Adding an Announcement
Announcements appear on the Announcements card of the Home page for employees in designated organization units. To add an announcement, complete the following steps:
- Navigate to Actions > General card > Announcements.
- In the Announcements Actions area, click Add.
The 
Organization Unit Search screen opens.
The Organization Unit Search page is used to filter search criteria when searching for employee(s) to send an announcement. Enter the search criteria and click on Search. All organization units meeting the criteria are displayed with the selection box checked. If any records are not to be included, un-check the box.
Note: Multiple searches can be done to build a listing of employees to receive the announcement. The results of the new search are added to the results of all previous searches.
The following fields are available for filtering your search within the Basic window:
Code
The Organization Level code to identify the group to include in the announcement.
Organization Level Code
The levels of the Organization Units to include in the search.
Number
The number of the Organization Unit to include in the Announcement.
Description
The description of the Organization Unit code to be included in this announcement.
Organization Units
The Organization Units to be included in this announcement, as selected from the Field Look Up Values.
The following additional fields are available for filtering your search when the Advanced button is selected:
Active
Indicates whether the organization units being included in the search results should currently be active in the system.
Time Zone
The Time Zone of the organizations to be included in this announcement.
When one or more record(s) have been selected, click on the Next button in the Add Announcement Steps section.
- Enter criteria to search for an organization unit record, and click Search.
Employees will receive the announcement if the selected organization unit is in their Home Labor Distribution.
- In the search results, click the box next to each organization unit that should receive the message.
- In the Add Announcement Steps area, click Next.
- Configure the message you want to send.
- Select the level of Importance.
An icon will appear with the announcement to identify High or Low importance.
- Optional. Add a Subject to identify the announcement. Recipients will not see this value.
- Using the formatting controls, create your message in the Body field. Formatting counts toward the maximum characters allowed in this field.
Note: The formatting controls are only available in Internet Explorer if you run IE9 or greater.
- Configure the time frame when the announcement is broadcast.
- In the Add Announcement Steps area, click Finish.
Body
The free-form text message of the announcement, which is visible to the employees in the selected organization units.
Created By
The user who created the announcement. This field automatically fills with the name of the current user, but can be modified.
Effective Date
The date this announcement should become effective and visible to employees in the Announcement section of the Home page.
More About Date Value Fields
When a date field is highlighted, the Date Selector is displayed in the right pane to search for the date. Use the arrows in the heading bar to scroll to the Previous or Next month's calendar. Double-click on a date to enter it into the field. Alternatively, dates can be typed into the field.
Effective Time
The time of day on the effective date this announcement should become visible to employees in the Announcement section of the Home page.
More About Time Value Fields
When a field requires a Time Value, the value must be formatted in 24-hour time. This means after noon, the hour value entered should have 12 added to the hour value shown on the clock. For example, if the time is 3:00 pm, the correct value in 24-hour format is 15:00 (12+3 = 15).
- The system automatically formats entered values to hh:mm (two-digit hour value, two-digit minute value separated by a colon).
- Enter 1500 and the system automatically adds the colon between the hour and minute values to convert this to 15:00.
- Enter 900 and the system adds the leading zeros and colon to convert this to 09:00.
- The system adds leading zeros to any value less than 4 digits. For example, if 9 is entered, the system converts this to 00:09 (nine minutes after midnight).
- If the last two digits of the entered value is larger than 59, this cannot be converted to a valid time and an error message is generated.
- If the first two digits of a four-digit value is larger than 23, this cannot be converted to a valid time and an error message is generated.
- Enter midnight as 00:00; enter noon as 12:00.
- If a "p" or "pm" is entered after the hour value, the system automatically converts the time to the corresponding afternoon value in 24-hour time. For example:
- Enter 300p or 300pm and the system converts this to 15:00 and adds the colon.
Expiration Date
The date this announcement is no longer effective and visible to employees in the Announcement section of the Home page. Note: If no date is entered here, the announcement continues to display indefinitely.
More About Date Value Fields
When a date field is highlighted, the Date Selector is displayed in the right pane to search for the date. Use the arrows in the heading bar to scroll to the Previous or Next month's calendar. Double-click on a date to enter it into the field. Alternatively, dates can be typed into the field.
Expiration Time
The time of day on the expiration date this announcement should expire and no longer be visible to employees in the Announcement section of the Home page.
More About Time Value Fields
When a field requires a Time Value, the value must be formatted in 24-hour time. This means after noon, the hour value entered should have 12 added to the hour value shown on the clock. For example, if the time is 3:00 pm, the correct value in 24-hour format is 15:00 (12+3 = 15).
- The system automatically formats entered values to hh:mm (two-digit hour value, two-digit minute value separated by a colon).
- Enter 1500 and the system automatically adds the colon between the hour and minute values to convert this to 15:00.
- Enter 900 and the system adds the leading zeros and colon to convert this to 09:00.
- The system adds leading zeros to any value less than 4 digits. For example, if 9 is entered, the system converts this to 00:09 (nine minutes after midnight).
- If the last two digits of the entered value is larger than 59, this cannot be converted to a valid time and an error message is generated.
- If the first two digits of a four-digit value is larger than 23, this cannot be converted to a valid time and an error message is generated.
- Enter midnight as 00:00; enter noon as 12:00.
- If a "p" or "pm" is entered after the hour value, the system automatically converts the time to the corresponding afternoon value in 24-hour time. For example:
- Enter 300p or 300pm and the system converts this to 15:00 and adds the colon.
Importance
The level of importance of this announcement (i.e. Low, Normal, or High).
Subject
The subject title identifying this announcement. Note: The subject does not appear in the announcement sent to the employees.
