Zoho People 5.0 Administrator Guide
What is Zoho People 5.0?
See the overview video of Zoho People 5.0 below:
Quick Navigation
Getting Started
Services
- ⬡ Leave (Time off)
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ Attendance
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ Shifts
Settings | Operations - ⬡ Timesheet
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ Performance
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ OKR
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ Onboarding
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ Offboarding
- Settings | Operations | User Service
- ⬡ Employee Engagement
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ Files
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ Compensation
Settings | Operations | User Service - ⬡ HR Help Desk
Settings | Operations | Glossary | User Service - ⬡ LMS
LMS Settings | Course Settings | Courses | Glossary | Operations
⬡ Benefits (For U.S)
Settings | Operations | User Service | Glossary - ⬡ Zoho People AI
- ⬡ Reports
- ⬡ Marketplace
- ⬡ Developer Space
- ⬡ Data Administration
Common Settings
- ⬡ Extending Service in Zoho People
- ⬡ Automation
Workflow | Email Alerts | Field Updates | Checklist and Tasks | Webhooks | Custom Functions | E-Sign Flow | Custom Schedulers | Email Schedulers | Absent Scheduler in Attendance Service | Timesheet Scheduler | Compensatory off Scheduler in Leave Service - ⬡ Templates
Email Templates | Letter Templates | Mail Merge Templates - ⬡ Setting Up Permissions
- ⬡ Setting Up Approvals
- ⬡ Adding Administrators
Service Specific Administrators | Administrators for Settings & Operations | Administrator Role Users
New in Zoho People 5.0
- ⬡ New Home Tab
My Space | Team Space | Organization Space - ⬡ New Settings
- ⬡ New Operations
- ⬡ E-Sign Templates
- ⬡ Appraisal Templates in Performance
- ⬡ Survey Templates
- ⬡ Custom Widgets
- ⬡ Compensation
- ⬡ Policy Documents
- ⬡ Career History
- ⬡ Sandbox
- ⬡ HR Process
- ⬡ Administrators for Settings & Operations
Latest Updates
Introducing Zia: AI HR Assistant
Get answers, complete HR tasks, and access information faster with Zia.
- Get instant answers to HR-related queries using natural language.
- Get workforce insights with reports, analytics, charts, summaries, and key trends.
- Quickly find HR information, FAQs, and policy details without searching through documents.
- Perform routine actions like approvals, reminders, and updates with ease.
- Receive step-by-step guidance for navigation and configuration within Zoho People.
- Interact through chat or voice for a seamless experience across web, mobile app, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.
- Benefit from secure, role-based access ensuring data privacy and compliance.
Introducing OKR in Zoho People
OKR service in Zoho People helps you define, align, and track goals in a clear and measurable way across teams and employees.
- Turn organizational goals into measurable outcomes using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
- Create and align objectives across the organization, departments, locations, and employees to ensure consistency.
- Track progress through measurable key results and regular check-ins.
- Improve accountability through clear goal ownership and continuous tracking.
- Use OKRs as an evaluation parameter in performance reviews for more objective and goal-focused assessments.
Attendance metrics in performance review
Attendance metrics can now be included in performance reviews, giving reviewers a clear view of employee attendance patterns and supporting more informed evaluations.
Request courses in LMS
Employees can submit requests for courses not listed in the LMS catalog. These requests are reviewed by LMS administrators for mapping or creation of new courses.
Permission change tracking in activity logs
You can now view a detailed history of permission changes, including who made the change, when it was made, and which users or roles were affected.
Custom button and scheduler logs
Gain better visibility into your automations by tracking custom button actions and scheduler executions with detailed logs. Access detailed execution records in Settings > Service > Automation > Workflow and Custom Button Logs.
Enhanced attendance deviation alerts
Employees now receive attendance deviation alerts in addition to reporting managers. New notifications for insufficient working hours and core working hour deviations provide better visibility into attendance and work hour compliance.
Remote work regularization control
You can now enable an option to allow attendance regularization for remote workdays only when the corresponding remote work request is approved.
Avoid double penalty for attendance deviations on the same day
You can now choose to consider only the highest attendance deviation penalty for a day, preventing multiple deductions when both grace period and strict mode policies are enabled.
