What's Happening Widget

What is the What's Happening widget?

Purpose: To teach you how the What's Happening widget functions. Additionally, this guide will show you how to create and send company announcements. 

Table of Contents

What's Happening

The What's Happening widget includes notifications for items that need a user's attention. This widget customizes information based on the user and their responsibilities outlined in their access level(s).

The notifications include:

  • Time off requests that need the user's approval.
  • Information change requests that need the user's approval.
  • Custom approval requests that need the user's approval.
  • Signature requests that need the user's signature.
  • Assigned onboarding tasks to the user.
  • New applicants that have applied for a position of which the user is a collaborator.
  • Peer feedback requests.**
  • Self-assessments that are due.**
  • The user has a new paystub.**
  • When a company announcement posting is once viewed or after 30 days, it will remove from the widget. The user can access them by clicking Announcements in the top corner. Here they can find a history of all company announcements. Additionally, here is where the user will post announcements if they have access.
  • When BambooHR releases something new and exciting (Full Admins only).
  • Timesheets awaiting the user's approval.**
  • Time Tracking is enabled and ready for setup.**
  • Performance is enabled and ready for setup.**

Some important things to note:

  • Notifications do not expire. If actions are completed through the What's Happening Widget, the notification will automatically disappear from this widget. If actions are completed outside of the What's Happening Widget, the notification for that task will remain within the widget until it is manually cleared by clicking X next to that item. We recommend that employees regularly clear the notifications from the What's Happening Widget to ensure that they see the most updated information. 
  • The user can individually dismiss a notification by clicking the X to the right of the notification.
  • Notifications are individual until the fourth notification of the same type, and then they will group within a summary (except for announcement and self-assessment notifications).
  • The What's Happening widget always displays at the top of Home, and the user cannot remove it.

**Add-on feature only. 

Complete tasks

After a user views a notification of a task in the What's Happening widget, they can complete the task. At the right of the task notification, the user can dismiss it by clicking the 'X' or go directly to the task as shown in the screenshot.

Manage and create company announcements

Do you prefer hands-on learning? Our interactive guides will guide you through different aspects of your BambooHR experience. We have an interactive guide specifically designed to show you how to create Company Announcements. You can use the link below to access this guide. All you need to do is modify the "REPLACEME" with your BambooHR subdomain, and you can get started!

https://REPLACEME.bamboohr.com/home?pendo=ojiV5vdolXJoTImgWEewmxDr5uM 

To create a new announcement or to see a list of past announcements, click Announcements in the top right corner of the What's Happening widget.

You will find a list of all previous announcements. From this view, you have the following options:

  1. Create a new announcement. (See below for further details.)
  2. Click on the title of an announcement to view its contents.
  3. Edit or delete an announcement by clicking the corresponding icons to the right.

Create a new announcement

  1. Title the announcement. If sending to employees, its title will be the subject line of the email.
  2. Add the body of the announcement. You have the option to format text, attach files, add links, and upload pictures. If you copy and paste your message from somewhere else, spacing, formatting, and lists will carry over as you expect to see them. NOTE: If your message is too large, you may see an error message and may have additional spacing in your text. You can easily remove these extra spaces, and once saved, there will be no further changes needed moving forward.
    1. Attach Files: Click here to attach a file already uploaded to BambooHR, or choose to upload a new file and attach it to the announcement.
    2. Upload Pictures: Click on the picture icon at the far right of the toolbar to select an image on your computer.
  3. Filter the announcement. Click Edit to select which groups of employees you would like to receive it. Please note: Announcements are only sent to active employees. Non-employee users won't see them.
  4. Click Publish to post the announcement to the What's Happening widget on BambooHR Home. Click Publish and Email to post the announcement in the What's Happening widget on Bamboo Home and email it to the selected groups of employees. Click Save Draft to save the announcement in your list, and it will not publish and send an email to employees.
A published announcement example

Email

Announcement from Olivia Sterling - smiller@bamboohr.com - BambooHR Mail

The email notification will include the announcement with a link to view it in BambooHR.

View the announcement in BambooHR

Jake's Retirement

The employee will see a new notification for the announcement in the What's Happening widget on Home. Clicking View Announcement will show them the complete announcement with who sent it and the date of posting.