What are Employee HR Requests?
All five Employee HR Requests found within Request & Approvals—Personal, Address, Contact, Emergency Contact, and Direct Deposit—pertain to the different categories of personal information stored within the employee's ESS Hub Profile. By default, this section of the ESS Hub is "view-only" for the employee; however, these request types can be activated in order to allow employees to edit some or all of this information within their ESS Hub.
Personal
The Personal request type really only influences the employee's ability to edit their name, despite their date of birth and social security number being stored within this section of the Profile. This is because changes to the date of birth or social security number require direct confirmation from the employer.
Address
The Address request type allows employees to edit both the primary and mailing addresses on file. This capability is particularly useful when employees change residences or need to manage situations where their primary and mailing addresses differ. Please note that the primary address will appear on pay stubs and tax documents, while the mailing address is where pay stubs and year-end tax documents will be sent.
For clients utilizing Empeon's Tax Maps feature, "Address change requests" must be set up with an approval workflow so that a designated Assignee reviews and signs off on the changes. If the address change has any impact on the employee's tax set up, Tax Maps will calculate whether new new tax setups apply and the Assignee(s) will also be able to review these changes as well.
Contact
The Contact request type allows employees to edit their contact information, including home and mobile phone numbers, as well as their email address. Additionally, there are fields where employees can enter their social media profile handles if desired. Typically, it's acceptable for employees to update this information without requiring approval from an Empeon Assignee.
Emergency Contact
The Emergency Contact request type allows employees to add, edit, and remove emergency contact information saved within their profile. This request is typically auto-approved, meaning changes made by the employee do not require review and approval from a designated Assignee.
Direct Deposit
The Direct Deposit request type allows employees to add, edit, and remove bank accounts on file for Direct Deposit. This feature gives employees greater autonomy in managing how they receive their pay but also carries a risk if account percentages are set up incorrectly, potentially causing pay distribution issues. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to establish an approval process for any changes to direct deposit information. Additionally, optional features can be enabled, such as requiring employees to upload a bank statement or voided check to go along with the review process when making these changes.
Granting Access to Employee HR Requests
To grant access to some or all of the Employee HR Requests, click the "pencil" icon located along the row of the respective request type.
With the exception of the Direct Deposit request type, which has the additional option to require document uploads, granting permission for each request type follows the same process. The first step will be to change the permission from it's default setting of "View only" to "Allow edit".
Upon changing the permissions to "Allow edit", the system will then require the designation of an "Assignee". There are two options for setting up the approval process for when employees make changes:
- Auto Approve - This option will forego the approval process and updates the system automatically with the changes the employee made. This is often suitable for straightforward items such as Contact, Emergency Contact and Address changes.
- Selecting Assignee - For employee requests requiring review and approval, a primary Workforce Administrator can designate a specific User Role, the employee's Manager, or an individual User to review and approve the changes. Multi-step approvals can be set up to involve multiple reviewers in a defined sequence. Once the initial Assignee approves the request, it seamlessly progresses to the next Assignee for further review, and so forth.
The final setting to consider when configuring an Employee HR request type is to establish whether "Only assignees can approve" the request. This optional setting enforces that only the designated Assignee(s) have the authority to approve the request. Please note that this restriction applies only to the custom Users and Roles assigned for approval and does not affect system-level Administrators, such as Company or Organizational Admins, who retain approval capabilities.
It is important to note that enabling Employee HR Requests provides access to all employees within the organization. There is currently no option to restrict these requests to only a specific group of employees.