FAQs: Manage Employee Portal and Training Module in Help Center | Zoho Desk

FAQs: Employee Portal and Training Module

Portal setup and availability

What is the Employee Self-Service Portal, and how does it differ from a customer-facing Help Center?
The Employee Self-Service Portal is an internal area of Zoho Desk Help Center designed for agents and Desk users. It gives employees a single place to consume internal knowledge base content and, when enabled, self-paced training. It is not simply a public Help Center with a different theme: access to its knowledge base content is department-aware, and training is delivered through the Training module integrated with TrainerCentral.

For example, an agent in the Returns department can access articles created in Returns categories, while completing a course on the organization’s return-authorization process from the same employee portal.
Who can enable the Employee Self-Service Portal?
An admin or an agent profile with the Support Channels permission can enable the Employee Self-Service Portal. The portal is enabled for the relevant department. That same level of access is also required to enable the TrainerCentral integration.

Enabling a portal does not give every user the right to create or edit learning content. Those capabilities depend separately on the user’s Training module permissions.
How is the Employee Self-Service Portal enabled?
  1. Navigate to Setup > Help Center > Manage Portals.
  2. Turn on Employee Self-Service Portal.
  3. Enable the TrainerCentral integration if training materials are needed.
  4. Review the terms.
  5. Select the checkbox confirming agreement to the TrainerCentral Terms of Use.
  6. Turn on the Training module in the employee portal when employees should be able to take courses there.
After the portal is enabled, an Employee subtab is added under Help Center and the Employee Self-Service Portal icon becomes available in the top menu.
Does enabling the employee portal also enable TrainerCentral?
Enabling the Employee Self-Service Portal completes the Desk–TrainerCentral integration by default. To create training materials, the TrainerCentral integration must be enabled and its Terms of Use accepted. Once available, Desk includes a Training module where courses and their completion status can be viewed.

The integration also creates a TrainerCentral portal and provides admin access in TrainerCentral. This means course authoring is not limited to a simple Desk record form: course content is created through the TrainerCentral course-creation experience.
Can the employee portal show knowledge base articles, training courses, or both?
The employee portal supports two modules:
  1. Knowledge Base: Available by default. It lists published knowledge base articles that employees are entitled to access through their department categories.
  2. Training: Available after TrainerCentral is enabled. It lets agents take training materials created in the Training tab.
An admin selects which module is displayed in the employee portal. Training is therefore not visible merely because a course exists; the TrainerCentral integration and Training option must be enabled for the portal.
Can the portal be customized for different employees or departments?
Admins can choose Default or Custom appearance from Setup > Help Center > Manage Portals and then click Update. The appearance selection is not user-specific. In other words, it controls the employee portal’s shared presentation, not a separate look for each individual employee.

 Learning content and course creation

What types of learning materials can a course contain?
A course can contain a series of lessons for product, process, onboarding, compliance, or other internal education needs. Lessons can include:
  1. Text instructions
  2. Videos and GIFs
  3. Images and diagrams
  4. Interactive polls, quizzes, and assignments
For example, a security-compliance course may combine a policy overview, a video demonstration, a quiz, and an assignment requiring the learner to upload a completed acknowledgement.
Who can create, update, view, or delete training materials?
Training module permissions control what each profile can do. Configure them in Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.
  1. Create and Update permission: Users can create and access training materials.
  2. View permission: Users can view training materials already created, but cannot create them.
  3. Edit, update, and delete options: Display only when the relevant Training module profile permission allows them.
Portal access and module permissions are separate dependencies. A user can be able to take a course in the employee portal without being allowed to edit its source training material.
How is a training course created and published?
  1. Open the Training module and click the + option.
  2. Enter the course name, subtitle, and description.
  3. Click Create Course.
  4. On the TrainerCentral course-creation page, build the lessons and configure the course.
    1. Add lesson titles, descriptions, and assignments.
    2. Adjust settings as required.
  5. In the Settings tab, configure Course compliance metrics.
  6. Open the Publish tab and click Publish now.
  7. Confirm by clicking Publish.
A course becomes accessible to users only after it is published. Drafting or editing course content alone does not make it available to learners.
Can a published course be withdrawn without deleting it?
Yes. A course can be unpublished at any time from its Publish tab and restored later. This is useful when content needs review or replacement but historical course setup should be retained rather than permanently removed.

For example, if a policy changes, the training owner can unpublish the old course while updating its lessons, then publish it again when the revised material is ready.
Where does a course open when it is selected from the Training module?
Clicking a course in the Training module takes agents to the course edit page. This is particularly important for users with authoring permissions: selecting a course from the internal Training module is an authoring-management path, while the employee portal’s Training tab is the learner-consumption path.
Can courses be organized for specific departments?
The Training module supports training materials created for specific departments. Course lessons and materials can therefore be organized to educate the intended teams on relevant products, features, or internal processes.

A practical approach is to keep onboarding content for all new employees separate from department-specific courses. For instance, Support trainees may take customer-etiquette training, while a Finance team uses a course focused on internal billing workflows.

 Employee learning experience

How do employees open internal knowledge and training content?
Agents open the Employee Self-Service Portal from its icon in the top menu bar. They can then use the enabled Knowledge Base or Training module.

The portal also provides display options:
  1. Full Screen View: Opens articles and training materials in full screen for a focused reading or learning experience.
  2. Split Screen View: Lets users view articles and training materials without switching to full screen.
What can employees do in the Knowledge Base area?
Employees can access published articles from categories in their departments. Within portal knowledge base articles, they can:
  1. View articles
  2. Follow a category
  3. Add a comment
  4. Share an article
  5. Print an article
  6. Download an article as a PDF
Department access is significant: publishing an article does not imply that every employee sees it. The article must be in categories associated with the agent’s department.
What can employees do in the Training area?
In the employee portal’s Training tab, employees can:
  1. Read course content
  2. Take assignments
  3. Upload files and images as part of assignments
  4. View their course completion percentage
For example, a learner may read onboarding lessons, answer an assignment, attach an image or file requested by the assignment, and use the completion percentage to see progress through the course.
Are employees redirected to another platform to take training?
The Desk–TrainerCentral integration is intended to let agents and Desk users take courses and assignments through the Employee Self-Service Portal rather than being redirected to other platforms. Course creation is handled through the TrainerCentral course-creation flow, but the learning experience is available within Zoho Desk’s employee portal.

 Monitoring, and reporting

What learner progress can course owners review?
The Reports tab shows the names and email addresses of agents who attempted a course, as well as the attempt date, course progress, and status. Learner data can also be recalculated or exported when needed.

For example, a training owner can export progress information before a compliance review, then identify employees whose status or completion percentage requires follow-up.
Does the current Training tab notify employees about new departmental courses or show assignment and completion lists?
These capabilities are described as upcoming enhancements, not current Training-tab functions:
  1. Notifications to agents when a course is created in their department
  2. Agent success and failure rates
  3. Course assignment
  4. Lists of completed courses
  5. Lists of courses in progress
Do not rely on these items as available behavior until they are released. Current learner actions include taking course content and assignments, uploading required files or images, and viewing course completion percentage.
What is the difference between a knowledge base article and a training course?
Knowledge Base is intended for published reference information that employees can read and interact with through their department categories. Training is intended for structured, self-paced learning, using courses with lessons, interactive elements, assignments, compliance settings, and measurable completion progress.

Use a knowledge base article for a quick internal procedure employees may need to reference during ticket handling. Use a course when the organization needs employees to work through content, complete an assignment or quiz, and track progress.