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Communications Tool Overview

Kohini
Updated
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This guide will show you how to use the optional HR Communications module, to enable you to set up and distribute a email or SMS (text message) to a selected group of employees using the subset facility.

A system administrator licence is required to configure this feature.

 

Contents

 

Introduction

There will be many instances where a communication needs to be sent to all or a group of your employees and given that HR holds contact information which is updated and maintained by employees on a regular basis then sending these communications from HR is a good way to achieve this.

The HR Communications module enables you to set up and distribute a communication to a selected group of employees using the subset facility. The message can be sent by email or SMS (text message) and can be configured so that no response is required or a simple yes/no is needed. 

 

To Create a Communication

  • Go to the following area:
    • Latest (left-hand) menu: Employee Communications > Communications
    • Pre 2025 (top) menu: People Admin > Tasks > Communications

  • Click on the new communication envelope icon

  • The screen presented will enable you to set up the communication as you require

  • Choose whether it will be sent by Email or SMS
  • Give the communication a Description; this will be the message title on sending
  • Enter any additional Detail as required and enter the Message information
  • The response options are as follows:
     
    • No response – the message recipient will not be prompted for a response
    • Confirm Only – the message recipient will be prompted for confirmation
    • Yes or No response – the message recipient will need to respond with a choice; Yes or No

Note:  Communications being sent via SMS will require a Twilio SMS service. HR can be configured to use any Twilio account. 
When using Communications vis SMS, the phone number in Personal Details > Contact Details should have UK selected from the dropdown and be entered without the 0. If the dropdown is left blank and numbers are entered with a 0, communications via SMS will not send.

  • The final stage is to select the group of employee records that are to receive the communication
  • Click on the Subset icon in the top right corner of the scree
  • Having selected the Standard Set to be used, ie Current Staff, All Staff, Leavers etc, use the Subset functionality as usual to further refine and select the employee records required
  • Having selected the required records, press Complete and your Subset of employees will be listed on the right hand side of the screen as shown below. The communication is now ready to be sent
Note:  There is a filter on the main screen if you wish to check for any particular records in the list, but this will NOT apply to the Subset when you click Send, therefore return to the Subset if you wish to amend your list before sending.
  • When you have finalised your message and list of recipients click Send and your message will be distributed

 

Status and Response Rates information

Delivery and response rates can be reviewed on communication specific dashboards.

  • Go to the following area:
    • Latest (left-hand) menu: Employee Communications > Communications
    • Pre 2025 (top) menu: People Admin > Tasks > Communications
  • Click on the Pick a Communication on the left hand side of the toolbar. A dropdown of the history of communications will be shown. Click on the communication that is to be reviewed

 

  • A dashboard and graphical representation of the communication will be displayed. The content will differ dependent on the response mechanism selected, ie no response, Yes/No etc

     

Dashboard Options

Filtering

Click on the dashboard heading names to see filtering options for the data in that column.

Green tick

The green tick indicates a success whether that is that the message has been sent or a response received.

Yellow question mark

Yellow question mark shows that the communication is incomplete in some way. For example the message may have been sent but no response received.

Red exclamation mark

This means there has been an error. Hover over the exclamation mark and the error type will be revealed. You can then take the necessary remedial action and on returning to the dashboard use the icon which appears in the top right corner of the record to retry the message.

Response Summary

The content of the response summary will vary according to the communication type and the number of records the communication was sent to.

Generated image

 

Actions

On the right hand side, there are further options in addition to the new message envelope icon: a page icon to preview the message content and a bin icon to delete the message 

Note:  The ability to use Communications does rely on your employee contact information being complete and up to date. It may be useful to consider sending a regular notification reminder to employees to review and update this data.

A System Administrator licence is required to access Communications management, plus user roles need the correct page access to send Communications and/or to review the response data. Write Access to the Communications page will enable users in that role to send communications, whereas Read Access will give dashboard access only.

 

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