The purpose of this article is to explain departments functionality in Parim. Sections 1 and 2 of the article will show how to set up departments and section 3 will explain how departments interact with different functionalities within Parim.
1. What are departments and how are they used?
Departments are a way to create smaller sub-sections in your Parim environment. For example, if your organisation has branches that operate separately in different cities, it could make sense to create departments for each city. Or, if you have a business that offers security and cleaning services, it would make sense to create separate departments for both sides of the businesses.
Especially in larger organisations, departments greatly simplify shift assignment by making sure that open shifts are offered to the right people.
Additionally, departments can be used to filter most reports allowing to segment the data.
2. How to set up departments?
To make use of the functionality, department label has to be attached to admin roles such as Department Supervisors, employees, areas and locations.
1) You need to set up departments in system settings. Instructions can be found here.
2) You need to assign departments to locations, as shown here.
If locations are assigned department(s) then only employees belonging to the relevant department(s) can apply for shifts at those locations. The exception here is preferred people list for locations.
Events are always connected to areas or locations. If departments are assigned to an area or location, only people in the correct departments will be able to see the shifts for events taking place in that area or location.
3) As an optional step, you can assign department supervisors to manage departments, as shown here. Department supervisor role has the rights to manage schedules, assets and absences for employees that belong in the their department. Some of these rights can be changed in system settings, more info can be found under 3.14 in this guide.
4) You need to assign departments to employees.
When opening an employees personal profile, departments can be added by clicking on + Add next to departments.
You can also select multiple employees and choose to tag them with new departments or remove departments. Departments are also visible in the employee list as a separate column.
3. How does departments functionality interact with other parts of Parim?
3.1 Calendar view.
| In calendar view, you can filter by departments which means that only employees in a specific department or shifts at locations connected to that department are shown. It simplifies creating shifts to specific departments. |
3.2 Shifts list.
| In shifts list view, you can use the filter to only see shifts associated to employees and locations tagged with a specific department. |
3.3 Time clock.
| In time clock, you can select all departments, no departments or one individual department to view clocking in, out and other shift activity. |
3.4 Timesheets list.
| In Timesheets list, you can select one or multiple departments to only see timesheets for employees who work in specific department(s). |
3.5 Locations page.
On Locations landing page you can select a department and see all the related locations on a map.
You can also select individual or multiple locations and add or remove departments.
When selecting an individual location, you can also view and change the departments that have been assigned to it. If one or more departments is assigned to a location, only people in those departments and location's Preferred People list will be able to see the shifts.
3.6 Events page.
On events page you can choose a department to see all of the connected events. Events themselves can not be tagged with departments directly. The connection is created through locations as it's not possible to create an event without defining a location.
3.7 Absences page.
On absences page you can filter out specific departments to view and manage absences in that particular department.
3.8 Employees page.
 | On Employees page, you can filter employees by department. |
You can also select multiple employees and choose to tag them with new departments or remove departments. Departments are also visible in the employee list as a separate column.
3.9 Subcontractors page.
See section 3.8, the functionality on Subcontractors page is identical to the one seen on employees page.
3.10 Employee profile page.
On profile page, you can add and remove departments from an individual employee.
3.11 Roles page.
On roles page you can filter roles by department to see which employees are assigned to specific departments as Supervisors or Managers and you can add new Department Supervisors.
Out of the four roles, Department Supervisor role is specifically designed to manage individual or multiple departments.
In the mobile apps under More -> Contacts -> Supervisors, you can find contact details for Supervisors. Not all details are shown, the system always aims to show the contact details for the direct supervisors. If Location Supervisor is not show then the system will show Department Supervisor contacts.
3.12 Pay Manager page.
| Using the filter, you can select one or more departments to only see timesheets for employees belonging to those departments. |
| You can add Departments column to the Pay Run by pressing Columns button and selecting it there. |
3.13 Reports pages.
All reports except Action History can be filtered by department.
In Position Coverage report, you can filter shown positions by departments. Position Coverage report uses department tags attached to locations to filter the list here.
Timesheet Summary, Time Clock report, Absences report and Absences summary report can be filtered to show employees belonging in the selected department.
3.14 System Settings.
Under Company Settings, you can add and remove departments. When pressing Add, you simply need to name a department. This creates a department tag that can then be attached to locations, areas, admin roles and employees.
Under Role Permissions you can change the rights that Department Supervisors have when managing their departments. Certain options are hard-coded into the role while others can be toggled on or off. If an option is toggled off for a Department Supervisor, the associated rights and tasks are handled by either Manager or Superadmin roles.
General | This section is hard-coded. Department Supervisors always have access to admin portal. However, they cannot see financial information about people. They can't add or remove roles. And they don't have access to system settings. |
Data | Every option here can be turned on or off depending on what kind of role your Department Supervisors have within the organisation. |
Schedule | This section is hard-coded. Department Supervisor will always be able to manage schedules for employees and locations belonging in the same department. |
Events | Here you can toggle if Department Supervisors can add, edit or remove events. |
Absences | In this sections you can toggle if department's absences are managed by Department Supervisors or Managers. |
Documents | In this sections you can toggle if department's documents can be seen, added, edited or removed by Department Supervisors or Managers. |
Assets | Here you can toggle if Department Supervisors can assign and return assets from employees working under them. However, Department Supervisors cannot add, edit or remove assets themselves. |
Reports | Here you can choose if Department Supervisors have access to any reports. |
Pay Run | Here you can choose if Department Supervisors see Pay Run. Pay locks cannot be added or removed by Department Supervisors. |
In Notifications, you can define if and how certain types of notifications are sent to Department Supervisors.
 | Under scheduling notifications, you can select which notifications Department Supervisors get regarding activities within their department(s). |
 | Under absences notifications, you can choose if Department Supervisors get notifications about absences within their department(s). |
 | Under availability notifications, you can choose if Department Supervisors get notifications about availability within their department(s). |
 | Under staff data notifications, you can choose if Department Supervisors get notifications about personal data changes and uploaded documents within their department(s). |
 | Under daily sign-up notifications, you can choose if Department Supervisors get daily birthday and work anniversary summaries. |
If something about departments remains unclear, you can always ask us to clarify by writing to the chat bubble or by sending an email to support@parim.co