The new year is almost here, and so is this bumper release for Humanforce Cloud, packed full of updates to make workforce management easier. 

We’re delighted to be adding Assign shift via Bid Manager so you can save time by skipping the offer-accept/decline process, where an employee has already bid for a shift. We’re also introducing multiple improvements to Timesheets, Template Manager, new fields in Workforce Analytics and more!

Now available in staging environments, all Humanforce Cloud accounts will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 10th January 2024.

Assign shift via Bid Manager 

Management > Shift > Bid Manager

This new functionality in Bid Manager allows a user to directly assign - rather than just offer - a shift to an employee who bid for it. The employee will not need to accept the shift for it to be assigned/confirmed. It effectively bypasses the entire Offer process, meaning managers can more quickly fill vacant shifts with employees who have expressed a desire to work that shift.

Visit Humanforce Help for all the details on how to enable Assign shift via Bid Manager for your team.

Visit Humanforce Help

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

There are multiple improvements to Timesheets in this release!

Facial recognition and 7-day default date range

• Facial recognition images for clock in/out are now available in Timesheets by clicking the new info icon that will appear in the Pay Start and/or Pay End columns, where an image has been captured.
  
  
  
  
  
• To better reflect a working week, the default date range has been amended from 8 days to 7 days.
• On timesheets with a start date in a previous month, the Start Date field will now retain the correct date where the start time (hour or minute) is cleared and new values entered.

Clearer labels and ways to work fast

• The No Pay Company filter label has been amended to All Pay Companies as the filter displays timesheets for all pay companies, not timesheets that have no pay company, which has caused confusion in the past. The functionality of this filter does not change. 
• To make it clearer how to resize columns, we've updated the visual design to show the exact location on where to hover to make the resizing changes. 
• Minimum column widths have been reduced so you can squeeze more into view, and any changes made to column widths will now be retained. 
• The filters that a user applies when converting rosters to timesheets are now retained after selecting all records from all pages.

Timesheet Splits

• We've increased the number of splits that can be applied to a timesheet, from four to eight, bringing the Timesheets screen into line with the functionality of the Daily Authorisation screen. 
• When timesheets are split, grouping by employee now correctly sums the total roster hours so it doesn't appear an employee is rostered for more hours than they actually are.
• We rectified an issue found in rare scenarios that caused some split timesheets to become overlapping.

Further Timesheet Improvements

We’ve disabled checkboxes, where the user doesn’t have permission to use them.

Specifically, where a user's View Timesheet Authorisation Page > Allow editing > Override authorisation level permission is inactive, the checkboxes in the No Grouping view against over-authorisation timesheets will be disabled. Instead, a tooltip will appear upon hover to indicate the reason it is disabled.

The reason for this change is that in this view, the bulk change options (Authorise and Delete) that require those checkboxes to be selected are not valid for over-authorisation timesheets.

Note that the checkboxes for these timesheets when Grouping by Employee will not be impacted by this change as the bulk Confirm function in that grouping view is valid for over-authorisation timesheets.

Template Manager for Rostering

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

• Unassigned shifts will now show costing where the Allow role costing setting has been configured.
• When Group by Location is selected, newly created shifts are now being displayed within the grid after saving. 
• Unassigned shifts that had previously been assigned to an employee are now showing the correct cost when assigned to a new employee. 
• Editing shifts in some circumstances was causing an internal server error. This has now been resolved

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

An issue impacting payroll has been resolved. Payruns can now be reprocessed without any timeouts

Employee Roster

Management > Rostering > Employee Roster

If a shift has a start date in a previous month, the Start Date field will now retain the correct date where the start time (hour or minute) is cleared and new values entered.

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

When viewing the Workforce analytics payroll data, the report now includes the following additional fields for the roster data:

• Roster Item ID
• Start Date
• End Date
• Roster Net Mins
• Roster Gross Mins
• Roster Break Length
• Roster Non Attended.

We’ve also resolved an issue where KPI reports excluded Organisation group costs and hours if pay types were configured. Organisation group costs and hours will now display as expected when pay type filters are used.

