Announcements & Notifications
Effective internal communication keeps employees informed, aligned, and engaged. Udyamo HRMS provides two complementary communication tools: Announcements for broadcasting important messages and Notifications for real-time, event-driven alerts. This chapter covers how to create and manage announcements, target specific audiences, and use the notification system to stay on top of HR events.
What You Will Learn
- How to navigate to the Announcements section
- How to create, publish, and manage announcements
- How to target announcements to specific recipients (organization, department, or individual)
- How announcement priority works
- How the notification system operates (bell icon, read/unread tracking)
- How to view announcement history
- How to edit and delete announcements
Prerequisites
Required: You must have an Administrator or HR Manager role to create and manage announcements. All employees can view announcements targeted to them.
Announcements vs. Notifications
Before diving into features, it is important to understand the distinction between these two communication tools:
| Feature | Announcements | Notifications |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Broadcast messages to groups of employees | Alert individual users about specific events |
| Who creates | Administrators and HR managers | Generated automatically by the system (and manually for announcements) |
| Audience | Configurable: entire org, department, or individuals | The specific user the event pertains to |
| Persistence | Stored permanently in announcement history | Stored with read/unread tracking |
| Examples | Policy updates, holiday announcements, company news | Leave approved, payslip generated, checklist reminder |
Navigating to Announcements
- Click Announcements in the left sidebar (or navigate to Communication > Announcements).
- The Announcements page displays a list of all announcements, sorted by date with the most recent at the top.
Creating an Announcement
Step-by-Step: Create a New Announcement
- Navigate to Announcements.
- Click Create Announcement (or the + button).
- Fill in the announcement form:
| Field | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Title | A concise, descriptive title for the announcement. Appears in the announcement list and notifications. | Yes |
| Body | The full content of the announcement. Supports rich text formatting (bold, italic, lists, links). | Yes |
| Priority | Set to High or Low. High-priority announcements are visually highlighted. | Yes |
| Recipients | Choose the target audience (see Recipient Selection below). | Yes |
| Publish Date | The date and time the announcement becomes visible. Leave blank to publish immediately. | No |
| Attachments | Attach files (PDF, images) if the announcement includes supporting documents. | No |
- Review the announcement preview.
- Click Publish to make it live immediately, or Schedule to publish at the specified date.
Tip: Write clear, action-oriented titles. Instead of "Important Update," use "Office Closed on Republic Day — January 26." This helps employees quickly understand the announcement without opening it.
Recipient Selection
Udyamo HRMS uses the AnnouncementRecipient model to support flexible targeting of announcements. You can send an announcement to the entire organization, specific departments, or individual employees.
Audience Options
| Audience | Description | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Entire Organization | All active employees in the organization receive the announcement. | Company-wide policy changes, holiday announcements, general news |
| Specific Department(s) | Only employees in the selected department(s) receive the announcement. | Department-specific updates, team events, departmental policy changes |
| Specific Employee(s) | Only the individually selected employees receive the announcement. | Targeted communications, role-specific updates, individual notices |
Step-by-Step: Select Recipients
- In the announcement creation form, locate the Recipients section.
- Choose the audience type:
- All Employees — Select this option for organization-wide announcements.
- By Department — A department selector appears. Select one or more departments.
- By Employee — An employee search field appears. Search and add individual employees.
- The recipient count updates to show how many employees will receive the announcement.
Tip: You can combine department and individual selection. For example, send to the entire Engineering department plus two specific employees from Finance.
Warning: Only active employees are included in the recipient list. Employees with Inactive or Terminated status do not receive announcements.
Announcement Priority
Each announcement has a priority level that affects how it is displayed to recipients.
| Priority | Visual Indicator | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| High | Highlighted with a colored banner (e.g., red or orange). Appears at the top of the announcement list. | May trigger a push notification or prominent alert in the notification bell. |
| Low | Standard styling. Appears in chronological order in the list. | Appears in the notification bell as a regular notification. |
When to Use High Priority
- Office closures or emergency announcements
- Critical policy changes that require immediate attention
- Compliance deadlines (e.g., tax declaration submission)
- Safety or security alerts
When to Use Low Priority
- General company news and updates
- Social events, celebrations, or milestones
- Informational updates that do not require immediate action
- Newsletter-style communications
Tip: Reserve high priority for genuinely urgent matters. Overusing high priority diminishes its impact and causes employees to ignore future high-priority announcements.
Publishing and Visibility
Immediate Publishing
When you click Publish without setting a future publish date, the announcement is immediately visible to all selected recipients.
Scheduled Publishing
- Set the Publish Date to a future date and time.
- Click Schedule.
- The announcement is saved in Scheduled status and will automatically become visible at the specified time.
Announcement Visibility States
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft | The announcement is saved but not published. Only visible to the creator and admins. |
| Scheduled | The announcement is set to publish at a future date. |
| Published | The announcement is live and visible to the selected recipients. |
| Archived | The announcement has been removed from the active list but retained for history. |
Tip: Use drafts for announcements that need review or approval from leadership before publishing. Share the draft link with approvers for feedback.
