Natural HR Guide

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Administrators

Guide

Version 4.0June 2013


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Natural HRAdministrators Guide

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Release notes

Date Version Details

30/06/2013 4.0 Localisation timezones, languages and international date formats

New page for global time off settings in Company menu

Added optional different carryover rules and holiday years linked to

company site

Changed time off types setup to allow holiday deductions from any type

with legacy type Paid Time Off left in place

Added time off in lieu option for Time Off type with calculation based on

times entered on time sheets

Add time off in hours or days

When setting up Company users, option to email new account details to

user

Option to make Company Holidays mandatory and auto deducting from

employee holiday allowance

Where workers are entering timesheets beginning before and ending after

midnight option to stop validation error caused by end time being before

start time

HMRC notification option linked to Real Time Information (RTI) in

employee self-service update address with option to link to form for direct

entry by employee

In Edit Employee, the top menu items now work correctly allowing you to

move forwards and backwards within the section without needing to click

next (assuming mandatory fields have been filled in)

Google calendar integration with company calendar

Employee directory

Printable employee file

06/02/2013 3.5 Added social stream

Added employee photos

Replaced organisational chart report

Included employee photo on employee file (if photo exists)

22/01/2013 3.2

Added page for archived candidates

Added custom fields to employees


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Added ability to specify an individual employee working pattern

Created manual carryover process

Clarified requirements for email notifications

09/12/2012 3.1 Added optional timetracking for employees from homepage allowing clock

in and clock out

Added option in Company Settings to switch timetracking on and off

Additionally added setting in Company Settings to set day working week

begins on

Added new reports linked to timetracking

Moved to do list to top of main page and made more prominent to

emphasise the importance of these tasks

Added a reminder notice when the start of year value needs to be reset

Upgraded calendars to allow viewing by week and day in addition to

month view

Reintroduced ability to take half day time off

03/12/2012 3.0 Added department level security for company document categories

Added recruitment candidates stages

Added recruitment requisitions go live date

Added email recruitment candidate when setting up interview

Made job close date optional in recruitment requisitions

Added recruitment candidate notes

Added read only job roles library to recruitment module

Moved date of birth and marital status into monitoring questions on

recruitment application form

Added ability to customise external job listing pages and application form

including ability to choose which fields to display

Created recruitment costs report


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Contents

Who is this guide intended for? ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. .... 10

How to use this guide ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 10

What do I need to run Natural HR? .............. ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 11

Supported browsers ............... ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 11

Most commonly experienced problems ...................................................................................................................................................... 12

Timeoff balances ............... ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 12

Bulk employee upload ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Forced password change ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 13

General overview ................ ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ .. 14

Tables ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Forms ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Access levels ................ ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ ............. 18

Important note on employee / user interaction ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 18

Requirements for email notifications ........................................................................................................................................................ 19

Auditing .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Home screen ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ .......... 21

Notifications bar ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 21

Licensing ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22

Left menu................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 23

Statistics .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 23

Workflow ................ ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ ............. 24

Calendar ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25

Social Stream ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. .... 26

Chat box ............... ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ .......... 26

Post listing ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ....... 27

Comments ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 27

More posts ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. .... 27

Deleting ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 27

Company module .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Bulk employee upload ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 29

General notes ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 31


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Notes on data formatting .......................................................................................................................................................................... 32

Company information ............... ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. .... 32

Company settings ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 33

Use real time time tracking ....................................................................................................................................................................... 33

Calendar status ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 33

Google calendar link ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 33

Reviews visible to employees .................................................................................................................................................................. 33

Warnings visible to employees ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 33

Finance notification email ........................................................................................................................................................................... 33

Timesheets midnight rollover .................................................................................................................................................................. 33

Require tax authority self service address update notification ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 34

Logout URL ............... ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. .... 34

Company Users ............... ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ .. 35

Custom employee fields .................................................................................................................................................................................. 36

Delete account ................ ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ .. 36

Process carryover ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 37

Social settings ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. .... 37

Social chat ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ....... 38

Social recognition text ................................................................................................................................................................................. 39

New starter text ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 39

Job change text ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 40

New job requisition text ............................................................................................................................................................................ 40

Sites ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 41

Site level timeoff settings ............................................................................................................................................................................ 41

Time off settings (global) ................................................................................................................................................................................. 42

Start of holiday year ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 42

Carryover days .............. ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 42

Expiry date for carryover days ................................................................................................................................................................ 42

Company Holidays Mandatory ............................................................................................................................................................... 42

Accrue time off in lieu ................................................................................................................................................................................. 42

Working days ............... ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ .. 43

Standard working day in hours ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 43


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Work week begins on ............... ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 43

Time off types ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 44

Note about Paid Time Off type ............................................................................................................................................................. 44

Documents .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 46

Category permissions ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. .... 47

View and download documents ................................................................................................................................................................. 47

Employee documents ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 48

Employees .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 49

Mandatory fields ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 49

Archived employees ................ ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ....... 50

Employee actions................................................................................................................................................................................................. 50

Employee benefits ................ ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ....... 51

