How do I Assign Acknowledgments?

Objective

Assign users to view and acknowledge a policy. Check what users have not acknowledged a policy after it is assigned.

Environment

PolicyStat

Procedure

Assigning Acknowledgments

Acknowledgements can be assigned for active and scheduled policies. To see the option to manage acknowledgments a user must have manage level permissions for at least one area.

1. Click Manage in the navigation bar at the top of the page.
2. Click the Acknowledgments option in the menu that appears. A new tab will open to the View Acknowledgments page.
3. Click Assign Acknowledgments in the top blue bar.
4. Use the search and filter options to narrow the list of policies (Optional).
5. Use the corresponding checkboxes to select one or more policies to assign.
6. Use the Users search bar to select users and/or User Groups to which you want to assign the policies.
7. Click the Automatically assign when new versions with changes are approved checkbox to set the Acknowledgment as recurring (Optional).
   • NOTE:By default, PolicyStat assigns acknowledgments that only require a user to acknowledge the first time policy is assigned. If the policy needs to be acknowledged after changes have been made, you want to set them as recurring.

If a new version is approved, but no changes occur on the actual content, it will not trigger the recurrence to acknowledge. Changes in the properties page title and attachments alone will not trigger the recurrence either.

• Single (one-time) acknowledgments are different from recurring acknowledgments.
• If recurring acknowledgments are assigned, this means that a background process will keep assigning single (one-time) acknowledgments to a user for versions of the policy that they have not yet acknowledged and have had changes made to the body content.
• If the resulting one-time acknowledgment is removed/unassigned, and the recurring assignment is still in-place, the one-time acknowledgment will return, as that assignment/process is still working to keep acknowledgments up to date. 
• Changes in the properties page, the document title and attachments alone will not trigger the recurrence whether done by override or a new version of a document created.
• If a new version is approved, but no changes occur on the actual content, it will NOT trigger the recurrence to acknowledge.
• To trigger the acknowledgment when only the attachment or other properties get changed, add a section at the bottom of the content such as, "Last Revised Acknowledgment Trigger: mm/dd/year" and then update it each time you need to retrigger the acknowledgment.
• A recurring acknowledgment will only be triggered after a new version of a document is created and has changes made in body content.  The assignment is triggered when the final approver completes their approval as will be recorded in the document history.

Assign Acknowledgments by Policy Users 

Users who have ownership permission for a policy can also view a list of users who are assigned to acknowledge a policy.

1. Open a policy for which ownership permissions are assigned and scroll to the bottom.
2. Locate the heading titled Recurring Acknowledgments and click the Plus symbol to expand.
   

Note:  When assigned, a user is indefinitely required to acknowledge an old (past) version even if a new version replaces it (revised or not revised) and even if the current active version is removed from assignment. Users are not automatically required to acknowledge the new version when an old (previous) one is already assigned. The user will not be automatically redirected to the new active version as that one was not assigned.
 

Users that are Deactivated

• All past completed acknowledgments are retained for a deactivated user with their account.
• To see a deactivated user's completed acknowledgment history, restore the user to active status and then run the needed report.  You can then deactivate the user account.
• When restoring a deactivated user, all completed acknowledgments will appear in reports. Previously assigned incomplete acknowledgments will not appear since they were removed automatically when they were deactivated.
• Deactivating a user will unassign any incomplete acknowledgments.
• All deactivated users are included only in the CSV report for assigned acknowledgments whether completed or not.

Scheduled Policies

For sites with the Scheduled Effective Date feature enabled, policies which are scheduled to become effective at a later date can also be assigned acknowledgments, using the same process as listed above.
To filter the list of policies to only display those which are scheduled (or active), use the Status filter.


To check the status of a policy before assigning acknowledgments, review the status in the final column of the display.

Additional Information:

Ensuring users have both read and acknowledged a policy's content can be critical for both legal and procedural reasons.

PolicyStat makes this process simple through the ability to assign acknowledgments by a user or by a user group. In addition, acknowledgments can be set to recur each time a policy is updated to ensure users are aware of the latest revised version of the policy. 

Who Can Assign or Unassign Acknowledgments?

Users with Area Manager or Site Administrator permissions can assign or unassign policy acknowledgments to individual users or user groups. Area Managers or Site Administrators can then view and track completions by a user or by a policy.

Keep in mind that applicability groups are highly relevant if you have multiple sites.  Review the applicability on documents vs. a user's permissions if there are issues with being able to assign acknowledgments.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Recurring acknowledgments will not assign if no changes were made to the content of a new Active version. Only one acknowledgment can be assigned and completed per user for an Active document.

• Recommendation:  To trigger the acknowledgment when only the attachment or other properties get changed, add a section at the bottom of the content such as, "Last Revised: mm/dd/year" and then update it each time there is a change.
   

NOTE:  Notification emails to assigned users are sent once a week on Monday night.

• No immediate notification is sent when an acknowledgment is assigned.  The assignment will display on the homepage dashboard for each user immediately.