We’re excited to announce Humanforce Cloud Version 6.0.45, which includes improvements to a range of Workforce Management modules such as Roster Manager, Timesheets and Leave Approval. Read on for all the details!

Release Schedule

• Staging environments were updated on Thursday, 6th February 2025.
• All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to version 6.0.45 overnight on Wednesday, 19th February 2025.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

New sort by Status option

The Offer tab within the Fill shift workflow now allows you to sort by the Status column.

Role hierarchy in Shift View

Sort by role hierarchy is now applied in Shift view when you have Group by Location and Department on (just like Role view).  The roles listed within the Location and Department grouping are now sorted based on the role hierarchy defined in your Location and Department configuration. 

Scrolling shifts

We've fixed an issue in Shift view that occurred when viewing shifts for a single role. If there were more shifts than were visible on the page, when scrolling down the list there were duplicate shifts displayed.  

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

Breaks on overnight shifts at end of month

We've fixed an issue where a break was not being added to a timesheet if an employee was rostered for an overnight shift that crossed from the last day of one month into the first day of another month.

Profile field correction when adding a timesheet

We’ve resolved an issue that occurred when adding a timesheet for another user in the Timesheet Admin area. The Profile field was displaying the effective award profile for the currently logged in user, instead of the target employee (who would own the timesheet).

Timesheet date correction in some inline edit scenarios

In the Timesheet Admin screen, we've addressed an issue related to the inline edit function. Adding an end time to an active timesheet was using today's date, instead of the timesheet's start date. This case was most evident when a day or more had passed after the shift ended when a user added an end-time to the timesheet (as the date of editing and the date of the shift were different).

Leave Approvals

Management > Availability > Leave Approvals  

Submitting leave requests for an employee during a gray out period

A manager or supervisor with the permission “Allow request leave during gray out maxed,” can now successfully submit a leave request for one of their team members during a “gray out” period where the number of employees allowed to take leave has already been reached. 

For background, a “gray out” period allows a limit to be set on the number of employees that can take leave during the gray out period. Before this change, the supervisor or manager might have been blocked as the system was checking the permission of the employee taking the leave, instead of the user adding the leave request.

Area and Period information when source hours set to Profile Hours

When approving leave requests, Humanforce automatically pulls relevant Default details from the Employee profile. However when the source hours for the leave request was Profile Hours, the system was not linking the Period and Area info to the timesheet, as expected. This has now been corrected.

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

Adjustment Payrun export file resolved

Resolved a case where some users encountered an error when attempting to generate an export file for an Adjustment Payrun in Humanforce Cloud.

Alesco Payroll - Batch number option

Humanforce provides a 3rd party Payroll Export to support Alesco Payroll. The export process in Humanforce Web now supports the display of a prompt Enter Batch number, which is consistent with the Back Office functionality when exporting the file. You will have the option to enter the batch number, which will be automatically included in the generated payroll file, provided this setting is enabled in the Payroll config.

Role Revisions

Management > Employee > Employee Management

When managing the Role Revisions for an employee and selecting a Pay Rate, the rate value was shown in the Rate Override field, which was creating some confusion - since the override was not actually in use. For easier and more efficient Role Revisions, we’ve introduced a clear display of the Pay Rate's value in a separate column called Rate. This is a read-only column and reflects the existing rate value that is attached at the end of the Pay Rate title.

Additionally, we are no longer copying the Rate value into the Override field, so it is much clearer when an Override value is actually set.

Introducing Shift Consent, a new way rostering managers could quickly and easily stay on top of compliance and better manage costs by registering employee consent for shifts that either have been changed or are newly added shifts, via their mobile phones using Humanforce Work App.

This new development is a continuation of the Shift Confirmation process, and ensures employees are paid ordinary pay when shifts are consented to, or penalty payments are paid when not confirmed.

As a result, it will help organisations respond flexibly to workforce planning changes, whilst also delivering benefits such as better pay accuracy, pay-related compliance confidence and help control labour costs. In addition, Shift Consent will also benefit employees by improving employee overall work schedule and individual shift awareness through greater shift transparency.

Let’s dive in...

🔥 What’s New?

Roster managers are now able to record consent from employees for working shifts.

As a continuation of the Shift Confirmation flow, the Shift Consent confirmation process is now available for all users in Humanforce Work App.