Employee photos ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 53

Employee notes ............... ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 54

Employee goals ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ............. 55

Employee training ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ....... 55

Reminders .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 55

Make leaver ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 55

Events .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 56

Holidays ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 56

Performance ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 57

Goal library ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 57

Reviews ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 57

Feedback .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 58

Giving feedback as an employee ............................................................................................................................................................ 59

Warnings ............... ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ............... 60

Reminders ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 61

Recruitment ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 62

Calendar ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 62

Requisitions ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 62

Go live date ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 62

Close date ............... ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ....... 62


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Displaying your requisitions on an external website ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ .. 63

Candidates............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 68

Candidate notes ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ .......... 68

Schedule interview ............... ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ....... 69

Make offer ............... ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ....... 69

Complete ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 69

Recruitment stages ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 69

Archived candidates ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ....... 70

Locations .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 70

Costs .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 70

Interviews ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 70

Search ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 71

Job offers ............... ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ............... 72

Reporting....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 73

Tabular reports ................ ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ .. 73

Grouping ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 74

Sorting .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 75

Filtering ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 75

Report display................................................................................................................................................................................................... 76

Summary ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 76

Export ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 76

Pagination............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 76

Organisational chart ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ....... 77

Self service ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ............... 80

Time off balance .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 81

Time off ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ............... 81

Timesheets .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 82

Goals .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 83

Reviews and warnings ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 83

Recognise someone ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ....... 83

Templates ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 84

Template fields ................. ............... ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ .. 85


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Sample template ............... ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 86

Timesheets ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 87

Timeoff ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 88

Time off days calculation ................................................................................................................................................................................. 89

Return to work ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 90

Taking half days ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 90

Time tracking .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 91

Changing or deleting a time record................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ....... 93

Training........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 94

Course library ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. .... 94

Training ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 94

Contact us module .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 95

Options .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 95

Display options ................ ................ ................ ................ ................. ................ ................. ................ ................. ............... ................. ................ .. 95

Calendar options .............. ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ................ ................ ................. ............... 95

Localisation .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 96

Change password / Change PIN ................................................................................................................................................................. 96


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Who is this guide intended for?

This guide covers the main modules and settings associated with the core Natural HR application. It is not an

exhaustive guide as the application is constantly being developed and updated according to user needs so

please do bear that in mind especially if you are an experienced user.

If you are a first time user or someone who wishes to get the most from the features and functions available

within this application then this guide is the best way of doing so.

This guide is designed for administrators of Natural HR. It is not advised to make this guide available to other

users of the application as it contains information on the setup, configuration and security of the application

which should not be made generally available.

Depending on the structure of the organisation using Natural HR it may be acceptable to make the guide

available to HR users but this is at the discretion of the individual organisation.

We will be making an employee user guide available in the near future.

How to use this guide

The guide is broken into sections covering each of the modules of Natural HR with an additional section

covering frequently asked questions.

Throughout the guide at important junctures we will call out certain things as being of note or a warning

where we do this we will use the below formatting to make it easy to see and to ensure you realise the

importance of the message.

Note: This point is worthy of your attention.

Warning: This note is an important warning which if ignored could have consequences affecting your usage of

the application.


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What do I need to run Natural HR?

Natural HR is totally self-contained application which requires no hardware or additional software on your

systems to be able to be utilised.

The only two requirements to use the application are a web browser and an internet connection. Additionally

we strongly recommend you enable JavaScript in your browser. This is not an essential requirement but it does

enhance the experience and without enabling this you may not be able to get the most from all the features

and functions in the software.

The specifics of how to enable JavaScript is beyond the remit of this guide but below are links to articles on

the subject for some of the major browsers:

Internet Explorer http://support.microsoft.com/gp/howtoscript

Firefox http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Javascript#Enabling_and_disabling_JavaScript

Opera http://www.enable-javascript.com/#opera

Chrome http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=114662

Supported browsers

We test our software on all the main web browsers and on as many versions as possible - that said, some

browser manufacturers seem to release a new version a month so it is impossible to definitively maintain a list

of versions on which the software will and won't work.

Suffice to say, we use industry standard coding practices which should work on all current browser versions

though this is not always the case especially with Internet Explorer.

As of the date of publishing this guide (October 2012), we have tested Natural HR on:

Internet Explorer 8 & 9

Chrome 22

Firefox 15 & 16

Opera 11 & 12

Safari 5 (Windows)

Safari IOS 5

Whilst the above list is by no means exhaustive there should be no major issues with any industry compliant

browser. If you do run into issues which you think are due to compatibility issues please refer to How to get

help.


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Most commonly experienced problems

There are two specific components which make up at least 75% of support tickets we receive. These are

covered in a lot more detail later in this guide but we thought it appropriate to provide some guidance for

anyone experiencing these issues.

Timeoff balances

We receive a lot of support requests from clients who cannot understand why their employees are showing

negative time off balances or extremely high numbers for time off balances. This is caused in the main due to

company set up not being completed fully before using the system.

