Chef: Create Resource or Reactivate a Resource
Chef links directly to this page for reference. Do not delete this page.
Not everyone will see the same screens as they use Chef, depending on the role they have and the choices they make etc.
Please read the information shared below for important details you need to know about the information required by the resource management system if you are:
enter a record a new person coming onboard
enter a record for someone that was connected to us previously as an employee or contractor and is returning after an absence
bringing someone into your department that is already involved with another department (example: an academic contractor who already teaches in department A and is about to start teaching in your department)
If you’re familiar with all of these details, go directly to the section about adding information to the form.
Who/what is a resource?
Chef is the friendly interface to the RRU Resource Management system (Unit 4). Chef relies on Unit 4 for information about organizational structure, and roles within itself to determine access to certain functionality. If you were a CAMP Admin, you will notice some differences in how Chef behaves vs. how CAMP behaved.
A resource is any person with a non-student relationship with RRU. This includes employees, academic contractors, non-academic contractors, and guests.
New employees or returning employees: Only managers/resource administrators or delegates can create employee resource records and submit them for approval from P&C. Records are released for computer account creation once HR approves. Only P&C can terminate a computer account/employment for employees.
Contractors or returning contractors: Resource administrators, delegates, and ‘delegates for contractors’ can create and submit contractor resource records. No approval is required from PP&C. Records go immediately for computer account creation. This same group can terminate a computer account/employment for contractors.
More about types of resources
Enter resource information
But first, common mistakes to watch for
Wait! these two mistakes may result in records with invalid information.
Preferred name is the name you like to use, like Bob instead of Robert
First name | Preferred Name | Last Name | Correct? |
|---|---|---|---|
Robert | Bob | Smith | Yes! |
Robert | Bob Smith | Robert | No. In the ‘preferred name' field, please enter just the name by which the person wants to be called, like ‘Bob’. |
Information populated by your browser’s autofill may cause problems
If your browser has been instructed to remember your name and address or RRU’s name and address, resist the urge to select the autofill offering when you’re entering a new record into Chef. Doing so will result in a new person’s RRU Login being created with a mix of your name + their name and/or an incorrect address.
If you create a resource with the wrong name or wrong spelling, correct that mistake by initiating the name change process.
It may seem that entering a new record is the fast way around such a mistake but that will cause problems because once a resource has been created, the identifiers for that person are integrated throughout our systems. Creating a second record results in a second set of identifiers.
A record has been added in error and needs to be deleted
One example of how this can happen is if, during the searching phase of entering a record, you’ve entered a formal name for someone but we only have them on file using their common name. Chef won’t find them so you’ll be automatically continue adding them as a new person.
This is problematic because they already have an RRU Login and a resno (Resource ID) and depending on how they work with us, they may be already set up in Finance to receive payment using that original information. You wouldn’t want to set them up as a brand new, different person.
Here’s how to delete a record if you are a Resource Administrator, Delegate, or Delegate for Contractors
Is this an employee | Is this a contractor |
|---|---|
In Chef, in MY TEAM, change the ‘computer account end date’ to be the same as the start date originally provided when the record was entered | In Chef, in MY TEAM, change the ‘computer account end date’ to be the same as the start date originally provided when the record was entered |
Contact your HRC to ask them to update the resource management system following their internal processes. Say this in your email: A Chef record was created in error. We’ve changed the computer account end date to match the start date. Please update the resource management system to terminate the record for resno 123456, Person’s Name, start date yyyy-mm-dd. That will give your HRC everything they need to update the database. | Submit a ticket to IT Services to ask them to update the resource management system following their internal processes. Say this in your ticket: A Chef record was created in error. We’ve changed the computer account end date to match the start date. Please update the resource management system to terminate the record for resno 123456, Person’s Name, start date yyyy-mm-dd. That will give IT everything they need to update the database. |
Add a new record to Chef, making sure you’re finding the person and choosing to “USE THIS ACCOUNT”. | Add a new record to Chef, making sure you’re finding the person and choosing to “USE THIS ACCOUNT”. |
Adding information to the form
Ready to go?
To add a new record for a new person or to re-activate a person’s account if they have worked with us before:
Click the CREATE RESOURCE' link at the top of the page:
Choose a resource type to get started.
The list of resource types in the drop down list come from Unit 4.
When an employee type resource is added, there is an approval checkpoint at P&C before the record is moved along to have a computer account generated. And P&C is the only group who can terminate a computer account.
The employee types are CUPE, Exempt, Research, and RRUFA.
When a contractor type is added, there is no P&C involvement. Information goes directly to the computer account creation process. Resource administrators can manage the computer account termination date.
The contractor types are Academic Contractor, Contractor, and Guest.
Regardless of the resource type, some personal information is required. The person you are working with may already have a non-student relationship with RRU so start by entering some information that is unique for each person:
(1) If you know the Resource ID (resno) of the person, enter it, and then click ‘Check for existing records’. You do not have to enter any additional info.
Or else, enter one or more of the following pieces of information:
(2) Legal First Name (Given name, the name they would provide to payroll because of CRA related things, like Robert)
(3) Preferred name (the name they use daily; this will be used for the computer account and email address, like Bob)
(4) Last (Family) name
(5) Personal email address !!! must be unique to this person !!!