Roster Managers will be able to generate a record of consent for multiple shifts from Shift Consent Templates. Here they can customise a consent confirmation message in every Shift Consent template constructed.

Every template will be able to contain unique characteristics such as, Shift Type(s) + Award Profile(s) to ensure a shift only matches one template.

These templates support rich-text formatted messages, such as bullet points, bold, headings, etc., to allow the consent message to be customised and clearly communicated by employers.

Roster managers will not need to construct a new consent message each time. Instead, Shift Consent will automatically apply the pre-set Shift Consent message to display and activate the consent flow through to Employee’s on their Humanforce Work App, by assessing the combination of Shift Type and employee Award Profile.

For reporting purposes, the consent message is recorded alongside the shift offer. This will provide additional detail when performing audit trail reporting.

⭐️ Why it matters

Shift Consent may help organisations stay compliant, manage costs better, improve pay accuracy, and respond flexibly to workforce planning changes, and help maintain employee satisfaction. 

Let’s take a more detailed look at the possible benefits...

Greater Pay Accuracy and Compliance confidence: All organisations are required to adhere to industry or labour awards. Those under Australian Fair Work Industry awards such as the General Retail Industry Award [MA000004], Clerks Private Sector Award [MA000002], and the Hospitality Industry (General) Awards [MA000009] are especially exposed to significant compliance risks unless they collect registered consent for shift changes in writing from staff. For organisations, improved pay accuracy and compliance with labour regulations are vital in avoiding disputes or penalties.

Compliance Reporting: by maintaining a clear record of agreements for each consented shift, it is easy to produce detailed shift consent reports when organisations need to perform employee shift consent related audits. 

Cost Control: by clearly communicating shift condition details and registering employee agreed consent, organisations can ensure consenting employees are paid ordinary hours, and therefore reduce labour costs.

Rostering flexibility: Shift consent helps organisations and teams quickly and easily respond to workforce demand planning changes.

Simplified roster management experience: Roster managers now gaining employee consent reduces administrative burdens, allowing them to focus on other critical tasks.

Shift detail transparency: The automated consent process not only simplifies communication but can promote a more efficient and transparent workplace environment, as it relates to shift details and pay conditions.

Employee schedule awareness: The ability to request shift consent enhances employee schedule awareness and transparency, leading to increased job satisfaction as they feel more in control of their work commitments.

🏁 Getting Started  

Check out the following Help articles for more information;

• Employees – Consenting to conditions of a shift offer or shift bid in the Work App
• Managers – Configuring Shift Consent templates

For Roster Managers, Shift Consent is ready to set up, and easy roll out for employees using their Humanforce Work App.

We’re excited to announce Humanforce Cloud Version 6.0.44! 

This release is packed with exciting enhancements to improve user experience and streamline workflows across various Workforce Management modules such as Roster Manager, Leave Approval, Timesheets and Workforce Analytics. Our new update will boost efficiency, deliver a more seamless workforce management experience for users, and also provide greater control over workforce management processes.

Finally, in this release we are now providing customers early access to a pilot integration sync via our iHR to WFM native integration. This pilot integration will ensure the role revision effective dates are accurately synchronised to ensure proper processing of the information in WFM and subsequent payroll integrations such as Humanforce Payroll, so to register your interest to gain access to this new integration capability submit a support ticket via Humanforce Help.

Release Schedule

• Staging environments were updated on Thursday, 23th January 2025.
• All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to version 6.0.44 overnight on Wednesday, 5th February 2025.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

Shift Consent

Designed to help rostering managers quickly register employee consent for changed or newly added shifts, we have now released the ability to automatically surface a consent registration request so that employees can agree, or decline, to the terms/conditions of specific shifts. Roster managers with user permissions, can create and manage Shift Consent using Shift Consent Templates within the Admin navigation > Award Config > Shift Consent Templates, whilst employees receive and submit Shift Consent requests via the Humanforce Work App.

For more information on setting up templates, or to learn more about how they are linked when a shift is offered to an employee, find out more here.

Identifying unassigned shifts

We have updated the colour of these shifts to green so that Roster Managers can quickly and easily identify which shifts are currently left assigned.

Fixed an error showing employee as unavailable if on leave overnight

We've fixed a minor error where if an employee was on leave overnight, they were incorrectly showing as unavailable on the date the leave ended.