To use timeoff balances correctly you need to have provided the following information. If you fail to provide

any of these the balance will not work properly:

Date on which your holiday year starts

Number of days holiday the employee is entitled to

Start date of the employee

Bulk employee upload

The other feature we receive most support requests for is Bulk employee upload. For this feature to work you

MUST provide a dataset of exactly the specification laid out in the notes.

The easiest way to ensure this happens is to use the sample file provided and populate it with your data. That

said, clients still experience issues as they do not follow the formatting convention stipulated. The most

common issues are:

Blank columns all columns must be filled in

Removing the header row the header row is required

Data containing commas as it is a CSV file this will cause a column count error

National insurance number this number must be unique to each employee within your company Entering job titles, status, departments etc as text these must be entered as system identifiers (i.e. the

number which the system references these as. Use the Click to view managers, job titles, job statuses and

departmentsfeature to get these identifiers.

File formatting issues make sure you check the file in something like Notepad prior to uploading in

case your spread sheet has added additional invisible data or additional columns

Pay attention to the error messages if your upload fails as this will help you to identify the problem and

correct it prior to uploading again. Uploadingthe same file over and over wont fix the problem!

If you read the instructions, use the supplied template file and invest a little time into bulk upload it will save

you a lot of time but you need to follow the instructions exactly and not deviate or it will fail.


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Forced password change

As an added security precaution, all users are required to change their password every 90 days. This applies to

all users including admin users and applies from the day of signup or in the case of non admin users, the day

their user account was created.

When this 90 day period has expired and you login you will be automatically redirected to the Change

passwordscreen where you will need to enter your current password again as a security precaution and then

your new password.

To the right of the New password box is a strength indicator which shows you how secure your password

choice is please ensure your password allows the bar to move to green to ensure it is a secure password.

A good password:

You dont use elsewhere

Should be at least 12 characters long

Should not be based on dictionary words

Should not be based on something known about you such as a memorable date or pet name which

can be easily guessed

Should not containing repetition for example aaabbbccc

Should be made up of upper case letters, lower case numbers and symbols Should not be so hard that you wont be able to remember it without writing it down

o R-e4[Nph5ma1}(6V is a good password but you wont remember it

Consider using a phrase instead and substituting letters for numbers or symbols for example, I want

to be at the beach could become iw2b@theBeach.

If all else fails, consider adding some symbols and numbers to an easy to remember password for

example, instead of using snoopy you could use snoopy@12345


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General overview

There are two core elements which make up the application - these are tables which list the data in a given

section and forms which allow you to enter or edit information.

Tables

Above is a sample screenshot of a list table. The table has a number of components to enhance the user

experience including a filter to control the number of entries listed on a table and a search button which

allows you to search within the data listed in that table.

Additionally, on most tables there are two core action areas. At the bottom left of the table there will usually

be an add button which allows you to add an item to the module you are working in.

For example, under Employees, there is an add button which allows you to add a new employee and takes

you to the form to add an employee.

Also, beside each item in the list table, there are action buttons which allow interaction with individual records.

On the majority of tables there are two options - edit and delete though some contain many more options.


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Clicking edit will take you to a form which allows you to review and update the pertinent information whilst

clicking delete will display a pop up where you will be asked to confirm you are sure you want to delete theitem as an added safeguard.

It is very important to understand the impact deletion of a given item can have on other items in theapplication. In its simplest form, if you delete a department, for example, any employee assigned to that

department will no longer have a department assignment which is inconvenient but not a major issue.

However, if you delete an employee who was a manager, for example, any employee who was in theirreporting line will now have no manager so you will need to manually update each employee to the newmanager.

If you forget to do this, employee leave requests may not be actioned accordingly as the request will not beable to be sent to their manager as they do not exist.


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Forms

The second core element is forms which allow you to enter or update information. Below is a sample of aform showing a combination of open input fields and drop down fields. At the bottom right of each form is a

submit button which will then commit the data which has been entered.

There is basic validation built into most forms but this validation is simply to ensure required fields are filled in

but the validation does not check the type of data entered into a field. We are considering adding field

validation in the future which will check data types such as national insurance, dates, post codes, phone

numbers and so on. We have not implemented this currently as we have an international audience and by

implementing post validation this would stop international users from being able to use the application.


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There is some additional validation which is a carried out mainly to prevent duplicate entries. Once submit has

been clicked the application will check for duplication and, if a record would create a duplicate, this will not be

committed and an error message will be displayed below the form name.

Conversely once all required data has been submitted and there has been no duplication a message is

displayed which lets you know that the action has been committed.


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Access levels

There are six access levels built in to Natural HR. These are:

Admin Can see all pages and sections and information on all employees etc. Note you

cannot carry out self-service via admin account as the admin account is not

linked to an employee file.

HR Cannot access Companymenu but can see all other pages and sections and

information on all employees. Can carry out self-service on their own account.

Manager Can only see information on their employees i.e. those who have this person

assigned as their manager in their Employee information. For these employees,manager can see and do everything and they can perform self-service for their

own account.

