Communications Overview

Communications

1. What it is

Communications is the company-wide feed and internal-communications platform.
Employees browse a single feed of posts, announcements, and must-reads; communicators
plan, draft, and measure everything from the same app — including newsletters and
multi-channel break-through sends (email, SMS, voice call, push).

• Enablement: requires a licence. An admin enables it from Admin → Apps → All Apps;
  it is not turned on automatically.
• What it is not: Communications does not manage emergency alerts — those are
  owned by Safety Hub, which shares the approval-workflow primitive but has its
  own severity model and escalation path.

2. Standing it up

1. Go to Admin → Apps → All Apps, find Communications, and enable it.
2. Decide who can post Announcements and Must-Reads. Go to Settings → General
   and set Who can post Announcements & Must-Reads (default: Admins and
   Leadership). This one setting governs both tiers — choosing Off removes
   both from the composer for everyone, including admins.
3. If you need break-through sends (email + SMS + voice delivery outside the
   feed), grant the Broadcasts → Create permission to the communicators who
   should send them. The break-through tier appears in the composer only when the
   user holds that permission.
4. Grant the App Admin role to communicators who should manage newsletters,
   campaigns, audiences, approval workflows, and settings without being full
   business admins.
5. Newsletters are on by default. To hide them, turn off Settings → Modules →
   Enable Newsletters.
6. Confirm by opening the app as a non-admin employee. They should see the feed’s
   All, Unread, Must-read and Pinned tabs and a working Compose button.

Silent pairing to know about: the break-through tier requires both the app
entitlement and the Broadcasts create permission. Without the permission, a
user who can post announcements and must-reads will not see the break-through
option — no error, it simply doesn’t appear.

3. How it fits together

Five intensity tiers. The composer is one surface with an intensity dial. This
is the central design concept:

• In context — the quietest rung. The message appears inside an operational
  screen — the shift a person is about to work, the Time & Attendance screen
  right after they clock in, or their Benefits page — for the people you target,
  tied to what is on their screen. It does not land in Inbox, push, email or the
  feed unless you tick Also notify people. See Placing a message where
  people will see it below.
• Post — social content. Appears in the feed ranked under operational content.
• Announcement — operational content. Ranked above social posts. Notifies the
  target audience.
• Must-Read — requires the reader to acknowledge. Creates an immutable audit
  record per person. Has a configurable expiry (default 30 days) and can send
  automated reminders to people who haven’t acknowledged.
• Break-through — leaves the feed entirely and delivers via email, SMS,
  automated voice call, and/or push notification. This is what was formerly the
  standalone Broadcasts app.

Announcement and Must-Read share the same permission gate (the Who can post
Announcements & Must-Reads setting). Break-through is a separate permission
(Broadcasts create). This lets you grant “may announce but may not broadcast” —
a common configuration. In context rides the same permission as Break-through:
whoever may create broadcasts may place a message.

Placements. A placed message is booked into an operational moment — a
slot — rather than a channel. Each slot belongs to the app that owns the
screen and comes with its own rules: one placement per screen, tied to the
object on that screen (this shift’s date and site, this open punch, this
person’s enrollment window), dismissible by the reader, and always time-boxed
(90 days at most). The slots shipped today:

Slot	App	Where the reader sees it
Shift detail	Shifts & Scheduling	On the shift they are about to work, below the shift facts
Shift card	Shifts & Scheduling	A one-line marker on the shift in their Shifts list (off by default — an admin switches it on)
After clock-in	Time & Attendance	On the Time & Attendance screen while they are clocked in
Benefits overview	Benefits	On their Benefits page, beside the enrollment window

Critical broadcasts never use a slot — they break through everywhere, as today.

Three communicator faces. Beyond the employee feed, Communications provides
three admin/communicator surfaces:

• Plan — a calendar showing every scheduled comm across types, plus an Idea
  Bank, campaigns, and an annual communications plan.
• Compose — the unified composer, an AI Writer, a Comms Grader, and
  newsletter authoring with a block-based editor.
• Measure — cross-channel analytics: reach, read-through, and
  acknowledgement tracking on a single ledger. Pick any must-read or break-through
  and see an audit-grade roster (acknowledged vs. pending) with segment-level
  breakdowns and a compliance CSV export. A Placements table lists every
  placed message with Shown in context (people who saw the card on the
  surface — deduplicated per person per day, never page loads), Opened,
  Dismissed, Acknowledged and the median time to acknowledge.

Acknowledgements. Must-reads and break-throughs share a single immutable
acknowledgement ledger. Once a person acknowledges, the record cannot be edited
or deleted — it is an audit row. The Measure face reports on both types
identically, so you track one outstanding list instead of reconciling two systems.

