Groups are used to control access across your digital workplace.
Sections in this article:
Considerations
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Members group vs. space group: Enterprise and workplace administrators can use member groups and space groups interchangeably. However, space administrators can only change the membership in their space groups. Use member groups to control access in areas where you want administrative control over who can have access. Use space groups anywhere that the relevant space administrator should have some say over access.
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Members System group: Everyone in your workplace is in the Members system group. Every time you add someone to the site or revoke their membership, they are added to or removed from that group. See Manage Members for more details.
Groups
System groups
System groups are the default organizing groups of your digital workplace. They allow you to distinguish between members who can administrate the entire workplace and those who can participate in it.
- Administrators: Membership in the Administrator group allows Full access to all features and functions across your workplace, including all features within the Control Panel. Typically, only a few people are made members of the Administrators group. These people are in charge of the creation, maintenance, and upkeep of the entire digital workplace. Membership in the Administrators group also overrides all access rules. If people require specific administrative powers, consider using roles.
- Members: Everyone who can log into your workplace is automatically part of the Members group. This group can be used to set up access rules and subscriptions for areas in your workplace where you wish everyone to have some level of access.
Member groups
As an enterprise or workplace administrator, you can create as many member groups as you need to break up, organize, and collect members for their varied needs within your workplace. People can be in as many or as few member groups as needed, and groups can be as large or small as you like.
Space groups
Space groups allow the organization of members who have access to a particular space in the digital workplace.
- Space administrators: Each space can assign space administrators. Anyone in a space’s Administrators group has Full access to that space and the Space Administration Panel.
- Space members: Every space has its own Members group, which can be used like any other member group. However, space administrators can add and remove people from the Members group in their space.
- Space groups (within a space): Enterprise, workplace, and space administrators can create as many sub-groups as needed to manage access and notifications within a space. Everyone added to a space group is also automatically added to the Members group of that space.
Best practices
Contractors or interns
Some organizations have contractors, part-time employees, board members, or interns who shouldn’t have broad access to their workplace, while regular employees do. The most common way to deal with this is to create two member groups: one for regular employees and the other for contractors. The regular employee group would then be used in place of the All Members group when setting up access across the site to avoid the risk of exposing anything that shouldn’t be available to the contractors.
Groups of one
While it is possible to create access rules for individuals, it is almost always preferable to use groups instead. Create a group and add your single person to that group. You can then use this group to give that individual special access where needed, which has a significant advantage in long-term maintenance. If that person ever gets replaced or their team grows, you only have to update the group and do not have to adjust access rules throughout the digital workplace.