ORIENTATION MODE
WHY USE ORIENTATION MODE?
When hiring a new employee, your Organization has a series of topics and policies that need to be reviewed prior to starting their regular duties. This is pretty standard in every workplace. A lot of Organizations have chosen to utilize our platform to facilitate the onboarding of new employees and the completion of orientation learning materials. Orientation Mode allows new hires to focus on those key items before seeing any other training you have assigned for the year. The assignments will remain in their My Courses until they finish their Orientation, and you can quickly see at a glance whether someone has completed their onboarding training or not.
The icon – EDUCATION GROUPS – is the first place to start, as you will need to ensure you: (a) have orientation groups created, and (b) those orientation groups have been set up with orientation mode.
Here you will see all of the Education Groups you have currently set up in Surge Learning. Under the column, “Is Orientation Category”, you will be able to see a YES or NO to indicate whether or not Orientation Mode is applied to that group. To apply Orientation Mode to this group, click on the pencil icon (circled in the image below).
In this screen you will see an option to apply orientation mode. Make sure “Is Orientation Category” has YES selected.
A trigger category provides an additional automated selection when clicking on one group in Manage Users (groups that are associated). In Manager Users - When you add a new user and check off Orientation Health Care Provider, Health Care Provider will automatically be selected (as you would use this group to assign their annual education thereafter). This automation helps minimize a risk of missing any important education groups when adding a new user. Triggers are not mandatory. If you don’t use them, you would simply manually check off any other groups that apply to that individual.
If you are creating a new Education Group for Orientation that doesn’t already exist, rather than selecting the pencil icon you can click ADD NEW EDUCATION GROUP and set it up as outlined above.
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Assigning Education to Orientation
Orientation should be scheduled differently then your annual training. Annual Training typically has a due date in the calendar, such as November 15th (as an example). If your Orientation Assignment is the same date as your annual training, this is how it could play out…
Scenario 1: If I am added into the system as a new user February 1st and my education isn’t due until November 15th, I am really in no rush to do it.
Scenario 2: If I am starting December 1st and the courses were due November 15th, those courses would be overdue for me and my records would reflect I didn’t do my courses on time, which is not an impression I want to leave as a new employee. Alternatively, they may not see it at all if in your System Settings you have “Hide Required Before A User’s Start Date” selected as YES.
The best way to schedule Orientation Courses is using days past. Below, we will demonstrate how to assign a course that is part of the mandatory annual training, as well as orientation. Let’s head over to the COURSE LIBRARY to begin!
In the COURSE LIBRARY click on the calendar icon to the right of the course title you wish to assign (circled in the image below)
Click on the required group you would like to assign to. If this is something everyone has to do, you can simply click on ALL STAFF.
TESTS: If the course has a test, you will see a place to enter your desired passing percentage and you can set the number of attempts.
REQUIRED BY: if you click on the date field, a calendar will appear and you can select your desired due date.
YEAR: Select the frequency of assignment. If you select repeat every year, this system will automatically assign it again for you next year with the same date. You can always go back and make adjustments later.
SUBMIT AND CREATE A NEW INSTANCE to create a new schedule for ORIENTATION.
The page will be refreshed and you will see the same screen without anything checked off.
This time click on your Orientation Group.
Similar to your annual assignment, you can select your test percentage and number of attempts.
Instead of using a due date, select DAYS PAST and enter the number of days past a new hire’s start date that you wish them to complete this course. In the picture example to the left, 4 days past has been entered.
This means (example below):
Scenario 1: When you add someone in as a new user January 14th, the due date will be 4 days past their start date in Surge Learning.
Scenario 2: When you add someone in as a new user November 25th, the due date will be 4 days past their start date in Surge Learning.
When selecting “Every Year” it does not mean they will be assigned orientation courses next year as well. It just means that you wish to keep this assignment as part of your onboarding training next year as well (and this can also be changed later on).
AVOID USING ONE TIME EVER Although Orientation is really only done once ever, if you select One Time Ever for this Orientation Assignment, they will never be asked to do this course again (even if you want it done as part of their annual training). Click SUBMIT to save your assignment.
Adding A New User to Surge Learning-
How to ensure they get their Orientation Assignments
Click ADD NEW USER (highlighted in image below)
At the top of section, you would add their Name, Email, Supervisor, etc.
A little further down the page, you will want to select every single education group that applies to this person (orientation and annual training groups).
Orientation Mode should be selected as YES.
DO NOT ENTER A DATE for Orientation Completion Date. The system will automatically populate a date in this field when the staff member completes their last course in their orientation package.
When you click SUBMIT, and the courses are set up for 4 days past (as an example), this person’s orientation courses will be due 4 days from now.
In MANAGE USERS – the person’s name will appear highlighted in GREEN to indicate they are still (in Orientation Mode) working on their orientation courses.
Once they complete their last assignment, the green highlight will disappear and they will automatically be switched OUT of orientation mode. At this time, they will then see any courses assigned to their other education groups that have a future due date.
When a course is assigned for Orientation AND to their Education Group annually, they will not be doing the course twice. Any courses that appear after completing orientation will be topics that were not part of their orientation.
If all of this seems overwhelming, let me summarize it here below:
1. Education Groups
(Home Page Icon: Education Groups) – Ensure your Orientation Education Groups have “Orientation Mode” on. Once this is done, it’s done! This should be one of your first steps, and it only needs to be done once!
2. Assign Education to Orientation Using Days Past
(Home Page Icon: Courses Library/Document Sharer) – Set up all of the courses you want to assign to Orientation using days past. Typically, this is done at the beginning of the year. When you add an employee into the system as a New User, the due date for the course will be the number of days past their start date in Surge Learning. So when you assign a course for 4 days past, and you add an employee into Orientation January 31st, the course due date for that individual will be 4 days past January 31st.
Once your setup noted above is complete, the only thing left to do is Adding a New User (a process you are already routinely doing!)
3. Adding a New User when someone is hired
(Home Page Icon: Manage Users) – When you add someone into the system, providing you have done the first two items, enter the person into all of the education groups that apply (annual and onboarding groups).
*** Orientation Mode should say YES
*** Do not enter a date in Orientation Completion Date field. The system will automatically enter the date once the employee completes the last course of their onboarding training.
All of the courses you have already set up will be assigned to that employee with a due date appropriate to their date entered in Surge Learning. The system automatically takes them out of Orientation Mode when they complete the last course, and then they will see the rest of topics they need to complete after that.