WEA is pleased to announce the release of sharedHR 6.3. This upgraded version of your Human Resource Management System provides for more flexibility when creating custom content in the handbook, displaying HR related documents to employees, and managing and delegating critical HR processes and tasks. Specifically, sharedHR 6.3 offers the following enhanced and updated features:
System upgrades that continue to make sharedHR the most comprehensive, easy-to-use Human Resource Management System available.
All new and enhanced features and model documents in version 6.3 will be released Thursday, June 3, 2004 after 6pm. In addition, you may notice a few finishing touches being implemented throughout the month of June. As is our practice, these new features and upgrades WILL NOT result in service interruptions on the site. You are encouraged to log into your sharedHR site and check out what's new about sharedHR 6.3.
To take advantage of the new features and updates offered in sharedHR 6.3, please review the details and recommended next steps outlined below. Members of our Client Services department will be contacting you over the next few weeks to offer support of your efforts to maximize your investment in sharedHR.
Thank you for being a valued client!
What's New About sharedHR 6.3
Enhanced Features
Super Manager Capabilities — Administrators are now able to delegate most of the maintenance responsibilities of the sharedHR system to Super Managers. A "Super Manager" is defined as a sharedHR user with "Manager - Level 6" access to special content, documents and reports, who has also been given custom privileges and access to select "Administrator - Level 9" functions and reports. To set up custom privileges for a manager in your organization, go to the System ID tab in the Add/Update/View Employee Data section of the site. Click on the "Add Custom Privileges" link next to the sharedHR Access Level field.
In version 6.3, Super Managers can be given access to the functions in the Update Company Information and Handbooks section by section. That means Administrators can delegate the tasks of updating User Groups, departments, benefit offerings, handbooks, and paid time off values to another person in the organization, or even Third Party Users.
In addition, if HRIS management access is granted, Super Managers can now be delegated isolated privileges related to specific HR functions with restrictions to view and edit to only the associated employee information (i.e. historical activities tracking, benefits enrollment, payroll tracking, paid time off tracking, etc.). We have designed the system to carefully control the information and confidential employee data available to a Super Manager in accordance with the custom privileges granted by an Administrator. Super Managers can be given access to all employee data, just employee data of those in a particular Document Group, or just the data of their direct and indirect reports.
While we have provided for access to the Management and Administrative reports based on the custom privileges assigned, we have restricted access to all reports with confidential information outside the scope of the delegated Admin functions. In addition, special constraints have been implemented to prevent Super Managers from changing their own privileges and Report Access settings.
Establish Company Specific Annual Salary Calculations — Annualized salaries are listed on several of the reports in sharedHR. Previously, all calculations were based on a full-time/2080 hours in a year schedule. With version 6.3, you have the ability to customize the default annual salary calculation formulas for your organization, for each of the available salary types. The annual salary calculation factors are further customizable for each employee when Position/Salary Adjustments are recorded.
To establish a customized basis of annual salary calculations go to Update Company Profile of the Update Company Information and Handbooks section. Near the bottom of the page you will see the questions related to this new feature. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about the formulas. We can also train you on how to document the exceptions by making modifications, on an employee by employee basis, to account for scheduling differences.
Paid Time Off Tracking — To simplify the burden of tracking and reporting Paid Time Off activities from one year to the next, sharedHR 6.3 offers the ability to track employee paid time off accrual and usage history. Previously the system only kept track of current balances. Now, Administrators (or Super Managers) can go to the Update Employee Paid Time Off Values screen and see the entire history of all accrual and leave records for an employee. In addition, the system now more easily accommodates "manual entries" that might be necessary to adjust totals. It is now very easy to see what information has been entered into sharedHR and how those entries have impacted an employee's Paid Time Off /Vacation/Sick Time totals. This new feature is the first step towards the creation of an invaluable General Report that will show employees the full details of their accrual and usage history.