Employee Restricted view. Can only perform self-service activities for their own account

as well as provide feedback via 360 systems when a request is sent to them.

Finance Same core access level as Employee but with the additional ability to runfinance reports under Reporting module

Recruiter Same core access level as Employee but with the additional ability to operate inRecruitment module and run recruitment reports under Reporting module

To assist with security, menus are hidden and pages have inbuilt checking to ensure that users with

inappropriate permissions cannot access restricted areas even if they know the URL - if someone does try to

access a restricted page they will get a notification similar to the below and will not be able to do anything.

Important note on employee / user interaction

Throughout this guide, we will refer to interacting with employees. If you wish the system to actually interact

with the employee (such as send an email to them or allow them to respond in some way) they need to be

setup as a user with at least an employee user level.

For example, if you send a feedback request to an employee who is not set up as a user they will not be able

to do anything with it as they do not have access.

For this reason, we recommend setting up all employees as users to allow them to get the benefit of the

system though you may choose not to use any kind of self service and simply use Natural HR as a

management platform.


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Requirements for email notifications

To ensure your managers, HR and so on are able to receive email notifications of events such as time offrequests or timesheets, it is vital to ensure that the recipients have a WORK email address specified in their

employee file.

Even if you set up their user account using an email address this is not used for the notifications as some

companies do not use email addresses for usernames and, additionally, if an employee changes their email

address it makes more sense to update this directly in the employee file rather than having to manually update

it in a number of different places.

Additionally, please ensure the employee in question has a manager specified in their file and that the person

specified has a manger level role as these are the first checks carried out when sending notifications.


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Auditing

Every time a user carries out a significant action, this action is tracked in the audit database.

You can check the audit log at any time via Companyand thenAuditing. By viewing this module you can see

what all users in your company have done within the application.

The main actions we track are:

Login

Logout

Add

Delete

View (view a view option)

Edit

Run report

Auditing does not track page views and only tracks actual committed changes. For example, if someone clickededit on an employee file and looked at the information within the file but did not actually change anything itwould not be tracked.


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Home screen

The home screen of Natural HR is broken into 5 main parts as shown below:

1. Notifications bar

2. Main menu bar

3. Statistics

4. Workflow

5. Calendar

Notifications bar

The notifications bar located at the top right of the screen is used to display information about your account as

well as notifications of new messages. The five white icons on the left are for:

Licensing This links to the license page which shows your current license entitlement

Release notes Release notes showing features and functions added in each releaseHelp Online help guide available for quick access

To the right of these icons is an area which shows your login name and company above a notification of when

you last logged in and the IP address you last logged in from. Please note: this is account specific (i.e. not

company specific) so if you see something here which you do not expect such as an unrecognised IP address

or a login at a time you are not able to recall then check the Audit log via Companyand thenAuditinginitiallyand, if you are still unsure, you should change your password and PIN number immediately and contact us so

we can assist.


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Finally, on the very right hand side is a logoff button for security you should always logoff when you have

finished your session.

If you are inactive for 30 minutes, the system will automatically log you out to prevent someone fromaccessing your account (if you have walked away from your computer, for example) and you will need to loginagain to continue.

Licensing

By clicking the key icon in the Notifications bar you will be taken to the licensing screen.

On this screen you will see your current license key, license version, the number of employees you arelicensed for and the expiry date for your license.

Additionally, you can enter a new license key in the box below but you should only do so if instructed to by

Natural HR as entering an invalid license key may disable your access to the system.

If you are unable to use any features which you believe you are entitled to then this should be the first place

you check to ensure your license key is giving you the correct entitlement as premium features are dependent

on the existence of a valid and linked license key.


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Left menu

The menu running down the left of the screen is the main menu through which you will access the functions ofNatural HR.

To enter a menu item, simply click on its name. Some menus will have additional items underneath them in

which case they will concertina to show the additional menu items and, in this case, click the sub menu item

you require to proceed.

Statistics

At the top of the home page is a statistics section which shows you at a glance some summary information

about your company account on Natural HR.

The five items shown are:

Employees Shows the total number of employees under your company in the system

Users Shows the total number of user accounts your company has on the system (i.e.

those who can login to the system regardless of their access level)

Company actions Shows the number of entries in the audit database for your company

Company logins Shows the number of logins which have been performed by your users takenfrom the audit database

Documents stored Shows the number of documents (both employee and company documents)

stored on the system for your company


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Workflow

Additionally on the home page there is a workflow section which shows outstanding time off requests andtimesheets for approval.

For both time off and timesheets, when there are items to be approved they will appear in the corresponding

box and you can click the item to view and process accordingly.

The employees manager (if set) will also see this notification on their home screen and will be able to processthe notifications all show on the admin screen mainly as a fallback in case the employee manager is not setor the manager fails to action the request in a reasonable time.

When you first login to Natural HR there is a notifications box at the top of the screen in a red box which

contains a list of items to complete which we recommend you do before using the system.

Each of these items are required for you to get the full benefit of using Natural HR and, if you fail to complete

these prior to using the system, you will be frustrated when completing forms and so on as these items are

often mandatory items on forms.

