We’re excited to introduce Humanforce Cloud Version 6.0.38, which continues our investment in bringing further configuration options into Humanforce Cloud, and includes improvements to Roster Manager, Timesheets, Employee Management and Workforce Analytics.

Release schedule

• Staging environments were automatically updated on Thursday 17th October 2024.
• All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments, will be automatically updated overnight on Wednesday 30th October 2024.

Back Office to Humanforce Cloud

We continue to invest in enabling you to perform key workforce management and payroll tasks faster and more efficiently in Humanforce Cloud. In this release, we’re pleased to bring the following capabilities into Humanforce Cloud.

Configuration of Gender Types

Configuration of Gender Types can now be completed in Humanforce Cloud.  This capability allows a manager to configure the gender options that will appear in a dropdown for selection within the Employee record in Management > Employee > Employee Management. For more information, please refer to the Help article Gender Type Configuration. 

Roster Alert Configuration

Roster alerts for Employee Role Restriction and Availability and Leave can now be fully configured in Humanforce Cloud.  Visit Admin > System Config > Clock In Settings to configure these alerts.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

In this update, we resolved an issue where the qualification warning is incorrectly displayed when: 

• a qualification was set to "can expire," and 
• the employee’s profile lacked an expiry date for the qualification. 

Now, if the qualification is marked to expire, you will see an alert only if the employee’s profile has an expiry date for the qualification and the expiry date is prior to the shift date.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

Bulk authorisation issue resolved

We fixed an issue with bulk authorisation of timesheets. Previously, the Cost data was not always updated for all authorised timesheets. With this update, Cost values now update consistently for all authorised timesheets. Note that when a large number of timesheets are authorised, updates to Cost may take some time to display, while background processing completes. 

Start Date on Split Timesheets

Where there is insufficient leave for a timesheet leave type and the Shift Type offers an alternative leave for the remaining as per the configuration of the Shift Type Hierarchy, any resulting split timesheets that start on or after midnight into the next day now receive the correct DateStart value.

Employee Management

Management > Employee > Employee Management

Enhanced Termination Filters

When reviewing employees, you now have a drop-down to filter terminated employees by a specific time frame, such as "last 90 days." This makes it easier to customise your view without displaying all past terminations, which also improves loading times.

Role Reinstatement Update

When re-activating a role on an employee profile, it was re-instated with the existing role revision even though the default profile/rate had changed. This differs from the expected behaviour, and so an update has been made to ensure we add a new revision for a re-instated role using the updated profile/rate.

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

To enhance variance analysis, we’ve added a new setting in the Variance Analysis By Hours and Variance Analysis By Paytype dashboards. The Include Unassigned Shifts option (found in Dashboard Parameters) now ensures that unassigned shifts can be accounted for in the analysis, providing a complete view of roster data.

We’re excited to bring you the latest Humanforce Cloud update, including:

• Advanced Event Rostering capabilities in Roster Manager to streamline event staffing for any scale
• An alert in Timesheets for insufficient leave so managers can spot issues before payroll
• Search and alphabetical sorting in all Target Field drop downs in Integration Central for faster and easier field mapping.

All Humanforce Cloud accounts, UAT environments and staging environments will be automatically updated overnight on Wednesday, 16th October 2024.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

Early access to advanced Event Rostering capabilities is here!  Intelligent, seamless and scalable. In addition to existing Roster Manager capabilities, Event Rostering includes specific features to:

• Create & manage labour groups to schedule a pool of Staff for an event or Job
• Single-day view to schedule and manage large numbers of shifts on a daily basis
• Supports bulk-adding shifts into labour groups
• Option to group by labour groups

To request access, simply submit a request via Humanforce Help to have the feature enabled for your organisation. 

For further details on how to use Event Rostering capabilities in Roster Manager, check out Using Roster Manager in Humanforce Help.