Fixed an error where ‘View only’ shifts were disappearing after refreshing roster pages

We've fixed a minor error where ‘View only' shifts were disappearing after roster pages were refreshed when shift grouping 'Group by Location’ has been selected. Shifts will now appear as intended and no longer disappear after refreshing roster pages.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

Multi-level sorting in timesheet ‘No Grouping’ view

We have enabled multi-level sorting in the No Grouping view, with the ‘Employee Name’ column. This means you can now quickly sort employee timesheets first by Employee Name, and then by Start Date (oldest-newest), and finally by Pay Start date (oldest-newest).

Locked Timesheets of finalised payruns

We have ensured Timesheets of finalised payruns remain locked for organisations. Timesheets that are part of a finalised payrun will be prevented from being unlocked from the Timesheet Admin screen unless that payrun is reverted.

Timesheet length warning windows when editing and authorising timesheets

When editing a timesheet using the Edit Timesheet window, organisations will now receive a helpful warning timesheet managers that the Timesheet's length exceeds the Timesheet Length setting configured in the user's Access Levels>General tab. This warning notification will allow users to  either confirm or cancel the timesheet edit.

A warning window will also now appear for users authorising a single timesheet or authorising in bulk, when the Timesheet length exceeds the Timesheet Length setting configured in the user's Access Levels>General tab. This warning notification will also allow the user to choose to confirm or cancel the Authorisation(s).

Workforce Analytics

Management > Advanced > Workforce Analytics

Report Employee 'Created By' Identification in Employee Data Reports

To help with audit trail reporting, the 'Employee Data Report' within Workforce Analytics has been improved to now allow the ‘CreatedById’ column to be made available in the report datasource. This field can then be toggled to include the user who created each employee within the report. 

Leave Approvals

Management > Availability > Leave Approvals  

Automatic un-assigning employees from rostered shifts overlapping with leave request

When permissions enabled managers are approving employee leave requests in the Leave Approvals screen, they can automatically un-assign employees from any rostered shifts that overlap with the leave request. This update ensures that the auto-un-assign functionality is applied accurately for an employee with back-to-back shifts; and they are NOT unassigned from both shifts if only one shift overlaps the leave.

Shift Definitions

Admin > System Config > Shift Definitions

Shift Definitions without qualification selection

We have resolved a minor error that prevented a Shift Definition being created without also selecting a qualification.

Integration Central

Management > Advanced> Integration Central  

Ensuring Employee Role Revision Effective Dates in WFM is sourced from intelliHR when transferring updates to Humanforce Workforce Management

To help with automatically updating employee primary role information across Humanforce intelliHR (iHR) and Workforce Management suites (WFM), we are now providing early access to a pilot integration sync via our iHR to WFM native integration. This pilot integration will ensure the role revision effective dates are accurately synchronised to ensure proper processing of the information in WFM and subsequent payroll integrations such as Humanforce Payroll. 

To opt in for early access to test this feature, simply submit a support ticket via Humanforce Help and you will have the feature enabled in Production for your organisation. For more information on using this feature or more information on our native iHR and WFM integration, visit this Help article.

Distributing tips at hospitality venues is often time consuming, complex and even contentious among frontline customer service team members.

With Tip Sheet's new integration with Humanforce Workforce Management (WFM), automatically calculate tips using approved workforce management timesheet data and tip records, and ensure your valued frontline staff are accurately, and fairly rewarded to excel on the frontline with more transparent and seamless tip distribution.

Let’s take a closer look...

🔥 What’s New?

Tip Sheet, Australia's first and only fully automated tip distribution platform, now integrates seamlessly with Humanforce WFM to streamline the tip pooling process. This integration automates the complex task of tip distribution by:

• Automatically pulls approved timesheet data from Humanforce WFM and combines it with venue point-of-sale or payment systems
• Mapping collected tips to specific days and service periods
• Applying venue-specific tip distribution logic through a powerful rules-engine
• Processing tip payments electronically within existing configured payroll management processes direct to staff bank accounts or apportioned in cash.

⭐️ Why it matters

Payroll and operations management teams of Restaurants, hotels and customer service led organisations, are charged with the responsibility to process fair, accurate, and timely tips distributions.

