What's covered in this guide?
Qualifications
Qualifications let you store and track training, licences, certificates and visas for your staff, with expiry reminders and rota checks.
How to create a qualification
Create a qualification
Go to Workforce > Qualifications.
Click Create Qualification (or + New Qualification).
Enter a Name. Everything else is optional:
Rostering
Maximum Hours: the most hours staff with this qualification should work per week or per fortnight. Use this for work limits such as student visas. Managers are warned on the rota if staff go over it.
Block roster publishing: stops shifts being published, and stops staff claiming them, if the qualification is expired, pending approval, or the maximum hours are exceeded.
Expiry notifications: reminders are sent one month before the qualification expires and on the expiry date. You can add extra reminders, set in weeks or months.
Onboarding
Request proof of qualification during onboarding: lets new starters upload evidence of the qualification during onboarding. A manager needs to approve it.
Advanced
Automatically add and remove employees with this qualification to teams that require it
Click Create new qualification.
Important: If you can’t see Qualifications in the Workforce menu, the feature may be turned off. An admin can turn it on under Settings > Feature Management.
Effective dates
When Block roster publishing is ticked, you can also tick Should block publishing outside of effective dates ranges. This blocks rota publishing and shift claiming when a shift falls outside the dates the employee’s qualification is effective.
For example, if an employee’s qualification is effective until 1 August and they’re on the rota after that date, the rota shows an error and their shifts can’t be published.
Assign Qualifications to Staff
You can assign a qualification to an employee within their profile.
Go to Workforce > Staff and open the employee’s profile.
Go to HR > Train & Qualify. If your account doesn’t have Workforce HR, the tab is called Qualifications.
Click Add qualification.
Select the qualification, add the details such as the expiry date, and attach a file if you have one. Files can be PDF, JPG or PNG.
Save.
A qualification on a profile can show as Current, Expires soon, Expired, In training or Needs approval.
Expiry reminders
Staff are always told when their qualifications are about to expire and when they’ve expired. By default, emails are sent:
one month before the qualification expires
on the expiry date
on any extra dates you set under Expiry notifications on the qualification
whenever an employee updates their own qualification
To choose which managers get these alerts:
Go to Settings > Permissions > Manager Permissions and set Receive qualification update alerts.
Team Managers and General Managers only get alerts for employees they manage.
Seeing expiring qualifications on the dashboard:
Qualifications Expiring: add this widget to see qualifications due to expire soon.
Tasks & Actions: expired qualifications appear in this widget.
Staff list:
Allow staff to update or add their own qualifications
To let staff add or update their own qualifications, go to Settings > All Settings > Permissions > Employee Permissions and tick the option that allows staff to update qualifications.
Changes staff make need a manager’s approval before they show on their profile. Managers get an email when a qualification is waiting for approval.
To find out how staff update qualifications in the app, see this help guide.
Maximum hours alerts
If you’ve set Maximum Hours on a qualification, managers can get a mobile app alert when staff are at risk of going over it.
To turn this on, go to Settings > Notifications and tasks > Key Alerts and choose who receives Qualification maximum hours risk.
How it works: each time an employee clocks out, Workforce.com adds up their past timesheet hours and their future rota hours for the period. If the total is more than the qualification’s maximum hours, the people you chose get a push notification.
Alerts are sent through the Workforce.com mobile app, so make sure they have it installed.
Report on qualifications
To see everyone’s qualifications at once, go to Reports and open:
Employee Qualification Report: each staff member’s qualifications, with expiry and effective dates
Missing or Expired Qualifications Report: staff whose qualifications are missing or have expired
For more reports, see HR & Compliance Reports.
Bulk download qualifications
Download attachments in bulk on the Employee Qualification Report.
Go to Reports > Employee Qualification Report.
Click Generate.
Click Actions and choose Download attachments.
Student visas
You can use qualifications to manage student visa work limits. Together, these features help keep visa workers close to, but not over, their weekly limit during term time:
Managers are alerted if an employee is at risk of going over their maximum hours.
Rotas can’t be published if an employee is over their maximum hours or their visa has expired.
Restrictions can apply only during term time, using effective dates.
Employees can update their own visa details, with manager approval and an audit trail.
You choose which managers get alerts when visa details are updated or about to expire.
You can report on student visas.
Set up a student visa qualification
Go to Workforce > Qualifications and click Create Qualification.
Name it Student Visa and enter the Maximum Hours, for example 20 per week.
Optionally, tick Block roster publishing.
Click Create new qualification.
Add the qualification to each student visa holder’s profile (see Add a qualification to a staff member above).
Alerts for maximum hours
To be alerted when a student is at risk of going over their hours, turn on Qualification maximum hours risk under Settings > Notifications and tasks > Key Alerts, and choose who receives it. See Receive alerts for variances and compliance breaches.
Stop rotas being published when hours are exceeded
Go to Workforce > Qualifications and click the pencil icon on the qualification.
Tick Block roster publishing.
Optionally, tick Should block publishing outside of effective dates ranges.
Click Update qualification details.
You’ll always see a rota warning if a student is scheduled over their maximum hours or their visa has expired. With Block roster publishing ticked, you also can’t publish the rota while the warning shows.
📝 Important to note: If staff can update their own qualifications, changes waiting for approval also block rota publishing.
FAQs
Can I track supervisions or other recurring checks?
Can I track supervisions or other recurring checks?
Yes. Create a qualification such as “Supervision”, add it to each staff member, and set the expiry date to when the next one is due. Update the date each time it’s completed. Staff are reminded before it’s due, and overdue ones show in the Tasks & Actions widget.
What file types can I attach?
What file types can I attach?
PDF, JPG and PNG.
Why can’t I publish my rota?
Why can’t I publish my rota?
If a qualification has Block roster publishing ticked, the rota can’t be published while an employee’s qualification is expired, waiting for approval, or over its maximum hours. Check the rota warnings to see which employee and qualification are causing it.
Why didn’t a staff member’s update appear on their profile?
Why didn’t a staff member’s update appear on their profile?
Changes staff make to their own qualifications need a manager’s approval first. Look for qualifications marked Needs approval.
I deleted a qualification from a profile by mistake. Can I get it back?
I deleted a qualification from a profile by mistake. Can I get it back?
You can’t restore it yourself. Add the qualification again and re-upload the file. If the file came from a Right to Work check, contact support, as we may be able to retrieve the original.