With the release of sharedHR 7.4 our clients will not only benefit from the system upgrades and refinements that continue to make sharedHR the most comprehensive, easy-to-use Human Resource Management System available, but we are pleased to offer several new features:

1. Employee Self-Service.
The Employee Self-Service feature makes updating the data in sharedHR much easier. By allowing your employees to change their own personal data, payroll tax withholding elections, and emergency contact information, administrators are relieved of the burden of having to maintain these often changing details. We have taken appropriate precautions to ensure that the data changes made by your employees are tracked to the finest detail.

Here is how it works: sharedHR will send all administrators an e-mail alerting you that a change has been made by your employee(s). This daily notification specifies all data fields that were changed and by whom. You will be presented with the "before change value" as well as the "updated value" for your reference and records. All account "Administrators" and "Super Manager with HRIS Management access to All Employees" will be notified of these changes unless you choose to override the e-mail notification. To disable this notification for a particular Administrator, simply select "Yes" to the "Disable automatic notifications of Employee Self-Service updates" question on the System ID tab within the EE Data section of the HRIS. As an alternative, Administrators now have access to a new Report: Employee Self-Service Data Updates. This report can be run for a given date range and provides many parameter options to specify exactly the information you may need to review.

To take advantage of the time savings and data integrity benefits this new Employee Self-Service Data Updating feature has to offer your organization, we encourage you to formally introduce this feature to your employees. There is a convenient link to this new Employee Self-Service feature in the User Tools section of the home page. If for some reason you prefer to not utilize this feature at your organization, please contact us and we will disable link on the home page of your account.

2. Enhancements to Paid Time Off Tracking
Many of you will be glad to know we have added the ability to track changes in Paid Time Off Accrual Rates and control for Maximum Accrual caps that may apply. If one of your employees hits the maximum allowable value in the paid time off accruals, their “Available Balance” will automatically be adjusted accordingly. While the full value of the accrual is recorded in the employee’s history, the Available Balance as reported in the “My Paid Time Off Benefits” report will by adjusted to comply with the cap. Values that have been changed due to exceeding a maximum allowable value will be displayed in red text on the reports. As the employee begins to use his/her paid time off benefits, the full accruals will begin to reflect in the Available Balance once more until such time as the cap is reached. You can set up the Maximum Accrual values for all your employees in the PTO tab of the HRIS. This is also where you can begin to track the history of Accrual Rate changes for your employees as well.

These changes have provided for the addition of two new reports. The “My Paid Time Off History” report is now available to your employees. They can see an entire history of the accruals and leave records you have entered into the system for them, and how those records have impacted their Available Balance over time. This same report is available to Managers as “Paid Time Off History – By Employee.” As an Administrator, you can edit any records that may need to be revised to accurately reflect the accrual and usage of paid time off details for a given employee directly from this report.

This new feature is the precursor to an upcoming restructuring of the PTO Tracking feature within sharedHR. We are currently working on the full automation of accruals in accordance with the given policy at your organization and even the unique/special exception accrual schedules of your employees. If you have any questions, or need assistance familiarizing yourself with this new feature please contact us.

3. Other Features Enhancements and New Reports
When you next view the Reports in sharedHR, look for the new Printer Friendly formatting option. This feature removes the website navigation and provides more space both on the screen when viewing and on your page when printing reports. You can select this “Report Output” option on the Report Settings page prior to running a particular report, or you can choose to “View Printable Version” from the header section of each report that is run. Once selected from within the report, the “View Printable Version” link will change to “Print This Report” allowing a quick and easy means of printing the report in the most streamlined format as possible.

Speaking of reports, you and your employees now have access to a new “My Training History” report which recaps all training sessions that a particular employee has attended. This report populates as you take advantage of the Training Tracking feature introduced with the 7.3 release.

As a follow on to the new Manage Resource Links page layout introduced with the 7.3 release, it is now easier to review and update the Resource Link viewing privileges for your managers and employees. We have added columns on page showing you more specifically if a particular link to another website is viewable/accessible to your employee and manager level users. If you wish to update the setting for either, simply check or uncheck the associated box accordingly. Similarly, by updating the check boxes you can turn on/off a given link, or add it to the Home Page of all users with privilege to see it by checking the box in the last column.

4. Content Updates
SharedHR 7.4 offers many important multi-state content updates in the Employee Handbooks, the Document Library and the Resource Links sections of the site. To take full advantage of these content updates, you should consider updating and releasing a new version of your Handbook(s), and review the matrix of Library Documents for any red dates. Remember, a red date indicates we have updated our standard model sometime after you uploaded a custom version of that same document. If you are using our model document, the updates will automatically apply and will be available in accordance with the document settings you've configured.

In addition, sharedHR is pleased to be able to provide content updates, system refinements and upgrades in the following areas of the site:

• Add / Maintain Employee Data
• Training Tracking
• PTO Tracking
• Document Groups
• Employee Handbook
• Document Library
• General Information Content
• Reports
• Site Navigation

If you need assistance with any of sharedHR’s newest features, please contact .