Proxy managers: capabilities and administration

Introduction

Required role: LMS admin.

A proxy manager can be appointed to cover any line manager’s administrative responsibilities during their absence, such as vacation or temporary work on another project, without altering the organization’s reporting structure in Microsoft Entra. An LMS admin can assign and manage proxy managers via the Learn365 Admin Center.

Proxy manager capabilities 

Currently, proxy managers can access the Line Manager dashboard and take over the following responsibilities of a line manager they’re assigned to. They can:

• See a list of their assigned manager’s direct reports and their subordinates. If the proxy manager was already a line manager, they’ll see their own direct reports and subordinates as well as those of the line manager to whom they're assigned.
• View learner’s progress and perform related actions on the Learner’s Progress dashboard on the Line Manager Dashboard. For information about the Learner’s Progress dashboard on the Line Manager Dashboard, see this article.
• Grant and revoke skills, and manage the skill proficiency of the line manager's direct reports and direct reports' subordinates via the Administration of direct reports panel on the Line Manager Dashboard.
• View and perform available actions on the Team skill proficiency page. If a proxy manager is also a line manager, they will see their own direct reports and direct reports' subordinates as well as those of the line manager to whom they're assigned.
• View and download reports on the Reports page on the Line Manager Dashboard. If a proxy manager is also a line manager, the Session Attendance report, Tracking progress report, and Learner progress report will include their own direct reports and direct reports' subordinates as well as those of the line manager to whom they're assigned. For reports that include a Subordinate level parameter, the same rule applies.
• Access the same catalogs from the catalog drop-down menu as the line manager to whom they’re assigned. For information about how line managers access catalogs, see this article.
• Enroll their subordinates in, and unenroll them from, from courses and training plans.
• Receive notifications related to the line manager’s direct reports, for example, notification of skill or certificate expiration, or session registration reminders.
• Review and approve their direct reports’ assessments, if they're assigned as an assessment supervisor.
• Access the My Team’s Training Status card on My Training Dashboard > Overview page for the subordinates of the line manager to whom they’re assigned. Proxy managers will also see a link to the Line Manager Dashboard from My Training Dashboard. For information about My Training Dashboard, see this article.

For information about the Line Manager Dashboard and its capabilities, see this article. To learn more about user administration on the Line Manager Dashboard, see this article.

View proxy managers

Go to the Learn365 Admin Center > Course Catalog Management > Global Settings > Users > Proxy managers. The Proxy managers page opens. This page shows the following information:

• Manager. The line manager to whom a proxy manager is assigned.
• Proxy managers. The person assigned as a proxy manager to the line manager.
• Email address. The email address of the proxy manager.
• Job Title. The job title of the proxy manager.
• Start date. The start date of the proxy manager’s assignment.
• End date. The end date for the proxy manager’s assignment, if provided.
• Actions. Edit and Delete enable you to manage and unassign proxy managers, respectively.

Here, you can select a column heading to sort the information in alphabetical or numerical order (ascending or descending). You can filter the information displayed by selecting the relevant checkboxes in the column filters. You can also Search for a proxy manager. The search runs on the Manager, Proxy Manager, and Email address columns.

Assign a proxy manager

1. Go to the Learn365 Admin Center > Course Catalog Management > Global Settings > Users > Proxy managers > Assign proxy manager. The Assign proxy manager panel opens.

2. In the Manager field, enter the name of a line manager to whom you want to assign a proxy manager. If you enter the name of someone who isn't a line manager, you’ll see a message.    

3. In the Proxy managers field, enter the name of the person you want to assign as the proxy manager.  This user doesn’t have to be a line manager—it can be any user in the organization or an external user invited to Learn365. You can add more than one proxy manager at a time.

4. Select a Start date. This is the date when the selected user will become a proxy manager for the selected line manager.

5. Enter an End date. This field is optional. If you know the date on which the proxy manager's assignment should expire, enter it here. If you don't, then leave this blank for now so the proxy manager’s assignment won’t expire.

6. Select Save. The proxy manager now can access to the relevant line manager responsibilities.

Edit a proxy manager

You can edit the proxy manager’s name, as well as their assignment start and end dates.

1. Go to the Learn365 Admin Center > Course Catalog Management > Global Settings > Users > Proxy managers. The Proxy managers page opens.

2. Select Edit (the pencil icon) next to the required proxy manager. The Edit proxy manager panel opens.

3. Edit the required information. You can't edit the Manager field.

4. Select Save.

Unassign a proxy manager

This action can't be undone.

1. Go to the Learn365 Admin Center > Course Catalog Management > Global Settings > Users > Proxy managers. The Proxy managers page opens.

2. Select Unassign (the bin icon) next to the required proxy manager. The Unassign proxy manager dialog opens.

3. Select Unassign. A notification is displayed when the proxy manager is unassigned.