We've also resolved an issue in Roster Manager where employees availability status was appearing incorrectly within a shift when clicking on Assign

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

A new Timesheet alert is now shown when an employee has insufficient leave for the specific leave type associated with their timesheet. This gives Managers & Payroll Admins early visibility of insufficient leave issues, allowing them to be addressed promptly and ahead of payroll processing. This alert is always active and cannot be configured using Clock In Settings.

The permission that allows access to the inline edit function on Pay Start and Pay End fields in Timesheets has been replaced with a new permission, View Timesheet Authorisation Page > Allow Editing > Allow inline editing. All users with existing access to inline edit will retain this functionality.

The issue encountered when sorting timesheets by the Break Minutes column has now been resolved.

Employee Management

Management > Employee > Employee Management

After hearing feedback, we've optimised the Employee Management page layout, allowing the content — especially the table of employees — to expand and use more of the available screen width, so you can manage your employees' details with less side-scrolling.

Reports

Reports > Payroll > Pay Comparison Report

The Pay Comparison Report, when set to use the Award payrate, was not applying the correct rate value in situations where the Override Hours method is applied - such as Minimum Shift Length overrides. This has been corrected.

Leave Approvals

Management > Availability > Leave Approvals

We’ve fixed an issue where the Request Details and Approval Details fields displayed the Roster Name of the employee to whom the the leave request related, rather than the people who requested or approved the leave request. This occurred only if employees' Roster Names were set to display in the Leave Approval screen via Settings > Display employee name > Full Name / Roster Name toggle. This was a display error only, and did not impact the data held on the leave record.

Pay Types

Admin > Award Config > Pay Types

If you have configured a Pay Type (such as Parental Leave) to have a negative multiplier, this was not reflected in the dialog that opens when editing the Pay Type. It was appearing as 0.00, which would remove your negative value if saved, however this issue has been resolved so that the negative value is correctly displayed in the dialog.

Payroll Processing

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

In Payroll Processing, you can generate Payrun Reports and preview these in the browser. The date format used in these reports should be controlled by the browser’s language setting, however it was hardcoded to MM/DD/YYYY no matter what language was set in the browser. This has been corrected so that the format is aligned to your browser language setting. 

Integration Central

Management > Advanced > Integration Central

All Target Field drop-downs now have a search capability along with alpha-sorting for faster and easier setup of integration mapping. To search, simply start typing the name of the field you need.

All logs accessible via Integrations Central that refer to employees will include an Employee Code, Payroll Code or intelliHR ID for improved troubleshooting.

In managing software updates for mission-critical operations, it is essential to ensure that organisations feel secure and confident throughout the entire release process.

However minimising operational disruptions, ensuring seamless integration with existing systems, and maintaining workforce productivity are some of the challenges faced by teams responsible for managing regular updates.

With advanced access to all future versions of Humanforce Cloud (HF Web), and best practice release processing by your side, we are excited to announce our new Humanforce Staging Environment process, designed to deliver a smooth software upgrade release experience and improve release assurance at every step of the way.

NOTE: Humanforce Staging Environment is an additional billed service offering.

🔥 What’s New?

The Staging Environment provides an opportunity to preview and test any new features two weeks in advance of the production version release date. It provides customers an early opportunity to test and validate any product changes including new features, improvements, and defect fixes before production release. Customers can raise any questions or issues during the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process and provide feedback to the Humanforce team.  Finally, with access only provided to authenticated end users, our Staging infrastructure offers production level access security.

⭐️ Why it matters

Humanforce Staging Environment helps teams, charged with the responsibility of managing software updates, in many ways, such as:

• Reduce Risk: Proactively identify and address potential issues before they impact your production environment.
• Increase Reliability: Thoroughly test new features and updates to ensure they align with your organisation's workflows.
• Improve Implementation Experience: Empower your team to familiarise themselves with upcoming changes, reducing the learning curve and boosting productivity.
• Fast feedback loop: Provide direct feedback to Humanforce, influencing the development process and ensuring your needs are met.

🏁 Getting Started  

To gain release management confidence and experience full potential of the Humanforce Staging Environment, reach out to your Humanforce representative or connect with an expert today.

