Other Frequently Asked Questions

The following outlines some of the questions System Administrators ask us through the course of implementation and day-to-date use of the system. The questions are broken down into three main areas:

•Contract questions

•Application questions

•Technical questions

If you are not sure whether you should contact your internal IT support staff or Encompassing Visions, please see the Problem Solving Tips section for more information. This will also provide some tips about the information we need when you need to report a problem or require assistance from us and how to request enhancements to the application.

Contract Questions

Contact Client Relations if you have any questions about your Encompassing Visions application, your contract, your constraints or your maintenance agreement. Here are some questions Client Relations can answer for you:

Q: How do I know which version of Encompassing Visions I am running?
A: On the Encompassing Visions logon screen, the version will be indicated at the top.

Q: How can I get the detailed release notes for the latest version (or any previous version)?
A: The detailed release notes for all versions are available from Client Relations (crelations@encv.com). Or, your IT department may have access to our ENCV Portal where the latest release notes can be accessed.  

Q: Do I have to pay to upgrade to a new version of Encompassing Visions?
A: No, the most current upgrade is free to any customer whose Maintenance Agreement is up to date. Client Relations  (crelations@encv.com) can answer any questions you may have about your status or your Maintenance Agreement.

Q: How do I increase the number of employees or jobs I am allowed to have in Encompassing Visions?
A: This is a two-step process.
Step 1: Contact Client Relations (crelations@encv.com) to arrange for purchase of additional employees or jobs. Once the purchase has been completed, Client Relations will e-mail you an Authorization Key to use in updating the constraints in your system.
Step 2: Log into Encompassing Visions and apply the Authorization Key in the System Constraints screen.  Instructions will be supplied in the constraint increase e-mail.

Q: How do I find out when my maintenance contract expires?
A: Client Relations will contact you prior to the expiry of your Maintenance Contract with an invoice outlining pricing options for the upcoming year and renewal fees. You can contact Client Relations  (crelations@encv.com) at any time to discuss your renewal information.

Q: We are very happy with the ‘Job" module of Encompassing Visions and would like to see what the ‘Employee' module can do for us. How do I find out more?
A: Contact Client Relations to arrange a demonstration of the Learning and Growth Feedback functions.

Q: Who do we contact about any service patches or downloads that we require?
A: Patches for the software are rare and are communicated to impacted customers through Client Relations based on the version of the software you are running. We will provide you with additional support information at that time.

Application Questions

The following are some frequently asked questions about the Encompassing Visions system. If you have any additional questions, please contact Client Relations.

Q: I could get at our Encompassing Visions application yesterday but today I get an error in the browser that the page can not be found. Did you do something to change our access?

A: If your application worked yesterday and is not working today then you need to contact your IT support staff. Each client application is contained on your organization's server, so we are not able to impact your installation of Encompassing Visions.

Q: Can you look at our data? Does the application send you any information about our data or usage of the system?

A: No. Since the database is stored on your organization's system, it does not send us any information about your installation, usage, server or organization.  We can not access your data unless you provide us with a copy of your data or the address of your application and a User ID - assuming that it would even be available over the internet.

Q: What happens to my customized text when I upgrade? Am I going to lose it?

A: Absolutely not! When you upgrade we ensure that all of your customizations - alternate terms, Questionnaire text, Competency definitions, Competency Review questions etc. - are all retained and carried over into the newest versions.  

Q: I completed the learning and growth review but it isn't marked as complete? Why?
A: Your System Administrator may have turned on the Learning and Growth Feedback System Policy that requires High and Low ratings to be justified prior to the review being marked complete (the Policy is: Justify High/Justify Low comments must be entered to make the review complete). If that is the case and you have either a high or low rating somewhere in the review, you will need to fill in a justification before the review can be marked complete. The 'Justification Required' column in the Competency Review will indicate where Justification is required and the 'Justification Entered' column will indicate where Justification has been entered and where it may be missing. The 'Completed' column will also identify any competencies that aren't complete.  Edit the Competency that isn't complete and add the necessary information for the system to mark the review as complete.  

Q: How can we allow someone to change their completed review?
A: An Administrative User would have to mark the review as incomplete in order to make changes to a review in completed status:
1) Select the employee whose review needs to be edited and view his/her reviewer records.
2) Find the reviewer and review type that is to be edited.
3) Double click the reviewer record to edit the reviewer record.
4) Uncheck the completed box (by clicking it) and click Done.

Q: How can I delete a review that has already been started?
A: If the review is complete (check the completed column in the Reviewers function of the Employees Module), you will have to mark it incomplete (see the steps in the question ‘How can we allow someone to change their completed review' to mark the review incomplete). Once the review is marked ‘incomplete' it can be deleted with the View Actions menu function ‘Delete Reviewer'. This function deletes any incomplete reviews for the reviewer/reviewee. Once the old record is deleted, a new default reviewer record may be generated if the system policies indicated that this ‘role' is a default reviewer.

Q: How do I keep everyone out of the system while we upgrade?
A: The system policy Suspend User Access allows you to suspend all user access EXCEPT for those with Administrative Level Access (level 5). This will allow the Administrators to go in and verify an upgrade or change without opening up the system to the entire organization.

