Deliver important messages and announcements to your team in less time using the Communications feature.
What's covered in this guide?
How it works
With Communications, you and your team will be able to:
Broadcast important information to employees
Send 1-on-1 communications to team members
Managers send announcements by using the feature online 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.
Send an announcement
Navigate to Communications
Select which locations or teams to broadcast an Announcement to
Create a Group and give your group a name
Create an Announcement
If you would like staff to be able to respond to the announcement, select the allow replies option
If you require acknowledgement of the announcement, select the require acknowledgement option
If you would like to attach a document or image to the announcement, select the + Add file option
Click Send
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, attach a file (if desired), and click the blue Send button
Require acknowledgement of an announcement
When creating an announcement, you'll have the option of requiring acknowledgement through a checkbox confirmation. If staff are yet to acknowledge an announcement, a prompt will appear in orange. Once they have acknowledged the announcement, they'll get confirmation below the post.
Admins and Managers will also be able to track responses on both mobile and desktop.
Desktop: Go to Workforce > Communications > Track Responses > View Responses
Mobile: Go to Messages > Track Responses > View Responses
Pin an announcement
To pin/ unpin an announcement, 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 read the entire pinned announcement, simply 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 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 hovering (click on mobile) over the 'eye' icon on the top right corner:
To simplify this visually/at a glance:
Gray eye = announcement has been read by some staff (read receipts available)
Gray eye with strike through it = announcement has not been read by any staff (read receipts unavailable)
Permissions
Communications permissions can be configured within Settings > Show advanced settings > Customise access & roles. Each role's permissions are the following:
Admin permissions: allow communications to all employees
Manager permissions: allow communications to all locations and teams that they manage
Employee permissions: allow communications to all managers and employees of the teams they are in
You can configure Communications per Announcement room and/or per Chat Room.
When Announcement room permissions are configured, this will impact their role's ability to create announcement rooms, send announcements, and/or view announcements. made (only applicable for admins and managers).
When Chat Room permissions are configured, this will impact the ability for employees to create and send messages and/or view chat rooms.
Example: You could disable a manager's ability to create an announcement but enable their ability to create a chat room. This will prevent them from sending out a communication to all staff in their team but allow them to create a chat with one or several of their staff members.
Allow employees to initiate 1-to-1 communications
To allow employees to initiate 1-to-1 communications with other employees in their team:
Go to Settings > Show advanced settings > Customise access & roles here > Employee
Enable the Create, View, and Edit options
FAQs
FAQs
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.
Unread announcements will display on the web app. 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:
What is an 'Organization-wide Announcement' Group?
An 'Organization-wide' group is a default group which allows Admins to broadcast Announcements to all users within the organization.
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 URLs?
Yes, you can insert clickable URLs into the body of the 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. The file must be less than 5MB and of an allowable file type (PDF, doc, docx, jpg, jpeg or png format).
Can I create one-on-one chats?
Yes, you can create one-on-one chats.
Can I archive the 'organization-wide' announcement group?
No, this default group cannot be archived.