Notification System
Udyamo HRMS includes a real-time notification system powered by the HrmsNotification and HrmsNotificationRecipient models. Notifications appear through the bell icon in the top navigation bar.
How Notifications Work
- When an event occurs (e.g., a leave is approved, a payslip is generated, an announcement is published), the system creates an HrmsNotification record.
- For each intended recipient, an HrmsNotificationRecipient record is created, tracking the read/unread status.
- The notification appears in the recipient's notification bell with an unread badge count.
- Clicking the bell icon opens the notification panel, showing recent notifications.
Notification Bell
The bell icon in the top-right corner of the navigation bar shows:
- Badge count — The number of unread notifications.
- Notification list — Click the bell to see a dropdown of recent notifications.
- Mark as read — Click a notification to mark it as read and navigate to the related page.
- Mark all as read — Click the option to mark all notifications as read at once.
Notification Types
| Event | Notification Sent To | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Leave request submitted | Reporting manager | An employee has requested leave |
| Leave request approved/rejected | Employee | The manager has acted on a leave request |
| Payslip generated | Employee | A new payslip is available for download |
| Announcement published | Selected recipients | A new announcement is available |
| Resignation submitted | Reporting manager, HR admin | An employee has submitted a resignation |
| Offboarding task assigned | Assigned person | A task on the offboarding checklist needs attention |
| Reimbursement approved/rejected | Employee | The reimbursement claim has been processed |
| Loan EMI reminder | Employee | An upcoming EMI deduction reminder |
| Overtime request submitted | Reporting manager | An employee has requested overtime |
Read/Unread Status Tracking
Every notification has a read status tracked per recipient:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unread | The recipient has not opened or acknowledged the notification. Appears highlighted in the notification panel. |
| Read | The recipient has clicked on or viewed the notification. Appears in standard styling. |
Tip: Regularly check your notification bell. Unacted-upon notifications (such as pending leave approvals) can delay processes for your team members.
Viewing Announcement History
All published announcements are retained in the system for reference.
Step-by-Step: View Past Announcements
- Navigate to Announcements.
- Use the filter options to narrow results:
- Date Range — View announcements from a specific period.
- Priority — Filter by High or Low priority.
- Status — Filter by Published or Archived.
- Author — View announcements created by a specific admin or HR manager.
- Click on an announcement title to view its full content and recipient details.
Announcement Details View
The detail view of an announcement shows:
| Section | Information |
|---|---|
| Title | The announcement heading |
| Body | Full content of the announcement |
| Author | Who created the announcement |
| Published Date | When it was published |
| Priority | High or Low |
| Recipients | Target audience (All, departments, or individual names) |
| Read Statistics | Number of recipients who have viewed the announcement vs. total recipients |
Tip: Use the read statistics to gauge engagement. If a high-priority announcement has low read rates, consider resending it or following up through another channel.
Editing Announcements
You can edit a published announcement to correct errors or update information.
Step-by-Step: Edit an Announcement
- Navigate to Announcements.
- Locate the announcement to edit.
- Click the Edit icon (pencil icon) or open the announcement and click Edit.
- Modify the title, body, priority, or recipients as needed.
- Click Save or Update.
Warning: Editing a published announcement does not resend notifications to recipients. If the update is significant, consider creating a new announcement referencing the correction.
Deleting Announcements
Step-by-Step: Delete an Announcement
- Navigate to Announcements.
- Locate the announcement to remove.
- Click the Delete icon (trash icon).
- Confirm the deletion in the dialog.
Warning: Deleting an announcement permanently removes it from the system, including from employees' announcement feeds. If you want to remove it from the active list but retain it for records, use Archive instead of Delete.
Archiving Announcements
Archiving moves an announcement out of the active list while preserving it in the system.
- Navigate to Announcements.
- Locate the announcement to archive.
- Click the Archive button or select Archive from the actions menu.
- The announcement moves to the Archived state and no longer appears in the default announcement list.
- Archived announcements can be viewed by setting the Status filter to Archived.
Common Errors and Solutions
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Employees say they did not see the announcement | Incorrect recipient selection or employee is inactive | Verify the recipient list and the employee's status |
| Notification bell not updating | Browser cache or session issue | Hard-refresh the page (Ctrl+Shift+R) or log out and back in |
| Scheduled announcement did not publish | Server time zone mismatch or scheduling error | Check the publish date and the organization's timezone settings |
| Cannot edit a published announcement | Insufficient permissions | Only administrators and the announcement creator can edit |
| Attachment upload fails | File type or size not supported | Check that the attachment meets the file type and 5 MB size limits |
Best Practices
- Keep announcements concise. Lead with the most important information. Use the body for details.
- Use appropriate priority levels. Reserve High priority for genuinely urgent items.
- Target your audience. A department-specific policy change should go to that department, not the entire organization.
- Track engagement. Review read statistics for important announcements and follow up if needed.
- Archive rather than delete. Maintain a historical record of all communications.
- Use scheduling for time-sensitive announcements. Schedule holiday announcements or policy changes to go live at the right moment.
What Comes Next
With communication tools covered, the next chapter addresses the reporting capabilities of Udyamo HRMS. Proceed to Chapter 43: Reports.