As we continue to invest in innovating our flagship Cloud platform, Humanforce Back Office users should begin their transition away from our legacy Back Office platform, as it will eventually cease to be made available.

Although no firm deprecation date has currently been set (note: please check our Back Office to Cloud Transition Guide article and keep an eye out for other communication for updates), to avoid being rushed or inconvenienced, we encourage customers to start making the transition to HF Cloud operations.

Initially, Back Office screens will begin being deactivated where there is equivalent functionality in HF Cloud.

With many new advancements in HF Cloud, nearly all customers can benefit from replacing Back Office operations with superior Cloud workforce management operations for good.

🔥 What’s New?

With a host of new self-service knowledge articles, guidance and training materials, as well as new ways our Cloud WFM experts can directly support you with your transition, now is the time to begin your move away from Back Office.

Resources and Guides

We’ve now released a HF Back Office to Cloud Transition Guide for our Back Office customers. It has been designed to clearly highlight some of the most common Back Office replacement workforce operations than are now to be operated in HF Cloud, as well as share direct access to available self-service resources, such as instructional Help articles and training material.

Customer Service Support

To help Back Office customers achieve a seamless transition, our team of Cloud WFM experts are eager to provide direct and individual service support, in addition to our self-service resources.

⭐️ Why it matters

With significant benefits found in our most advanced Cloud platform, Humanforce Cloud is the clear choice when performing key WFM processes in comparison to our legacy Back Office system, as it delivers:

• More powerful and sophisticated WFM capabilities
• Greater compliance confidence
• Time and effort savings
• Continuous innovation released automatically
• A modern, intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

Starting your transition today will ensuring a smooth a transition as possible by helping avoid rushed processes and safeguard against experiencing limited access to Customer transition support services ahead of future Back Office deprecation deadlines.

🏁 Getting Started  

Jump start your journey today by replacing your Back Office WFM operations with the relevant HF Cloud operations detailed in HF Back Office transition guide article here.

For updates and details on our future Back Office deprecation plans, contact your Humanforce Representative and keep an eye for updates on our transition guide article (link directly above).

To inquire about how customer service team can support you through this transition, contact our Customer Experience team by submitting a Zendesk support request here.

In this release, we’re excited to deliver further improvements to Roster Manager and Template Manager, so you can streamline roster processes, surface important details and schedule your workforce at scale. Read on for all the details!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 7th August 2024.

Roster Manager and Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager / Template Manager

There is a new option within Shift Detail Settings to show employees by Roster Name or First name/Last name.

If you need to update an employee's Roster Name: 

1. Go to Management > Employee > Employee Management
2. Select the employee from the list and click Edit

3. Under Personal Details

   • type the new entry into the Roster Name field (if using custom Roster Names)
   • or click the three-dots to the right of the field and select a new Roster Name format from the options and click Save.
4. At the bottom of the Personal Details section, click Save.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

Assigned shifts within People view are now sorted by shift start time for each employee.

Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

Two new permissions for Delete All Shifts have been added so you can control who can delete all shifts within Master and/or Normal Templates. The new permissions are off by default and can be added to any Access Levels as required via Admin > Security Config > Access Levels: Edit > Permissions.

We've also fixed an issue where the scrollbar was missing for some screen sizes.

Employee Management

Management > Employee > Employee Management

Primary and secondary email addresses now support the apostrophe symbol and the system no longer shows the validation error. 

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll 

We’ve made improvements to the Cintra Payroll export to resolve an issue exporting the payroll file to the SFTP folder. 

We're thrilled to announce several new features released this past month that will enhance your employee onboarding experience. For organisations experiencing a hiring surge and needing to onboard multiple employees simultaneously, our new bulk user creation feature is a game-changer. Additionally, the updated Public API now supports pre-start onboarding configuration, making it easier to integrate with other systems you use. These enhancements are designed to streamline your processes and provide greater efficiency. 

• Select the User Accounts activation date  
• Determine if you would like a Welcome Email to send 
• Select the password creation method (through an email link or Single Sign-On) 
• Assign Permission groups to all selected User Accounts 
• Determine their Onboarding configuration from a list of Onboarding Templates 

  Learn more

Pre-Start onboarding configuration on Public API 

A new employee onboarding process often involves activities that extend beyond the HR systems. To assist HR admins in efficiently managing complex ecosystems, we have added the new pre-start onboarding configuration to our Public API. This feature not only saves time but also improves data accuracy and consistency across all systems involved in the onboarding process. Using the API to transfer employee data eliminates errors that may arise from duplicate data handling or manual input into multiple systems when an HR admin onboards a new employee. 

By leveraging our Public API, HR admins can automate and streamline various pre-start activities, reducing manual workload and ensuring a consistent and efficient onboarding experience for new employees. 

  Learn more

 

In this release, we’re excited to bring configuration options for shift definition, custom rosters and shift offer notifications into Humanforce Cloud, as well as a raft of other improvements to streamline payruns, timesheets and more. Read on for all the details!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 24th July 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.