Leave gallery templates for Italy, France, Chile, Brazil, and Malaysia
Leave gallery now includes preconfigured leave policy templates for Italy, France, Chile, Brazil, and Malaysia, designed to align with region-specific regulations and leave requirements.
LMS training sessions now sync with Outlook calendar
Training sessions in Zoho People's LMS can now be automatically synced with Microsoft Outlook Calendar. Trainers and enrolled learners can view upcoming sessions directly in Outlook, and any session updates are synchronised automatically.
E-signature support for offer and appointment letters
Offer and appointment letters can now be sent for e-signature directly from Zoho People. Configure multiple recipients, assign signing or review actions, set deadlines, and send reminders to streamline document signing.
Offer and appointment letter management
Enhance onboarding with offer and appointment letter management. Create customized offer and appointment letters using mail merge templates, send them digitally, track responses, and manage the entire journey from offer rollout and candidate to employee transition—all from a single place.
Key features
- Create multiple templates for different roles, regions, and hiring scenarios
- Generate customized offer and appointment letters with compensation and joining details using mail merge templates
- Send offer and appointment letters digitally and track acceptance, rejection, and expiry status
LOP reversal for past pay periods
Automatically add or remove LOP entries from past payrolls based on attendance updates.
Auto-reverse sandwiched absences
Automatically revert sandwich absences when associated absences are converted into attendance entries.
Auto-delete captured kiosk images
A new preference option is now available to automatically delete captured kiosk images immediately after verification
Enhanced remote work management
Remote work requests now support audit history, editing during approval, a one-year request summary, and restrictions on raising requests on specific weekdays based on configured settings.
Pay period criteria in approvals and automation
You can now use 'Pay Period' as a condition in approvals and workflows to trigger rules for current, past, or future pay periods.
Learning plan outcomes with approval settings
Set up outcomes for learning plan completion and automatically update a learner’s designation, department, skills, location, or group. The enhancement also introduces approval settings for learning plan outcomes with support for both single and multiple conditions.
LMS course activity log for configuration tracking
Track all changes made to course configurations with the course activity log. View additions, removals, and setting updates along with details of the user who performed each action.
Recurrence comparison report for survey questions
Compare response rates and average scores for individual questions across recurring survey instances using the recurrence comparison report.
Designation-based attendance policies
Configure attendance policies based on employee designation to enable more precise policy enforcement.
Track employee work location using Zoho People mobile App
Gain better visibility into on-site employee attendance by tracking work locations through Zoho People mobile app. This enables effective workforce monitoring.
Attendance overtime approval
Enable approval workflows to validate and track approved overtime hours. Use schedulers to automatically submit overtime for approval at defined intervals, reducing manual effort.
Leave cancellation flexibility across Pay Periods
Provide employees the ability to cancel leave requests for current and past pay periods.
LOP summary on activities and dashboard
Employees can now view a consolidated Loss of Pay (LOP) summary in the dashboard and activities, providing clear visibility into total, paid, and unpaid leave for the pay period.
Restrict marking attendance on approved leave dates
You can now restrict employees from marking attendance on approved leave days to maintain consistent attendance and leave records.
Bulk import performance appraisal ratings
Import employee ratings and comments for ongoing appraisal cycles to reduce manual effort and speed up reviews.
Restrict 'Case Priority' field in HR Help Desk
You can now disable the case priority field in HR Help Desk for a simpler case management experience.
New daily, hourly and monthly pay schedule support
Configure compensation in daily, hourly, monthly, or annual formats supporting multiple markets like the U.S., Japan, and more.
Track changes to course configuration with ease
Stay in control with a detailed, real-time record of every change made to course configurations. From additions and removals to updates across settings, the Activity Log clearly shows what changed and who made it—bringing transparency and accountability to your LMS.
Extension settings widget
Manage extension settings through a simple, dedicated interface. Define preferences, control features, and update configurations easily without any code changes.
Physical signature support in onboarding documents
Enable candidates to manually sign onboarding documents and upload the signed copies, ensuring flexibility for offline or handwritten signatures.
Consolidated admin permissions view
View a unified summary of admin permissions assigned to users. Check access across Settings and Data (Operations) permissions for better visibility and control.
Introducing accessibility controls in Zoho People
Zoho People now includes built-in accessibility controls to make the platform more inclusive and easier to navigate. Enable features that improve usability for users with visual, hearing, and mobility needs, helping your teams work comfortably and efficiently.