At Humanforce, we are constantly innovating to enhance the user experience and streamline the way you manage your workforce and HR processes. We understand that juggling multiple platforms can be time-consuming and disrupt your workflow, which is why we've developed a new feature designed to make your day-to-day tasks more seamless and efficient.  

Introducing the App Switcher - a navigation tool that enables you to easily transition between your Humanforce Workforce Management (WFM) and intelliHR in the flow of work. 

🔥 What’s New?

The App Switcher is an exciting enhancement to the Humanforce suite, allowing users to switch between Humanforce WFM and intelliHR, seamlessly. With this feature, you can now move between managing workforce tasks and HR processes with just one click. Integrated with single sign-on (SSO) technology, the App Switcher ensures you only log in once to move between platforms without interruption. 

This feature is available exclusively for customers using both Humanforce WFM and intelliHR.

⭐️ Why it matters   

The introduction of the App Switcher significantly enhances the user experience by simplifying access to both the Humanforce WFM and intelliHR platforms. This streamlined process eliminates the need to log in and out of different systems, saving time and reducing the hassle of managing multiple passwords. The ease of switching between platforms not only improves productivity but also allows you to fully leverage the capabilities of the entire Humanforce product suite, making it easier to manage your workforce and HR tasks in a more integrated, efficient manner. 

🏁 Getting Started   

If your organisation uses both Humanforce Workforce Management and intelliHR products, you will find the App Switcher icon on the top left corner of your navigation panel. Clicking this icon allows you to toggle between the Humanforce WFM and intelliHR platforms. If your organisation uses single sign-on (SSO), you’ll benefit from an even smoother experience, as you won’t need to re-enter your credentials when switching platforms. If your organisation does not have SSO, clicking the icon will bring you to the application’s login page, and you will need to enter your login credentials manually.

If your organisation is still in the implementation phase, the icon may not yet be visible. Please speak with your project team to ensure this feature is set up once your implementation is complete. 

For any assistance or if the icon isn’t appearing on your platform, please log a ticket with our friendly Humanforce support team.

As we continue to innovate and expand our Thrive Perks feature, we’re excited to bring you a new addition to the Cashback program: Gift Cards! This new addition lets employees purchase gift cards from over 100 top brands and receive instant cashback directly into their Thrive wallet.

🔥 What’s New?

Introducing a more dynamic aspect to your employee cashback program with the addition of Gift Cards. Offering a choice of over 100 brands, your employees can effortlessly purchase gift cards for personal use or as thoughtful gifts, all while earning cashback instantly on their purchases.  

This new addition means your employee now enjoys three versatile cashback models: in-store card-linked cashback, affiliate link cashback, and instant cashback on gift card purchases. These options provide your employee with the flexibility to enjoy savings in the way that best suits their shopping preferences. Whether they're planning ahead, buying gifts, or making spontaneous purchases, our comprehensive range of retailers ensures that every transaction adds value to their day-to-day lives. 

⭐️ Why it matters

Gift card cashback not only provides immediate financial cashback but also offers the flexibility to use it whenever and however you need it. Whether it is treating someone special or making necessary purchases, your employees benefit from the following:

• Instant Cashback: Say goodbye to waiting periods! Enjoy immediate cashback directly in their Thrive wallet when they purchase any gift card directly through the Thrive app.
• Over 100 Brands: From their favourite retailers to dining and entertainment, browse gift cards from a wide array of brands and start saving right away. 
• Flexible Cashback Options: In addition to instant cashback on gift cards, your employees can continue enjoying our current cashback offerings, including in-store card-linked and affiliate-link cashback. The power to choose is in their hands! 

🏁 Getting Started

Good news, you don’t have to do anything! Employees will be prompted to update their Humanforce Thrive app to the latest version from the app store. Once the app is updated, employees will see the new Cashback category updated with a new Gift Card section.

If your organisation doesn’t have the Humanforce Thrive Wellbeing product and would like to learn more about these features and how they can help elevate your organisation’s employee value proposition, feel free to contact your Humanforce representative for a demo. 