• Configure with ease: Simple click-and-connect setup using existing Humanforce Workforce Management credentials
• Seamless automation: Automatically sync approved timesheet data with tip collections
• Accurate tip calculations: process complex tip calculations instantly down to specific departments
• Enhance staff engagement: Transparent, fair, and timely tip payments.

🏁 Getting Started  

 To learn more about this new integration check out our Help article.

We’re thrilled to announce Humanforce Cloud Version 6.0.43! This release is packed with exciting enhancements to Roster Manager and Timesheets, along with new functionality for Cost Centre Mapping Configuration and Employee Management. These updates are designed to streamline your workflows, boost efficiency, and make managing your workforce simpler than ever.

Release Schedule

• Staging environments were updated on Thursday, 9th January 2025.
• All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to version 6.0.43 overnight on Wednesday, 22nd January 2025.

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:

Cost Centre Mapping Configuration

Admin > Award Config > Cost Centre Mapping

Cost Centre Mapping is now accessible via the web interface! This feature allows organisations to allocate cost centre codes across various levels, such as locations, departments, and roles. Ensuring payroll transactions align effortlessly with General Ledger requirements—even when employees work outside their default cost centres. For detailed instructions, refer to Cost Centre Mapping Configuration.

Rockfast Payroll Export

Management > Timesheets > Payroll

Humanforce Cloud now supports exporting pay runs to Rockfast Payroll! After processing a pay run, simply select “Rockfast Payrun Export” from the Export dropdown to download the data in the required format. This enhancement streamlines integration with third-party payroll systems.

Timesheet Roster Comments Setting Migration

Admin > Admin Config > System Settings - Timesheet related

You can now configure the setting to copy roster comments to timesheets directly from the web interface. This was previously only available in Backoffice, bringing greater flexibility to timesheet management.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager

Bulk Edit Multiple Shifts

The Actions menu now includes a powerful Edit option, enabling managers to bulk edit multiple shifts at once. This feature saves time and effort, especially when managing large rosters. For detailed instructions, refer to Using Roster Manager- Edit Multiple Shifts.

Overtime Notifications

A new notification has been introduced for shifts with overtime, complementing the existing overtime alert within shift details. This makes it even easier to spot and review shifts with overtime warnings. 

Useful Tip: Double-clicking the notification will take you directly to the shift, allowing for quicker review and adjustments.

Qualifications Filter Update

The logic for filtering by multiple qualifications has been updated on the Fill Shift modal in both Roster Manager and Template Manager. Previously, only employees who matched all selected qualifications were shown. With this update, employees matching any of the selected qualifications will now appear, providing a broader pool of employees for filling shifts.

Fixed Break Error for Overnight Shifts

We’ve resolved an issue where editing overnight shifts with existing breaks incorrectly displayed break time validation errors.

Grouping by Employment Type Fix

In the People view, employees were previously misclassified under the "None" section when grouping by Employment Type. This issue has now been resolved, ensuring accurate grouping.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets

Sorting Preferences Retention

The Timesheets screen now remembers your last column sorting preferences, including sorting direction, across screen refreshes, logouts, and filter changes. This enhancement eliminates the need to repeatedly set your preferences, saving time and effort.

Bulk Split Permissions Adjustment

Timesheets created through bulk splitting are now correctly marked as "Unauthorised" when the "Do not unauthorise a timesheet when modified" permission is inactive, ensuring compliance with your organisation’s settings.

Total Hours and Paid Hours Fix

We’ve resolved an issue in the Totals section where incorrect values were displayed for the Total Hours and Paid Hours fields when selecting individual timesheets.

Break Prefill Enhancement

When adding a new break in the Edit Timesheet window, the system now automatically pre-fills the Start Time and Duration based on the employee's standard break configurations, removing the need to adjust static default values.

Improved Clickable Dropdown Areas

The clickable area for options in the Actions dropdown has been expanded to include the entire row, making selecting actions like Split, Authorise to Roster Time, and Delete easier.

Comment Retention in Timesheet Splits

When splitting timesheets, comments from the original entry are now retained and applied to all resulting splits. Users can edit or remove these comments as needed, ensuring important information is preserved.

Employee Management

Management > Employee > Employee Management

Support for Bank Account Suffix for New Zealand

The Employee Profile page now includes a dedicated "Suffix" field in the Bank Account details section. This update supports regions, such as New Zealand, where bank account numbers include 2 parts - the main account number and a suffix. Moving forward, you have the option to use this field for storing the suffix separately.

