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What is a Staff Portal?

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

A staff portal is a private website used to provide members of a staff with access to important information. Staff portals may only be available on internal networks or they may be designed for access from any Internet-enabled computer for convenience. To get into the staff portal, people usually need a username and password assigned by the company's information technology department. A wide variety of information can be kept in a staff portal, ranging from employee manuals to up to date information on contributions to benefits plans.

Several companies design generic staff portals that companies can install, and companies can also design their own. The goal of a staff portal is to provide people with ready access to information they may need in the course of their work. Having this information digitized can save paper and reduce waste, in addition to allowing people to access it anywhere and at any time. In addition, employees may find staff portals helpful for tracking things like hours worked, payroll history, and so forth.

A sign in interface for a staff portal.
A sign in interface for a staff portal.

Some examples of things employers can put in a staff portal include: schedules, employee manuals, memos, payroll information, benefits information, company policies, and news items. Information technology staff are typically in charge of administering the staff portal. They keep it updated, identify security problems, address bugs as they arise, and assist employees who have difficulty accessing it in addition to assigning usernames and passwords to new employees and removing old employees from access lists.

Portals can include course modules, allowing employees to take classes through the portal. These modules may be part of required employee training or offered as a supplemental option for employees who want to improve their job performance. Quizzes and dialog boxes are used to confirm employee comprehension. Prompts can also be used with things like memos so employers know when employees read memos. This can be useful for verifying complete distribution of information to staff members.

Staff portals can contain confidential or sensitive information. Employees may be directed to always log out when they are finished, to avoid showing the portal to non-employees, and to keep their usernames and passwords secure. Staff portals may have access-restricted areas open to certain employees only where highly sensitive information is kept. Creating layers of security allows employers to protect especially sensitive data, as well as providing employees with access-locked areas to discuss and address issues of interest without allowing the whole staff to see those areas.

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a WiseGEEK researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Learn more...
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a WiseGEEK researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Learn more...

Discussion Comments

Chmander
Not surprisingly, staff portals are very similar to student portals, which are often used by college students. However, there are some similarities and differences between the two.

For both types of portals, a user name and password are required. More importantly however, they’re used to access important information, and they allow you to take classes. The biggest similarity however, is that they’re unique to both users.

In other words, though one is designed for students and one is designed for staff, they’re part of the education experience, and make up an essential part of a whole. It’s as essential for staff to have their own access as it is for students.

As for differences, staff portals are more secure than student portals. That’s not to say student portals lack security, but as the article even states, staff portals have quite a few areas with restricted access, which contain private information. Based on my experience, the only security that student portals have are entering a user name and password.

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    • A sign in interface for a staff portal.
      By: Brilt
      A sign in interface for a staff portal.