To help you efficiently manage People records and simplify your workflow, Thoropass offers functionality to combine multiple records for the same individual into one consolidated profile. This guide explains how record combining works, including automatic and manual processes, and details how this affects assignments like trainings and acknowledgements.
How Combining Works
Automatic Combining
Thoropass automatically combines employee records linked to the same user. Records are linked to the same user when they have the same email address:
One record is designated as the Primary, and all others become Aliases.
The Primary record is determined based on employment status, creation date, and user access status, ensuring the most relevant, current record is always Primary.
New employee records appearing for the same person often happens as the result of job title changes depending on the various ways that employee records can be configured within the many HR systems supported through our integration.
Most of the time, a job title change or any other changes to the employee record in the HR system will not come through as a new employee record, and will simply update the details of the existing record.
However, in the cases where the record is coming through the integration with a distinct identifier (what we consider "new"), we append the record rather than overwrite it, to ensure that your People table data accurately reflects your HR system.
Manual Combining
You can also manually combine employee records associated with different users – employee records with different email addresses. This is may happen as the result of a company domain change:
Select two or more employee records from the People table.
Click the Actions button at the top and select Combine.
A preview will display showing the potential results of the combination.
Choose which record to designate as Primary.
Confirm the combination.
Similar to the automation combination described above, changes to an employee's email may come through with the same record ID and therefore overwrite the existing record instead of creating a new one.
Main Benefits of Combining
Combining records offers several benefits:
Accurate Representation of Your Workforce: Avoid duplication and accurately represent your population in the People table, providing clarity and easier management.
Consolidating Training and Acknowledgment History: An individual might initially complete training under one user record and later, due to email domain changes or other circumstances, complete additional training under a different user record. By combining these records, Thoropass ensures all trainings and acknowledgements are correctly credited, providing a comprehensive and accurate record.
Consolidating Training and Acknowledgement
As mentioned above, a main benefit of combining records is to ensure that trainings or acknowledgements completed or assigned across different identities of the same person on Thoropass can be consolidated.
Below is an example of how the consolidation process works.
As long as one of the individual records completed a background check, the combined record will reflect a passed background check (#1)
As long as one record completed a particular training or acknowledgement, the combined record will reflect a completed training or acknowledgement (#2, #4, #5)
If multiple users were assigned the same training or acknowledgement and none of them completed it, duplicate assignments will be canceled, and the primary record will retain the incomplete assignment (#6)
Even if the primary wasn't assigned a training or acknowledgement, any incomplete assignments will be moved to the primary (#3)
Impact on a Choosing Primary
The employee information for the primary record will appear on the People table and as of right now, will be the only data that will be considered when you search or filter on the table.
Training and Acknowledgement Eligibility
Both the employment status and the user role/status of the primary record will impact whether or not that person will continue to be eligible for new trainings or acknowledgements. If the primary's employment status is "Inactive" or their Role within their profile appears as "Access Revoked," that person will not be eligible to receive new trainings or acknowledgements.
Employment Statuses | Valid User Roles/Statuses |
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Note that these "eligibility rules" are not unique to combined employee records and also apply to uncombined people on the People table.
If you attempt to select this record as primary when at least one of the other records you're attempting to combine it with is eligible, you'll be warned before performing the "Combine".
Integrated Data
We also advise that if combining an HR-integrated with a manually created record, that you choose the HR-integrated record, as that is the most accurate data, reflective of your source of truth for People data.
Similarly, we will warn you if you attempt to select a "Data Source: Manual" record over a "Data Source: [HR Provider]" record as the Primary.
There may be cases where for a particular individual whose employment status is "active/current" (who still works at your company and should still be receiving trainings and acknowledgements), the user linked to their HR-integrated record has had their access revoked, making them ineligible for future trainings or acknowledgements, while the user linked to their manually created record is active. When this happens, there isn't a immediately perfect choice:
Choosing the HR-integrated record will mean that the person can no longer receive trainings or acknowledgements because their access was revoked.
Choosing the manual record means the primary information about a person on your People table is not aligned with your source of truth.
As a solution, you can invite that user back to the platform. This is a reasonable option if the user only uses Thoropass to complete trainings and acknowledgements (has a "Viewer" role), as the duplicate users won't impact the rest of the platform. It's not advised otherwise, as you'll see that person appear twice when selecting owners, or mentioning people in comments.
In this case, please contact Support, and we can assist you to modify the records to be in an eligible state.
Accessing Training and Acknowledgement
Combining records will not impact the underlying user's ability to login, which can continue to be tracked via the Users table. If 2 employee records are combined, both linked to active users, the person with those 2 login accounts will be able to access the training or acknowledgement tasks in either account, and see the combined completion records from across their accounts.
Uncombining Records
If two or more records were combined by mistake, the Admin can uncombine records from within the profile.
If done immediately after combining, all background check, training and acknowledgement data will be completely restored
If a record is uncombined after the user completed one of those trainings or acknowledgements, that completion record will remain with the record that was primary during the time of completion – it will not be shared across aliases.
