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Workforce Communications

Use the Communications feature to keep employees engaged through announcement posts, direct 1-on-1 chats, and group chats.

What's covered in this guide?

How it works

Communications combines announcement broadcasting and real-time messaging into a single feature.

With Communications, you can:

  • Share important updates with teams through Announcements

  • Send direct 1-on-1 messages

  • Create and participate in Group Chats

  • Allow employees and managers to communicate based on your organisation's permissions

You can access Communications from the Communications tab in the top navigation on both desktop and mobile.

💡 Tip: Communications can be used for both company-wide updates and day-to-day team conversations.

Announcements vs Chats

Communications is divided into two sections:

Announcements

Announcements are designed for sharing important information with specific teams. They support:

  • Replies

  • Reactions

  • Polls

  • Acknowledgements

  • Rich text formatting

  • File attachments

Announcements are organised into Groups.

Chats

Chats are designed for casual, real-time communication between individuals or small teams.

You can filter chats by:

  • 1:1 Chats

  • Group Chats

  • Unread Messages

Create a new Group

Before sending announcements, you'll need a Group to post in.

To create a Group:

  1. Navigate to Communications

  2. Select the Announcements tab

  3. Click + New Group

  4. Enter a Group name

  5. Select the Teams that should be members of the Group

  6. Optionally:

    • Enable Public Group to allow anyone in the organisation to join

    • Enable Show in Feed to display announcements in members' feeds

    • Use Add Employees Individually to include specific employees outside selected Teams

  7. Click Create

📝 Important to note: Public Groups can be discovered and joined by employees across the organisation.

Send an announcement

To create and publish an announcement:

  1. Navigate to Communications > Announcements

  2. Select an existing Group or create a new one

  3. Click + New Announcement

  4. Enter your announcement content

  5. Under Advanced Settings, optionally:

    • Disable Allow Replies

    • Enable Require Acknowledgement

    • Enable Send Email Notifications

  6. To attach files or images, click Add File

  7. To create a poll:

    • Click Create Poll

    • Enter a question and answer options

  8. Click Create

Advanced Settings

When creating an announcement, you can configure additional options:

  • Allow replies – Allow group members to comment on the announcement.

  • Require acknowledgement – Require employees to confirm they have read the announcement.

  • Send email notifications – Send an email notification to group members when the announcement is published.

  • High priority – Send notifications even to users who have muted the announcement group.

  • Schedule publication – Schedule the announcement to be published automatically at a future date and time.

📝 Important to note: Staff may receive push notifications when announcements are posted, depending on their notification preferences.

📝 Important to note: Scheduled announcements remain in draft form until the selected publication date and time.

Respond to an announcement

Announcements with Allow Replies enabled can be responded to by Group members.

On desktop

  1. Open the relevant Group from the Announcements sidebar

  2. Click Comment beneath the announcement

  3. Enter your response

  4. Send the comment

On mobile

  1. Open the Messages tab

  2. Select the relevant Group

  3. Tap Replies in the bottom-right corner of the announcement

  4. Enter your response

  5. Tap the send icon

Require acknowledgement of an announcement

To require employees to confirm they've read an announcement:

  1. Create a new announcement

  2. Expand Advanced Settings

  3. Enable Require Acknowledgement

  4. Publish the announcement

Employees will see an orange acknowledgement prompt until they confirm they have read the announcement.

Once acknowledged, the announcement displays a green confirmation indicator.

📝 Important to note: Admins and Managers can track acknowledgement responses from the Communications section on desktop and mobile.

Pin an announcement

Admins and Managers can pin important announcements to keep them visible.

To pin an announcement:

  1. Open the announcement

  2. Click the three-dot menu (⋮)

  3. Select Pin

To remove a pinned announcement:

  1. Click the three-dot menu (⋮)

  2. Select Unpin

Pinned announcements appear at the top of the Group feed.

Archive a Group

Archive a Group when it is no longer needed.

🚨 Important: Archiving a Group hides the Group and its announcements from both managers and employees.

To archive a Group:

  1. Open the Group

  2. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner

  3. Confirm the action

To restore an archived Group:

  1. Navigate to the Archive tab within Communications

  2. Locate the archived Group

  3. Click Unarchive

The Group and all associated announcements will be restored.

View read receipts

Admins and Managers can see who has viewed an announcement.

To view read receipts:

  1. Open the announcement

  2. Click the eye icon in the top-right corner

A list of employees who have read the announcement will be displayed.

Permissions

Who can use Chat?

Chat availability and messaging permissions can be configured at:

  1. Settings > All Settings > Communications

From here, Admins can:

  • Enable or disable Live Chat

  • Configure who employees can start chats with:

    • No one

    • Employees in their teams

    • Employees in their locations

    • Anyone

  • Configure who managers can start chats with:

    • No one

    • Employees in teams they manage

    • Employees in locations where they manage a team

    • Anyone

Push Notifications

Admins can also control when staff receive push notifications for chats and announcements:

  • Never

  • While clocked in

  • While clocked in or rostered

  • Anytime

Additionally, you can choose whether employees continue receiving push notifications while on leave.

📝 Important to note: These settings determine who can communicate with each other and when notifications are sent. They do not control whether a role can create or manage announcement groups.

What Groups can I post in?

Announcement and Chat permissions are controlled by role at:

  1. Settings > View All Permission Settings > Advanced Settings > Customise Access & Role

Under Announcement Rooms, roles can be granted permission to:

  • Create announcement groups

  • Post In announcement groups

  • View announcement groups and announcements

  • Edit announcement groups and announcements

Under Chat Rooms, roles can be granted permission to:

  • Create chat groups

  • View chat groups

  • Edit chat groups

📝 Important to note: A user must have both the appropriate role permissions and access to the relevant team, location, or group before they can create or post announcements.

FAQs and Troubleshooting

Where can I read and create an announcement?

On desktop, via Communications > Announcements. On mobile, via the Messages tab.

Can I edit a Communications group?

Yes, open the group and use the three-dot menu to edit its name or members.

Can I insert URLs?

Yes, URLs can be included in announcement content.

Can I attach PDFs, images, or documents?

Yes, use the Add file button when creating an announcement.

What is the 'Organisation-wide' announcement group?

This is a default group automatically created for your organisation. It includes all employees and cannot be deleted, but can be archived by admins.

Can I archive the 'Organisation-wide' announcement group?

Yes, admins can archive it the same way as any other group.

Can I schedule an announcement?

Yes. When creating an announcement, use the Schedule Publication field to choose a future date and time. The announcement will automatically be published at the scheduled time.

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