Q: How can I see all the default text for the competencies, review questions and sub-review questions?
A: Under the Competencies function in the Job Settings, the reports in the ‘Competency Related' section allow you to view the default text for Competency questions and sub-review questions. For just a listing of Competencies you can use the Print button from the Competency Maintenance screen.

Q: Can I change some of the terminology in Encompassing Visions to better match language familiar to my organization?
A: Yes. Found in both the Job Settings>Alternate Terms or Employee Settings>Alternate Terms. This will give you a list of the terms that you can customize within the software. Select or Add a new Alternate Term to change the default.

If you need to add a new possible value to the ‘pick' list you must first add it using the View Actions > Add/Revise Optional Data function.

For example: if you want to add ‘Pay Scale' as your alternate term for Job Level, follow these steps:
1) Go to Job Settings>Alternate Term>Job Level
2) Click the Job Level button from the menu.
3) Type ‘Pay Scale' in the text box and click Ok and Save – this will add Pay Scale to the list of choices.
4) Click Cancel to close the window and no change to the list.
 

Every place the system uses Job Level will now be referred to as Pay Scale.

Q: Is there any way to have more reviewer roles in the system?
A: Yes. You can add more reviewer roles in the Core Tables function of the Administration Module.
1) Select 'Reviewer Roles' as the reference file to maintain
2) Add the desired Reviewer Roles
NOTE: You cannot modify or delete the system supplied default reviewer roles as these are used for special processing within the system. You can,  however, add as many as you want.

Q: How do I establish the relationship between the employee and their supervisor?

A: The relationship between employees and their leader or supervisor requires two steps:

1) Identify which organization unit each employee belongs to in the Edit Employee screen.

2) Identify the supervisor as the 'lead' of the organization unit by checking the 'lead' box on the Edit Employee screen.

Q: I set up my employee and their User ID but when the User logs to complete their Work Plan or Learning and Growth review they get a message that their User ID isn't linked to their Employee. What's wrong?

A: There is a third step required to ensure that employees can access the Learning and Growth Feedback functions and that is to link the User ID to the Employee. This is done through the Edit Employee screen.

Q: How do I re-score/re-evaluate a job?

A: The re-evaluation of a job requires that the Job Questionnaire either be re-completed or modified to reflect the current work environment. Only System Administrators may modify an existing Job Questionnaire and modifications to a Questionnaire will remove the approval status of the job (if the Job Approval process is being utilized). Deleting an existing Questionnaire and/or completing another Questionnaire for the job will also remove the approval status. Any of thee three approaches will force a recalculation of the Job Total Points, Job Level and Competency Importance Ratings for the Job.

Q: How do I put my company's logo into the Administration, Job and Learning and Growth Reports?

A: There are several steps involved in putting your customized logo onto the reports:

1.To include the logo in the Administrative Reports, set the Administration>System Settings>Organizational Branding Policy> ‘Use Logo on Reports’ to ‘Yes’ and see instructions.

2.To include the logo in the Job Reports (Job Description, Job Posting or Selection Interview Guide), enable the Job Report Options for Customized Logo in the Job Reports.

3.To include the logo in the Learning and Growth Report turn on the Learning and Growth Report Option for customized Logo in the Learning and Growth Reports.

4.To ensure the logo are on the Work Reports, go to the following settings:

oJobs>Job Settings>Organizational Branding>'Use Logo on Reports' to 'Yes' and;

oEmployees>Employee settings>Organizational Branding>'Use Logo on Reports' to 'Yes'.

Technical Questions

The following are some frequently asked of our Technical Support team. You can contact our Technical Support team directly if you have specific questions or require any additional information.

Q: What browsers can I use to access Encompassing Visions?

A: Effective with Version 9.3, Supervisor/Lead access to Encompassing Visions is now available through the following browsers:

Windows PCs:

•Google Chrome

•Firefox

•Safari

•Edge

MACs

•Safari

•Google Chrome

•Firefox

Q: How do I make Encompassing Visions a trusted site:
A: There are a few steps to take:

•Log into the application (or at least go to the login page)

•From the browser menu, select Tools > Internet Options

•Select the ‘Security' tab

•Select the ‘Trusted Sites' and click the ‘Sites' button

•The address in your browser should appear in the first text box. If it does not, type the address (e.g. www.encv.com or https:\\CompanyApps\encompassingvisions.com). You don't need the \visions or anything that comes after.

•Click "Add"

•Encompassing Visions is now a trusted site

Q: How do I get information from my HRIS into Encompassing Visions?
A: The Import Function in the Employee Settings allows files of updates to be processed and applied to the Encompassing Visions data tables. The tables that we currently allow ‘import to' are: Employees, Job Family, Job Group, Jobs, Locations, Organization Level, Organization Structure, Users and Work Unit. Documentation about the Import file formats and guidelines is available from our Technical Support team.

Q: My organization is thinking about upgrading to Windows 10. Will Encompassing Visions still work?
A: Yes, Encompassing Visions will run with Windows 10.

System Requirements

Q: My organization is considering a SQL server upgrade. How will that impact Encompassing Visions?
A: Contact Technical Support (techsupport@encv.com) for additional information.

System Requirements