Creating an HR Notification

This walkthrough shows you how to build a Custom Notification.

Before you start: Set up your test recipients in global settings so you can test your notification once it's ready. See linked guide for more information

Step 1: Choose a Notification Type
Step 2: Write the email
Step 3: Set the schedule
Step 4: Choose the audience
Step 5: Choose recipients
Step 6: Test, then go live
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Step 1: Choose a Notification Type

Go to Manage Notifications and click Create new notification
Search or select a Type of notification e.g. starter

Step 2: Write the email

Description: give the notification a name you'll recognise on the summary screen, such as New starter reminder – manager. Employees don't see this
Subject: enter the email subject. Click Tags to add details that are filled in automatically, such as the employee's name

Body: write your message, using tags where needed. For example: Hi [manager name], [employee name] joins your team on [start date]. Please make sure their equipment and system access are ready. Use the editor to format the text

Note: The message body supports rich formatting, hyperlinks and emojis. You can’t insert images, but you could add an image as an attachment if you need one.

Preview: click Preview to see how the email will look, and adjust it until you're happy. If your organisation has more than one entity, you can preview the email with each entity's branding
Attachments (optional): add up to 5 files. Each file can be up to 5 MB, and up to 7 MB in total. Allowed types: pdf, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, odt, ods, rtf, txt, csv, png, jpg, jpeg, gif.
Signature: switch on Use global signature to add your standard signature

The tags available depend on the template. For example, Starter includes start date and Probation includes probation end date.

Emails use your organisation's branding. Multi-entity organisations get the branding of the entity the employee belongs to.

Step 3: Set the schedule

The schedule is where you set the rules for the notification. The options change depending on which Type of notification you select ie. A Starter notification is based only on the employee's start date, with the following options to send (number of days as an example):

Before: 7 days before the start date
Between: 7 days before and 0 days after the start date (recommended)
On: On the start date
After: 7 days after the start date

Tip: Use Between for notifications that you would like to be sent if information is added to the system late, such as a new starter notification.

For example, if a notification is configured to send 7 days before a starter joins, but their record is only added to the system 5 days before their start date, a Between rule can still send the email because the start date falls within the specified date range. A Before rule wouldn’t send it, as the 7-day trigger date has already passed.

Step 4: Choose the audience

On the Audience tab, choose which employees the notification applies to.

Chose a Standard Set ie. All Staff, Current Staff, Leavers etc or
To target one location, team or entity, click on Use a subset
- Build your subset and give it a clear description

Tip: For new starter emails, choose All staff. Don't use Current staff: people aren't current staff until their start date, so pre-start reminders won't be sent

Note: For further information on Subsets, see the related guide

Step 5: Choose recipients

On the Recipients tab, choose who receives the email.

Click Add and choose from the email addresses held in the system

To send to another address, such as an IT or payroll inbox, type it in and click Add address
Set each recipient as To, CC or BCC
Optional: switch on Work email addresses only if the email should only go to work addresses. This uses the domains in your global settings

Important: Check free-typed email addresses carefully as the system can’t tell if an address is wrong, so a typo could send the notification to the wrong person

Step 6: Test, then go live

Set the status to Test and Update. Your test recipients will receive the email after the next daily run, usually the following day. Test emails don't arrive straight away

Check the test email's content, tags and branding. Make any changes
When you're happy, set the status to Live and click Update. The notification will now send to real recipients using your live data

Use Disabled whenever you want to pause a notification or keep working on it without sending anything.

Tip: To send a similar email at a different time, such as a second reminder 1 day before the start date, open your notification and click Duplicate. Change the schedule and description, then save. You don't need to start again from scratch.

After your notification goes live, open it and click View send log to see each email sent, when it was sent and who received it.

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