I’m not convinced that the current way of disseminating info via IBNs is particularly useful, or at least, could/should be significantly improved. I’ve never seen any formal notification that info would be provided in IBNs rather than cascaded via email (which used to be the most common way), nor have my Wing (or my previous Wing) seemingly provided any training to show how to find IBNs, get notifications for them, or explain what kind of info HQAC will disseminate via IBNs. I would put money on a significant minority of OCs in my Wing not being able to navigate Sharepoint well enough to keep up to date with IBNs.
Do other Wings manage this better? Have I just been unlucky with being in Wings with relatively useless / invisible Bader POCs?
I fully agree with you, the current method is flawed. The biggest flaw is that IBNs don’t by default sent notifications/announcements to all emails.
On a personal level, I have these notifications turned on so I do get an email from each new IBN.
From a wing level, my OC wing is quite good at forwarding on IBNs that are actually important. She clearly has the notifications turned on too and will forward them to all.wing when they are important so that those staff who don’t have the notifications on can see them. I appreciate there will be a lot of wings where is doesn’t happen.
The easiest fix would be for the bader team to turn on IBN notifications by default for all emails, then everyone will see them!
I should add when I say ‘IBN notifications’ what I’m actually taking about is the SPOL HQAC announcements area notifications. IBNs are always added there so that’s how I see them.
This is a marked improvement from having a change in policy with no notice or announcement at all, and having to search through the document comparing it to a previous version to see what has changed.
They aren’t perfect but they’re a lot better than they used to be.
It’s ironic really, but the introduction of IBNs was a policy change, however the use of an IBN isn’t detailed in policy anywhere nor was it communicated, it just started happening (much like policy changes at the time that would just get slotted into the ACTO with the same level of notification as a grammar change)
The email sending would always have been a local level, it may have been cascaded down the SME Chain and then bomb burst across the local AOR.
This has long been some comments by people that say;
I’m a volunteer, don’t have time to trawl SharePoint, if it’s important I’ll get an email
I would advocate that the IBN should be uploaded to SharePoint Key Docs and rather than using RAFAC Announcements (which are viewed by chance or because you have an alert set up) that an All RAFAC email is sent with a link to the IBN and the title.
Looking at RAFAC Join as an example of major change. I know about this for a couple of reasons;
Active member here
Subscribe to IBN Updates
Subscribe to SharePoint Announcements
Have embedded news articles from Bader Hub / Training Hub / Safety Centre Portal / Safeguarding Portal into the Wing SharePoint Home Page that I review periodically
WHQ don’t want me to push this out with my Bader Officer hat on as they want to understand it all and how it fits with our Wing Onboarding Process, so this won’t be pushed out for a few weeks across the Wing but will be picked up by those who are aware.
I’m loathe to say it, but at work when we have a policy or procedure change we get an email sent to all with the details and a link to it. This works well.
However, given the number of forms and documents the RAFAC has compared to my employer this would be a nightmare. Every time a new version appeared we’d get an email. Every time there are minor grammatical adjustments we’d get an email. It’s creating admin for the sake of it.
A monthly summary might work but I like the IBN system and think it’s got a lot of merits. Something else to thank RC(N) for and supporting the volunteers with
I didn’t mean that Bader POCs should forward every IBN, more that they should provide the training to help others CFAVs use Sharepoint most effectively (I’m sure you do do that though )
I personally think they are becoming far too over used. Agree for disseminating policy changes, but the latest one telling me about a new volunteer appointment seems more an announcement than an IBN.
I’m going to make your day… They are.
The announcement triggers to say that an IBN has been uploaded, but they actually reside in the key docs.
You can find them in there via the web using the “IBN” filter button, or by just searching if using OneDrive.
do any Wings provide/deliver any training for SharePoint? I have been on three Wings in my time and not once do I recall seeing any training for any online system, be that SharePoint, SMS or Ultilearn…
I’m old enough to remember Bader coming in, the Wing I was in at the time ran training days on how to use the new fancy system. Since then, nothing and I’ve been in several Wings / Regions since then. I have raised it as I think it would be useful, for example I recently showed an experienced member of Staff how to do Bulk Upload of qualifications on SMS. There are lots of little time time-saving things that you may not know how to do. I can also see if from the other side of would people attend if something was run? Maybe not.
Back on topic though, I signed up to the notifications maybe a weekly summary would be better, given the number of them that ping in on an average week. I like the ones like today with new RA’s, but not so much the spelling mistake correction ones! I also find I know about things days / weeks before it filters down via Wing HQ / SMEs this way.
On the page where you set up the initial alerts, there are some option to select when you get notified. One of those is once a week as a summery! So I have an instant alert set up for the announcements page so I get an email straight away when an announcement is added, but I also have an alert set up on the key docs section that gives me a weekly summery. So every Friday evening it’ll send an email showing any key docs that have been added/updated!
i tend to agree - for those of us who use Sharepoint regularly and run events and thus handle SMS there is little to be gained from a 2 hour session - but is there anything for those interested staff who know nothing, or indeed part of the probation training for new staff/Staff Cadets?
