Time to start recruiting again?

Hopefully you’re all back up and running after a tough few months. 

For many organisations, recruitment has been on pause during lockdown. And for those who have already started hiring again, recruitment is looking quite different. For example, there are fewer face to face interviews taking place. But perhaps the biggest difference our customers have noticed when filling roles, is the sheer volume of applications. 

More people than ever are looking for work. And as well as more applicants, you may also notice people applying for jobs that are not necessarily in their usual area of interest.

We’ve taken the time during lockdown to improve our Applicant Tracking System. This means that as soon as you’re ready to hit the ‘play’ button, you’ll enjoy a smoother, faster and more organised hiring process.

The changes are now live. Here’s what is new: 

Report on vacancy views with Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a leading web analytics service, powered by tech giant Google. It tracks the traffic to your website, and reports back on what people are getting up to.

With the latest release, you can now link your People HR vacancies to your Google Analytics page. This will give you greater visibility over your recruitment process, and will let you see things like who is viewing your vacancy, and when.

Ask new types of questions

We’ve added a load of new field types for you to choose from when creating a new vacancy. This will let you improve the look of your applicant form, as well as capture answers in certain ways.

For example, the new format validator will let you request answers in a specific format, whilst signature fields and checkboxes could become a great way to include things like GDPR disclaimers on your application forms.

Because of these changes, we have also improved the way things look to the candidate, by expanding the size of the application screen. This should make things clearer and faster for them, when they apply for one of your vacancies.

Has anything else changed?

We’ve made a few more tweaks to your ATS to enhance your experience. These include: 

• The ability to move the “Awaiting Approval” pipeline stage

• A new “Closing Date” column on the vacancy page

• The option to specify whether hiring managers and/or hiring leads should delete applicants

Of course, the best way to check out these changes is to give it a try for yourself! Or, if you’d like further help, you can visit our help page here: https://help.peoplehr.com/en/collections/101155-applicant-tracking-system-ats 

Weekly approval for timesheets and assignments

We know you’ve been waiting for it, and you know we’ve been working on it. Bulk approval for timesheets and assignments is now live in the People HR system! 

Approvers will now be able to approve an entire week’s worth of timesheets and/or assignments, all in one go. This saves you multiple clicks in and out of each request. 

Don’t worry, you can still view and approve each entry one by one, if that’s the way you prefer it.

Click here to check out the changes and how they will work.

The new mobile app is here!

As promised back at our "Future of People" virtual conference in 2019, we've released our updated mobile app.

The updated People HR mobile app aims to help you access accurate information, from anywhere. People HR stores all your data in a single place, meaning you and your team can access it instantly, from anywhere.

By using the updated app, you can give your employees a system they'll love, because it is quick to learn and easy to access from any device. The mobile app is a painless way to manage HR tasks like holiday requests, expense claims or performance reviews.

We're currently releasing to users in phases, so the app will be available for you to download in the iOS app store and Android Play store very soon.

Scan through the rest of our news page to see some of our top features, or click here for all our How-To articles on the mobile app. 

The planner on the mobile app

In the mobile app we've made it much easier for you and your employees to view and edit what matters. Users can now add sickness, maternity, and more to employee records from within the app (access dependant).

We've created a simpler view of who is off, and on what days, and much quicker to book holidays and events. Click here to learn more about the planner.

Each individual can track their own requests, to see what has been approved, or declined. Click here to learn more.

Quick action expenses on the go

Expenses can be tough to keep on top of. Especially whilst on-the-move. That's why we’ve added a quick action method.

Quick action will allow you to add the name and price of the expense or, with or without an image receipt. Then you can fill the rest out later. Alongside streamlining the process of adding expenses, we've made it easier to see if that expense been approved or declined.

If an employee has missed a few details, or got something wrong, we've made it so declined expenses are easier to edit and resubmit. Click here to learn more.

Personal Information on the mobile app

Storing accurate and up-to-date information is important, and not just for legal reasons (GDPR). Employees managing their personal information on the mobile app is just one way you can use People HR to help ensure information is accurate and up-to-date.

In the new People HR mobile app, employees have control over their personal information. Including the ability to view and edit:

* Bank details
* Contact details
* Emergency Contacts
* Edit profile picture

Also, depending on access rights (which will be exactly the same as how you set up in the People HR web app), administrators and managers can view the information. Information such as, employee start date, job role, contact details, emergency contacts, etc.

This is also important, so administrators and managers can appropriately process information according to your organisations needs. Click here to learn more about viewing your personal profile on the mobile app. 

Chat to colleagues with our new mobile chat feature

Remote working is more prominent than it's ever been, and keeping in touch with employees who are out of office is important for productivity, employee engagement, and your workforces morale.

With this in mind, we improved our chat function on the mobile app, so now you can hold conversations with your workforce individually, or in groups.

Some of the functionality that's been added or improved, includes:

* Send a photo from your files or straight from your smartphone camera
* Send a GIF
* Attach a file from your phone
* Send a voice message
* Send your current location
* Add a hyperlink
* Group messaging

Click here to learn more. 

Enhance your logbooks with a video and audio!

Logbooks are looking brighter and shinier, and that’s because we’ve improved the functionality. We’ve added features requested by customers, alongside features that will help you to streamline your processes.

Firstly, you can now preview a logbook from within the logbook settings. This makes it much easier to see what your logbook will look like when viewed by an employee.

Secondly, we’ve added 4 new fields to logbooks. Which are:

·   Audio instructional

·   Video instructional

·   Text instructional

·   Multiple choice

Last but not least, you can now specify who can sign a logbook, and you can actually lock the editing - so once your logbook is signed by whomever you have specified, no further changes can be made.

To summarise, there are three main additions to the logbook screen – preview, new fields, and changes to logbook signatures.

Please check our help documentation or contact our friendly experts if you need assistance.

Click here on how to customise the logbook and all available field types. 

A whole new area for document templates

One of the main changes you’ll notice, is we’re moving the ability to create a new document template into the settings section. From this section, you will be able to do the following:

·  Add, edit and preview document template

·  View history of previous edits, which is a new addition to document settings

·  Specify which teams this document is relevant for

·  Allow managers to use email inbox

A wealth of other new features are being added to documents

We’re giving you the power to copy existing document templates, and providing a range of new merge tags, which will allow you to merge logbook data, even from your custom logbooks. (FYI Ripple users, these new merge tags are also being added to Ripple email steps)

You’ll have the ability to use a merge tag in the document name.

Designate who needs to sign the document, whether dual signatures are needed, meaning both employee and manager need to sign, or if you just need a manager to sign.

Small changes are being made to how the documents tab appears, within the employees tab. You’ll get a quick view of who can access what document, and a new column to show if a manager has signed the document.

Launch editor

Previously, some administrators have mentioned that a document would be added to an employee record, before you clicked “launch editor”. We’ve improved this, so that no documents will be added to any employee record until you’ve clicked save. This allows you to check over the document and make any changes, before alerting the employee there is a new document to sign.

Click here to learn more about the new document templates area!

^{Allow indirect reports to approve requests on the manager's behalf} 

As per last year's release, Admins can specify different approval rules for all kinds of requests. But what if the approver is away on holiday?

Use the new '2nd line approval' button to allow the employee's indirect report (their manager's manager) the ability to view and authorise request on the approvers behalf. 

Learn more about approval rules here.