As we wrap up another busy year delivering industry-leading Workforce Management (WFM) innovations to our Humanforce Cloud WFM customers, we’d like to take a moment to highlight various new capabilities we’ve delivered in 2024 through our product development efforts.

As a festive season gift, we’ve also included some key WFM related product usage statistics that highlights how we’ve helped to make work easier and life better for all our WFM customers.

🗓️ Rostering & Scheduling 

Event Rostering

The Event Rostering feature enhances large-scale event management by providing intelligent rostering capabilities. It includes functionalities such as multi-view rostering, which allows users to switch between different roster views, and multi-day, multi-location rostering for effective staff allocation based on qualifications. Additional features include compliance alerts, shift fill options for casual workers, and bulk action tools for quick edits, significantly improving operational efficiency.

Roster Manager Use

Since launching in March this year, Roster Manager has been viewed more than 230,000 times. In November alone, it was used by 4,200 users.

⏱️ Time & Attendance

Bulk Edit Timesheets

The Bulk Edit Timesheets feature allows managers to edit multiple timesheets simultaneously, enhancing efficiency and accuracy. It introduces dropdown menus for shared values and safeguards against editing errors, ensuring that only valid options are presented for selection. This feature significantly reduces administrative workload and error rates when managing timesheets.

Bulk Generate Timesheets from No-Shows 

The Bulk Generate Timesheets from No-Shows feature enables users to convert multiple no-show records into timesheets efficiently. This process ensures accurate payroll processing and streamlines record management, allowing for detailed customizations of each timesheet while updating leave balances appropriately.

Timesheet Use

Timesheet page has been viewed more than 585,000 times so far this year.

⚖️ Awards and Compliance

Updated Library Awards

Humanforce has updated its Library Awards for various sectors, including SCHADS, Security Services, Nurses, Aged Care, and Cleaning Industries. These updates automate aspects such as ordinary hours calculations and penalty rates while simplifying compliance workflows. This ensures that employers can effectively meet the requirements of their respective awards, minimizing errors and maintaining accurate records.

📊 Workforce Analytics

AN-ACC Real-Time Dashboard

The AN-ACC Real-Time Dashboard provides aged care professionals with powerful analytics to monitor compliance with the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) reforms. It offers real-time visibility into care minute targets and supports self-service file uploads. This feature enhances compliance confidence while addressing staffing challenges in the aged care sector.

Workforce Analytics Use

Workforce Analytics has been viewed more than 47,800 times so far this year.

🔭 What's Ahead

Looking ahead, we are excited for what 2025 has in store for our customers. We are looking forward to introducing more WFM enhancements, for example, by helping organisations generate smart worker-and-environment optimised rosters automatically through AI-powered, Demand Driven Rostering. We are also excited about improving event rostering tools, as well as employee-employer communications in the new year.

Here’s to another exciting year ahead with Humanforce Workforce Management!

We’re excited to announce the latest updates to Humanforce Cloud! This release continues to increase support for transitioning from BackOffice to web, introduces usability enhancements in Timesheets and Roster Manager and more. Read on for all the details! 

Release Schedule

• All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to version 6.0.42 (inclusive of all changes in 6.0.41) overnight on Wednesday 8th January 2025. 
• Staging environments were automatically updated on 28 November 2024 (6.0.41) and 12 December 2024 (6.0.42) respectively.

Note: the sequencing of automatic updates from 6.0.40 to 6.0.42 is because of the need to align with continuing internal deployment processes. 

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.

Support for Restrictive alerts in Roster Manager

Roster Manager now fully supports the Minimum Age Check alert when configured as Restrictive.  The Restrictive option prevents saving the shift if it doesn’t meet the alert criteria, making it an error rather than a simple warning. Setup alerts via Admin > System Config > Clock-In Settings.

More roster alert configurations in Web

You can now fully configure the following roster alerts via web:

• Break Check
• Employee Working Days
• Employees Role Qualification

Setup alerts via Admin > System Config > Clock-In Settings. 

Shift Types

Web now supports adjusting the order of Shift Types in the configuration area. This helps ensure that Managers and Employees see the most common or typical shift types towards the top of any dropdown fields throughout Humanforce Cloud (such as when requesting leave). Less common types can be ordered toward the end of the list.

