By default, any staff data imports must contain the six default columns: Staff ID, Staff Title, Staff Forename, Staff Surname, Staff Initials, and Staff Team. You can add up to 14 additional columns to provide extra filter options within the reports.
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Adding additional staff filters is optional and the data can be added at a later date if you wish. For more information on changing your Staff Filter Profile, see our article: Staff Filter Profile |
All staff need a unique staff ID. If you have an ID stored for each member of staff within your MIS then this can be extracted with the staff data. If you don’t have an ID for each member of staff, then you can choose something that can be used as a unique identifier. This could be their pay role number or teacher number, for example. Alternatively, you can make up a numerical ID for each member of staff, but we recommend storing this somewhere as you may need it again for any amendments or future imports.
When the staff data has been formatted appropriately, you are then ready to import it into Observe. This allows you to link the teams for each member of staff within the staff data file to the teams you created within Admin > Data > Structure > Structure List. You should only need to import all the staff data once as new members of staff or changes can be done manually.
To import a staff data file, go to Admin > Data > Staff > Staff Import tab. Then, click ‘Choose File’, locate the staff data file, and click ‘Import’.
If you have imported staff data previously and filter values or staff details have changed, you’ll be presented with the ‘Updates to Existing Data’ page which summarises the changes. Click ‘Continue To Team Matching’.
If you’re importing your first staff file or there are no changes, you will be taken to the File Health Check, which will scan the import and highlight any potential issues with the data. If the Health Check highlights any issues you need to resolve click ‘Cancel the Import’, address these, and then import the amended file. If there are no flagged issues, click ‘Continue to Team Matching’.
On the Team Matching page, you will need to manually match the teams in the staff import to the existing teams. This is done manually to reduce the chances of assigning staff members to the wrong teams, as this can affect permissions later on.
If the ‘Team In File’ does not already exist in Observe, you can either match this to ‘<- DO NOT IMPORT ->’ from the corresponding dropdown box to exclude this from the import, or you can navigate to Admin > Data > Structure and create the required team. When you return to the Staff Import page, the import will be waiting for you to match the teams.
| Note - If you navigate away from the page your selections won’t be saved, so we recommend checking which teams need to be created before leaving the page. |
Once the selections have been made, you can then click ‘Match Teams & Continue’.
Next, you should then see the staff Import Summary, which displays how many staff members will be created and asks you to confirm the import. You must click ‘Confirm’ to complete the import.
When the staff data has successfully imported, you are taken back to the Staff List tab and will be able to see a summary at the top stating how many current staff have been created in Observe (as shown in the below screenshot).
You can click on a member of staff to make manual amendments to their information if required.
Now that you have imported an updated staff list, we recommend checking the appropriate members of staff have login details too, which can be done via Admin > Users.
Thanks for reading!