Deliver important messages and announcements to your team in less time using the Communications feature.
What's covered in this guide?
How it works
Communications is both an announcement board tool for management to broadcast important information to employees as well as for groups of employees and managers to communicate.
Managers send announcements by using the feature on the desktop site and or on their Mobile App. Employees can receive and respond to these announcements both by logging in online and or on their Mobile App.
Groups Vs Chats
Within communications, there are Groups and Chats.
Groups are notice boards for predefined locations and or teams. Groups can be setup to broadcast important information to members of these locations and teams. These Announcements can be reacted to, acknowledged and replied to. Groups are best used when the announcement/post is the focal point as the information will not be buried or lost in any replies that come after. Posts to Groups have more extensive formatting options, allowing for greater structure of information.
Chats are a more casual communication tool and can be 1:1 or 1:many. Chats can be configured to be between specific employees or teams. Chats are best used for day-to-day communications between smaller groups and teams.
Send an announcement to a group
To send an announcement to a group:
Log in to Workforce online at my.workforce.com
Navigate to Communications on your Navigation Bar
Select which locations or teams to broadcast an Announcement to
Create a Group and give your group a name, or select and existing
Create a New Post
If you would not like staff to be able to respond to the announcement, deselect the 'allow replies' checkbox under 'Advanced settings'
If you require acknowledgement of the announcement, select the 'require acknowledgement' option
If you require emails to be sent for the announcement, select the 'Send email notifications' option
If you would like to attach additional information in the form of an image or document, select the 'Add file' button.
If you would like to create a Poll that employees can vote on, select 'Create Poll' and add the question and defined answers.
Click Create
Depending on their notification settings, staff will receive a push notification on their device when an announcement is made.
Respond to an announcement
When an announcement is made with the 'Allow Replies' option enabled, all members of the communication room will be able to send and read other replies on the announcement. The number of replies already made will be shown on the announcement.
To respond to an announcement, staff can follow the below steps:
Navigate to the Messages tab on the mobile app
Select the specific communication group the announcement was sent in
Click the Replies button in the bottom right corner of the message
Enter your response and click the blue Send icon
Require acknowledgement of an announcement
If you require staff to acknowledge that they have read an announcement, simply toggle the 'Require Acknowledgement' option when creating an announcement.
Announcements which require an acknowledgement will display an orange prompt to staff. Once the announcement has been acknowledged, the post will update with a green confirmation.
Admins and Managers will also be able to track responses under the 'Communications' tab on both desktop and mobile.
Pin an announcement:
To pin/ unpin a Post, Admins and Managers can select the menu on the top right-hand corner (three dots on the announcement) and select 'Pin/ Unpin.'
Once an announcement is pinned, a banner will display the pinned title to the top of the group's feed. To read the entire pinned announcement, click on the banner to expand the full announcement.
Archive a group
Admins can archive a communications group which is no longer necessary. Archiving a communications group removes the visibility of the announcements and the group to both Managers and Employees.
To archive a communications group:
Open the group you want to archive
Click Archive (located at the top right of the group)
A warning message will display. Click Confirm to archive the group.
Archived groups can be viewed by toggling from 'Active Groups' to 'Archived':
Admins can un-archive a group by clicking the 'archive' button again. Doing so will restore the group and any associated announcements.
View "read receipts":
Admins and Managers can view who has read an announcement by clicking on the 'eye' icon on the top right corner:
Permissions
Who can use Chat?
Communications have their own settings that live in settings > all settings > communication settings.
From here you can:
Disable live chat - employees cannot use the chat feature, announcements can still be sent by admins and managers.
Configure who employees can start chats with
Staff in their Locations
Staff in their teams
No one
Configure who manager rolls can start chats with
Staff in their Locations
Staff in their teams
No one
Notification Defaults for chats (employees can adjust per chat)
Notification Defaults for announcements/posts (emails are still sent live)
If staff on leave should receive notifications.
What Groups Can I post in?
'Groups' are controlled by the Announcement Room Permissions.
By default:
Admins can create, read and send an announcement to all employees
Managers can create, read and send an announcement to all locations & teams that they manage
Employees can read announcements for teams they are in
Permissions per role can be updated by navigating to Settings > View all Permission Settings > Advanced Settings > Customise Access & Role
This allows for roles to have their ability to create chats and groups restricted. Managers and employees will only be able to create groups and chats within the scope defined in communication settings.
What is an 'Organisation-wide Announcement' Group?
An 'Organisation-wide' group is a default group which allows Admins to broadcast Announcements to all users within the organisation.
FAQs and Troubleshooting
Where can I read and create an ‘Announcement’?
‘Announcements’ can be read on the web-app and latest mobile app (Android and iOS). Employees will be notified of a new ‘Announcement’ via a push notification on their mobile device.
The total number of unread announcements will display as a badge next to the relevant 'group'. Once the announcement has been read, the badge will be removed:
Can I edit a 'Communications' group?
Yes, users can make the following updates to 'Communications' groups:
To add/remove teams of an existing group (edit groups):
Add/remove teams to an existing group by selecting the '...' button > 'Edit Group Members' > select/unselect the desired locations/teams.
To edit the 'group' name
Update the name of the existing group by selecting the '...' button > 'Edit Group Name' and entering the new Group name in the field.
Can I insert URL's?
Yes, you can insert clickable URL's into the body of announcement as well as email addresses. Clicking on an email address will automatically open your email client (Outlook, Apple Mail etc) to send an email effortlessly.
Can I attach PDFs, images, documents etc?
Yes, you're able to add an attachment to any communications by clicking the "Attach a document" option. Documents greater than 5mb will not be able to be attached.
Can I create one-on-one chats?
Yes.
Can I archive the 'Organisation-wide' announcement group?
No, this default group cannot be archived.