Become Another User — As we develop the sharedHR system, we continually strive to create efficiencies in the implementation and validation process. Administrators have often asked us for an easy way to see what the site will look like for a particular employee or manager. With version 6.3, your request becomes reality. You will now notice an additional option on the Administration Desktop that will allow you to "Become Another User. Please note: once you've become another user, you are required to log off and log back in to view the site with your own Administrative privileges. This one-way access is necessary to ensure site and content security.
Model Document Changes
New Model Documents — As is customary throughout the year, we have posted new and revised model documents to the document library of sharedHR since our last release. You are encouraged to review the following model documents to ensure you have the latest and greatest versions added to your organization's library:
Recruiting and Hiring
+
Application for Employment
+
Application for Employment (With Drug Test)
+
Arbitration Agreement
Leaves of Absence
+
Request for Leave of Absence
Compliance / Laws
+
Pre-Employment Inquiry Guidelines — Handout
+
California — San Francisco Minimum Wage Ordinance
+
California — San Francisco Minimum Wage Notice
+
Employer Statutory Compliance Summary
To take full advantage of these updates you should review the summary details of your library documents. Pay particular attention to those models with a red date in the Last Updated column. The red date indicates that the sharedHR model has been updated more recently than your custom version.
System Upgrades
Paid Family Leave Tracking — As many of you know, California employees will soon be able to take advantage of the newly created Paid Family Leave program. Come July 1st your employees may qualify for this program and you with therefore need to track such leaves in sharedHR. In version 6.3, you will see this new option in the Unpaid Leave category when you Record Time Off/Leave of Absence Activity. Such records are classified as "unpaid" in sharedHR because benefits are paid by the State of California and not the employer.
Update Departments — You may notice that we have upgraded the way in which Administrators can view the employees in various departments and the associated historical compensation records in each. We expect this will help you as you need to Update Departments to document a restructure or simply verify the move of employees from one department to another over time.
Library Documents — Employee level users of sharedHR can now be given access to library documents in their original format. Previous to version 6.3 all documents displayed for your employees in PDF only. Now, you can update the settings of your documents and provide access to those Microsoft Excel or Word based expense report, or timecard forms as an example. When you go to change the settings of your documents you will notice that we have updated the layout of the Manage Library Documents settings page to better reflect the current settings of each document. These enhancements represent a fundamentally new way of managing your human resource documents.
Benefits Summary — You now have the ability to sort order the Benefit Summary details such that the way in which the information is displayed to your employees and managers is meaningful and custom to your own organizations benefit program. You can utilize this updated feature by changing the display order of each category in the Update Benefit Offerings section of the site.
Record a Position/Salary Adjustment — Now, each time you Record A Position/Salary Adjustment in sharedHR you can track any EEO Job Category changes that may apply. This will ensure your EEO categories are updated over time as the position details and compensation history of all employees are entered. This new feature will prove helpful when you go to run your EEO-1 report and verify that all employees are classified correctly. In addition, we have added a reminder to update the User Group status of employees when certain changes are entered into sharedHR (i.e. title, department, location, ee type). This will help to ensure your User Group configurations are always accurate and your managers are seeing the correct employee data on Management Reports.
Employee Handbook(s) — We have further provided for the customization of your Employee Handbook content by allowing Administrators to "Edit" optional policy language that you might choose to add to your handbook. In addition, as you are drafting a new version of your Handbook you can now "Preview" each policy to see exactly what it says before deciding to add it to your Employee Handbook. Lastly, we have added the option to sort the handbook table of contents alphabetically, and insert your own custom sub-sections within an existing section of the table of contents.
Password Protection — We have enhanced our password protection strategy by encrypting them on the HRIS screen so that Administrators and Super Managers can no longer see the user passwords. Rather, employees are now allowed to change their own password from the Home page of the site. However, Administrators can reset a user's password and require the user update it upon next login, or restrict an employee from updating their own password. To change passwords or restrict access to this new feature, go to the System ID tab in the Add/Update/View Employee Data section of the site.