Location Maintenance

Admin > Org Structure > Locations

When editing a location, large combinations of Locations, Department, and Region will now be saved when Select ALL and Assign to ALL options are selected.

Perform through the holiday season with confidence

To ensure you are well placed to meet the challenges of operations over the busy holiday season, we are pausing our release schedule for Humanforce Cloud until Wednesday 10th January 2024. 

The final automatic update for 2023 (version 6.0.14), occurred overnight on Wednesday 22nd November 2023, and we look forward to returning in the new year with our regular fortnightly updates, resuming on Wednesday 10th January 2024 (version 6.0.17). 

As usual, we’ll provide advance notice of what the automatic update on 10th January 2024 will include, with release notes provided here by Wednesday 20th December. 

Note: the sequencing of automatic updates from 6.0.14 to 6.0.17 is because of the need to align with continuing internal deployment processes. 

Prepare for Public Holidays

Stay compliant and control costs this festive season by preparing for public holidays. Need help with how to set up public holidays? Check out these resources (sign-in required): 

• For step-by-step instructions visit How do I prepare for a Public Holiday?
• For a refresher on setting up Public Holidays from a Humanforce expert trainer, check out the Admin Fundamentals video (starting at 47:06)

We are excited to introduce our new QR clocking capability, which is designed for fast, secure, high-volume clocking environments, using the Humanforce web kiosk and Humanforce Work App.

🔥 What’s New?

At the time of clocking into to a shift, employees will be able to open their Humanforce Work app, go to the clocking screen, and tap on the QR code icon next to the Start Work button, as indicated below  

This will open a screen with a QR code, which refreshes every 3 seconds.

The employee simply holds up the QR code to the web camera on the Humanforce kiosk and clocks into their shift using the scanned QR code.

⭐️ Why it matters

Advanced QR Clocking provides a fast, secure, and easy-to-use, additional reliable method for clocking in.

Perfect for high-volume clocking environments, employees simply self-generate their individual secure QR code on their phone and scan it via the kiosk, to clock in.

Offering greater flexibility in poor mobile phone reception environments, if the employee is already signed into the Humanforce Work app and the kiosk remains online, a QR code can be generated in the app and used to clock in.

Our new Advanced QR clocking provides an additional or alternative option for clocking in, either via the kiosk, finger vein scanner, facial recognition, or pin/password login.

With issued QR codes refreshed every three seconds, Advanced QR Clocking offers a powerful option for organisations seeking to prevent timesheet fraud.

🏁 Getting Started 

To quickly set up permissions and activate users, check out this article. 

Employees can read this article explaining how they can start using this exciting new feature. 

Please note: Advanced QR Clocking is only available for Humanforce Cloud customers using the Humanforce Work App. via kiosks.

We have made some recent improvements to our Contract Management feature. Additionally, we are continuing our efforts to update HR Core metrics tiles on more analytics pages. This will enable you to easily view essential metrics at the top and get a quick snapshot of important information.

Contracts Management

Organisation  > Contracts 

1. Saved signatures: The ability for users their saved e-Signature for quick and convenient signing of intelliHR generated contracts. Users can now easily sign contracts with a button click using the saved text-based signature (as shown in the image below). User can also choose the option to sign electronically by hand by selecting “Draw” option.

   
   
   

2. Edit/resolve missing contract template placeholder values: Contract placeholder values are now displayed on a single page in the “Issue Contract” flow, to save you from manually reading through the contract to find missing values. It is now easier for contract issuers to identify and resolve missing placeholder values or edit the values manually if required. 

   
3. Save / print contracts to PDF document: For users who would like to save or print their contract so that they can review it later without logging into the platform, you can now print contracts in PDF format directly from the platform and save them anywhere in your selection destination. The PDF now will include all images and signatures for completed contracts.

Analytics

We have updated Core Metrics Tiles for the analytics page below:

• Task Compliance
• Span of Control
• Recruitment Spend

Core Metric Tiles on top of the analytics page give you a quick snapshot of important metrics of the analytics page within the selected period. 

Data Import/Export Tool

Settings > Data Import/Export 

The Data Import/Export tool is used to upload data and make bulk changes to the system using CSVs. We are delighted to announce that you can now import/export bulk Qualifications data into/from the platform. This enables user admins to quickly update bulk data into the platform, saving time from creating qualifications for each employee one by one. 

Introducing more improvements to Timesheets (including the return of a favourite filter), a new overtime indicator on shifts in Template Manager, stronger validation checks in Bid Manager and more!

Now available in staging environments, all Humanforce Cloud accounts will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 22nd of November 2023.

Product Updates within Humanforce Cloud

The information about releases and new features (as shown on this page), will be shared within your Humanforce Cloud product via a What's New button in the main menu.

We know change management requires careful planning, and Administrators may prefer that only some parts of the workforce see the extra information about upcoming new features, to avoid any confusion.

That’s why the visibility of the What’s New button will be in your hands via Access Levels > Permissions.

If you need to restrict the visibility of the What’s New button:

1. Go to Admin > Security Config > Access Levels
2. Click the relevant access level to edit, and open the Permissions tab
3. Search for Release
4. De-select the permission View Product Release Notes Page (What’s New)
5. Click Apply Changes.

Note that if you do nothing, all users will see the What’s New button from 15th November 2023.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

Save time with three improvements to Timesheets:

1. We've listened to feedback and reintroduced a view that includes all timesheets as well as No-Shows. This new All timesheets & No-Shows filter effectively provides the same results as the All timesheets view previously offered (before No-Shows were removed).
   

   
2. The selection of the Pay Date option in the date filter now accurately displays all timesheets within the date range selected based on Pay Date.
3. The View timesheets outside of user's rostered events permission, which previously was only applicable to the Daily Authorisation screen, has now been applied to Timesheets. This permission is active by default. When deactivated, it limits the user to viewing Timesheets that match the Event they are currently working at - or have worked at in the last 24 hours. This is ideal for the scenario where an employee is asked to authorise timesheets for the event they are temporarily managing, and so should not have access to any other Events.

Template Manager for Rostering

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

To help identify when overtime is being calculated within a shift, if the pay type has been set as "Treat as overtime payment" we are now showing a warning within the shift.

We've also fixed an issue where pay rates were being shown within the advanced search section for users without permissions to see costs.

Bid Manager

Management > Shift > Bid Manager

We’ve added a validation check when offers are submitted, to prevent offers being sent in response to bids that have been withdrawn (which can occur if the Bid Manager screen has not been refreshed between the bid withdrawal and the offer submission). The validation check will be applied when the user submits the offer(s). Where one or more of the bids being offered is invalid, a warning will be displayed and the user will be invited to refresh the page to view updated bids before resubmitting the offer(s).

Whispir SMS Gateway for Shift Offer

Staff Availability

Management > Availability > Staff Availability

Selecting Show Leave Block Info will now accurately display grey/black out periods for the selected start and end date across multiple months.

Employee Onboarding

Management > Employee > Employee Onboarding

When onboarding an employee, the Employee code and Payroll code can now be edited to allow for custom codes to be used. To prevent duplicates, validations have also been added for both fields to ensure codes entered are unique in the system.

Questions or comments? Let us know below!

Introducing more flexible permissions for Timesheets, faster load times in Workforce Analytics, and more!

Now available in staging environments, all Humanforce Cloud accounts will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 8th November 2023.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

A new permission has been created which provides access to all pay companies in Timesheets, without giving access to the Payroll Screen. The new permission is available under View Timesheets Authorisation Page > Allow access to all pay companies.

This permission replaces the existing version Payroll Screen > Allow access to all pay companies, which when active also gave access to the Payroll screen itself.

The new permission specifically relates only to Timesheets functions. The Payroll Screen permission now only applies to Payroll.

All users with the Payroll version of the permission active have automatically been given the new permission, ensuring all users with access to all Pay Companies in Timesheets continue to do so.

With this additional flexibility, it is recommended that all customers check their access levels for the permission under Payroll Screen and remove that permission for all access levels that do not require access to the Payroll screen. To check or adjust permissions, visit Admin > Security Config > Access Levels.

For step-by-step instructions, visit Humanforce Help.

More improvements in the Timesheets screen

Along with minor UI improvements in the Timesheets screen, we’ve changed the way No Shows appear in the Reason column.

A hyphen (-) has replaced No-show in the Reason column (as No show is not a valid reason). No show will continue to appear in the Status column on No show records.

In addition, the Reason filter is now sorted in alphabetical order.

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

We’ve improved the performance of the Employee Extended data source in Workforce Analytics, so data is loaded and displayed more quickly in the reports using this datasource. 

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

Payrate and Hourly Rate columns are now displayed in the Payrun screen under the timesheet section. Payroll admins can now view the Payrate and Hourly Rate applicable for a timesheet.

Employee Roster

Management > Rostering > Employee Rostering

We’ve fixed two issues that were impacting Employee Rostering:

• Unassigned shifts can now be copied and deleted, eliminating extra steps to re-create identical unassigned shifts.
• The employee roster is now accurately aligning shifts when filters are updated.

Template Manager for Rostering

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

We are now validating total break times to ensure the break length can't be greater than the total shift time and that it falls within the shift start and end times.

Employee Change Approvals

Management > Employee > Employee Change Approvals

We’ve fixed an issue where Managers visiting the Employee Change Approval screen, could see change approval requests from employees outside the manager’s Location/Department visibility. The 'view all departments' and 'view all locations' permissions are now being correctly referenced.

Introducing new manager notification options in Shift Bidding, improved Timesheets filtering and auto-population of fields, and improvements to rostering and workforce analytics!

Now available in staging environments, all Humanforce Cloud accounts will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 25th October 2023.

Shift Bidding

Management > Shift > Bid Manager

Manager notifications

For more flexibility, we’ve introduced new options to customise which managers receive notifications when an employee accepts or declines an offer made via Bid Manager. 

The options for who should receive notifications are: 

1. The manager who published the shift and the manager who offered the shift. One notification will be sent if these two personas are the same user. This is the default setting.
2. All users with access to the Location/Department of the shift and who have access to Bid Manager or Rostering screens 
3. All reporting managers for the employee's management group. 

To configure your preferred option:

• Go to Admin > Admin Config > System Settings
• Click the Roster/Roster Templates tab
• Select your preferred option and click Save Changes.

Employee notifications

The employee notification advising an offer has been made via Bid Manager and needs to be confirmed has been made more clear. The new notification states: 

Confirm Shift: Your bid was selected and you have been offered a shift for [ROLE] on [DATE]. Please confirm the offer to have the shift assigned to you.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

• All Shift Types are now visible in the All Shift Type filter. Previously, the results of the All Shift Types filter were limited to the logged in user's shift types as defined by their Award Profile.
• Paid breaks are now included when creating timesheets from rosters. Previously only unpaid breaks were included.
• Split timesheets no longer inherit the original timesheet's Event/Function by default after the Event and/or Function is removed.
• The Net Hours label has been updated to Timesheet Net Hours to provide additional clarity on what data that column contains.
• When editing timesheets, the values in the Area field now update immediately when the Location/Department/Role is changed.

Department Rostering

Management > Rostering > Employee Rostering

We’ve fixed an issue where unassigned shift costs and associated pay type values were not being saved correctly when saving rosters, which was resulting in under calculation of total roster costs. Total roster costs and values of pay types now reflect unassigned shifts, as expected.

Template Manager for Rostering

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

• To prevent errors, we are now validating total break times to ensure the break length can't be greater than the total shift time and that it falls within the shift start and end times.
• Shifts within your template now show new icons on the shift tile to indicate if a comment has been added and/or it has been marked as Non-attended.

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

The KPI Workforce analytics report now has the option to include Unassigned Shifts, for more flexible reporting.

Filtering

Filter functionality for Managers in:

• Attendance, based on location 
• Timesheets, based on location, department and role. 

  
  

  

  
  

Instance Switching

To allow employees with multiple employers to easily switch from one to another. 

Region Switching 

To support our users in international markets. 

Bug fixes & improvements 

We've squashed some bugs and carried out system-wide improvements to provide users with a better, more reliable app experience. 

⭐️ Why it matters