Why should the HR department do all the work? Subscribers have access to one of the most popular and powerful DBDescriptions™ features: the collaboration feature. The collaboration feature allows DBDescriptions™ subscribers to save enormous amounts of time and effort by collaborating electronically with others when creating and reviewing job descriptions.
Here's how it works: The collaboration feature allows you to quickly and easily electronically exchange data with others when creating or reviewing position analysis questionnaires (PAQs). With a few mouse clicks, DBDescriptions™ will send an email request to anyone you choose to request help completing or reviewing a PAQ. The person you choose to collaborate with may be an employee, supervisor, department head, consultant, or someone else who is familiar with the details of the job in question. The recipient clicks an automatically generated link in the email request, answers some questions and submits their responses. Once the questionnaire has been completed, DBDescriptions™ uses the information to automatically create a complete, compliant job description with the click of a mouse. It's pretty amazing, actually.
Using the collaboration feature consists of three simple steps:
From the My Library screen, use your mouse to left-click a job title to select it. The selected entry will be highlighted with a bright yellow background to visually indicate that it is currently selected.
Once the desired job title is highlighted, you can either right-click it to view a pop-up menu, or you can click the Job Description choice from the main menu. Both menus function identically. From whichever menu you use, click the Collaborate menu item. This will open the pop-up window that allows you to choose the desired collaboration options. See Step 2 below for additional details about selecting collaboration options.
Note: If a collaboration request already exists for the selected job title, prior to opening the collaboration options screen, a message will appear displaying details about the existing collaboration request and asking you if you want to modify it.
The collaboration window is designed to allow you to select the desired options quickly and easily. This dual-function window is organized in two sections: On the left is where you can select the desired collaboration options; on the right is where you can manage your contacts.
Collaboration options: From the left panel of the collaboration window, choose the desired options for sending the collaboration request. These options consist of the following:
- Collaborator Name A drop-down list of names from your list of contacts that you want to collaborate with. Click the desired contact that you want to send a collaboration request to. (Note: If a collaboration request already exists for the job title you selected, the person currently selected as the collaborator for that job title will automatically be selected from the list.) If the desired contact does not exist in the drop-down list of choices, use the contact management features found in the right side panel to quickly add a new contact.
- Deadline Date Use the convenient pop-up calendar control to select the deadline date that you want the collaborator to be finished with entering their input. Notice that only valid dates will be allowed. For example, deadline dates that are in the past are not allowed. Once a date has been selected from the pop-up calendar control, it will be displayed in the deadline date field. (Note: If a collaboration request already exists for the job title you selected, the deadline date from the current collaboration request will automatically be displayed in the deadline date field. If the deadline date has passed, the date will be highlighted in red to call your attention to this fact.)
- Deadline Time Use the convenient drop-down list of choices to select the deadline time that you want the collaborator to be finished with entering their input. Once a time has been selected from the list, it will be displayed in the deadline time field. (Note: If a collaboration request already exists for the job title you selected, the deadline time from the current collaboration request will automatically be displayed in the deadline time field.)
- Reminder Frequency This feature optionally has the system send email reminders until the request has been completed or until the deadline date has passed. Enter the number of days you desire to elapse between email reminders. A value of 0 (zero) indicates that you do not want to send any reminder emails after the original collaboration request has been sent. A value of 1 (one) indicates that you want to send a new email request every day; a value of 2 (two) indicates that you want to send a new email mail request every two days, etc. (Note: If a collaboration request already exists for the job title you selected, the reminder frequency indicated in the current collaboration request will automatically be displayed in the reminder frequency field.)
Contact management: The right panel of the collaboration window provides a fast, easy way to manage contacts. From here you can do the following:
- Add a contact Clicking the Add button at the bottom of the window will add a new line to the contact list. Simply double-click on the newly added line and type in the first name, last name and email address for the contact that you want to add.
- Remove a contact Clicking the Remove button at the bottom of the window will remove the currently selected contact from the list. You will be prompted to confirm that you really want to remove the contact from your list before the entry is deleted.
- Edit a contact Double-click the contact information that you want to edit from the list of contacts to enable the in-line editing feature. Then, simply type in the updated information in the space provided.
- Sort contacts To sort the list of contacts, simply click the column header at the top of the list to sort on that specific column. For example, if you click the Last Name column header, the list will be sorted by last name. Click the same column header again to toggle between ascending and descending sort order.
- Browse contacts If you have a large number of contacts in your list, they will not all fit in the first page of contacts listed on your screen. You can page through the contacts by using the forward and back arrows located at the bottom of the window. Optionally, you may enter the specific page number that you want to go to in the Page field that is located between the arrow buttons.
- Search contacts If you have a large number of contacts in your list, you can also type a specific name or email address to find in the Search field at the bottom of the window, then either press the Enter key on your keyboard or click the magnifying glass icon next to the Search field to only show the items that match your search criteria. Manually delete the contents of the Search field and press the Enter key on your keyboard, or click the X button next to the Search field to remove the search criteria.
Once you have selected the desired recipient and collaboration options, click the Send button at the bottom of the window to submit your collaboration request.
DBDescriptions™ takes care of everything else for you, including dynamically creating the email content for the request, creating an encoded link specific to your request that will be embedded into the email request, and transmitting the request to the desired recipient.
Additionally, DBDescriptions™ will continue to track the progress of your request, the details of which can be viewed at any time by using the interactive collaboration status report screen. This allows you to see who has completed the request, partially completed the request, not started on the request, etc. More details about how to view the detailed status of your collaboration requests can be found here.
DBDescriptions™ will also enforce your specified deadline. Once the deadline has passed, the embedded link in the email will be automatically invalidated, guaranteeing that no changes will be made after the date and time that you specify. If you want to extend the deadline, it's as simple as updating the original collaboration request by using the same process you used to create the original request, as detailed in the three simple steps help topic above.
Please be aware that if a collaboration request has expired or has been replaced with a newer request, the link found in the original request email will no longer function. The recipient must use the link contained in the most recent email request.
If for some reason you decide not to send the collaboration request after you have opened the collaboration request window, click the Cancel button at the bottom of the window to cancel the request and return to the My Library screen.
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