User Policies vs Group Policies

Company Managers can customize the functionality of Workplace on both a User and Group Level. When multiple levels of functionality are set, it can be confusing to determine what functionality does a user actually has access to.

The Default Policy

When a user is added to a group, the user will inherit the policy defined at the group level.  For example, we have updated the policy for Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) for the Marketing group.  We have set the policy to require SMS Verification for the MFA.
SMS_Group.png

When we view the security options of a member of the group, Gene Krantz, we can see the MFA policy states the policy is set to SMS Verification because it inherits the policy from all available groups.
SMS_User.png

Multiple Groups Policy

In some cases, a user may belong to multiple groups with conflicting policies. When Workplace elevates the policy settings at the group level, Workplace utilizes an OR rule to determine if a policy is active.  For example, the user, Gene Krantz, is assigned to two groups, Marketing, and Sales

The policy for Allow On-Demand Work Folders for the Marketing Group is Disabled.  The policy for Allow On-Demand Work Folders for the Sales Group is Enabled.  Since Workplace utilizes an OR rule to determine a user's policy, Gene Krantz's account will have Allow On-Demand Work Folders set to Enabled.  

The User Override

Workplace follows a "lowest to highest" approach with permissions, settings, and policies. 

levels.png

For example, we have updated the policy for Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) for the user, Gene Krantz.  We have set the policy to require No Verification for the MFA.

When we view the security options at a group level, in this case, Marketing, we can see the policy for Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) is set to SMS.
SMS_Group.png

When Gene Krantz signs in to Workplace, the user will not be presented with Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) because the policy at the lowest level (User) is set to none.

Was this article helpful?