The tasks requiring completion are:

Job roles Job statuses

Departments

Sites

Manager job roles

Add employees

Set date for the start of your year (this reminder will recur every year to ensure you update the start

date annually)

Set employees as managers

If you do not set date for the start of your year, time off balances will not work properly. The system uses acombination of the annual allowance per employee combined with their start date (if that is in the currentyear), the current date, any time off already taken and the date on which the holiday year begins to work outremaining balances.

Failing to enter this date will result in employees being shown either very large numbers or minus numbers fortheir remaining balance.


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Calendar

The final item on the home page is a company calendar. As admin, you will be able to view all time off,training, reviews, events and reminders for the company. The system also shows Public Holidays for United

Kingdom and United States.

On the calendar the current day is marked in green and you can move from month to month using the left

and right facing arrows at the top of the calendar.

Additionally, you can click on week and day and get a weekly and daily view of the calendar which is especially

useful if you have a lot of items on the calendar especially those which are linked to a time slot rather than an

all day event.

As per our earlier note on date formatting, the today indicator will always be based on server time which isUK time as our servers are located in the UK.

By default, at a manager level, they can only see items pertaining to them and their employees and, likewise, an

employee can only see items pertaining to their own file however there is an option to allow other employees

to view all training and time off across the company for all employees. This is so an employee can see when

their colleagues have booked time off or training so they can plan accordingly.

To change this, you need to go to Companyand then Company Settingsand scroll to the bottom to the dropdown marked Calendar statusand set it to either Private (default) or Public (allows all users to view all time off

and training).

By default each calendar item is colour coded to make it easy to distinguish them at a glance but you can

customize these colours to use your own choices if you so wish.

To change colours, go to Optionsand then Calendar optionsand use the colour picker to choose your

preferred colour for each of the calendar items if you decide you want to go back to the default colours in

the future you can click reset on this page and the system will revert back to the defaults.

You can also import content from a Google Calendar for more information see Company Settings.


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Post listing

Once a message has been posted (either by a user or from a specified event) it is displayed on the stream indate order with the most recent post at the top.

On each post there is a comment and like button to allow other users to comment on a post or to like the

post itself.

Please note, even if you have turned off the chat box users will still be able to post comments on automated

posts.

To like a post you simple need to click the like button under the post in question on doing so, the like

button will then change to Unlike and under the post a message will appear telling you how many people like

the post.

It is not possible to Unlike a post which you have not already liked and unlike is ultimately just a way of

removing your like additionally, it is not possible for a user to like a post more than once.

Comments

If a user wishes to comment on an existing post they can click the comment button under that post and a box

appears in which they can enter their comment. The comment will then be shown nested under the post in

question.

It is possible to like a comment as well as a post the process works in the same way as liking a post.

More posts

To prevent a busy social stream overpowering the screen, the social stream shows a maximum of 10 posts on

the page. To view more posts you need to click on the more posts button at the bottom of the social stream

box which will then show 10 more posts and so on.

Deleting

If a user posts a message or comment which is inappropriate an administrator can then delete either the postor the comment.

To delete a post you need to click the red x icon to the right of the post and to delete a comment, click the

word delete under the comment in question.

Please note, if you delete a post you will delete all comments associated with that post at the same time and

deleting a post or comment removes all likes associated with the item.


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you can create a template which is then applied to new starters when theybegin the induction process.

Job roles This is where you set up the various job roles so they appear in the jobs dropdowns.

Job status This module is to allow you to set up different statuses for job roles such as full

time, part time, contractor, temporary and so on.

Leave reasons If you conduct a formal leaver process within your company this allows you to

enter predefined reasons for leaving so when you make an employee a leaver

you can choose the relevant reason from the drop down allowing you to

perform analytics on why employees leave.

Process carryover When you have completed your holiday year and wish to finalise carryoverbalances you can use this process to do so. More information is provided

below.Review questions If you use standard questions as part of your review process you can enter

them here to avoid repetition and to ensure consistency across the review

process. There are a maximum of 10 questions which you can have in the

system at any time. The questions are totally open and you can enter whatever

you wish.

Social settings If you wish to use the social stream module you can enable it here and also setthe options to be able to control what is displayed.

Sites If you have different sites or offices in your company and you want to assign

employees to them this is where you set up the various sites so they appear in

the company sites drop downs.

Time off settings (global) Time off settings applied at a global level can be over ridden at a site by site

level in Company Sites.

Time off types If you wish to track time off according to the reason given you can add

additional options in this section. There is already a legacy prepopulated option

for PAID TIME OFF and additional potential time off types could include unpaid

holiday, sickness, maternity, bereavement and so on.

Bulk employee upload

As a new user of Natural HR, one of the most daunting things you have to do is to input all your employees

into the system before you can start to use it.

If you only have a few employees this is not too onerous but we have companies with in excess of 1000

employees which is then a time consuming and laborious task. To assist, we added the ability to bulk upload

employees from a CSV file. A CSV file is simply a way of storing tabular data in a basic text format which is

simplistically what a database is so it is ideally suited for the task.