Audiences. A shared audience primitive that targets all delivery — feed posts,
break-throughs, and newsletters. Audiences compose existing recipient groups with
set operations (union, intersection, or “everyone”). Once defined, the same
audience is reusable across every comm type.

Content hierarchy. The feed is organized into All, Unread, Must-read
and Pinned tabs, so posts that need action are not lost among everyday ones.
With Organize the feed into tabs off, the feed is one list, newest first, with featured posts on top. Personalisation (following a topic) only changes when
a post surfaces, never whether it does.

4. Running it

Featuring a time-sensitive notice

Open a published post’s Post actions → Feature notice to choose its start, end,
and order among featured notices. An optional audience narrows the feature to
people who already have access to the post. Use Preview audience before saving.
Admins, Communications app-admins, and authorized communicators can manage features.

During its window, the notice leads All Posts and carries a Featured label
with its expiry on desktop and mobile. On the mobile landing page, features lead
within their existing sections. Stop featuring ends the placement early;
unpublishing the post also ends it. Personal pins and acknowledgment requirements
stay independent, and featuring sends no extra notification.

Sending a break-through

1. Open Compose and select the Break-through tier.
2. Write the message and choose channels: email, SMS, and/or voice are individually
   togglable. In-app delivery is always on.
3. Choose a delivery window: Immediate, On shift only (delivers only to
   employees currently on shift), or Next shift start (holds until the
   recipient’s shift begins).
4. Select an audience, then publish or schedule for a future date.
5. Track delivery and acknowledgement from Measure or from the break-through’s
   stats page.

Break-throughs support recurrence (daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly). A
break-through can also carry a placement:
the Where else it appears card on that tier is optional (“Nowhere else” by
default), and a picked slot rides alongside the normal delivery.

Placing a message where people will see it

1. Open Compose and select the In context tier.
2. Write the title and message — the title is the card’s headline on the surface,
   the message sits under it.
3. Under Where it appears, pick the slot. For a shift or clock-in slot you can
   narrow to specific sites (a region includes every site under it) and set the
   window — From / Until (a placement always ends). For Benefits, choose
   whether it shows only while an enrollment window is open for the person.
4. Optionally set the button label (defaults to “Details”), tick Require
   acknowledgment (adds an Acknowledge button on the surface; acknowledged
   messages leave it, and the message keeps an Inbox row so reminders work), or
   Also notify people (adds normal in-app + push delivery).
5. Select the audience and press Place it. The flash names the slot and the
   window.

Readers who are in the audience and whose screen qualifies see the card; anyone
else sees nothing. Dismiss hides it for that person; acknowledging (when required)
does the same and writes the usual acknowledgement record.

Publishing a newsletter

1. Go to Newsletters and create a Publication (the recurring series).
   Assign an owner, an audience, and optionally a slug for a public archive page.
2. Create an Issue (a single edition). The block editor supports six static
   block types (Text, Image, Divider, Hero banner, Callout, Button) and eight
   dynamic block types that pull live data from other apps — such as recent
   recognitions, new hires, open shifts, or upcoming events.
3. Preview, then Send or Schedule. Dynamic blocks are frozen at send time
   so every recipient sees the same snapshot.
4. Newsletter issues can optionally generate an AI podcast (a spoken-audio version)
   and cross-post to LinkedIn.

Managing campaigns

A campaign is a multi-touch wrapper that groups comms items (feed posts,
break-throughs, newsletter issues) under a shared goal. Set KPI targets (opens,
clicks, acknowledgements) and track actuals from the campaign’s detail page.

Reviewing approvals

When approval workflows are enabled, communicators submit content for review
before publishing. Reviewers see a pending queue under Operate → Approvals.
Workflows can gate five surface types: emergency alerts, broadcasts, newsletter
issues, feed announcements, and feed must-reads. Each workflow defines one or
more approval steps with a role requirement. Admins always bypass approval gates.

Using the Idea Bank

Ideas capture communication topics before they are scheduled. An idea can be
promoted to a campaign or a scheduled comm. The AI Planning Assistant can suggest
ideas, tracked with an AI suggested badge so you can measure how many AI ideas
actually ship.

