The Automation engine unlocks Automated Assignments - a way to part of the upcoming broader Workflow Automations release. In the Automation engine Automated Assignments can be setup with triggers and steps for automated and recurring assignments to go out to your users.
Each Automation consists of:
Trigger: An event that defines how users enter an Automation.
Triggers can be when a user is added, joins a Group or completes a training.Filters can also be set within the Trigger event as a way to limit which users are eligible for the Workflow. Filtering options are available for both User Attributes and Custom Attributes.
Automations run every 20-30 minutes.
Step(s): Steps are events in an Automation that lead the user through the Workflow. Steps can be either Learner driven or a system action to progress the Learner forward.
An example of a user driven step is ‘Completes a Guide’ which occurs when the user completes a specific Guide.
An example of a system action step is ‘Assign a training’, this step is taken by the system itself.
How to Setup Automated Assignments
Navigate to Settings > Automations and click + New Automation.
Name your Automation in the upper left-hand corner.
Trigger Options
Use 'New user created' if you would like any new users to be automatically entered into the automation workflow.
When using 'Joins a group', you will need to specify which Group.
When using 'Completes content', you will need to specify the training.
When using 'Matches custom filters', you will need to specific user attributes to use as filters. Note: Filters are checked every 30 minutes.
When using this Trigger option, you can select the Filter behavior to be used:
New Matches: filters will apply to users that match conditions after the automation is activated (default).
New and Existing Matches: Filters will include all users that currently match conditions as well as users that match conditions after the automation is activated.
For each Trigger Event, you can choose to filter the audience the trigger applies to. By default all users will be selected.
Step Options
Using 'Assign content' will assign a training to the user automatically. You will need to designate a training and can optionally can set a due date and custom assignment message.
'Wait a specified amount of time'
'Wait until content is complete'
It is possible to add multiple steps on top of a single Trigger. Here is an example of a an Automated Assignment Workflow that starts with the user being added to a Group and triggers a second assignment after completion of the first training assignment:
Once everything is set up, make sure to hit the Activate button on the top right to make the automated assignment flow live.
Reporting & Troubleshooting
To monitor which users are in an Automation and which step they are on Admin can reference the Automation Overview page. To access the page:
Admin can click on the Automations name
This will take them to the Automation Overview page where they will see all users currently in the Automation & which step they are on
FAQ
Can I assign all learning types?
As of 7/27/2022, you can assign Guides, Challenges, SCORM and Paths through these automations.
Is there a way to add existing users into an Automation?
Yes! After making the Trigger Event selection users can select the Filter Behavior of ‘New and Existing Matches’ to include Learners that met the criteria prior to the initial Automation activation.
What if a user’s role or Group changes once they have been entered into a Workflow?
Automations are entered when a Trigger Event occurs, with no additional filter checks throughout the Workflow. Instead, they can be archived/unassigned at the Learner Object level to stop them from progressing forward in the Workflow.
What about Automations for Academies (external platform)?
At this time, Automations is only available within the Internal platform.
Do Events work within Automations?
Events can be included within Automations as part of a larger Path, they cannot be assigned as an individual training.
If I have Step: 'Wait a specified amount of time' followed by Step: 'Assign content,' when will the content be assigned after the delay?
The content will be assigned within the same hour that the user was placed into the Automation flow. Example: User was placed into Automation flow at 9am. The content will be assigned after the specified amount of time has passed, roughly around 9-10am.
Are date filters based on a specific time zone?
Yes, they are based on Pacific Standard Time (US-PST).
If you have a filter of Start Date and set it to equal today, it will trigger around 12am PST.
Why isn't the Automation triggering for my Learners?
There are a few possibilities as to why the Learners aren't being placed into the Automation workflow:
The Learner doesn't meet the Trigger settings (make sure to double check if there are any Trigger filters that may exclude some Learners)
You need to allow more time for the Automation to run. The Automation logic runs every 30 minutes. If your Trigger is "Joins a Group" and the Learner was added to the Group 5 minutes ago, we ask that you wait 25 minutes before checking to see if the Automation was triggered and the Learner placed into the workflow.
The Automation was activated after the user met the Trigger requirements.
Example: You set up an Automation that triggers based off of Learners joining Group "Customer Success" however Sally Smith is already part of the Group. Sally won't be placed into the Automation workflow because she is already in the Group prior to the Automation being activated.
Why aren't Learners moving from Step X to Step Y?
There are a few reasons why Learners aren't progressing through the Automation workflow:
The Automation is paused and not active
The Learner has already been assigned a training that is a part of the Automaton workflow. Our Automations logic checks to see if the Learner has been assigned the training before. If they have, the Automation will not assign the training to the Learner again and they won't be able to proceed in the Automation workflow.