In Humanforce Web, when creating or updating an existing Shift Type Setting, the Accrual Rate was saved with just 2 decimal places. This was in contrast to the Back Office, where 6 decimal places are supported. We have updated the Humanforce Web to have the same flexibility as Back Office.

Shift Confirmation

Sending shift confirmation requests is now available to all web customers. Shift confirmation allows you to easily send a request to your employees via SMS, Push notification (or both) and have them confirm their acceptance and availability for working the shift. For details on how to set up notification methods and send confirmation requests, visit Using Roster Manager - Shift Confirmation on Humanforce Help.

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager  

General availability release of Event Rostering

All web customers can now access our initial general availability release of Event Rostering -  our intelligent event management solution within Roster Manager. Further updates to Event Rostering will continue to be added in later releases.

For more details on how to use Event Rostering, visit Event Rostering in Roster Manager in Humanforce Help.

Enhanced display in Role View

Role View now shows the role colouring down the left had side of each role, making it easy to distinguish between your different roles.

Roster/Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster/Template Manager

Improved filtering usability

Just like recent improvements to Timesheets, pressing the Enter key on your keyboard now applies all selected filters, making filtering faster and more intuitive.

Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Template Manager

You are now able to sort your templates by Cost or Hours making it easier to find the template you need.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets 

Improved sorting, date picker and usability enhancements

The Employee Name column now supports multi-level sorting: first by Employee Name, then by Start Date (oldest-newest), and finally by Pay Start date (oldest-newest). 

Any single dates or date ranges selected when using the Timesheet Admin screen will now be retained when refreshing or navigating away from the page. Logging out/in will apply the standard defaults to the date picker as per current behaviour. This fix also resolves an issue where users without the Allow date range navigation permission active could still access and select the date range list for specific Pay Companies.

Adjustments have been made to the split timesheet functionality to ensure proper handling of split durations, preventing unintended behaviour when splitting timesheets.

We resolved an issue in the Grouped views so that sorting will now behave as expected, and the expanded tables remain visible and fixed to their parent record.

The Confirm icon in the Actions column will no longer become disabled when changing the date/date range.

Rest API

We're making more employee details available via the public API, so you can query and interrogate your user data more effectively. The following fields have been added to the Get Employees summary endpoint:

• RosterMaxHours - Returns the effective Roster Max hours as of current date
• ProbationDays - Returns the probation days for an employee.

Note: This post was edited on 6th Jan 2025, to remove an item related to a warning presented on Timesheets when authorising timesheets exceeding the length setting in the user's Access Levels. This item was rolled back for further development.

We are excited to announce user experience updates and convenient employee clock out prompts in our flagship workforce management mobile application – Work App. These updates enhance the overall mobile work experience of employees and improves work record accuracy.

Let’s dive in!

Break Reminder at Clock-Out

 🔥 What’s new? 

We’ve introduced a new break reminder to employees in Work app so that they record breaks they may have forgotten to clock during their shift. Already available in the Humanforce web kiosk, this enhancement prompts employees to confirm if they took a break when none is registered, allowing them to manually input the start time and duration.

⭐️ Why it matters. Our break reminder to employees ensures timesheets accurately reflect working hours. In addition, these effective reminders reduce the need for manual timesheet adjustments made by managers during the authorisation process, thereby helping all organisations process significant numbers of timesheets more efficiently.

🏁 Getting Started. For more information check out the following help articles;

• Managers - How can I remind employees to enter breaks when clocking out?
• Employees - How can I add a break when clocking out if I forgot to add one during my shift?

In addition, dive into Work App clocking screen (end shift) to experience it for yourself. Please stay tuned for further developments in this area.

Schedule Screen Update 

🔥 What’s new? We’ve enhanced the employee schedule screen experience in Work App by allowing users to better surface the information they need, by allowing them to tap on the calendar to minimise it. We've also moved leave and availability requests to the top for quicker access.

⭐️ Why it matters. By redesigning the schedule screen we’ve provided more space for employees to view shift information such as rostered shifts, bids, offers, leave and availability, to make work-based decisions more efficiently.

🏁 Getting Started. For more information dive into Work App schedule screen to experience it for yourself.  Please note, further improvements to the schedule screen coming soon.

