Create a Custom Field

You can use "Custom Fields" to get additional information about your employees beyond the standard default fields provided in Humi. 

Some examples of "Custom Fields" you can create are: 

• License plate numbers
• T-shirt/Uniform sizes 
• "About Me" section  
• Licenses that are required
• Allergies

There are endless ways to use this feature to get customized information about your employees so you can ensure they are being taken care of, keep them engaged and build great relationships.

If you're here but wondering, "what's a custom field?" Check out this article on Custom Fields Overview. 

You must have the "Manage Fields" permission to create custom fields (all admins will have this access.)

You can create a custom field in two ways: 

• Through the "Employee Importer" 
• Directly through the "Custom Fields" page in the "Settings" module

Creating additional fields using the "Employee Importer" will appear on this page; otherwise, you can follow the steps outlined below to create a "Custom Field."

How to create a "Custom Field"

1. In "Settings," click the "Custom Field" dropdown and choose "Fields."
2. Click the "+ Create Custom Field" button on the top right-hand corner. 
3. Fill in the information you require for the custom field.

How to fill in the "Field Information" for your new "Custom Field"

We'll explain how to fill in each field so you won't have to guess! Most of this is intuitive, so we know you got this, but for some extra clarity, read on.  

Name

The "Name" field is essentially the "Custom Field" title you are creating. 

For example, if we wanted to create a custom field for an "About Me" section, we would put "About Me" in the "Name" field.

The screenshot below is an example of how an "About Me" custom field would look on the employee's profile.

Placeholder Text

Placeholder text is displayed in light grey as an example for employees to help them understand what type of information to fill in.

The screenshot below shows an example of what a placeholder text looks like to the person filling out the fields:

Staying with our "About Me" example, in the "Name" field, we would write "About Me," and in the "Placeholder" field, we would write: "Tell us a little about yourself." 

Field Type

Next, you'll choose the "Field Type." The "Field Type" is how you'd like your employee to answer the custom field. 

There are a bunch of options to choose from, so we've explained each in more detail below: 

Short Text - This is a free text field. This option is excellent for responses that only need a short amount of text. You can also set a minimum and maximum character count for this option.

You can use a short text field for questions like, "What is your preferred name?"

Number - Use this field for answers that require only numbers like years, length, quantity, etc. You can also set a minimum and maximum character count for this option. 

Please note that many "numbers" aren't a good fit for the number field since they are a sequence of digits and not a "number." 

A few common examples are:

• Employee numbers (they may need to start with a zero)
• Serial numbers (these may include letters)
• Phone numbers (this is a series of digits but may have hyphens, spaces or brackets for formatting)

The above examples should use the "short text" and not "number."

Date - Use this if the field requires a date. 

Ex: Creating a custom field for CPR license expiration date

Yes/No - Use this field when the answer only requires a "Yes" or "No" response.

We told you it was intuitive!

Dropdown - Use this option if you would like to create limited options for your employee to choose from. 

For example, if you used this field type for t-shirt sizing, the dropdown options could be XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL. 

Another bonus is that all answers can only be from the dropdown options, making exporting information more manageable and precise.

If you made a mistake or changed your mind about a dropdown option, you can quickly delete dropdown options by clicking "X Remove" beside the line option.

After you've entered the dropdown answer options, you can rearrange them by clicking on the six dots and dragging them to the desired placement in the dropdown. 

Note: If there is a typo or you need to make a change after you've created and assigned the custom field, you can still edit it. When you make any edit, it will automatically adjust on all profiles with this custom field. 

Long Text - Long text is the field to use when you need an answer that calls for more extended responses because it allows your employees to write paragraphs with line breaks. 

Let's continue using the "About Me" example. In this case, the best field type to choose would be the "Long Text" option. 

Field Group

After choosing the appropriate "Field Type," the next step is selecting the "Field Group." The "Field Group" is where the custom field will appear on the employee profile. You can choose from your existing field groups or create a new one by clicking "+ Add New Group" from the dropdown options.

Field Encryption

Field encryption gives you another level of protection for keeping your sensitive information safe, especially if you have curious coworkers with wandering eyes. 

If you choose "Yes," the employee's answer to this custom field will be blurred out on the employee profile and will only show on-screen when your mouse is hovering directly over it.

Mandatory Field

As indicated by the name, this field is best for signalling if a question needs to be answered or not. 

If you want the answer to be mandatory for employees to fill in, choose yes and if it's optional choose, "No."

Roles with the permission to edit and view

Assign the admin or managers who will have permission to edit and view the answers in the custom field on the employee's profile. 

Typically, the only roles with this permission type are admins and the employee, but if you would like managers or a custom role to have access, you can choose them on this dropdown menu.

Reminder: If the custom field you create is located on the employee profile within the "Personal" tab, everyone can view this.

Custom Fields located within the "Job & Pay" tab on the employee profile will only be visible to admins, managers to whom that employee is a direct report (not all managers in the system) and any custom roles that have been given access to that employee. 

Roles with permission to only view 

Choose the role types that are only allowed to view this information here. 

Typically, managers have view-only permissions, but you can choose multiple roles from the dropdown menu.

Allow this field to be added to Documents

If you check this box, it will include the custom field in the list of available fields in the document template editor. 

Please note: Newly added fields will only be visible when creating a new signing template and not when editing existing ones. 

Once you've filled in all of the fields, follow these steps:

1. Click the "Save and Assign" button in the bottom right corner. 
2. Select the employees you would like to assign this custom field to on the following page.
3. Click the "Select Employees" button and choose the employees to assign this custom field. You can Filter by departments, positions, status, offices, employment type, or use the search bar to find specific employees.
4. Click the "Assign "button once you've chosen the employees you would like to assign this custom field to, click the "Assign" button.
5. You will then see a list of the assigned employees. If you forgot to add an employee from this page, you could click the "Add/Remove Employees" button in the top-right corner and add them.

Once you have assigned all desired employees to this custom field, you can click "Done."

Congrats! Your newly created custom field will now show up on the assigned employees' profiles, and they can fill it in as required.  

Before you go…

When creating a custom field, a task/notification will not be sent to the assigned employees. Instead, you would need to email them to notify them of the custom field and ask them to fill it out as required. 

As you create more custom fields, you may want to reorder them within the "Field Group." You can do this!

Click here to learn how to "Reorder Custom Fields within Field Groups." 

  Discover More About Custom Fields

• Reorder Custom Fields and Field Groups
• Custom Fields Overview
• Create Custom Field Groups
• Who can View/Edit/Fill in Custom Fields?