Conversations user guide - Admin/Owner

Admin/Owner User Guide – Conversations

Admin configure and oversee Conversations:

• Enable the module and feature access.
• Manage Periods to reflect HR processes.
• Manage Templates (standard and custom).
• See Period statistics and manager breakdowns.
• Optionally participate in conversations themselves (as Reviewers).

Periods

Periods represent HR‑defined time windows and purposes, for example:

• “Employee review 2026”
• “Leadership evaluation”
• “Salary review 2026”

Managers can associate conversations with Periods. Administrators then use Periods to track coverage and progress.

Period definition

Each Period consists of:

• Period name – must be unique.
• Start date – informational only (no automatic actions tied to start).
• End date– when the period ends:
  • After the end date, the Period cannot be selected for new conversations.
  • Existing conversations remain linked and unaffected.

Associating conversations with Periods

When users (managers, admins or owners) create conversations, they can:

• Pick any ongoing or future Period, or
• Choose No period for ad‑hoc conversations.

Notes:

• Association with a Period is optional.
• Period can be changed later by the Reviewer from within the conversation.
• Periods affect statistics and reporting but do not restrict creation timing.

Deleting a Period

Admins can delete Periods.

When you delete a Period:

• The Period is removed from the list.
• Any conversations linked to it:
  • Are not deleted.
  • Lose their association with that Period.
• A warning shows how many conversations will be affected.

Period statistics

Period statistics count employees (users), not conversations.

They include all active users in the company (excluding archived/deleted).

Overall Period statistics

For each Period you see three numbers:

• Employees with no conversation
  Active users with no conversation as Target‑user in this Period.
• Employees with ongoing conversation
  Have at least one conversation as Target‑user in this Period, and none of those are closed.
• Employees with completed conversation
  Have at least one closed conversation as Target‑user in this Period.

If an employee has multiple conversations in the same Period:

• The latest status counts:
  • If they have both ongoing and completed, they are counted as Completed only.

Therefore:

No conversation + Ongoing + Completed = total number of active users

Manager breakdown statistics

Shows, per manager, how many of their employees have:

• No conversation
• Ongoing conversation
• Completed conversation

Important details:

• Counting is based on employees’ current direct manager, not who the Reviewer is.
  • If an employee has a conversation with another person as Reviewer, it still counts under their actual manager.
• Only employees with a manager are included.
  • Therefore, the sum across all managers may be less than the overall statistics total.

Reasoning:

• The manager is responsible for ensuring that their employees are reviewed, even if another person actually performs the review (for example, a previous manager after a team change).

Templates

Templates create a shared agenda and structure for conversations.

Template structure

Each template contains:

• Template name – must be unique.
• Description – purpose and usage; shown in Template browsing, not inside conversations.
• Discussion points – shown to both Target‑user and Reviewer.
• Order of discussion points.

There are two types:

1. Standard templates
2. Custom templates

Standard templates

• Created and maintained by Simployer.
• The same set is available to all customers, but:
  • Administrators can enable/disable which templates are available when creating conversations.
  • Administrators can enable/disable individual discussion points in each standard template.
• Support language versions for:
  • English
  • Swedish
  • Norwegian

Disabled standard templates (or discussion points):

• Cannot be used for new conversations.
• Do not affect conversations already created.

Custom templates

• Created and managed per company.
• No built‑in language versions:
  • Create a separate template per language if needed.
• Requirements:
  • Unique template name.
• Admins can:
  • Create custom templates.
  • Edit custom templates.
  • Delete custom templates.

Edits and deletions:

• Affect only future conversations.
• Do not alter any conversations already created.

Template behavior in conversations

When a conversation is created:

• All discussion points are copied from the template into the conversation.
• From that point on, the conversation’s discussion points are independent of the template.
• Later template changes, including:
  • Editing content
  • Enabling/disabling templates
  • Enabling/disabling discussion points
    do not affect existing conversations.

This ensures integrity and historical accuracy of past conversations.

Writing good discussion points

Because both Target‑user and Reviewer answer the same questions, discussion points should be:

• Neutral
• Non‑directional
• Shared (fit both perspectives)

Good examples:

• “Progress since last time”
• “Key challenges to discuss”
• “Support needed moving forward”

Avoid:

• “What goals have you achieved?” → prefer: “Goals achieved since our last discussion”
• “What support could you provide?” → prefer: “Types of support that could be beneficial”

Tasks

Tasks are created inside conversations when the conversation is in Submitted state.

• They are draft until the conversation is closed.
• When the conversation is closed, tasks become:
  • Finalized
  • Read‑only (cannot be edited or deleted)
  • Only status can be changed (Todo / Done)
  • Part of the employee’s broader workflow (task lists).

The Tasks navigation item will, over time, provide an overview of:

• Ongoing tasks
• Completed tasks
• All tasks

Notifications

Conversations send email notifications only when user action may be needed, to avoid noise.

Current notifications:

• Conversation created
   Sent to the Target‑user; informs them they can begin preparing responses.
• Conversation shared
  Sent to the participant who did not submit last, notifying that both sets of responses are now visible and collaboration (comments, tasks, summary) can begin.
• Conversation closed
  Sent to the Target‑user with instructions to review and sign.
• Conversation re‑opened
  Sent to the Target‑user to notify that:
  • The conversation is open again.
  • Comments and summary can be updated.
  • Any previous sign‑off is invalidated.

Notifications:

• Are enabled by default.
• Can be individually managed by users in their own Notification settings.