This process cannot currently be used to modify existing employees. If you try to upload the same file again

the upload will fail as, like the core application, it checks the National Insurance Number (aka Social Security

number) and if it finds a duplicate it will throw an error. If you were to enter a different National Insurance


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number for each entry this would bypass the check but it would mean you would have duplicate employees so

this is not recommended.

That said, the security implications of allowing users to upload a file directly to the server which also has the

ability to make changes to the database are vast hence why we have so much validation in place and,

therefore, why so many fail on their first attempt.

The information collected and inserted into the system is NOT the same as that which would be inserted if

you were to use the full Add Employee function but, instead, enters the same level of detail as that entered

when using Quick Add Employee. At this time it is not possible to add the same level of information as a full

employee addition but this is in planning for future releases.

We have made available a sample CSV file for you to download and we recommend you use this file as the

template for your CSV which you intend to upload (obviously, you should delete the sample data row which

we have included in the file but do not remove the header row).

Additionally as the CSV system requires you to enter the system identifiers for manager, job title, job status

and department we have made the facility available for you to easily display each of these via the Bulk upload

screen to do so, simply click the plus beside the bar entitled Click to view managers, job titles, job statuses and

departments.

When you click the plus sign you will be shown a list of managers, job roles, job statuses and departments if

any of these do not have entries the upload will fail.

Whilst the process of uploading data via a CSV file is a quick and easy process you should pay extra attention

to the data you are inputting into the file as there is obviously no validation possible whilst you enter the

information into the CSV file. As a result, we have implemented robust validation for the data when you try toupload the file to ensure the data is correct and is as we need to receive it. If you try to upload a file which

does not meet the correct criteria as outlined below the upload will fail so please pay careful attention to the


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general notes below as well as the field specific notes to ensure that the process is as quick and simple as

possible.

General notes

1. The file should be saved as COMMA separated CSV file with a CSV extension

2. The title row must be left in place and should not be changed

3. Make sure there are no additional rows in the document by viewing in a text editor before uploading

4. Ensure none of the data you enter includes a comma as this will cause an error

5. Ensure none of your data contains or or any other similar iteration as they will be escaped by the

application to ensure data integrity. If you do try this you will end up with \ in place of the prohibited

characters which is intentional on the part of the application

6.

You must fill in ALL columns7. There are 13 columns in total and you should not add any additional columns

8. Dates must be entered in the format dd/mm/yyyy

a. This is regardless of the date formatting chosen in Localisation

9. The value in the National Insurance field (aka Social Security number) must be unique

10.For Manager ID, Job title ID, Job status ID and Department ID you must enter a valid ID reference (i.e.

NOT the name)


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Notes on data formatting

Employee Works ID Works ID for employee within your company. Can be made up of letters and

or numbers

Employee surname Can be made up of letters and or numbers

Employee first name Can be made up of letters and or numbers

Gender Male, Female or Not are the only valid options with Not indicating not

specified

DOB Must be in the format dd/mm/yyyy

National Insurance Number Also known as Social Security number outside the UK, can be made up of

letters and or numbers but MUST be unique within your company

Manager ID The system record ID for the employees manager. Please ensure the number

referenced is for an existing employee who should hold a role which is

designated as being manager level

Employee status Only valid entries are Current or Archived

Job title ID The system record ID for the employees job title or role. Please ensure the

number referenced is for an existing role within the system

Job status ID The system record ID for the employees job status. Please ensure the number

referenced is for an existing status within the system

Start date Must be in the format dd/mm/yyyy

Holidays per year Must be a number, maximum of two digitsDepartment ID The system record ID for the employees department. Please ensure the

number referenced is for an existing department within the system

When entering items into the CSV file please remember to use the system identifiers and not the actualnames. For example, do not enter Sales for the department as it will fail. Instead use the click to view functionand get the ID for Sales and enter that instead.

Company information

When you signed up to Natural HR, you provided some information during the signup process including

company name, industry, employees etc.

However, as part of the sign up process we do not ask you to fill in your address details and phone numbers

etc so this is where you provide additional information on your company.


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Company settings

Use real time time tracking

If you want employees to use real time time tracking then you can turn this on by changing this to Yes. For

more information on timetracking, please see Timetracking.

Calendar status

Default: Private

Used to determine whether time off and training items are viewable by all employees (Public) or are only

viewable by the employee and manager who they relate to (Private)

Google calendar link

If you want to display events from your Google calendar on the main company calendar, then enter the

Google calendar XML url into this box and the events will appear on the calendar.

Reviews visible to employees

Default: No

Used to determine whether employees can view their own performance reviews. If set to yes, employees willhave an additional menu item in Self servicecalledMy reviews

Warnings visible to employees

Default: No

Used to determine whether employees can view their own warnings. If set to yes, employees will have an

additional menu item in Self servicecalledMy warnings

Finance notification email

If you require finance or payroll to be notified when an employee updates their bank details through Employee

Self Service, you can enter an email address or a series of email addresses separated by commas into this field

and these email addresses will get sent an email when an employee changes any of the their bank details.

