9.3 Employee Central Alerts and Notifications

9.3 Employee Central Alerts and Notifications

Quick Answer: Alerts warn users about upcoming events, such as a work visa about to expire. An EC alert needs three elements: an alert message (Manage Data), alert recipients (defined in a workflow record), and an alert rule (scenario Generate Alerts, assigned as saveAlert). A recurring EC Alerts and Notifications job in Provisioning creates and sends them.

Where Alerts Are Supported

Alerts are supported for:

• Employee Central data
• Compensation Information
• Employment Information
• Job Information
• Pay Component Recurring
• Pay Component Non-Recurring
• Work Permit
• Global Assignment
• MDF data

Depending on configuration, users see alerts in the system (for example in the For You Today area of the Home Page) or receive e-mail.

Element 1: The Alert Message

The Alert Message object is pre-delivered. Create records in Manage Data with a name and external code. You can localize the header and description. The message field (alertDescription) is 255 characters by default and can be increased up to 4,000.

Tags act as placeholders:

Element 2: The Alert Recipients

Recipients are defined in a workflow configuration record (Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures):

• Approvers receive the alert in the system.
• CC roles receive the alert only by e-mail.
• Contributors are not used for alerts.

In THR81's visa example, the employee is both an approver (system alert) and a CC role (e-mail), and so is the employee's manager.

Element 3: The Alert Rule

Generate Alerts is the EC Core rule scenario for EC data alerts:

1. IF: the condition, for example document country = Canada and expiration date not null.
2. THEN:
   • Alert.Workflow Information: the recipient workflow
   • Alert.effective date: when the alert is sent
   • Alert.Alert Message: the message created in Manage Data

Assign the rule as saveAlert at element level of the alert-supported entity in Manage Business Configuration. Remember that saveAlert fires when changes to jobInfo, compInfo, employmentInfo, or workPermitInfo are saved (Section 5.2).

For MDF data, the steps are the same, except that you use the Alert purpose in the Rules for MDF Based Objects scenario and assign the rule as a Post Save rule.

The Recurring Job

Create a recurring job in Provisioning (Manage Scheduled Jobs > Create New), job type EC Alerts and Notifications, typically daily. The job checks which records qualify under the rule's IF conditions and sends the alerts on the effective date or due date set in the THEN statement. Use Run it now to test.

Managing Pending Alerts

The Manage Alerts and Notifications dashboard lets administrators filter, view, and delete pending EC alerts and To-Dos. An advanced filter narrows them by criteria.

Worked Example: Visa Expiry Alert (THR81)

Alerts for MDF Data, Including Positions

MDF objects use the same three building blocks with two differences: the rule is built in Rules for MDF Based Objects with the purpose Alert, and it is assigned in Configure Object Definitions as a Post Save rule. The tags [[OBJECT_TYPE]] and [[OBJECT_NAME]] identify the MDF record in the message. THR79 lists Configure MDF Alerts and Notifications as one of the uses of Rules for MDF Based Objects with Position as the base object, so position-related reminders follow this MDF pattern (Section 13.1).

Design Checklist

1. Decide who must be warned and how: in-system (approver) or e-mail only (CC role).
2. Decide when: the THEN statement's effective date or due date sets when the alert is sent.
3. Keep the IF narrow enough to avoid noise, for example only expiring documents of one country.
4. Write the message with tags, lengthening alertDescription beyond 255 characters if needed.
5. Assign the rule with the right event: saveAlert for EC data, Post Save for MDF data.
6. Create and test the recurring job, then check the For You Today area and the recipients' e-mail.

Alerts Versus Workflows Versus Admin Alerts

Common Pitfalls

• Creating the message and rule but no recurring job, so no alerts are generated.
• Putting recipients only in the contributor role, which alerts do not use.
• Assigning the rule as onSave instead of saveAlert for EC data.
• Forgetting to lengthen alertDescription for long messages beyond 255 characters.