Introduction
People in the Betterworks platform (called users) are usually assigned to a Department in the platform as part of their user profile. In addition to departments, users can also be assigned to a Group as well as a Team.
Groups:
Any collection of users and are typically a cohort of users by say physical location, or seniority. Groups are only created by Super Admins in the platform and are primarily used when scheduling conversation cycles. E.g. All the Directors will have a check in conversation before the Managers, so a conversation can be scheduled for the group ‘Directors’ first.
Teams:
Any collection of users and are typically made up of people from different departments working on the same project. Also referred to as ‘dotted line’ managers or a matrix structure where a person reports to two managers: one for daily tasks on say a project, and another manager responsible for their performance and development.
A person can be assigned to a Department and Group and Team, they are not mutually exclusive.
To be able to edit a department Goal, you must be manually added as an editor. The default editor for a Department owned Goal is the person highest up in the hierarchy for that department, plus all Super Admins.
Comparing each approach
The benefits of each method are covered in the table below:
|
Department |
Group |
Team |
|
|
Creation method |
Import of CSV or HRIS integration |
Manual |
Manual |
|
Who can create |
Super Admin |
Super Admin |
Any user if Teams feature has been configured |
|
Ease of creation |
Manual import - Need to create Dept then update all user records with that Dept |
Fast - can use existing filters to make groups quickly. Can import a custom field from HRIS and use this for creating groups. |
Manual - each user can create and maintain their own,but have to search one person at a time to add them. Not easy to locate where to create teams (under user profile menu) |
|
Standardized? |
Yes, department hierarchy is maintained by Admins |
Yes, Admins maintain them |
No - every user can create Teams and may duplicate with Teams already created if they don't search first |
|
Visible? |
Seen throughout the platform, e.g. in org chart, when search for a person, when viewing objectives, in reports and exports |
Mostly in Program Insights page and when creating scheduled conversations. Not visible in user profile. |
Mostly in Program Insights page and viewing objectives. Is visible in user profile. |
|
Can be assigned to Objectives? |
Yes if configured |
No |
Yes if configured |
|
Can be assigned to Key results? |
Yes if configured |
No |
Yes if configured |
|
Permissions? |
Yes - departments can be used to assign permissions of an objective |
No - groups cannot be used to set up objective permissions |
Yes - teams can be used to assign permissions of an objective |
|
Used to define HR Admin scope? |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Can it be used as an Objective filter? | Yes | No | Yes |