I LOVE our DRM (Data Requirement Messages). I want everyone to know that I don't use the word love lightly; it's reserved for very special people or things!
During my time as a branch manager I was often (far too often) approached by our back office staff regarding items that had not been completed by the front office staff in order to process payroll. As I am training or doing demos, you will often hear me tell how I only went to the back office for two reasons; either to beg for forgiveness or to hear about how my staffing specialists didn't enter information in correctly. I had not ever worked in a payroll/billing office so I didn't have a firm grasp on why certain things were so important or had to be completed PRIOR to running payroll or billing. In addition I felt that my staff was justified in some ways to let a few things slide as their job really was to bill as many hours as possible. I know a few of you are out there nodding your heads in agreement and a few of you are wondering why the front office just doesn't seem to get it. I have come to the conclusion over the years that front office and back office are just two very different breeds. In addition, I have found that it doesn't matter where you are staffing, everyone seems to experience these same issues.
If only there was a way for everyone to be happy and live in harmony, front office and back office working together towards a common goal. There is and you already have access to it! You know those messages that pop up (the yellow and red ones) when you are looking someone up or placing someone on assignment? Chances are you are still using the defaults that came with Avionté. I am here to tell you there is so much more to explore!
First, go in and check out all the ones that are available that you may not be using. You need access to Admin Tools to do this. From Admin Tools, click on DataRequirementMessage; here you can see all the messages currently available. I like to click on the 'Contains' button and start typing in key words to see all the errors/warnings available for that topic. Note that each of these are for a different process; on lookup, on assignment or during back office processes.
Think about some of the issues that are currently happening. Do you have employees being placed on assignment that do not meet requirements of the customer/order such as background check or drug test? How about being able to see if any checks are over a certain net or gross amount in the payroll process? Make sure you have these set up as severe to stop the process from happening (they will need to fix the error before proceeding). If you have other processes that you want error messages to appear on that are not currently displayed, let us know. Just a reminder from a former (I've seen the light) front office person, if it's an error (yellow) and can be clicked through, we will click through it!
I'm not saying that DRM's are going to fix everything, but I know they will be a good start in forging a loving relationship between the front and back office.
