Introduction
ESS Announcements is a feature that enables posting messages directly to employees' ESS Hub Inboxes. This feature facilitates mass communication across the organization, making it ideal for company-wide announcements or reminders. Announcements can be configured to reach all employees or targeted to specific employees based on their assigned Cost Center or Job Info.
Creating a Message
To create a message to send to employees, navigate to the ESS Admin section within the Actions tab and then select the subtab: Announcements.
This screen will display any Active Announcementss that have been previously created and sent that are still posted within the recipient's ESS Hub Inbox. There is also a blue "+ New Announcement" button that will initiate the creation of a new message.
When configuring an ESS Announcement, the following fields are required:
- Show Announcement Until - Enter the expiration date for how long the message will display in the employee's ESS Hub Inbox.
- Subject Line - This will appear as the subject line of the message within the employee's ESS Hub Inbox.
- Body - Construct the announcement to be sent to employees. Pictures and URLs can be included to enhance celebratory messages or company-wide announcements. Use the "Preview announcement" button to see how the message, including pictures and links, will appear to employees.
- Post announcement for - Choose whether the announcement should be sent to all employees or specific employees based on their assigned Cost Center or Job Info. The option to "Notify Employee Via Email" will send an email notification that a message has been posted to their ESS Hub Inbox but will not include the message content.
- Require acknowledgment - Specify whether the announcement should require acknowledgment from employees. If selected, the message will be the first thing displayed when employees log into their ESS Hub.
After clicking "Save", the announcement will then posted to the employee's ESS Hub Inbox. If the announcement requires acknowledgment, it will be the first item the employee sees upon logging in. The announcement will then remain in the employee's Inbox until its expiration date, as the employee will not be able to delete it.
Maintaining Announcements
After configuring and sending an announcement to employees, it can be found in the Announcements section for monitoring. This section allows for maintenance of the announcement if any corrections are needed and provides visibility into who has viewed and acknowledged the message. For each created and sent announcement, the subject line, posting date range, and a count of employees who have acknowledged or viewed the message will be visible. To edit or delete a announcement, click the three-dot menu in the top right corner of the message.
To view the specific employees who has viewed or acknowledged the announcement, click on the number representing the amount of employees who have either viewed or acknowledged the message.
Here, the specific employees who have acknowledged the announcement and the corresponding timestamps will be visible. A search bar is available to locate a particular employee if there are several acknowledgments.
Once an announcement expires, its status will automatically change from "Active" to "Not Active," and it will no longer appear in the ESS Hub Inbox for employees. It is advisable to keep expired announcements as "Not Active" rather than deleting them in order to maintain a record of all announcements that have been sent. From the Announcements section, the option to toggle between Active and Not Active messages is available.
To reactivate an expired announcement, click the three-dot menu and select "Edit", and then adjust the expiration date to extend its visibility. Before saving, there is the ability to modify the subject, body, recipient list, and acknowledgment requirement for the message.