How behavioral data permissions work

Looking to modify behavioral data permissions, but not sure exactly what level of permissions are right for your organization?

In this article, we’ll walk through how these permissions work, what they influence, and how they might impact everyday PI software users.

How do behavioral data permissions work?

Behavioral data permissions (“BDP”) influence the level of visibility that PI users have into employee behavioral data. There are two main settings: “Open” and “Restricted.”

The Open setting is completely unrestricted. Any PI software user can search for and access any employee’s behavioral data, provided they have access to a relevant PI product (e.g., Inspire, Design).

The Restricted setting, by contrast, limits access to behavioral data so that PI software users can only search for and access data for a predetermined subset of employees. This setting can be customized based on your organization’s needs. In general, the more restrictive your BDP settings, the less users are able to see and do in the software.

Important: Behavioral data permissions only apply to employee behavioral data. Candidate behavioral data is tied to job access in Hire, and can be controlled via access to job folders.

Which PI products leverage behavioral data permissions?

In general, BDP applies to any PI product that lets users access employee behavioral data. Here’s a quick breakdown:

*Diagnose does not leverage behavioral data; therefore, BDP does not apply to it.

**Perform uses behavioral data; however, BDP does not currently apply to Perform.
(We plan to explore potential BDP interactions in the future.)

How are behavioral data permissions set?

Behavioral data permissions are set based on organization structure, which is determined using manager data. By knowing each person’s manager, the PI system can calculate reporting lines, allowing for detailed permissions based on your organization’s needs.

These are the different options available when setting restricted permissions:

• Managers can view their direct reports’ data (always enabled)
• Managers of managers can view everyone below them
• Any user can view their direct manager’s data
• Team members can view each other’s data

Example: An enterprise organization wants to encourage behavioral awareness at the individual team level, but treats org-wide data with particular sensitivity. Using BDP, they can restrict behavioral data so that only team members can view each other’s data. (By default, managers will also be able to see their direct reports.)

What aspects of PI do behavioral data permissions impact?

When BDP is set to “Restricted,” it limits what data users can search for—and, thus, what they can do in the PI software.

Here’s a shortlist of what BDP controls:

• Ability to search for and add employees to a job (Hire)
• Ability to search for and view employee reports (Inspire)
• Ability to search for add employees to a team (Design)

Put simply, BDP impacts the level of visibility a user has when using a PI product. 

Example: A Hire user attempts to search for an employee to add them as an internal candidate for a job. Based on your organization’s BDP restrictions, the user receives a message saying they lack the right permissions to add that person to the job.

How does BDP interact with employee access levels?

Employee access levels take priority over behavioral data permissions. If a user has admin access to a particular PI product, they will see all behavioral data for that product, regardless of BDP settings.

In other words, BDP controls how much behavioral data a limited user is able to see within a specific PI product.

Example: You’re a Hire admin but a limited user in both Inspire and Design. If BDP is set to restricted, you will continue to see all employee behavioral data in Hire, but will see restrictions when searching for employees in both Inspire and Design.

How does BDP interact with job or team access?

Individual job or team access takes priority over behavioral data permissions. If you have limited users in Hire or Design who have access (or are later granted access) to behavioral data through a specific job or team, those permissions are not impacted by restricted BDP settings.

Exception: Limited users can be granted access to restricted behavioral data via a job or team, but they can never search for that data themselves.

Example: A member of a marketing team only has access to view their manager’s behavioral data. If their manager gives them access to the “Marketing” team in Design, they will be able to see anyone’s behavioral data on that team, regardless of BDP. However, they will not be able to add any net-new team members they don’t have permission to add.

FAQs

Additional support

• Modifying behavioral data permissions
• Adding manager data for behavioral data permissions