The email will NOT contain the actual data for security reasons and the recipient will be required to have a

Finance account and they will then need to login and run the bank details report to view the changes.

Timesheets midnight rollover

When using Timesheetsthere is a check built in which ensures that the times entered are valid in the context

of the end time being after the start time for example, if someone says they stared work at 08.00 and

finished at 04.00 then the system will give an error as the finish time is before the start time.


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However, if you have employees who work overnight where they start before midnight and finish after

midnight then this check means they cannot enter their working times. For example, if someone starts at 22.00

and finishes at 06.00 then the system will throw an error as it assumes that both times are in the same day.

To overcome this, if you set Timesheets midnight rolloverto yes the check of finish time being after start time is

no longer performed so this error is removed.

Additionally, the calculation of hours worked is also revised to account for this setting.

Please note: Removing this check means that someone could enter a start time of 08:00 and a finish time of

07:30 meaning 17.30 and the system will accept this as a valid entry.

Require tax authority self service address update notification

In the UK, there is a system called Real Time Information which is a system whereby employers report PAYE

information to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in real time.

There is an obligation on the EMPLOYEEto notify HMRC of change of name, address, etc and even if the

employer submits the RTI with an updated address etc this is not sufficient.

If you wish to use this feature then entering ANY value into this box will result in a rick box appearing in the

employee self service update address which the employee will be required to tick to confirm they have

notified HMRC of their new address.

If you enter a web address into this box this will then add a link under the tick box marked Click here to visit

notification link (links to an external site) which the employee can click which can be used either to link

directly to the form(s) needed or to an internal link telling the employee what they need to do.

Finally, if you have entered a value into Finance notification emailan email will be sent to that email address

notifying them that the employee has updated their address details.

Logout URL

Default: Blank (www.naturalhr.com)

If you enter a web site address into this box, users will be redirected to that address when they logout. If left

blank, users get redirected tohttp://www.naturalhr.com.

Please note you should enter the address without the http://
http://www.naturalhr.com/http://www.naturalhr.com/http://www.naturalhr.com/http://www.naturalhr.com/


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Company Users

If you want your employees to be able to use Natural HR (regardless of the access level), they need to be setup as Company users.

When you add a company user, you need to choose an employee from the drop down to assign the

Company user account to. Once you have chosen an employee, you need to enter their login email address,

password and PIN number as well as setting their account to the appropriate status enabled or disabled.

Finally, you need to add them to a user group which then determines their access rights within the application.

For more information on user groups, see SectionAccess Levels.

If you wish to send users a notification email to let them know that an account has been created you can tick

the box marked Send email to user on account creation. Please note, this will only work if you have a valid

work email address in the employee file.

The system will then generate two emails and send them to the work email address the first email contains

the username and password whilst the second email contains the username and PIN number.

On the main Company users screen in the actions column there is also the option to change a users password

and or PIN.

Whilst it is possible to have more than one admin account, we do not recommend you do so. It is importantto realize that a user with an admin account can view everything including all employee information and couldeven delete the whole company account if they so choose.


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Custom employee fields

It is possible to add up to five custom fields to each employee file which you can use to capture any additionalrequired information outside of the fields already provided within Natural HR.

By default, the fields are not set up and will not be visible in the employee file until you create them and give

them a name(s) through this setting.

To enable the fields, simply add a name for the field or fields required and click Update and they will then be

visible and usable in the Employee file.

Careful consideration should be given to the setup and use of custom fields especially if you decide to change

the name (or more specifically the purpose) of the field at a later stage. If you do this whilst the label willchange in the employee file the old data will remain in place and may not make any sense whatsoever.

For example, you choose to make field 1 a field called Model of car and you enter this data for all youremployees using this field. You then realize you need to use field 1 to record Number of children so you canchange the label here and in the employee file it will now ask for Number of children but, for existingemployees who had data already populated in the field, they will have the answer to the previous question soyou will need to manually revisit every employee and update the answer for the new question.

Delete account

Whilst this is a fairly straight forward component we have called it out separately so we can emphasise that

once an account has been deleted, all information in the system relating o that account is removed and we

cannot recover the information.

With that in mind, we encourage you to use this feature with extreme caution as there is no way back once it

has been confirmed.

If you decide this is appropriate, all you need to do is to enter your admin password into the password box,

the reason(s) why you are leaving into the comments box (this is not required but would be appreciated sowe can understand what we need to do to improve) and then click Confirm.

Upon clicking confirm, the system will then remove all of your data from and will log you out.

Remember, delete account cannot be reversed!


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Process carryover

You must have set both a value for carryover days and a date for carryover expiry in Company settings

When you reach the end of your holiday year, if you allow employees to carryover Paid Time Off this process

should be run to populate the carryover values for each eligible employee so they can use that time under the

Time Offmodule.

When you first run the module, it will ask you to enter a start and end date you should enter the first and

last day of the holiday year in which you want to process the carryover. You should pay careful attention to

the actual dates as, often due to weekends etc, they will not necessarily be one day less than a year apart.

