Permissions and Roles Overview

Roles are named collections of permissions that define what users can and cannot do in inContact Workforce Management v1. Very few inContact WFM v1 tasks require only a single permission, so inContact WFM v1 permissions are best understood in the context of the tasks to which they relate.

Role Design

Role design varies by the needs of the organization. Two common role design strategies are user-based and task-based.

User-based roles include all permissions typically needed by a specific user (such as an employee, supervisor, or system administrator). For example, a supervisor may need to view the Real Time Roster, create or revise schedules, approve leave requests for a team, and so forth. This is probably the most common approach. You can view templates for several user-based roles in the Role Configuration Examples topic.

Task-based roles focus on tasks, not users. For example, one task-based role might be named Manage Users and include the permissions needed to create users and schedules. Another task-based role might be named Monitor a Shift and include permissions to view the Real Time Roster and real-time reports. Multiple roles can be assigned to the same user.

The steps for creating roles vary depending on whether or not your organization uses inContact WFO with inContact Workforce Management v1. In hybrid inContact WFO/inContact Workforce Management v1 systems, the Roles page in the inContact WFO Web Portal opens automatically when you click Roles in the inContact WFM v1 Web Portal.

Team and All Permissions

Most contact centers include supervisors (team leads) who need access to different levels of information and functionality than does a regular employee (agent). Some supervisors need access to just their individual team, while others may need access to multiple teams or to all employees. inContact WFM v1 lets you assign permissions to support these scenarios, so it is important to understand the following:

  • Many permissions offer both "All" and "Team" versions (for example, Employee Schedule All View and Employee Schedule Team View).
  • "All" permissions override "Team" permissions. A supervisor with the Employee Schedule All View permission will be able to view schedules for all employees, including members of their team(s).
  • "Team" permissions only apply to users who are configured as supervisors of a specific team. The user's account must have the Can Be Supervisor checkbox selected for that user to appear on the list of available supervisors on the Teams page.
  • "Team" and "All" permissions can be used in combination, and supervisors can be assigned "All" permissions when appropriate. For example, a supervisor might have the Employee Profile All View and Employee Schedule Team View permissions. This would allow them to see all employees in search results, but only view schedules for members of their assigned team.
  • One team can have multiple supervisors and one supervisor can be assigned to multiple teams.
  • The "Team" and "All" permissions for Schedule View, Schedule Edit, and PTO Page View do not automatically give you the ability to act on yourself. In other words, supervisors with the Employee Schedule Team Edit permission cannot edit their own schedules. This is true even if the supervisor is a member of the team. You can only act on yourself if you have specific rights to do so via the applicable "Self" permission.
  • The "Team" and "All" permissions for Leave Request Approval and Swap Request Approval also do not give you the ability to act on yourself. Employees can never approve their own swap or leave requests.
  • The "Team" permissions for Profile View and Roster automatically give supervisors the ability to act on themselves if they are members of their team(s). "Self" permissions are not required. For this reason, supervisors should not typically be members of the teams they supervise.
  • Titles included in an employee's profile are for search/filter purposes only. Entering "Supervisor" in the Title field on an employee's profile does not mean inContact WFM v1 will view that person as a supervisor.
  • Employee searches can only be done by users who have three permissions in combination: Employee Section, Employee Search, and either Employee Profile All View or Employee Profile Team View. This is an important basic permission set for team leads and above, since many actions can only be performed from the search results window.

Superusers

Most organizations have at least one manager or administrator who should be able to perform nearly all inContact WFM v1 functions on behalf of all (or nearly all) users.

inContact WFM v1 does provide the option of designating a user as a "superuser" when you are creating the user account. Superuser access is not a role and can only be granted to individual users.

Because of the powerful nature of superuser access, and the potential for misuse, the preferred method is to create roles with the minimum necessary permissions to accomplish the applicable tasks, and assign those roles to the appropriate users.

Superusers must still have the Can Be Supervisor checkbox selected in their user account to be made supervisor of a team.

AD Group Role Synchronization

To simplify administration, users may be placed in one or more Active Directory (AD) groups that have access to inContact Workforce Management v1. You can then relate inContact WFM v1 roles to AD group names, and user roles and permissions are synchronized at each login based on the user’s AD group membership. This feature is called AD Group Role Synch.

AD Group Role Synch is typically configured during your initial system installation. Because AD groups may change after installation, you may need to edit or configure these settings from time to time. For more information on these settings, see Page Details: General Settings.

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