Home (a.k.a Dashboard) is the welcome screen displayed after a user logs into the Employee Self-Service application (ESS). The left side panel displays the menu options available in ESS based on the district setup under System>Configuration and a User's role(s). The Home screen contains various widgets including:

Announcement Panel

Users with the Announcement Board Manager Role can create/post announcements that will appear on the Home Screen. Users may click on the announcement link to read the full details.

Custom Links

Users with Custom Link Manager Role have the ability to include web links that will appear on the Home Screen (i.e. district website, etc). This may also be accessed by clicking on in the upper right corner of the application.

Pending Workflow Tasks

For users with an approval role, their employees outstanding leave requests will be displayed under the Pending Workflow Tasks Leave Request Approval grid which includes employee name, position, leave date(s), length of absence, category and leave balance (current leave balance for that leave type, subtracting any approved leaves). At the top of the grid, workflow task counters will be displayed for Leave Requests and Timesheets. Counters indicate how many Leave Requests and Timesheets need approval. Click to view full details of each leave request and to approve or reject the leave. You may also mass approve or reject leave requests at the home screen by selecting the leave requests you wish to mass approve/reject (or use the top box to select all).

For users with the Timesheet Approver role, their employees' submitted timesheets will be displayed under the Pending Workflows Tasks Timesheet Approval grid, which includes the employee name, period begin date, period end date, and period description. Click to view full details of each timesheet to edit, approve, or reject it. You may also mass approve or reject timesheets at the home screen by selecting the timesheets you wish to mass approve/reject (or use the top box to select all).

For users with the Admin, District Manager or Leave Manager role, they will see a Resend Leave Request Data area under Pending Workflow Tasks. The area will only ever include leave requests that failed to complete somewhere in the workflow process (usually due to technical issues… i.e., if a leave request is processing final approval and the ESS system goes down). The workflow for this leave request will be halted and will require manual intervention to re-send the workflow. Users with the above mentioned roles can view the leave request and click ‘Yes’ to attempt to re-send the data to the next step of the workflow process.

For users with the Admin, District Manager or Timesheet Manager role, they will see a Resend Timesheet Data area under Pending Workflow Tasks. The area will only ever include timesheets that failed to complete somewhere in the workflow process (usually due to technical issues… i.e., if a timesheet is processing final approval and ESS system goes down). The workflow for this request will be halted and will require manual intervention to re-send the workflow. Users with the above mentioned roles can view the timesheet request and click ‘Yes’ to attempt to re-send the data to the next step of the workflow process.

Notifications

In the application, all users can find a notification bell located at the top right corner. This will display the number of unread notifications and will be refreshed every minute. The following conditions will display in-app notifications:
- Leave Request Approval Flow
  - Creation will notify supervisors and leave managers.
  - Approval and Rejection will notify the original user, supervisors, and leave managers.
  - Cancel will notify supervisors and leave managers.
- Timesheet Workflow
  - Submit will notify the supervisor of the position.
  - Approval and Rejection will notify the original user.
  - Cancelling/Withdrawing does not currently notify anyone.
- Data Change Workflow
  - Creating a data change request will notify Data Change Managers.
  - Approval and Rejection will notify the original user.
- Password Expiration
  - Based on the Password Expiration Configuration set in ESS, the user will receive an email and a message with the notification bell
- Date Code Notifications
  - Date codes will be based on the active date codes and the expiration date in Core → Date Codes USPS; the employee will receive a notification letting them know the Date Code is expiring. The message they will receive is on the Date Code Description column in ESS Date Code setup, if this is missing, the message received will only say ‘date code will expire’ . This particular notification will not contain an associated link and the employee will be returned to the home page once they are done reading it.

User Profile

At the bottom of the left menu panel is the username of the person currently logged into ESS. To view or edit your user profile, click on the drop-down arrow to the right of your username and click on ‘Profile.’

In our example below, we are viewing a user’s profile record. Only certain fields may be edited. The fields that cannot be edited are being populated from the User account information stored in Users>Users.

The following fields may be edited. Click Save to save any updates you have made.

Default Leave Request Phone Number: The phone number entered will be automatically displayed in the phone number field when creating a leave request.
Dark Mode: By default, the application displays in light mode. If you prefer a darker screen, select the Dark Mode checkbox.
Opt Out of Leave Request Emails? If you do not wish to receive an email every time an action is taken on your leave request (through the workflow process), checkmark this box to opt out of leave request emails.
Opt Out of Timesheet Emails? If you do not wish to receive an email every time an action is taken on your timesheet (through the workflow process), checkmark this box to opt out of timesheet emails.
Set Default Leave Start Time/Set Default Leave Stop Time: User can enter a default starting and ending time for their leave requests. Every time the user creates a new leave request, it will auto-fill these times for the start and ending times with the default time setting.
Change Password: Allows the user to change their ESS password. Active Directory users cannot change their ESS password. Contact your AD provider.
W2 Acknowledgement: If the W2 Configuration under the System menu is set up to ‘Allow Digital-Only W2s’, the ‘W2 Acknowledgement’ button is displayed on each ESS user’s Profile. By clicking on this button, the user will see either the default or customized Legal Notification that was set up. The employee may enter their digital signature, today’s date, and the decision to either Consent or Revoke Consent to receive only Digital W2s via the drop-down. The employee would then click Submit.

Once the agreement is accepted in ESS, the employee’s ‘Digital Only W2’ will be checkmarked and the agreement timestamp will be updated under their USPS Employee record.

Users have the ability to print the acknowledgement for their records. Once they have submitted their decision, the Print Acknowledgement button will be enabled and they can print their acknowledgement. The format of the acknowledgement will be in PDF. The employee can revoke the agreement and print a new form once the change has been submitted.

This is a sample of the Acknowledgement to receive the W2 in a digital format:

This is a sample of the Acknowledgement having revoked consent to receive the W2 in a digital format:

A step-by-step checklist on how to configure W2 Digital Delivery can be found here.