Staff database record

A staff record holds one person's details. Reach it from Databases, Staff tab: choose New, or tick one row and choose Edit.

Add or change a person

Use the tabs across the top to move between sections: Summary, Contact Details, Visa, Licences & Certificates and Inductions. All shows every section at once.
Fill in the required fields. On Summary: Job Title, Current and Date Hired. On Contact Details: First Name, Surname, Email #1 and Mobile Phone #1. A new person needs all of them, so use All or Contact Details.
Choose Save. Save stays greyed until you change something. If something required is missing, the app names it.

Saving does not update FastField at once, and the app says so: after each save a green note gives the 1:00 am upload, or straight away through Fastfield, then Sync, on the Staff tab, and the Fastfield button stays blue with a dot until you sync or change tab. See "Getting changes onto the field forms" on Databases.

Names

Enter each name as it appears on the person's passport, driver's licence or other identity document. Keep First Name and Surname to those names. A nickname goes in Other Names, never in the first name or surname.

The Full Name box cannot be typed. It shows the person's full name as on their identity document, including any other names. But the name the system stores, and uses to find the person on the field forms, in emails, in reports and in registers, is the first name and surname only. It is made for you when you add a person, and again if you change the first name or surname. Changing Other Names on its own leaves it alone, and a line under the box says so: "Other systems find this person as ...".

Other Names shows in this app, not on the field forms. A nickname in the first name or surname would show everywhere and would stop matching Terra Search's own copy of the person.

Emails and phones

An email must look like name@example.com.
A phone number can be an Australian mobile or landline, or an international number starting with +.
If one is wrong, the app says "Check the marked emails or phone numbers before saving" and saves nothing.
Optional email and phone fields can be left blank.

Mobile numbers that are not held

Some crews work under their own employer's safety system, and that employer may prefer not to record their mobile numbers with us. You no longer need to enter a placeholder or made-up number for them.

New option available: anyone who can open Settings for the profile can now turn on the Mobile numbers not held setting.
Updating staff: once it is on, you can leave a staff member's mobile number as Not held, or enter a real number if one is provided.
Existing placeholders: please don't update or clear the placeholder numbers already in the system. Our automated text messaging is still being updated to handle blank numbers safely, and removing placeholders now may cause messaging errors. We will let you know as soon as it is safe to clean them up.

For a safety profile marked "Mobile numbers not held" on the Settings screen, the Mobile Phone #1 box is not required. It shows Not held while it is empty, with a note: "This profile's people have no mobile number on file: leave it blank, or enter one if the person has it." You can then save the person with no mobile number. A number you do enter is still checked. For every other profile the mobile number is required and checked.

Contractors and notifications

Compliance Notifications controls whether the person receives compliance reminders. It can be turned off only for a person marked Contractor. For anyone else the switch is greyed and on. It is useful for people such as offsiders and drillers, who you add so that they can be picked on a field form but who should not receive reminders.

Adding a person here does not put them on a compliance list, and sends nothing. A person joins a project's compliance list when a form that adds people names them. See Staff compliance. The database decides only who can be added: the person needs a record on the project's safety profile and, for most forms, Compliance Notifications switched on.

Leaving

Back with unsaved changes asks "Do you want to save changes?": Discard, Save, or Close to stay.

Retiring or deleting a person

To retire a person, set Current to NO rather than deleting. Delete only a true duplicate, and only the copy that no compliance record points to. The Databases screen refuses to delete a person whose compliance records still exist and says what to do instead: see Databases. If you are unsure, ask Terra Search.

Your records are your own. Each record belongs to one safety profile and the app shows only your profile's records, so editing yours changes none of Terra Search's. Terra Search keeps its own copy of each person it employs or supplies, for its HR forms.

Search words: add a person, staff record, mobile number, Not held, full name, other names, nickname, licence expiry, induction, current, contractor, delete a person.