COVID-19 Support : Company notification preferences whilst staff Work From Home

During this difficult time, more and more employees are being forced to work from home. On top of providing resources to these staff members to continue their daily activities, companies are becoming increasingly reliant on communications.

Some quick numbers on the WhosOffice service:

Since the Coronavirus Outbreak, we have seen a surge in push notifications and emails across the WhosOffice platform.

At present emails are up to a record high level to approx. 6.6m+ for March (which equates to 80m+ for 2020), notifications are upwards of 100k+ for March 2020 (which equates to 1m+ for 2020).

Other services you may be using

You may well be using video software such as Zoom to conduct regular conference meetings with your staff, here at WhosOffice we are doing the same on a regular basis. You may also be using chat software such as WhatsApp or Slack to keep everybody informed of movements around the business and conducting key decisions with your team members.

How can I ensure WhosOffice is setup to keep staff informed?

In order to ensure your team are best informed on staffing changes throughout this challenging period, there are a number of settings you can check in order to make sure your account is fine tuned

Ensure your entire team is using WhosOffice mobile

This is the best recommendation we can make. We have dedicated apps for iOS and Android users, allowing your staff to manage their leave and shift data. Line Managers/Approvers can manage leave for their staff members.

Available from the applicable app stores, users can download and sign in to their WhosOffice accounts from anywhere. Mobile users also benefit from Push Notifications (see below).

Email settings on Leave

There are 3 notification settings on leave, with each providing notification settings to keep staff and line managers informed.

To adjust your leave settings, follow these simple steps:

• Login to your WhosOffice account
• From the Leave menu, select Leave Types
• Click on the name of the Leave type you wish to change
• From the Tabs on the left, select Approvals
• Here you will see the three Notification options you can make.
  • Request notifications
  • Approval notifications
  • Cancel notifications
• For each of these options, you can choose one of the following settings:
  • Staff only
  • Staff and Approvers
  • Staff, Approvers and Notifiers
  • Approvers and Notifiers
  • Approvers only
  • Notifiers only
• Make your changes and click on "Save", the changes are made instantly
• Repeat for the other leave types you wish to update

Push Notifications are instant

Since our platform updates from October 2019, we have introduced push notifications for our mobile users:

For Android and iOS users, notifications will be distributed automatically for the following scenarios:

• For Approvers
  • When their staff request leave or submit overtime
• For Staff
  • When their leave / overtime requests are approved / declined

* Please note, this may require an update to your installed app, check the relevant app store for more information. PNS/APNS will be available from version 1.2.0 of the dedicated Android and iOS apps.