5. Settings

Settings are under the app’s Settings pages, grouped into sections. Key
settings with real effects:

Content & Composer

Setting	Default	What it changes
Organize the feed into tabs	On	Shows All, Unread, Must-read and Pinned tabs. Off shows one list, newest first, with featured posts on top
Enable Update composer	On	Shows the Update (post) option in the composer
Enable Question composer	On	Shows the Question option in the composer
Enable Quick Poll composer	On	Shows the Quick Poll option in the composer
Who can post to Everyone	Admins and Leadership	Who can address the entire company
Who can post Announcements & Must-Reads	Admins and Leadership	Governs both tiers. Off removes both from the composer for everyone
Must-Read default due date (days after sending)	30 days	The due date a Must-Read gets when it is sent without one. From Compose, the post then keeps asking, marked overdue, for the days chosen under After the due date (7 unless the author changes it); sent any other way, it stops asking at the due date
Automated acknowledgement reminders	On	Sends reminders to people who haven’t acknowledged a must-read
Escalate unacknowledged Must-Reads to managers	On	After a configurable window, notifies each pending employee’s manager
Allow editing posts, polls, questions & comments	On	Whether authors and Communications admins can edit a published post (any time, until people acknowledge it), and authors their comments (for 15 minutes)
Comments enabled	On	Gates new comment writes; existing comments remain visible

AI Features

Setting	Default	What it changes
Tag posts with topics automatically	Off	Classifies published posts and assigns topics automatically
Suggest past answers to new questions	Off	Surfaces previously verified answers on new Question posts
Send new questions to experts	Off	Notifies up to 3 subject-matter experts on the topic 30 minutes after a Question is posted. Only questions with a topic are sent, and none once a suggested answer was accepted or an answer was marked correct
Summarize long discussions	Off	Generates a summary card at the bottom of long threads
Translate posts for readers	Off	Lets employees read a post in their own language
Spot signals in posts and comments	Off	Classifies posts into Risk, Issue, Idea, Question, Decision, Action Item, and Sentiment signals

Modules (Plan/Compose/Measure toggles)

Setting	Default	What it changes
Enable Calendar (Plan)	On	Shows the communications calendar
Enable Compose Picker	On	Shows the Compose button
Enable Idea Bank + AI Planning Assistant	On	Shows the Ideas section
Enable AI Writer	On	Shows the AI Writer drafting surface
Enable Comms Grader	On	Shows the readability and tone grader
Enable Newsletters	On	Gates the entire newsletter subsystem
Enable Campaigns	On	Shows the Campaigns section
Enable Audiences	On	Shows the Audiences section
Enable Approval Workflows	Off	Gates the approval workflow subsystem
Enable Comms Triggers	On for new organizations (organizations that already had Communications when triggers were introduced keep it off until an admin turns it on)	Gates event-driven automated triggers
Enable Analytics (Measure)	On	Shows the cross-channel analytics face

Placement slots

Setting	Default	What it changes
Shift detail	On	Offers the shift-detail slot in the composer and renders placed cards on shift pages
Shift card	Off	Offers the list-marker slot; a title-only line on qualifying shift cards in the Shifts list and the My Shifts calendar
After clock-in	On	Offers the clock-in slot; renders on the Time & Attendance screen while clocked in
Benefits overview	On	Offers the Benefits slot; renders on the Benefits page

A slot whose app is not turned on for the organisation stays unavailable however
it is set here. Switching a slot off removes its option from the composer and
stops rendering its cards immediately; placed messages are kept and come back
when it is switched on again.

Break-through

Setting	Default	What it changes
AI assists (rewrite, brief, channel copy)	On	AI features in the break-through composer
Weekly AI-drafted check-in for silent tenants	Off	When no broadcast is published in a week, creates an AI-written check-in as a draft for your review. It never sends on its own
Default Channels	Email	Channels pre-ticked when someone starts a broadcast, and used for broadcasts created without a channel choice (the mobile app, Ask AI). In-app and push always go; SMS and voice cost money per recipient

How many notifications each person gets in a week is no longer set here: it is
the weekly notification limit under Settings → General → Notifications.

Notifications & Media

Setting	Default	What it changes
Notification default	Realtime	How Announcements reach people who have not chosen their own notification setting: as each is published, or in an hourly or daily digest
Limit how many notifications each person gets in a week	Off	Past the limit, messages still arrive in News and the person’s Inbox but send no push, text or email. Authors see who is past it before they send
Notifications per person, each week	5	The limit, counted Monday to Sunday across every Communications message that notifies (3, 4, 5, 7 or 10)
Track email opens and clicks	Off	Records opens and clicks on Communications emails so Measure shows reach beyond the app
Media uploads	On	Whether employees can attach files
GIF uploads	Off	Whether the GIF picker is available
Link preview cards	On	Whether pasted URLs expand into preview cards

6. More help

• Communications FAQ — specific setup and operating questions, including
  acknowledgement tracking, content moderation, expert routing, and troubleshooting.
• Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Communications from these articles.