Setting up positions

A position is a job somebody holds: a job title, a department, a location and a company, together, and the position it reports to. You only need to create one when the combination you want is not already there, because every person already holds a position whether you made it or not. How positions work explains that before you start.

Switching positions on

Positions are hidden until you switch them on, and switching on is a short setup: you name the jobs your people already have, merge any duplicates and confirm who reports to whom. See Moving your account onto positions.

Positions then appears in the People menu.

Creating a position

1. Choose Admin, then People and Positions.
2. Choose New position.
3. Enter a Position name. This is the only thing you must fill in.
4. Choose a Job title, Department, Location and Company as far as you know them. Each is optional, so a position can be as loosely defined as the job really is.
5. In Reports to, choose the position this one reports to. Whoever holds that position will manage the people in this one. Leave it empty for the top of your structure, such as Managing Director.
6. Choose Create position.

The Reports to list never offers the position itself, or any position below it, so a reporting line cannot loop back on itself.

Screenshot missingposition-drawer-reports-to

The New position drawer with Job title, Location and Company chosen and the Reports to list open, showing positions to choose from.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/set-up-positions/position-drawer-reports-to.png

If your account has custom fields on positions, they appear in this window too, in the place each one is set to show. See Adding your own fields to people records.

While a position names a job title, department, location or company, that one cannot be deleted, even if nobody holds the position. Change or delete the position first. See Setting up companies, departments, locations and job titles.

The Active and Archived tabs on the Positions list

Active lists the positions in use. Archived lists the ones you have archived from a position’s row menu. An archived position stays on people’s history, but it is no longer offered when you choose who a position reports to. To bring one back, open the Archived tab and choose Activate from its row menu.

The list shows Position, Job title, Department, Location, People and Status. People is the count currently holding it, which is the column to watch before you change anything: a position with eleven people is eleven people’s training. To see who a position reports to, open the position. On a narrower screen the list shows cards instead of a table, and each card includes it.

Choosing the lead of a position several people hold

When more than one person holds a position, all of them can see and act for the people who report into it. The lead is the one approvals and reviews are sent to, and the manager reports show.

1. Choose Admin, then People and Positions, and open the position.
2. Under Holders, find the person you want and choose Make lead.

The change saves straight away. Until you choose someone, the lead is whoever has held the position longest, marked Longest-serving. To go back to that, choose Hand back to the longest-serving holder.

Screenshot missingposition-drawer-holders

The Holders section of a position with three people, one marked Lead with the label Chosen as lead, and a Make lead button beside another.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/set-up-positions/position-drawer-holders.png

Somebody who has been deactivated still shows under Holders, marked as unable to manage anyone, and cannot be the lead.

Finding vacant positions that people report into

When nobody holds a position that others report into, the Positions that need attention panel at the top of Positions lists it, with how many people are below it. Those people report to the next position up in the meantime, so nothing stops working. Choose a position’s name in the notice to find it in the list, then give it to someone.

A position that people report into cannot be deleted. Point those positions somewhere else first.

Reviewing positions an import created

When a user import, a spreadsheet update or your HR system gives somebody a job that none of your positions has, Learnient creates a position for it rather than turning the person away. Nobody chose that position’s name or said who it reports to, so it waits for you.

The Positions that need attention panel at the top of Positions says how many are waiting and names them, above the vacant positions when there are both. Choose a name to find it, or Show them to list only those, each marked Needs review. Once you have saved the last one, the list goes back to showing every position.

Screenshot missingpositions-attention-panel

The top of the Positions list with the Positions that need attention panel showing both sections: one position created by an import with its name and the Show them button, and below a dividing line, one vacant position with People below: 2.

Expected at src/assets/screenshots/guides/set-up-positions/positions-attention-panel.png

1. Open the position.
2. Check its name, and change it to one your organisation uses if you need to.
3. Check Reports to. A position an import created has no line unless most of its people’s managers held the same position.
4. Choose Save position.

Saving it is the review: it leaves the list. Its people keep their training and their place throughout, because the position was real from the moment it was created.

Bringing positions in from a spreadsheet

1. Choose Import positions.
2. Choose Download template, or View column guide and validation rules to see what each column accepts.
3. Drop your file on the window, or choose to browse for it.

The window accepts .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm or .csv, and asks you not to remove or reorder the template’s columns.

The reports to column takes the name of another position. It can be one that already exists, or one created on an earlier row of the same file, so put the top of your structure first and work down.

This route creates positions and does not update them. There is no spreadsheet route for changing positions you already have, so a correction is made on the position itself.

What happens next

Creating a position does not give it to anybody. People hold positions from their own record, and a position with nobody in it simply sits at zero until somebody does.

A position you create is shared by everybody who ends up holding it, so renaming it later renames it for all of them.