Kronos Hyperfinds - Something "sweet" within WFC Suite

Most of us have heard the saying "Where do you want to go today?” When authoring Hyperfind™ queries in Kronos Workforce Central™, I envision a revised saying: "What do you want to view tomorrow?" After designing them, that will allow your Workforce Central managers to get the sweet out of Reports and Genies using HFQs (Hyperfind Queries).

Primarily HFQs give you the ability to filter (and later re-use) information that is only vital to a particular job function. HFQs in Kronos are very similar to employee groups. You can filter employees based on a criteria set (think Autofilter™ if you are familiar with Microsoft Excel older versions). While similar to employee "groups", HFQs provide more options for filtering information.

In making decisions on the design of HFQs, I often find myself thinking where they can be used to a strategic business advantage in the Kronos suite. Managers in Workforce Central can enhance Genies & Reports using HFQs to filter the information. Users of the Workforce Timekeeper API, Kronos Connect™ interface designers, and users of Process Designer™ can also use HFQs.
Access to run a HFQ in Workforce Timekeeper can be designated as:

1. Personal (viewable only to the person logged in)
2. Ad Hoc or temporary (for the current logged in session)
3. Public (re-useable for all managers)

A simple example for a Public HFQ would show only employees who had over 40 hours for the past week. This could assist in determining scheduling needs for the next week or pay period.

How can payroll, power users, and IT (those cool SQL writers!) understand the creation language behind HFQs? The two tabs: Edit Condition and View Query! Edit Condition allows you to pick and choose criteria combinations that will get the needed results. View Query allows you to visibly see the SQL that will be used for your HFQ post editing conditions. The SQL from View Query can also be re-used for any custom reports and Connect. This eliminates the need to write SQL directly from scratch. I know some less experienced SQL users have had problems with complex table joins for instance (including myself!). When adjusting two of the HFQ query conditions via Edit Condition and using the View Query tab, you can see the query results and SELECT statement generated before your eyes. How cool is that? Now there is a way for power users to generate SQL that can be re-used in reports or even to troubleshoot existing queries.

Some general tips when creating HFQs:

1. Avoid HFQs that return too many employees and too much information.
2. When designing HFQs for the first time, assess whether you would like them to filter with or manager and employee groups. A combination of both works as well!
3. When creating HFQs based on labor account, avoid using wildcards if possible.
4. Follow some standard naming conventions. Some may already be in Workforce Timekeeper for other items. Typically, I try to name the HFQs for the intended grouping or filtering purpose.
5. Don't over-configure conditions or add to many HFQs! This especially holds true for Public ones. You do not want to scroll through a lot of names when running a report or selecting a Genie™. Also on Genies, remember they can be sorted by column, perhaps eliminating the need for some HFQs.
6. Duplicating a HFQ allows you to build templates from existing queries.
7. If you are live and are just starting to use HFQs, think of logging in as a manager or employee, what they see in the system and elements that could be useful to them for filtering data using Genies.

For more information on the default HFQs that come with the system, reference the Kronos System Administrators Guide for Workforce Central or the on-line help reference. For more information on creating HFQs, see the Kronos Power Users Guide.