• Shift Definition configuration is available via Admin > System Config > Shift Definitions, and will be removed from Back Office as part of this release.
  
  Shift Definitions streamline the process of scheduling by allowing predefined shift times to be quickly applied to shifts. You can set predefined values for shift Start, End and Break Times and Break Durations as well as Qualifications for common shifts. All users who had access to Shift Definition configuration in the Back Office will automatically have the same access in Humanforce Cloud. For more information, please refer to the Help article here.
  
  
• Custom Roster configuration is available via Admin > System Config > Custom Roster Field Settings. Access to the same functionality in Back Office will be removed as part of this release.
  
  Custom Roster Fields are customisable pre-configured entries that provide managers with an alternative to using the comments field to communicate standardised instructions when creating shifts. Each of the fields available allow an Admin user to configure specific entries. All users who had access to Custom Roster Configuration in the Back Office will automatically have the same access in Humanforce Cloud. For more information, please refer to the Help article here.
  
  
• Pay period configuration has been available via Admin > Award Config > Pay Periods since April 2024. Access to the same functionality in Back Office will be removed as part of this release.
  
  
• SMS and Push Notification shift offer templates can now be configured via Admin > Admin Config > Roster Send Templates.  Use default templates or customise to your needs, and preview before saving.
  

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

• The Micropay payroll export in now correctly exports the paytypes configured with the RDO export.
• In a Payrun, the display of Net Hours in the Timesheets drop-down section for an employee now shows the correct value (which includes Paid breaks), ensuring that the value shown in this field reflects the values exported for payroll (which have not changed).
• It’s now easier to Process Specific Employees with EmployeeCode and PayrollCode fields now displayed alongside the employee name in Create new > Payroll processing settings.
• You can now also search for and select specific employees more easily with the following improvements:
  1. Search and filter based on Name, EmployeeCode and PayrollCode.
  2. Select multiple employees by holding down the "Ctrl" key. Once selected,  click Add.
  3. Move a single employee to the selected list by pressing the "Enter/Return" key.
  4. Check your selections by reviewing the total number of employees displayed next to the Available employees and Selected employees header labels.
     
     

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

• We've fixed an issue in People view where filtering by Assigned or Unassigned shifts was not working correctly.
• You are now able to add manager notes within shifts. These notes will only be visible to users who have the All Permissions > Manager Comments permission enabled.

Roster Swap requests

Employee > Rosters > Request Swap

• The roster swap request page now shows the hours and minutes of the shift start/end times and not just the hours.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

• The display of Net Hours in the single edit timesheet window now shows the correct value (which includes Paid breaks), ensuring that the value shown in this field reflects the values exported for payroll (which have not changed).
• The 'Process Period rules when authorising and saving timesheets in timesheet screen' setting has been removed from System Settings and is set to active by default. This means period rules will always be processed whenever timesheets are authorised or when making changes to authorised timesheets.
• Timesheets created or edited by Humanforce Staff, a Data Exchange user or were updated by the Auto Authorisation process (and so their lastEditById was not populated), can now be split.
• Tooltips will now appear on all dropdown buttons with content that is too long for the available space when editing timesheets. This means you can view the entire text without expanding the dropdown list.

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

• Improvements have been made to the Location Department Role and Location Department Area org structure data sources to include additional fields for Region, LocationType, and Location Group. The fields in the table below are now available in the data source for reporting.
  
  Location: Location_ExportCode, Location_CodeDepartment, Department_ExportCode, Department_ShortName
  Role: Role_ExportCode, Role_ShortName
  Area: Area_ExportCode, Area_ShortName
  Region: Region, Region_ExportCode
  LocationType: LocationType_Name
  LocationGroup: LocationGroup_Name
  
  Additionally, these data sources now return data for any locations where a department, role or area does not exist.

Payslip Delete

Management > Advanced > Payslip Delete

• The time shown in the Last Uploaded column now correctly shows the time the payslip was uploaded instead of the current time of the user.

We have exciting news to share about seamless data flow across your HR, workforce management, and payroll systems! The Humanforce team has been hard at work enhancing our suite of integrations to provide you with a best in one HCM solution.

We've focused on strengthening our suite integrations between intelliHR, Humanforce Workforce Management (WFM), and Humanforce Payroll, and building out our Datapay New Zealand integration with our partner Datacom.

Maintaining accurate employee data is crucial, and these integrations facilitate seamless transfer, ensuring precision and reducing administrative workloads.

🔥 What's New

Humanforce has significantly enhanced integration capabilities across its HR, workforce management (WFM), and payroll suites, enabling seamless bi-directional data synchronisation and transfer.

intelliHR and Humanforce WFM

Humanforce WFM and Humanforce Payroll

Humanforce WFM and Datapay NZ

Using multiple integrations

We are currently working on a new employee data forwarding feature that allows you to link multiple integrations together within Humanforce Workforce Management Integration Central to create a seamless experience. For example, data forwarding will link together the Humanforce product suite (intelliHR, Humanforce WFM and Humanforce Payroll), removing the need to click save in WFM to forward data changes made in HR to Payroll.