We’re excited to bring you the latest Humanforce Cloud update, packed with impactful new features and enhancements! This release includes key upgrades to the Roster Manager, enhanced efficiency within Timesheets, improved workflows in Leave Management, and new functionalities in Kiosk Clocking. These updates are designed to save you time, reduce errors, and make your daily tasks even smoother. Keep reading to explore how these improvements will boost productivity and streamline your day-to-day operations!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated overnight on Wednesday, 2nd October 2024.

Back Office to Humanforce Cloud

Web Kiosk Split Timesheet for Shift Allocation

We’re excited to bring the Shift Allocation feature to the Web Kiosk. Previously only available in the Back Office Kiosk, employees with the appropriate permissions can now split their timesheets for shift allocation when clocking out via the Web Kiosk. In addition, employees can edit both the Start and End times of their clocked timesheets directly from the kiosk, giving more flexibility in managing shift allocations and ensuring accurate time tracking.

This enhancement simplifies the process and extends the powerful Shift Allocation functionality beyond the back office, improving flexibility and accuracy for employees on the go.

For detailed setup instructions, please refer to the guides below:

• Manager guide to setting up timesheet splits when clocking out
• Employee guide to splitting timesheets after clocking out

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

Minimum Location/Department Shift Gap Alert

A new alert feature has been implemented in Roster Manager to help managers ensure employees have adequate rest between shifts when they are rostered across different Locations or Departments. The system will now notify you if the required gap between shifts is not met.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

Improved Bulk Split Functionality

After performing a bulk timesheet split, the selected date or date range will now be retained on the Timesheet Admin screen, eliminating the need to reselect dates after completing bulk operations.

New 'Today' Feature for Date Picker

We’ve added a 'Today' button to the Timesheet Date Picker, allowing users to quickly navigate to the current month while preserving previously selected start and end dates. Today's date is also more prominently highlighted, making it easier to locate.

New Employee Name Sorting Option

In response to user feedback, we’ve introduced a new Timesheet Screen Setting that allows sorting employee names in "Lastname, Firstname" format. This makes it faster and more intuitive for managers to search and sort employees by last name. To enable this, simply access the sorting option under the Timesheet Screen Settings.

Editing Active Timesheets

When editing active timesheets, all fields except Comments are disabled from editing until an End Time is entered. This ensures that users are fully aware that the End Time must be populated to save any other changes. An inline warning will also notify users of this requirement, making the editing process clearer and reducing the risk of incomplete changes.

Leave Management

Management > Availability > Leave Approvals

Template Hours for Leave Approvals

We’ve fixed an issue where approved leave using Template Hours was not properly carrying over the Period/Area/Event/Function assignments from the roster template to the resulting leave timesheet. This ensures that leave requested via template hours is now consistent with leave requested using Roster Hours.

Kiosks Clocking

QR Code Clocking Fix

We’ve resolved an issue when signing in via QR code would produce an "Employee code or email field is required" error if the keypad was hidden. Now, users can log in seamlessly without encountering the error, ensuring a smoother clock-in process.

We’re excited to announce the latest update for Humanforce Cloud, packed with powerful new features and enhancements designed to streamline your workflow and improve overall usability. This release includes updates to Roster Manager, Timesheets, and Facial Recognition, as well as a snapshot from Integration Central. Read on to discover all the improvements that will enhance your day-to-day experience!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated overnight on Wednesday, 18th September 2024.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

Quick access to most frequently used filters

We’ve updated the filter display to show the 5 most commonly used filters upfront when viewing Roster Manager on smaller screens. A "Show More" button is available to expand additional filters, optimising space and reducing clutter when all filters are not needed.

 Improved Sorting by Roster Name

When displaying employees by Roster Name and sorting by employee, employee names will now be sorted by the Roster Name rather than by First or Last name, making it easier to manage rosters at a glance.

Enhanced Employee Search in People View

The search function in People view has been improved to include employees who do not currently have any assigned shifts. This ensures comprehensive search results and simplifies employee management.

