How to create and assign employee types in Jostle

Introduction

Custom Filter (not to be confused with the Custom Profile Field) is a customizable filter that appears in the Filter in People and elsewhere throughout the platform. Custom Filter is one of the three filters (the others being Locations and Org Units) that allow you to create Intersections—very specific target audiences—with the List Selector.

Employee Types is the default name for the Custom Filter. You can change this name and use this Filter for a wide variety of purposes. It’s particularly useful when you have employee groups that cut horizontally across your org chart (for example, you have sales teams spread across multiple business units).

Notes:

• The Custom Filter is optional—if you have not defined any values for it, it will not appear as a filter throughout the platform. Each user can be assigned to multiple values for the Custom Filter.
• Users can be assigned more than one Custom Filter value.
• To support complex filter structures, you can organize your Custom Filter value into a hierarchy using folders, up to three levels deep.
   

Table of contents

1. Examples of how to use Custom Filter
2. Creating and Editing Custom Filter Values
3. Assigning Custom Filters via bulk uploading
4. Assigning Custom Filters per User
5. Custom Profile Category vs. Custom Filter

Examples of how to use Custom Filter

The Custom Filter is best used for employee attributes that are often used for filtering or targeting employee groups that cannot be defined by Org Units or Locations. Examples include:

• Employee Types: Customer-facing, Back office, Development
• Employee Group: Union1, Union2, Exempt
• Employee Status: Full time, Part time, Contract

In the examples above, the bold part is the filter name, and the entries in the list are the different Categories set up for this filter. The best place to see this filter in action in the Filters panel in People:

Creating and editing filter values

A System Admin can add new filter values at the top level of the container or directly into existing folders.

To add a filter value, a System Admin should:

1. Go to Admin Settings > Filters and Badges > Configure Custom Filter (Employee Types)
2. Click Add New, then click Employee Type (or whatever the custom name is).
3. Enter a unique Name (required).
4. (Optional) add an External ID for syncing with your external systems and a Description to provide context for other Admins.
5. Click Save.

To add a filter value to a specific folder

1. Hover over the desired folder.
2. Select the action menu icon (three-dots).
3. Choose Add Employee Type (or your custom name).

Tip: If you use an External ID, it must be unique across all filter values within the Custom Filter.

Organizing with folders

Folders allow you to break down long lists of filter values into digestible, hierarchical sections. The hierarchies created here will be reflected in the filter menus for Intersections or within the People filter (Arriving soon).

1. Click Add New, then click Folder.
2. Enter a Folder Name (required) and an optional Folder ID.
3. Click Save.

Note: Folder names must be unique within their current level. For example, you can have multiple folders named "Region" as long as they are located inside different parent folders.

Managing your hierarchy

The interface supports drag-and-drop management to reorder or nest your items.

1. Moving items: Click and drag a filter value or folder into another folder to move it. If you’re moving something within a folder, the folder will highlight to indicate which one you’re moving it to.
2. Reordering: Drag an element above or below others to change its position. Existing filter values or folders will move accordingly in order to indicate their new position.
3. Nesting limits: You can nest folders up to three levels deep. The system will prevent any move that exceeds this limit.

Warning: Moving folders or filters values can cause content targeted using the folder hierarchy to become visible to unintended audiences. Please move these items with care.

Deleting filters values

To delete a filter value, select Delete from its action menu. Because deleting a filter value can affect targeted content such as News items, Discussions, or Library volumes, you will be prompted to type "DELETE" in the warning alert to confirm.

Deleting folders

You can only delete a folder if it is completely empty. If a folder contains any filter values or sub-folders, the Delete action will be disabled. You must move or delete the contents of the folder before the folder itself can be removed.
 

Assigning Custom Filter Values via bulk uploading

The Custom Filter values can be set per User by System Admins via a bulk upload. See this article for further details on bulk uploading. When updating the Custom Filter value for Users, use CustomFilterCategory as the .csv column header and enter the desired value for each Contributor. To enter multiple values for a User, separate them with the pipe character "|" in the csv file.

Assigning the Custom Filter Values per User

1. Go to Admin Settings > User Accounts and Data > Edit, Invite, Disable Users
2. Search for the person by name
   
3. Click Edit for the person you want
4. Scroll to the Custom Filter (it will appear as the name its Label is set to)
5. Select the desired Category
   
    
6. Click Save Changes

Notes:

• During an upload, if you have text set for the parameter CustomFilterCategory for a particular User and that text does not match a defined Custom Filter value, a new Custom Filter value will be automatically generated. This is particularly useful when importing employee data from a HRIS system.
• System Admins can also set the Custom Filter value for a particular User by editing the Info Tab in their User Profile.
• System Admins can set the Custom Filter field to User-owned at Admin Settings > User Profiles > Configure User Profiles. This allows Users to set their Custom Filter Category (Custom Filter value) by editing the Info Tab in their Profile.

Note: The CSV refers to Custom Filter values as Custom Filter Categories.

Custom Profile Category vs. Custom Filter

The Custom Profile Category has a similar name and setup screen as Custom Filter Category, which sometimes causes confusion.

As mentioned above, Custom Filter is a filter that can be used throughout the platform, in the List Selector, and appears in the People Filter. A user's Custom Filter Category values will also appear in the About section of Info Tab of their User Profile.

Custom Filter:

The Custom Profile Category has a similar label/value setup, but it's not a filter, so it does not appear in People Filter or the List Selector. It only appears in the Other section of the Info Tab of a User’s Profile. It can also be used to find Users via Search.

Custom Profile Category: