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Have you ever wanted an easy way to put a name to a face? Our Human Resources department was thrilled when they learned we had the capability to add pictures in Vista because here at the City of Boulder we have over 1,200 employees spread across 58 locations and it's hard to know everyone.
If you are thinking about adding pictures, the first step in the process should be communicating to staff that you are planning to do this and allowing them the opportunity to express any concerns they may have. You don't want them to be surprised when they open up Vista and see their picture staring back at them.
In your communication it is important to express the purpose behind implementing pictures; our reasons had to do primarily with safety and security. Additionally, you may want to take the opportunity to address any privacy concerns and provide assurance to employees regarding who has access to this information. We have found most employees are receptive to the idea of having their photo in the system.
Now that you've communicated to staff, the next step in the process is how to do it. All you really need is a digital camera and a computer. At the City, new employees have photos taken when they are issued an annual bus pass. Now instead of just deleting these pictures, we are saving them in order to develop our photo gallery.
At the moment, we are building the gallery as we hire employees, but are considering going around to departments and offering to take photos. We suggest checking with individual departments to see if they currently have pictures on file for their employees. For example, our Fire department maintains photos on their employees and provided them to us to add to their Vista records.
In terms of file format, saving the picture as *.bmp or *.jpg seems to work best. You have two options in terms of how you name the photos - last name & first initial (e.g. smithj) or person id. We began saving the files with the last name and first initial of the employee, but soon discovered this was a problem because it will populate the picture in any employee's record matching that configuration. For example, a picture labeled as smithj will show up in both Jane Smith and John Smith's record, so our recommendation is to use the employee's person id.
PDS Note:
- Images can be named as person_id, last name + first initial, last name + first initial of the "AKA" name, or just last name. However, person_id is the best for the reasons stated above.
- Images can be stored as .gif, .jpg, or .bmp files. However, either .gif or .jpg are preferable to .bmp because .bmp files take a little longer to load.
- Images can be stored in the Images subfolder of the folder defined by the "VistaRoot" virtual directory, in the Images subfolder of the folder defined by the "HomePage" virtual directory, or in the folder defined by the "Images" virtual directory.
You'll need to save the pictures in the Homepage/ Images Directory on your webserver. If you are unsure where that is located, refer to your Vista Installation guide, which will tell you where it was created in your initial installation. The photo will appear in Vista on the Employment Information screen under the Employee drop down menu, the Personal Information screen under the Personal drop down menu and the employee's record in Security under Users. Here is an example of how the picture appears in Vista on the Employment Information screen.
Good luck and happy picture taking!
Krissi Kaplan
HRIT Manager
City of Boulder
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