SMS and Push Notifications Templates

Admin > Admin Config > Roster Send Templates

Improved Template Editing for Roster Send Offers

We’ve made template editing easier. Now, administrators can view all available field tags (merge fields) by clicking the new "Show Tags" button, allowing for more customisation when sending shift offers via SMS or Push notifications.
For example, inserting [COMMENTS] will dynamically populate shift comments when the offer is sent.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

Streamlined Filter Application

A new Apply button has been introduced, allowing users to select multiple filters before applying them all at once, saving time by preventing the system from loading after each individual filter selection.

Profile Field

The ‘Profile’ field in the timesheet edit window now accurately reflects role revisions and their effective dates, ensuring better accuracy in timesheet management.

New ‘None’ Option for Area and Event Filters

Users can now quickly identify timesheets missing Area or Event data using the newly added 'None' option in the filters.

Enhanced Timesheet Splitting

The process of splitting timesheets is now more efficient with direct editing of Start and End times within the Split Timesheet window. This reduces the need for additional steps, making it easier to adjust timesheets.

Facial Recognition

Admin > Admin Config > Systems Settings

2FA Code for Facial Recognition in Web Kiosk

We’ve resolved an issue with 2FA codes in Web Kiosk. Now, after successfully using facial recognition, the system will send a 2FA code to the employee for secure clock-in, ensuring that additional security is maintained.

Pay Comparison Report

Reports > Payroll > Pay Comparison Report

Performance Improvements

The "Detail" format of the Pay Comparison Report has been optimised for better performance, making the report generation process faster and more efficient.

Integration Central

Management > Advanced> Integration Central

Humanforce Payroll Cost Centre Mapping Enhancements 

HF Payroll integration now offers support for the generation of Cost Centre Mapping strings from the following timesheet attributes using Name or Export Code; Location, Department, Role, Area and Event (we currently only support these for the moment). This eliminates the need for manual maintenance of custom mappings, saving significant system maintenance time. 

SwiftPOS Integration

We have released the latest version of our SwiftPOS integration to WFM to support the new authentication method that they have released. For more details on our integration with SwiftPOS, visit our Help Centre link below.

Humanforce Help

We are thrilled to officially announce a new addition to the Thrive Perks benefits - Discounts. Following a successful soft launch with our first partner, JB Hi-Fi, last month, we are now expanding this category with the inclusion of two renowned fitness leaders: Fitness First and Goodlife Health Club. Each provides substantial discounts that cater to your workforce's financial and physical wellness.

🔥 What’s New?

Here are the discount partners that are available to your employees now:

🎧 JB Hi-Fi: As our inaugural partner, JB Hi-Fi offers up to 15% discounts off regular retail prices on a wide range of products. From the latest in technology and home electronics to everyday personal and household electrical goods, these offers help your employees stay up-to-date with the latest tech and help stretch their pay further with extra savings.

🏋️‍♂️ Fitness First and Goodlife Health Club: Building on our commitment to enhancing your employees' wellness, we have partnered with these two leading fitness giants to offer an exclusive 15% discount on 12- and 18-month memberships. With over 140 centres nationwide, your employees will enjoy access to top-tier fitness facilities, encouraging a healthier lifestyle and fostering a more energetic and engaged workforce.

⭐️ Why it matters

These partnerships not only support your employees' physical and financial health but also bolster your organisation's appeal in a competitive job market, making your company a more attractive workplace. We are excited about the positive impact these partnerships will have on your organisation and are committed to continually broadening our network of discount partners. 

🏁 Getting Started

The good news is, you don’t have to do anything! Employees will be prompted to update their Humanforce Thrive app to the latest version from the app store. The new discount partners will be added automatically, and they can start enjoying the benefit immediately.

If your organisation doesn’t have the Humanforce Thrive Wellbeing product and would like to learn more about the features and how it can help elevate your organisation’s employee value proposition, feel free to contact your Humanforce representative for a demo.