Create, Edit, Delete, and View Announcements

Overview

Updated 05/11/2022

What are Announcements? Clients have requested the ability to send out notifications or broadcast messages to users in the BOLD system, including the Talent Portals and/or Contact Portals. We have built an Announcements feature to accomplish this. Announcements can be broadcast to HCM Users, Talent Users, Hiring Manager Users, or any combination of the three. On the Announcements page, users with access can post announcements, view previously posted announcements, and delete them.

Chapters Activating the Feature How It Works     Creating     Historical Announcements     Deleting Viewing FAQ

Activating the Feature

The feature is not active by default, but it can be activated by users with Utilities access. Please contact your local administrator if you do not have this access and need it. If you are an administrator, and would like more information, see this article: User Types/Permissions: Setting up your Team's Access

If you already have Utilities access and you want to activate Announcements, do the following:

• Go to user settings by clicking on your username in the Account & Settings menu.
  
  
  
• Click Edit Access.
• Search for "Admin"
• Check the box marked Create Announcements in the Admin section of System Settings.

• Save.
• Log out, and then log in again.
• Your ability to Create Announcements is active.

How it works

Creating (for Administrators with Utilities and Create Announcements access)

When you create announcements, you can choose who will be able to view the announcements, and set an expiration date for the announcements.

• Go to Account & Settings > Utilities.
• Search for "user"
• Click User Announcements. A widget appears with any existing announcements.

• Click Create New Entry. The Create / Edit Announcement screen is shown.

Enter values for the fields you wish:

• Title is a freeform field with a maximum of 255 characters.
• Activate Date and Expire Date show calendar controls where you can pick a date.
• Audience allows you to determine who sees the announcements, by user type - Recruiter, Talent, or Manager. To ensure that everyone sees your announcements, click all three options.

• Content is a freeform field, paragraph style, with a maximum of 8000 characters.

The activation date must be before the expiration date or an announcement can't be saved.

If the activation date is in the past, it will show immediately, as long as the expiration date is not in the past.

If the expiration date is the current date or in the past, the message will not be shown.

When an announcement is "broadcast," a number is displayed on the user's avatar picture (the main menu control) with the count of announcements available.

If any of the following announcement fields are blank, it won't be broadcast: Activate Date, Audience. This means it won't show up to users in the indicator area of the Account & Settings menu). All of the above fields must have a value for a broadcast to occur.

When an expiration date is reached, an announcement will no longer show up in a user's count indicator or in the Announcements display flyout. It will no longer be broadcast to users.

There are no options to restrict the audience of an announcement beyond user type. When you select a user type, the announcement will appear for all users of that type; that is, all Recruiters, and/or all Talent, and/or all Managers.

• When ready, click Save Announcement. The announcement will be saved and displayed on the screen, the most recent first.

Historical announcements

If you have the Create Announcements permission, and want to view all previously posted announcements, you can use the announcements widget on the Utilities page.

Here authorized users can see the following information:

• Creation Date
• Activation Date
• Expiration Date
• Which user types the announcement is assigned to

To view a saved announcement's content from this screen, click on the "edit" button, under the Actions column. This will also allow you to edit the announcement.

Deleting

In the same widget, authorized users can delete posted announcements they have created, as well as others to which they have access.

• Do this by clicking the delete (trashcan) button. A prompt will appear confirming that you want to delete the announcement.

• Click Delete to proceed with the removal.

Viewing (for all users)

After a message has been posted, the selected profiles will see a notification on their Account & Settings menu upon their next login. This lets them know a new announcement has been posted.

A number is displayed on the user's avatar picture (the main menu control) with the count of announcements available. The notification will continue to show each time they log in until they have viewed the announcement(s).

To view the announcements, click Announcements. A flyout with a list of announcements is shown.

To read an announcement, click Read More. The announcement is displayed in a popup.

When viewed, the announcement status is changed to Read. If you want the announcement to continue to be included in the count for the unread indicator in the Account & Settings menu, click the toggle so it changes to New. Both read and unread messages will remain visible in the Announcements flyout until they have expired.
Click Close to close the popup.

When you view posted announcements, the message will show the date that it was posted. Click Done when finished to close the flyout.

FAQ's

1. Is there a limit on the amount of time between activation and expiration of an announcement?
   No, there is no limit set in the application.
   
   
2. How far out can you schedule something?
   There are no limits on scheduling an announcement in the future.
   
   
3. What if you schedule something for the future but then the Recruiter/User doesn't work there anymore?
   Nothing in Announcements is tied to an individual user; there is no way to filter individual users in or out. Announcements are delivered to user categories.
   
   
4. What about previously scheduled Announcements if the Recruiter/User doesn't work there anymore? 
   Again, the system will not recognize this. Announcements will be displayed for all users in the selected categories.
   
   
5. Can you exclude people/users from the Announcement?
   No. These are broadcast announcements; they go to all users of a given type.
   
   
6. Can you add/use links?
   Yes, links are supported if you copy and paste from a separate browser bar. Images are also supported.
   
   
7. Does it go to all Talent/HCM/Managers if that option is selected? Does it exclude people that have a specific status (DNA, not placed, Direct Hire, etc.)?
   Yes, announcements go to all Talent/HCM/Managers if that option is selected; no one is excluded based on status.
    
8. If you edit an announcement, does it show up as new?
   No, it remains an existing announcement.
   
   
9. Can you edit scheduled (future) Announcements?
   Yes.
   
   
10. Can you change the audience after an Announcement was published?
    Yes.
    
    
11. Is there a log of the Announcements that have been posted?
    No. Please refer to the historical view for announcements, via Utilities > User Announcements.
    
    
12. Is there a report to see who has viewed (or hasn't viewed) Announcements?
    Not at this time.
    
    
13. Do the announcements look different based on their audience?
    No, the announcements cannot be customized to appear different depending on their audience. If you wish to have different messages appear to different user types, you will need to create separate announcements for each user type.
    
    
14. Does 'Managers' mean all contacts for a Company?
    Yes.