions. If the Certificate Type is one that has no expiration, you can leave this as default (no).
Make Certificate Number a required field: if the Certificate Type is one that has numbers assigned to each one granted, you can make this field mandatory. If the Certificate Type is one that doesn't have a number, you can leave this as default (no).
Online Training Connection: this field is of crucial importance for many admins! This tool allows you to connect an Online Training course to a Certificate Type. The completion of a connected course will automatically generate a Certificate in this slot for the Worker if this option is selected. This can save both Admins and Workers a lot of time!
It is important to note that creating this connection for a Certificate Type will not automatically grant a Certificate for any Workers who have already completed the course. If a Worker has a Certificate of this type already uploaded in this slot (if you are editing this Certificate Type rather than creating it new), we have a tool to push the compliance for a connected course back from this Certificate to the connected course.
The right portion of the Certificate Type page includes space for you to include information if the Certificate Type requires third-party training.
In this box, you can enter information such as the Institute Name, their phone number, a URL to access training, blanket purchase information, estimated training length, and any special instructions for the Workers to complete the training. Be sure to use the toggle at the top of the box to make all of this information available to your Workers. When made available, this information will appear at the top of the Certificate screen for Workers in a banner, as shown below:
Beneath the third party training box you'll see another panel with options for a Fillable Version of the Certificate. Using this option, you can provide your Workers with access to a fillable Certificate version or a link to a site their can access the Certificate from for filling. As with the third party training, you'll need to toggle the availability of this Certificate type for your Workers, and can provide usage instructions.
It will appear for Workers as a box at the top of their Certificate Details as a downloadable file or accessible link:
After you've added all the details you need, you can hit Save Certificate in the top right corner of your screen. After hitting save, you'll see the Assignment and Worker Compliance tabs at the top of this page become active.
Assigning a Certificate
In the Assignment tab, you set who you want this Certificate to apply to. You will see a list of the Positions in your organization on the left side of the screen, and then columns of requirement on the centre/right. You can set the Certificate Assignment to be:
N/A: N/A means the Certificate will not be visible to or assigned to the Position
Optional: this assignment level makes the Certificate visible in the list for that Position but does not make the Certificate required
Required: The Required columns include low, medium, high, and critical. Any of them will list the Certificate as a red requirement for your Workers.
If you have the option to assign Certificates by Location enabled, the Assignment page will differ a bit in how it displays. As a warning, enabling assignment of any component by Location adds an extra layer of complexity in database querying, and can substantially affect load times within an account. We recommend avoiding using this setting for all but the largest and most complex organizations!
You will still see your Positions listed on the left side of the page, but in the middle/right you'll see three columns for N/A, Optional, and Required. To set the assignments, click anywhere into the row for the Position you're looking to assign. You will see a pop-up that asks you which Locations you want the Position to have the Certificate assigned at. It will look something like this:
After you've set the assignments for the Positions at their respective Locations, make sure you hit Save Assignments in the top right corner of the screen.
Now you're set! That Certificate will be assigned to the Positions you chose in the Assignment screen.
Viewing Worker Compliance
In the Worker Compliance tab along the top of the screen, you will see a list of the Workers who need to have the Certificate complete, a completion status for each Worker, and Issue and Expiration dates for workers with submissions.
As an admin, you can click into any Worker listed in the Worker Compliance. If they have submitted a Certificate that has been approved by an Admin, you will be able to view the submission and its details. If they have not submitted a Certificate for this particular type, you as an admin can click into their name and upload a submission on the Worker's behalf.
In the top right corner of the screen, you will see a Download button. Clicking this button will present you with three options:
Download PDF: this will download the Compliance list as a PDF
Download CSV: this will download the Compliance list as a CSV (Excel file)
Certificate Zip file: this option will download a .zip folder of all the approved submissions in this Certificate type. If no Workers are compliant, the .zip will not contain any files!
Those are the basic options when creating, assigning, and reviewing compliance for a Certificate Type!