This article provides guidance on identifying and resolving duplicate staff profiles in preparation for the DfE School Workforce Census. It details the process for merging or deleting profiles, the necessary permissions, and the implications of these actions, emphasising that merges and deletions cannot be undone. It also addresses common FAQs regarding bulk actions and handling unflagged duplicates.You can identify and resolve suspected duplicate records for:
- student duplicates in preparation for DfE School Census
- guardian duplicates to improve communication to guardians and save costs on avoiding to send multiple text messages to the same guardians
- staff duplicates (shown below) in preparation for DfE School Workforce Census
Please note that once a profile merge has been carried out this cannot be undone, so be sure to carefully check the two profiles you intend to merge before carrying out the operation.
Permissions
You need the Staff Profile: All Staff: Basic HR Administration permission to delete a single staff member from their profile, and the School: General Admin: Administer permission to merge staff profiles via the data quality dashboard. If you don't have permission, you'll need to ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.
Merging or deleting staff profiles
When the system has been able to identify a duplicate staff member, everyone with the School: General Admin: Administer permission (your admin team, Head Teachers and SLT by default) sees this in their To Do list on their homepage.
To resolve duplicate staff, click an unresolved suspected staff duplicate item in your To Do list, or go to School > Data > Data Quality > Suspected Duplicates > Staff.
On the Suspected Duplicates page for staff, you see Unresolved and Resolved duplicates in separate tabs.
- On the Unresolved tab, Arbor colour-codes potential matches based on how many fields on both profiles are the same. Duplicates marked in red are most likely to be a match, and green duplicates are least likely to be a match. Clicking on a suspected duplicate opens a slide over, where you can see exactly which pieces of data match in the Comparison table.
- The Resolved tab shows an overview of previous suspected duplicates and their resolutions. Refer to the Resolution column to see if the duplicate record was resolved by merging two profiles, deleting a profile or keeping two profiles separate.
Managing staff duplicates
To merge or resolve two duplicate staff profiles:
- Go to School > Data > Data Quality Dashboard > Suspected Duplicates > Staff.
- Click the row that includes the staff you would like to merge.
- Review the information in the Comparison Table on the slide over to help with choosing a resolution. Navigate to a specific profile by clicking the grey Go to Staff A/B buttons, if needed.
- For further information on what each resolution does, click the red Which Resolution Should I Use? box.
- When you're ready, choose your Resolution using the dropdown:
- Merge staff B into staff A - blank fields in Staff A will be filled by information from Staff B and if conflicting information exists for a field, the information from Staff A and Staff B will be kept
- Merge staff A into staff B - blank fields in Staff B will be filled by information from Staff A and if conflicting information exists for a field, the information from Staff B and Staff A will be kept
- Keep records separate - nothing is changed and there will continue to be two separate profiles.
- Click Resolve
- Click Resolve on the pop-up too to confirm the changes
The resolved duplicates will then move to the Resolved tab.
Mergers from staff profiles
Suspected duplicates can also be merged from staff profiles, using the red View & Resolve Suspected Duplicate button on the right-hand side of their profiles. Clicking this button opens the same slide-over as clicking a suspected duplicate from the Data Quality dashboard does.
This button only shows for suspected duplicate profiles, so you can use this to identify whethere a profile is potentially a duplicate too.
Deleting a single staff member
Deleting staff members should only be done if they're record is a duplicate or they have been added to your site in error.
You should not delete staff who have worked in your school, as the data may be required for the Workforce Census. For these staff, we recommend following the data retention policy instead.
If you want to delete a duplicate staff member, you'll need to do this from the Admin section of their staff profile. This process cannot be reversed, so make sure this is the correct course of action.
To delete a single staff profile:
- Navigate to the staff member's profile
- On the main profile page, scroll down to the yellow Admin section right at the bottom of the page
- Click Delete this staff member
- Tick the four boxes to confirm you wish to delete the profile and all contacts, contact details, absences and all other information for the staff member. All four boxes are required.
- Click the red Delete [Staff member's name] button
- Confirm the deletion on the pop-up with the red Delete button
FAQ
Can we delete profiles in bulk?
It is not possible to delete profiles in bulk from the Duplicates page or anywhere else. Profiles cannot be restored once deleted, so it's very important you check a deletion is needed on a per-case basis.
Can we merge profiles in bulk?
No, it is not possible to merge profiles in bulk. Profiles cannot be un-merged, so it's very important you check a merge is needed for each potential duplicate that is flagged.
Can we keep records separate in bulk?
Yes, you can.
Just tick the boxes next to the profiles you want to keep separate on the Unresolved tab. Click the green Bulk action button to select Bulk set as 'Keep separate'.
They'll then show in the Resolved tab.
Someone is a duplicate but isn't flagging as one
If you're sure that two staff members are duplicates but aren't being identified as duplicates, make sure that their names and identifiers, like dates of birth, are identical, as variations in spelling and dates can stop duplicates from being flagged.
Please note that if a user has a guardian and a staff profile, these do not count as duplicates.
Go to the profile that has the incorrect name, and change their name to exactly match the name on the other profile.
If they're not flagging as Unresolved on the Data Quality Dashboard, be sure to check the Resolved tab to see if someone mistakenly chose to keep the profiles separate.
Can I undo the resolution I chose?
- If you have merged or deleted profiles, this cannot be changed.
- If you have chosen to keep records separate, you can change the resolution.
Click into the Resolved tab and select the resolved duplicates. In the slide over, you can then select a new resolution.
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