Revolutionise your management of large-scale events with Event Rostering, our intelligent rostering solution within Roster Manager.

Our newly designed, intelligent event rostering capability streamlines and simplifies the large-scale event complexity, whilst also delivering better compliance and cost-optimisation and strategic, data-driven decision-making.

Availability

As an early access feature, Event Rostering will be 'feature flagged' from November 2024 until 8th January 2025. This means customers who would like to gain early access to this feature will need to request access by simply submit a request via Humanforce Help, during this period. 

From 8th January 2025, all customers will be able to access our initial general availability release of Event Rostering, with additional updates being released thereafter - check our Humanforce Cloud WFM release notes. 

Check out Humanforce Help for further information on using Event Rostering capabilities in Roster Manager.

Let’s dive in...

🔥 What’s New?

Event Rostering includes several advanced functionalities that cater to the specific needs of event managers.

Key features such as Multi-view rostering allow users to easily switch between different views of the roster, providing insights into employee schedules and labour costs.

The Multi-day, Multi-location rostering capability enables organizations to allocate and deploy staff based on qualifications and skill sets over consecutive days.

With additional features like Roster Alerts for compliance issues, Shift Fill options for casual workers, bulk action tools for quick edits significantly enhance operational efficiency, Single Day view, Award Interpretation and Advanced Clock-in capability, Event Rostering is the most advanced and capable event rostering solution powering large-scale events.

Users now can also easily create & manage labour groups to schedule a pool of staff for an event or a specific job.

In the future, we intend to embed communication tools and employee engagement features within the rostering flow experience for Roster Manager to foster a more connected workforce, improving overall staff satisfaction and retention. Stay tuned for more details.

What is Roster Manager? 

As Event Rostering is located within Roster Manager it's important to also understand what it is. As Humanforce's flagship cloud rostering capability, Roster Manager provides an optimised rostering experience that enhances rostering consistency and streamlines the rostering process by reducing the number of rostering workflow screens. Roster Manager offers multiple rostering views, advanced data filtering and grouping capabilities, and provides actionable insights along with compliance warnings, all in the one location, ensuring a truly intuitive and seamless rostering solution.

⭐️ Why it matters

Event Rostering addresses critical challenges faced by organisations managing large events. By automating complex scheduling processes, it reduces the risk of human error while ensuring compliance with award conditions. The ability to generate optimised rosters quickly not only saves time but also allows managers to focus on strategic aspects of event planning.

• Rostering simplicity: Automatically generate optimised rosters in an instant, resolve rostering issues quickly and view shift details how you want with greater clarity.
• Surface important details instantly: Quickly and easily navigate to specific shifts from easy to view summaries and other information to better anticipate and addressing potential operational disruptions
• Compliance confidence: Surface qualified and shift-appropriate event employees with appropriate skills are assigned to each event role with a click of a button, ensuring legislated standards and award compliance is better met.
• Data-driven decisions: Utilise comprehensive analytic tools and reporting capability to inform future staffing strategies and optimise future event planning.
• Cost control: Contain scheduling costs with easy to view Award calculations per shift, and control labour expenditure with efficient event scheduling and resource allocation.
• Flexible Integration: Seamlessly connect your rostering systems with other third-party event management systems, payroll systems, and HR platforms through API, or file-based integrations.
• Scalability: Streamline event staffing for any scale, from smaller corporate gatherings to expansive global events, across multiple venues and locations, while effortlessly coordinating diverse teams working in various time zones.

🏁 Getting Started  

Event Rostering is easy to use. Visit the following Help article to help you and your teams get started;

• How to use Event Rostering in Roster Manager (and how to transition from Event Planner in our soon to be sunsetted Back Office platform to Event Rostering).

For more information on Event Rostering, contact your Humanforce Representative.

We’re excited to announce the latest updates to Humanforce Cloud! This release includes more alert configuration in Humanforce Cloud, and improvements to Timesheets, Payroll, and Leave Approvals to enhance functionality and usability. Read on for all the details.

Release Schedule

• All Humanforce Cloud accounts and UAT environments will be automatically updated to version 6.0.40 overnight on Wednesday 27th November 2024.
• Staging environments were automatically updated on Thursday 14th November 2024.