⭐️ Why it matters

A streamlined integration flow of your workforce data dramatically reduces manual entry, meaning fewer errors, and improved compliance. You'll gain better visibility, control, payroll accuracy, and overall process efficiency, improving productivity.

🏁 Getting Started

Keen to learn more? Check out our help articles for integration details, including integration workflows, setup details, best practise tops and available configuration options:

• intelliHR integration
• Humanforce Payroll integration
• Datapay NZ integration

With our latest integration enhancements, you're clicks away from a unified HR, workforce, and payroll management solution. 

Don't miss out on these game-changing integration enhancements! Log a ticket to our friendly support team today to learn more, or reach out to your account manager today to explore upgrading your Humanforce solutions!

In this release, we’re excited to bring you a new summary bar in Roster Manager, paid and unpaid break data points in Workforce Analytics and more. Read on for all the details!

All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to bring you the items below, overnight on Wednesday 10th July 2024.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

A new summary has been added to the bottom of the page that shows total hours and costs within the roster along with shift counts based on different statuses. The summary bar updates when you apply a filter to your roster,  so you can get a quick overview of any of the filter options, such as Location, Department, Function etc. 

When importing shifts via Templates > Import Template, you now have the option to include shifts with errors, so you can resolve those errors in the current roster within Roster Manager.

Leave requests

Employees are able to successfully request leave even when more than one shift exists in a master template. Previously, the system would return an error.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

We've improved how grouping timesheets by Employee or Start Date is displayed so it’s easier to use. The function to expand each group is now clearly separate from the timesheet count and always visible. This eliminates the need to hover over the count value to access the expand function, making it clearer and easier to use.

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

Paid and unpaid break details are now available to be selected for reporting within the Timesheet and Roster datasources. The breaks data can be included in the report by editing the report using the report designer.

When running reports using the Timesheet Costing datasource, timesheets with a Start Date that match the ‘Date Start’ parameter are now correctly included in the results.

Event Manager

Management > Rostering > Event Manager

We've fixed an issue that was occurring where the Planned/Rostered data was not displaying correctly for each role

Mobile app welcome email

The employee's secondary email is now available as an option for sending the initial welcome email for mobile app activation. A support ticket must be raised to request to enable this feature.  

REST API

The Roster GET end point will now return Pay Type values as optional data when the query parameter - IncludePaytypeValues - is included in the query/request, so you can extract roster costings in bulk.

Visit Humanforce Help for an overview of the Humanforce REST API.

We are excited to announce that early access to our latest Humanforce Cloud rostering and scheduling feature within Roster Manager: Shift Confirmation.

With Australian Fair Work legislation stating that employees have the right “not” to work on a public holiday, organisations can not only ensure shifts are confirmed by employees for compliance purposes, but they can gain greater schedule control, boost operational efficiency, and enhance employee satisfaction.

Shift confirmation is a new feature that can be enabled for you by opting into early access for testing purposes and offers the same functionality as the 'Roster Offer' feature found specifically in Humanforce Back-Office.

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

Let's dive in...

🔥 What’s New?

Shift confirmation introduces the ability to send out a request for the employee to confirm their acceptance of single or multiple shifts. This ensures employers can ask employees if they would like to work on public holidays.

This functionality will not be restricted to shifts only scheduled on public holidays. Customers will also be able to request confirmation on any shifts they choose.

In terms of the shift allocation process that has been designed to support this, shifts to be assigned to employees and then sent to the employee requesting their consent to work.

Shift Confirmation offers the same functionality as the ‘Roster offer’ feature found specifically in Back-office Humanforce. Back-office users are advised to use Shift Confirmation as a replacement.

⭐️ Why it matters

Shift Confirmation provides benefits for both employers and employees.

Legislative Compliance: The ability for rostering managers to have shifts confirmed by employees assists customers in the compliance of new legislation that requires employees to have the option to decline working on public holidays. Customers who adhere to their legal requirements, reduces the likelihood of incurring potential penalties or reputational damage.

Enhanced Employee Satisfaction: By enabling employees to confirm shifts, it gives them a sense of autonomy and control over their work schedules, leading to increased job satisfaction and potentially reducing turnover rates.

Improved Operational Efficiency: Confirmed shifts help ensure that only willing and available employees are scheduled, reducing the likelihood of last-minute absences and the need for emergency cover, thereby ultimately optimising workforce allocation and reducing operational disruptions.

Fair work legislation states that employees have the right “not” to work on a public holiday.

🏁 Getting Started  

As a reminder, Shift confirmation is a new feature that can be enabled for you by opting into early access for testing purposes.  To request access, simply submit a support ticket via Humanforce Help to have the feature enabled in Production for your organisation.

 For more information on how to utilise this new feature view our Help article.