(Often, our employees and contractors were students first. If this person is/was a student, they’ll have an email address on file. The email address you provide here must be different from that one. We know this is the same person but they have two identities here and each needs a unique email address.)
Press Check for Existing Records
The personal information is used to check for existing/duplicate records. Here’s more information about how duplicate checking works.
IF you get a result and the information matches, scroll right and select Use this account
If you get a result but the information DOES NOT match, Create new Resource
If you DO NOT get a result and the Create New Resource button is not clickable, then the Email address is already in use. Contact the new person a request a new email address.
Tip: Gmail address ignore dots, so add a dot somewhere, anywhere after the first character and before the last character before the @, in the email address and this will trick our system into thinking this is a new email address.
Are you sure? Creating a new resource when the person was already here will result in delays as there cannot be two resources for the same person.
Now complete or update the rest of the information. The information requested varies by resource type. An example is shown below, where Chef is asking for “employment details”. This is for an employee type. If this were a contractor type, Chef would be asking for “business details”.
(1) the Primary Groups field is a drop down list that is the same as the list used in CAMP. Eventually, this will change so that we’re using the information from Unit 4 but we cannot make that change until Unit 4 and Chef are both live and working together.
(2) / (3) The Campus Location and Office Building fields, and others you may encounter, are drop down lists from which you can choose a predetermined value. Managing information this way ensures consistency in data collection and in reports. Campus location could be ‘Colwood’ for 2005 Sooke Road, ‘Langford’ for the campus on Goldstream, or ‘Remote’ for someone who is fully remote. If you choose ‘Remote’, you will not be asked to provide an office/room, etc.
Note that phone number fields can only contain numbers, dashes, and spaces.
(4) The Contract start date is the date the new person will start work.
Employees will not have an account expiry date but for contractors, you’ll be asked to enter a computer account expiry date. Ideally, this is the end date of the contract you have with them.
Because employees do not have a computer account end dates, there will be fewer notices about account expiry dates than you received previously.
You will continue to receive notices about computer accounts expiring for contractors. All of these notices come from the account management process, not Chef, just as they did not come from CAMP in the past. The account creation & termination process hasn’t changed yet.
(5) “Computer Account notification recipient” refers to where computer account related notices should go. Many departments use a shared email box for this so that more than one person can respond to notices. This should NOT be the new person’s email address.
(6) Only positions that report to this hiring manager or for whom this person has been designated the resource administrator (according to Unit4) will display in this dropdown list, even if it’s the delegate entering the information.
If the new person is a contractor, there will be no ‘position’ as these exist only for employees. In this case, you’ll type the person’s title.
(7) By default, new people are not added to the Contact directory located on www.royalroads.ca. Toggle this on if you want the new person’s name to be listed in the directory. A resource administrator can toggle this on behalf of a new person when they are entering the record. Once the record has been saved, only the person can toggle this option.
If the new person is faculty or associate faculty, they may wish to have a biography included in the Faculty Directory. If so, you’ll ask for that in the provisioning form, which you can complete once the person has a computer account.
When you are sure all the info is correct, click submit
New account are created every 2 hours from 8am to 4pm. The info will be sent to the supervisor, and in the case of Associate Faculty and Contractors, a copy will be sent to the new person as well.
If you are re-activating an account, please notify IT Helpdesk and the account should be available shortly.
Please note that Moodle access is not restored till 6:45pm that evening.
Special Cases
Adding external supervisors and committee members
The thesis and dissertation office has provided additional information about entering external supervisors and committee members.
Contractors who become employees
If a person has an active relationship with RRU as a contractor, they already have a resource record and other information recorded in the resource management system. And they already have an identity record with us and a computer account. The information that exists in these places is about their contractor self.
As a resource administrator, you will need to information about them as an employee. Here’s how:
Add a resource in Chef
Log into Chef
Enter the initial lookup information
Chef will look to see if they already exist and if they do, Chef will show you their record
Choose to ‘use this record’
Enter the remaining required information
Submit
P&C will receive an approval request.
You’ll receive a notice when P&C approves
P&C will update information in the background to make this person’s primary role ‘Employee’ instead of contractor and the person’s computer account expiry date will be changed to “never expires”.
Because they already have a computer account and email address, you may complete the provisioning form to request the things this person needs to do their job. If they are leaving their old role, this is also a good time to ask for them to be removed from the things they no longer need.
Employees who become contractors
If a person has an active relationship with RRU as an employee, they already have a resource record and employment recorded in the resource management system. And they already have an identity record with us and a computer account. The information that exists in these places is about their employee self.
As a resource administrator, you will need to record information about them as a contractor. Here’s how:
Add a resource in Chef
Log into Chef
Create a resource (choose contractor or academic contractor)
Enter the lookup information
Chef will look to see if they already exist and if they do, Chef will show you their record
Choose to ‘use this record’
Enter the remaining required information
Submit
Because they already have a computer account and email address, you may complete the provisioning form to request the things this person needs to do their job.
Note: Normally, contractors have a computer account end date that matches the end date of their contract. But the computer account for this person is already set to ‘never expire’ because this person is also an employee.
Find out how to process/prevent duplicate resource records.
Related content
How to Contact the Computer Services Department
Submit a ticket
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New! If you do not have a full RRU email address (students not currently in a credit program and/or visitors), you can create a portal account using your personal email address.
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