Holiday season release schedule for Humanforce Cloud

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 from the release of 6.0.40 on Wednesday 27th November 2024 until Wednesday 8th January 2025. 

As usual, we’ll provide advance notice of what the automatic update on 8th January 2025 will include, with release notes provided here on Monday 16th December. 

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.

Support for Restrictive alerts in Roster Manager

Roster Manager now fully supports the Employee Role Restriction and Hours Required alerts when configured as Restrictive.  The Restrictive option prevents saving the shift if it doesn’t meet the alert criteria, making it an error rather than a simple warning. Setup alerts via Admin > System Config > Clock-In Settings.

More roster alert configurations in Web

You can now fully configure the following roster alerts via web:

• Employee's Age
• Employee Working Hours, and 
• Employee Gender. 

Setup alerts via Admin > System Config > Clock-In Settings. Note that the Employee Gender alert is not yet supported in Roster Manager.  

Roster Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster Manager  

Improved search and filtering behavior

We’ve fixed an issue where searching by employee name or code combined with Filters did not display correct results. Searches now respect applied filters.  

Roster/Template Manager

Management > Rostering > Roster/Template Manager  

Simplified fill shift workflow

When using qualifications within shift definitions, relevant qualifications are automatically applied as filters in the Fill Shift modal, helping you assign shifts to the correct employees more efficiently.  

Leave/Availability

Management > Availability > Leave/Availability  

Public holiday availability settings

Public holidays can now be marked as unavailable if an employee's requested leave period includes a public holiday, and they have an insufficient leave balance for the selected leave type. Previously the option to mark the PH as unavailable was not being offered in this scenario.

Leave Approvals

Management > Availability > Leave Approvals  

Accurate leave balances and payroll processing

We’ve resolved an issue where leave accruals and deductions did not update as expected if linked leave requests were deleted or unauthorised. This update ensures accurate leave balances, payroll processing, and clearer timesheet records.  

Enhanced usability

The Leave Approvals screen now displays five requests at a time, with expanded column widths to allow approval actions without scrolling.

Timesheets

Management > Timesheets > Timesheets  

Real-time change notifications

A warning banner now appears if another user makes changes to timesheets you’re viewing. You can refresh the page to see the updated timesheet, and your applied filters will be retained.

Improved drop-downs usability

We’ve adjusted shading and selection colours in multi-select drop-downs for better clarity and consistency.  

Reports

Reports > Roster > Roster By Roles  

Improved Roster By Roles report

Based on user feedback, the Roster By Roles report now uses a portrait layout, includes headers on all pages, and features more defined gridlines for improved readability.  

Payroll

Management > Timesheets > Payroll  

Support for Alesco Payroll integration

Humanforce Cloud now supports exporting payruns to Alesco Payroll. Once a payrun has been processed in Management > Timesheets > Payroll, click the Export drop-down and select Alesco to download the export file.

Humanforce Payroll Native Integration Enhancements

We’ve enhanced the cost centre mapping capabilities within Humanforce Payroll’s native integration with Humanforce WFM. This update introduces greater flexibility for managing cost centre allocations in payroll exports, helping ensure accurate timesheet data representation, even when employees work in cost centres different from their default.

• Expanded Scope for Cost Centre Mapping

  We’ve expanded the supported scopes available when selecting custom cost centre mappings. The following scopes are now supported, Period, Award Profile, Employment Type, Pay Type, Event, Event Function, and Event Type. This update provides greater flexibility and precision, ensuring all cost centre mapping options are available for accurate payroll data alignment.

• Default Cost Centre Mapping
  You can now use default cost centre values where a combination of timesheet attributes does not resolve to a cost centre map string. Instead of sending a blank string, it will now use the default value (if set).

  To set default cost centre values for an existing Humanforce Payroll integration:

  1. Go to Management > Advanced > Integration Central  and find your Humanforce Payroll integration
  2. Click the three dots on the right-hand side, and select Edit
  3. Click Payroll Export to skip ahead to the relevant section
  4. Click Next to go to Payroll Export (page 2 of 2)
  5. Select the checkbox for the relevant cost centre and enter the values in the Default Value field

For further details check out Humanforce Payroll: Native Integration with Humanforce WFM in Humanforce Help. If you have any questions about how setting default cost centre values will impact payroll, submit a request via Humanforce Help.