SharePoint integration for Zoho People
Connect your Zoho People organization with Microsoft SharePoint to securely backup Zoho People data directly to your SharePoint folder.
Note: This feature is enabled on request. Contact support@zohopeople.com to enable it for your organization.
Organisation files expiry reminder
Set up automated reminders to notify administrators in advance about organization file expiry.
Continuous review data access for custom admins
Configure custom administrators to view and manage continuous review data.
Enhanced remote work policy
Allow employees to switch to remote work on the same day without approval after an office check-in.
Restrict repeating time log descriptions
Employees cannot use the same time log description more than once within a month, ensuring more accurate timesheet records.
Extend leave requests
Extend existing leave requests directly without cancelling and submitting a new request. Employees, reporting managers, and approvers can perform this action based on permission.
Enhanced location tracking
Automatically check out employees and notify their reporting managers or specific users when an employee’s location is detected outside the geo-restricted range.
Automatic absence to leave conversion notification
Notify employees and their reporting manager when absence is automatically converted to leave at the end of the pay period.
Bulk import survey questions
Survey questions can be added in bulk by importing them into the Question Pool. You can import Single, Multiple, Date, Star, Comment, and NPS question types.
Audit logs for payroll integration settings
Payroll setting changes for Zoho Payroll, Greythr, Paybooks, and Xero are now logged in the activity logs, giving admins better visibility and traceability.
Note: This feature is supported through the Zoho Sign integration in Zoho People.
Skip or reschedule workflow execution
Yearly recurring date-based workflow events can now automatically skipped or rescheduled when they fall on weekends or selected days.
Enhanced manual data sync to Zoho Projects
Quickly sync timesheet data from Zoho Projects to Zoho People by selecting a custom start time.
Limit time log description characters
Set minimum and maximum character limits for time log descriptions when the description is marked as mandatory.
Enhanced attendance overtime
Overtime and extended overtime rules can be configured for bi-monthly, quarterly, and yearly periods, in addition to existing rules.
Enhanced sandwich leave policy
Control the inclusion or exclusion of weekends and holidays based on employee leave duration with the sandwich leave policy.
Custom holiday reminders
You can now edit the reminder email templates sent for each holiday. This enables an option to include holiday-specific messages and greetings to the reminder emails.
Enable or disable course feedback
Course administrators can now enable or disable feedback for specific courses from the 'Course Settings' page.
Bulk time log submission preferences
Configure bulk time log submission options to allow employees to submit time logs for a day, week, month, or semi-monthly.
Manage timesheet methods
A new Methods tab in the timesheet service lets administrators enable or disable timesheet methods such as projects, clients, timesheets, job schedule, billing, and breaks based on organizational timesheet service requirements.
Capture paid and unpaid breaks in timesheets
Configure breaks in the timesheet service and allow employees to log break time in their time logs. Breaks can be logged manually or automatically based on break preferences.
Manual survey reminders
Survey owners can now trigger reminders manually for users who haven’t completed a survey. This ensures timely follow-ups and higher response rates.
WhatsApp integration enhancement
Multi-channel notification in WhatsApp
You can now create multiple WhatsApp channels and enable specific notifications for each. This keeps communication structured and helps streamline notifications.
Support for multiple notification types
You can now create multiple WhatsApp channels and enable specific notifications for each. This keeps communication structured and helps streamline notifications.
Note: Notifications are sent only if the corresponding email notifications are enabled.
Remote work policy
Configure remote work policy to limit remote work days per week or month for your employees, ensuring consistent workforce availability and effective remote work management.
Retrigger candidate or employee onboarding
You can now retrigger onboarding to resend the latest flow to candidates or employees who have already started the process. A notification will be sent to complete onboarding again.
Employee consent for organization files
Organizations can now request employee consent for specific important documents. For documents marked as mandatory, access to Zoho People will be restricted if consent is not provided by the specified deadline.
Enhanced rebranded landing page customization
Now customize your rebranded Zoho People landing page. Customization options include custom background image, button colors, custom favicon, font color and more!
Retry custom function with edit options
Failed custom functions can now be retriggered from workflow logs, with the option to edit the Record ID or Form ID before rerunning.
View recurring survey schedules and reports in a click
Click the icon on the recurring survey to view all ongoing and completed schedules, along with their response rates.