Once you have entered the dates we STRONGLYrecommend that you use Check balancesto ensure

everything is as you expect before actually processing the carryover.

When you choose check balances, the system runs exactly the same process as the actual carryover

confirmation but without making any physical changes.

Once run, check balanceswill show a list of all employees who will be eligible to carryover Paid Time Off as

well as their original annual allowance, the days they have taken, how many days they have left and then the

actual carryover figure (which may be different mainly if their days left is greater than the maximum allowable

carryover).

Once you have checked this figures and are happy they are all accurate and correct you then need to re-enter

your dates and click Process carryover which will finalise the process and populate the carryover figures in the

system.

Social settings

Social settings controls the display and functions of the Social Streammore information on Social Streamcan

be found on page 25.

If you want to be able to use the Social Streamfeature, you need to enable it on this screen. To do so simple

click the status dropdown and set this to Enabled or, conversely, to disable Social Stream set status to

Disabled,

Whilst setting this value to enabled will enable the Social Streambox on the main page, you need to configure

the other options if you wish to get the most from the feature.


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Social chat

Put simply, social chat allows users to post messages directly to the Social Streamvia a chat box which isdisplayed at the top of the Social Stream.

To enable this feature, simply set the drop down value to Enabled.

Please note, regardless of whether you set Social chat to Enabled or Disabled users will still be able to

comment on posts on the Social Streamsuch as new starters or job changes (see below).

In addition to allowing users to post messages to the Social Streamthere are four additional events which canpost messages to the Social Stream. These messages are automated and are created when the event in

question completes but the actual text which is displayed on the Social Streamcan be customised by you viathese settings.

If you do not wish to use a particular feature then simply leave the box empty entering anything in the boxeswill enable the automated posting and the contents of the box will be shown on the Social Stream.

In all cases, you can enter box simple text as well as certain fields in the settings so the post is relevant andinformative. For each setting there are a number of fields which can be added which are detailed below please pay particular attention to the requirement to enclose the fields in double exclamation marks (!!).

Additionally, if you disable a feature either by choosing Disabled or by removing ALL the text from the

relevant box this does NOT remove any posts of this type from the Social Stream the only exception to thisis if you disable the Social Stream completely which, whilst not deleting the messages, would mean users couldno longer view or access the stream.


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Social recognition text

This is used so your users can recognise other employees and their recognition is posted on the Social Stream.

Users create the recognition via Self Servicewhere they simply pick an employee from the dropdown and

enter a citation. It is vital that you customise this setting so the message displayed is informative.

The fields you can use for this are:

!!rec_firstname!! recipients first name

!!rec_surname!! recipients surname

!!sender_firstname!! senders first name

!!sender_surname!! senders surname

!!citation!! citation entered by the sender

An example message for this could be as below please pay particular attention to the double exclamation

marks (!!) around the field values:

!!rec_firstname!! !!rec_surname!! has been recognised by !!sender_firstname!! !!sender_surname!! for !!citation!!

This message would then be displayed as:

Joe Bloggs has been recognised by Mike Thomas for helping to meet an important deadline

If you fail to include the double exclamation marks this would then be displayed as:

rec_firstname rec_surname has been recognised by sender_firstname sender_surname for citation

New starter text

If you would like a notification of a new starter to be posted to the Social Streamthen you should enter the

necessary text in this box.

Please note: this only works if the new starter is added via Add Employee or Quick Add Employee and not via

Bulk Upload.


!!firstname!! new starters firstname

!!surname!! new starters surname

Example message again, pay particular attention to the double exclamation marks:

Please say hello to !!firstname!! !!surname!! who started with us today


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Job change text

If you would like a notification of promotions or job changes to be posted to the Social Streamthen youshould enter the necessary text in this box.


!!firstname!! new starters firstname

!!surname!! new starters surname

!!new_job_role!! new job role name


Congratulations to !!firstname!! !!surname!! on their promotion to !!new_job_role!!

New job requisition text

If you would like a notification of new job requisitions posted via Recruitmentto be posted to the Social Stream

then you should enter the necessary text in this box.


!!role!! job role requisition is for

!!contact!! contact person dealing with the role


New job requisition added for !!role!! - please contact !!contact!! for further details

REMEMBER: If you do not wish to use a particular feature then simply leave the box empty entering anythingin the boxes will enable the automated posting and the exact contents of the box will be shown on the Social

Stream.


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Sites

If you have employees who are located at different sites be that customer sites or company sites and local sitesor in other countries you can setup Sites which allows you to run reports at a site level.

The various fields in sites are self-explanatory but there is one which warrants additional information.

Site level timeoff settings

If you wish to apply different time off settings based on employee locations you can override the default

Global time off settings by ticking the box marked Site level timeoff settingsand then entering the site specific

entries in the boxes which appear.

Please ensure that you fill in all the fields even if only a few are different from the Global settings as the Global

settings are disregarded as soon as this option is chosen.

For an explanation of each of the settings, please see Time off settings (global).

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