Training Setting
Training Setting is the one record per company that holds the training module's house rules. Most of its value is the Default Parameters tab, where you decide what a training screen is pre-filled with, which fields a user must answer, and which fields they never see at all.
What it is for
Every module in PeopleNest has one setting record, and this is the training one. You open it once at the start of an implementation and come back to it only when the client changes a policy.
The tab that earns its keep is Default Parameters. A client will say "our training schedule is always at the Lahore plant" or "nobody should ever be able to type a cost on a schedule". Neither needs a change to the software. You add a line naming the screen and the field, give it the value you want pre-filled, and tick Mandatory, Disable or Hidden as required. Every user in that company then opens that screen with your value already in it.
The five settings on the first tab are a different matter. They are written down here as company policy and they are stored, but no calculation in the module reads them today. Fill them in so the policy is recorded in one place, and do not promise a client that ticking Self Request Needs Approval will route anything for approval, because it will not.
Every field, in plain words
Header
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Entity | The company this setting record belongs to. | Fills itself from the company you are logged in to. Leave it. | Required. One setting record per company. |
General and Controlling
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self Request Needs Approval | Records whether a training need an employee raises for himself is meant to be approved before it is scheduled. | Tick it | Recorded policy only. Nothing in the module routes a self request for approval today. |
| Mark Training Day On-duty | Records whether a day spent in training is meant to count as on duty rather than absent. | Tick it | Recorded policy only. Attendance is not marked from here. Use an On Duty Request for the real effect. |
| Certificate Expiry Alert Days | Records how many days before a certificate expires somebody should be told. | 30 | Recorded policy only. No alert is sent from this field. |
| Effectiveness Review After Days | Records how long after a course the manager's effectiveness feedback is meant to be collected. | 60 | Recorded policy only. No feedback document is created from this field. |
| Allowed Assessment Retakes | Records the company's view on how many times a man may retake a test. | 2 | Recorded policy only. The live limit is Allowed Attempts on each Training Assessment. |
Default Parameters
One line per field you want to control, on one screen.
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line | The line number. | Fills itself. Leave it. | |
| Screen | Which training screen this line applies to. | Training Schedule | Pick it from the list. |
| Field | Which field on that screen. | Training Location | Pick it from the list. The list only offers fields that exist on the screen you chose. |
| Default Value | What the field should already contain when the screen opens. | Lahore Plant | Leave it empty if you only want to make the field mandatory or hide it. |
| Mandatory | The user cannot save without answering this field. | Tick it for Course on Training Schedule | |
| Disable | The user sees the value but cannot change it. | Tick it alongside a Default Value | |
| Hidden | The user does not see the field at all. | Tick it for Online URL at a client who never runs online courses |
A user can be given a different default from the company one. Where a user has his own value for the same screen and field, his value wins and this line is ignored for him.
Validation
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line | The line number. | Fills itself. Leave it. | |
| Screen | Which training screen the validation applies to. | Training Schedule | Pick it from the list. |
| Validation | The named validation to attach to that screen. | Pick it from the list | What each named validation checks is defined outside the training module. Confirm the effect with your technical contact before relying on a line here. |
How to configure it
- Open Training Setting. If a record already exists for the company, open that one. Never create a second.
- On the General and Controlling tabs, record the client's stated policy: Certificate Expiry Alert Days 30, Effectiveness Review After Days 60, Allowed Assessment Retakes 2.
- Go to Default Parameters. For each thing the client said is always the same, add a line: Screen Training Schedule, Field Training Location, Default Value Lahore Plant.
- For each field the client said must never be left blank, add a line for that screen and field and tick Mandatory. Leave Default Value empty.
- For each field the client said they will never use, add a line and tick Hidden. A hidden field is still saved empty, so do not hide a field you have also made mandatory.
- Save. Ask a user to reopen the screen you changed and confirm the value is there. Defaults are read when a screen opens, so an already open screen will not show them.
Scenarios
All our training happens at one place and people keep typing it wrong
Add one Default Parameters line: Screen Training Schedule, Field Training Location, Default Value Lahore Plant, Disable ticked. The field now shows Lahore Plant on every new schedule and nobody can change it. If a second site opens later, untick Disable rather than deleting the line, so the default stays but the HR officer can override it.
HR must always record who the trainer is, but the cost is confidential
Two lines on Training Schedule. First line: Field Trainer, Mandatory ticked. Second line: Field Cost Amount, Hidden ticked. The HR officer cannot save a session without naming the trainer, and never sees the cost box. Keep the cost on the Training Plan instead, where the training manager works.
One HR officer handles the factory and another the office
Do not try to solve this with two lines here, because this record is per company, not per user. Set the company default to the more common of the two, the factory, and have the second officer's own default value set for her on her user record. Her value replaces this one for that screen and field.
What it is connected to
- Nothing has to exist before this screen. It is the first screen of the module.
- The Default Parameters lines are read by every training screen when it opens, including Training Course, Training Need, Training Plan and Training Schedule.
- Removing a line does not change records already saved with that value. It only changes what the next new record opens with.
If something looks wrong
- "I set a default but the field is still empty" - the screen was already open when you saved the setting. Close the screen and open it again.
- "The Field list is empty when I pick a field" - no screen has been chosen on that line yet. The list of fields is built from the screen named on the same line.
- "I ticked Self Request Needs Approval and nothing goes for approval" - that is correct behaviour. The tick records the policy, it does not create an approval route.
- "A user does not get the company default" - that user has his own default value for the same screen and field, and his own value takes priority.