Export timesheet data in bulk
Export timesheet data of upto 6 months (184 days) in a single file.
Enhanced sandwich leave policy
Choose whether to include or exclude weekends and holidays within a leave period for leave calculation. Leave can be calculated using calendar days or business days, offering greater flexibility in leave tracking.
LOP push enhancement for Zoho Payroll, Paybooks, and GreytHR
Loss of Pay can now be pushed for all pay cycle types, including role-based, location-based, and employment type-based, making payroll management more flexible.
Auto pause continuous review cycles
Continuous review cycles will be paused automatically if no self or manager reviews are submitted for three consecutive cycles. To restart, you must resume the continuous review.
Enhanced SFTP authentication
SFTP connections now support SSH key authentication in addition to passwords, giving users a more secure and flexible setup.
Slack integration for Zoho People
Integrate Zoho People with Slack to perform HR actions directly within your Slack workspace. Receive real-time approval notifications, check in/out, apply for leave, log time, and manage requests, all within Slack.
Generate employee IDs during candidate conversion
Employee IDs can now be generated automatically when converting a candidate to an employee or employee profile, making ID assignment faster and easier.
Early check-in and late check-out adjustment
Automatically round employees’ early or late check-ins and check-outs to the shift start or end time. Total work hours can also be rounded up to the shift duration.
Enhanced shift change permissions
Set permissions to control who can change past shift schedules within the current pay period and calendar year.
Retrigger onboarding flow
You can now retrigger onboarding for candidates or users whose onboarding is already in progress or completed, ensuring they follow the latest updates in your onboarding flow.
New "current salary" component added!
You can now use an employee’s current salary as a component in formula-based salary components, enabling smarter and more dynamic compensation calculations.
Custom course completion certificates
Course admins can now create custom course completion certificate templates, in addition to the system templates, for a course.
Reminders for due or overdue courses
Configure reminders to automatically notify users when a course is due or overdue for completion, helping ensure timely course completion.
Pulse survey with daily recurrence
Pulse surveys can now be scheduled to repeat daily, helping you collect continuous employee feedback with ease.
Import group members
Admin and group admin users can now directly import members into a group, making group management faster and easier.
Enhanced workflow logs
You can now retry custom functions from the workflow logs page. You can also update execution scripts, view detailed failure reasons, - all from the same place.
Continuous review report export with module ratings
You can now export a detailed report of the Continuous Review summary, including module-wise ratings, in a structured format for easy analysis.
Continuous review – review publish permission
Control who can publish continuous review final ratings. By default, only Admins have permission.
Support for multiple payroll application integration
Integrate multiple payroll applications within a single Zoho People account, with setup preferences based on location or employee type.
Contact support@zohopeople.com to enable multiple payroll integration options for your organization.
Send salary revision letter via email with password protection
Enable the option to send salary revision letters via email with password protection upon publishing the revision letter.
Restrict check-out source to match check-in source
Users can now be restricted to check out only from the same source they used for check-in (Web, Mobile App, or Kiosk), ensuring accurate attendance tracking.
Restrict breaks during core working hours
You can now restrict employees from recording manual or automatic breaks in the system during their shift's core working hours.
Cover image permission
Control employee access to cover image updates. Admins can allow employees to use the system cover image or upload a personalized custom cover image, based on the permissions provided.
Continuous review report export with module ratings
You can now export a detailed report of the Continuous Review summary, including module-wise ratings, in a structured format for easy analysis.
Continuous review – review publish permission
Control who can publish continuous review final ratings. By default, only Admins have permission.
Support for multiple payroll application integration
Integrate multiple payroll applications within a single Zoho People account, with setup preferences based on location or employee type.
Contact support@zohopeople.com to enable multiple payroll integration options for your organization.
Send salary revision letter via email with password protection
Enable the option to send salary revision letters via email with password protection upon publishing the revision letter.
Restrict check-out source to match check-in source
Users can now be restricted to check out only from the same source they used for check-in (Web, Mobile App, or Kiosk), ensuring accurate attendance tracking.
Restrict breaks during core working hours
You can now restrict employees from recording manual or automatic breaks in the system during their shift's core working hours.
Cover image permission
Control employee access to cover image updates. Admins can allow employees to use the system cover image or upload a personalized custom cover image, based on the permissions provided.