Announcements and the Requests Hub: Two Tools for a Calmer Inbox
Send news to the right people and keep resignation, remote work and leave requests in one list.
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HR work arrives in two directions. News goes out to the team. Requests come in from the team. When both run through email and chat, things get lost on the way.
FlyHR has a free tool for each direction: Announcements for news going out, and the Requests Hub for requests coming in. This post covers how both work and how to get the most from them.
Announcements
Announcements are news for everyone, a department or a designation. They show up for staff inside FlyHR, and the latest one sits on the HR dashboard next to headcount and the leave calendar.
Pick the Right Audience
The audience is the most important choice. Send too widely and people learn to ignore you. Send too narrowly and someone misses something they needed.
| Audience | Good for |
|---|---|
| Everyone | Holidays, office closures, policy changes |
| A department | Team schedules, process changes, local news |
| A designation | Role-specific updates, such as a change for all team leads |
This is where a clean structure pays off. If your departments and designations are tidy, targeting is easy.
Write Announcements People Read
- Lead with the change. “The office is closed on Friday” beats three lines of context.
- Say what to do. If people need to act, tell them how and by when.
- Keep it short. One topic per announcement.
- Use a clear title. It is what most people will read first.
If an announcement needs a reply, it should probably be a meeting. Announcements work best for news, not discussion.
The Requests Hub
The Requests Hub collects employee requests in one list. It covers three types:
- Resignation requests
- Remote work requests
- Leave requests
Instead of hunting through email for the resignation letter or the “can I work from home on Thursday?” message, HR sees them together, with their status.
Why One List Helps
A single list makes requests visible. You can see what is waiting, what was decided and what needs a follow-up. Nothing depends on one person’s inbox.
It also gives staff a clear place to ask. A remote work request made in the hub is on record. A request made in passing in a hallway is not.
Remote Work Requests
For hybrid teams, remote work requests are often the most frequent type. Agree on a simple rule for them, such as how much notice to give, and share it in an announcement. Then point every request to the hub.
Resignations
Resignations deserve care. Recording them in the hub keeps the date and the details in one place. When the person leaves, keep them on file as a leaver rather than deleting the record. You can reactivate them if they come back.
Using Both Together
The two tools work well in pairs:
- Announce a new remote work rule, then handle the requests in the hub
- Announce the holiday list, then let the leave requests flow in
- Announce a process change for a department, then track the questions that follow
Getting Started
Both tools are part of the free plugin. Send your first announcement to everyone, telling them where to make requests from now on. That one message does most of the change management for you.
For more on what staff can do on their own, read Employee Self-Service on WordPress. For the full list of free tools, visit the features page.
Category
Product UpdatesWritten by
Arif Hossain
Product Manager
Arif looks after the FlyHR roadmap, from leave policies to the mobile app. He writes about what is new and why it works the way it does.
