Now that you learned the basics of creating Time-Based Smart Groups let's go over a few Use Case examples you may encounter in your company. If you haven't already learned how to create Time Based Smartgroups or are not sure how they work, then we recommend you read the article attached here, before you continue with this one!

This article will go over some basic and complex examples of time-based smart groups including:

Now let's get started!

Say that after one year at the company your employees receive a specific benefits package. You may want to create a smart group that contains only those users.

Step 1: We would first go to the User profile and select the settings icon in the top right hand corner. Once inside the employee details menu we will use the +Add Button to create a Custom Field called Employment Start Date. Then we would make sure this field is filled out in all our users' profiles

Step 2: We would navigate to our Smart Groups and create a Segment called Seniority and a Smart Group named 1 Year Seniority inside it.

Step 3: We would set the Smart Groups filter to be Employment Start Date (Custom Field) is within the range of the last (days) 365 to 20,000 (Filter). This will gather all the users who have worked at the company for more than one year.

You have now created a time-based smart group for all your users who have been in the company for more than 1 year. As you can see in the example the list only includes those whose start date was more than 365 days ago

You may have some users who are new to your company. You may want to assign all the users who have been in the company for less than 3 months to an onboarding course. Creating a Time-Based Smart Group ensures that all past and future new employees who meet the smart group's criteria will be automatically added to the group.

Step 1: To set this up we would continue using the Employment Start Date Custom Field we created above.

Step 2: We would then create another Smart Group under our Seniority Segment and name it New Employees.

Step 3: Set the smart group's filter as Employment Start Date (Custom Field) is in the last (months) 3 months (Filter). This constantly gathers all the users who have been in the company for less than 3 months.

Let’s say your users have a certification that needs to be renewed by a certain date. You may like to create a group containing only users whose certification needs to be renewed within the next month.

Step 1: First, we will make sure we have created a Time-Based Custom Field named Certification Renewal Date. Then make sure this field has been filled out in each of our user's profiles.

Step 2: We will create a Segment named Renewals and a Smart Group named Certification Renewal inside it.

Step 3: We set the filter to be Certification Renewal Date (Custom Field) is next month. This will gather all my users whose renewal date falls within the next month. Notice how all your employees' certification renewal date is within the next month.

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We understand that sometimes things may be more complicated, especially if you are a larger company with multiple jobs or branches. For this reason, we allow you to create Smart Groups based on multiple filters. If one of those filters is Time-Based, then the Smart Group is automatically considered a Time-Based Smart Group.

Let's go over a few examples that you might experience in your company!

Let’s say we run a restaurant and we have hired new cooks who we want to assign to an onboarding course. You may want to great a group containing all your new users who are cooks.

Step 1: We will make sure that the Position (Custom field) is set to Cook and that the Employment Start Date (Time Based Custom Field) has been added inside the user's profile.

Pro tip: If you dont remember how to create a custom field that's ok! Have a look steps above or at our Custom Fields article.

Step 2: We will create a new Segment named Onboarding and a Smart Group named Cooks Onboarding inside it.

Step 3: Unlike our previous examples, however, when setting the filters of this Smart Group we will set 2 filters. The first filter will be set as Position (Custom Fields) is Cook (Filter 1). The second filter will be set as Employment Start Date (Time Based Custom Field) within the past (weeks) 4 weeks. (Filter2). Together these will gather all our cooks who started working within the past 4 weeks.

Notice that for all the users the Position is Cook and the Employment start date is within the past 4 weeks.

Pro tip: At this point, you may be wondering how this group is time-based? Well, the moment a user's employment start date is more than 4 weeks ago, they will not be included in this smart group, even if their branch is set to Midtown. If they are a part of the group, and then they have reached 4 weeks of employment at the company then they will automatically be removed from the group.

Many companies, especially larger ones have more than one branch, and each may want to create a time-based smart group for their new employees. Let's use the example of creating a smart group that contains all of our users who began working at our Midtown Branch within the last 3 months.

Step 1: First I will go to the User's profile. I will make sure the Branch (Custom field) is set to Midtown and that the Employment Start Date (Time Based Custom Field) contains a date.

Step 2: I will create a Segment named New Employees and a Smart Group called Midtown New Employees

Step 3: We will create a smart group with 2 filters just like we did in the previous example. Only this time the first filter will be set as Branch is Midtown and the second filter will be set as Employment Start Date is on the Last (Months) 3 months.

In the example below you can see this gathers the users whose Branch is Midtown and whose certification renewal date is within the next 3 months.

Now that has gone over some based and advanced cases, let's take it to the next level. Say we have hired bartenders for our Midtown branch and we want to create a smart group containing only the bartenders joining this branch in the next month. How would we do this?

Step 1. We would add our future employees to the Connecteam platform, and make sure their user's profile includes the Custom Field Branch is Midtown, Job is Bartender, and that they have an employment start date.

In the example below you can see that our future employee Carl's user profile includes all of these.

Step 2: Inside our Onboarding Segment, We will create a Smart Group and Name it Midtown Bartenders Onboarding.

Step 3: We will set our Smartgroups Filters. In this case, however, we will have 3 Filters. The first will be Branch in Midtown. The second will be Job is Bartender. The third will be the Employment Start Date is within the range of the last (weeks) 0-4. Together these filters gather all our users are bartenders at the midtown branch who have joined the company in the past 4 weeks.

Notice in the example below that everyone in the group has the Branch Midtown, the Job Bartender, and an employment start date within the next 4 weeks.

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