Alerts & anonymization

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Alerts and anonymization are available under Workbench > Pay Transparency >  Alerts & Anonymization. Access to Workbench depends on your role within the platform. This feature is available for users with the Configuration, Compensation Admin, and Global Compensation Admin professional roles.

The Alerts & Anonymization page is the central location for configuring how PaySuite notifies users about pay information requests and how it handles data privacy in generated pay information letters. The page consists of three sections: Global alert configuration, Global anonymization configuration, and Local rule definition.

Global alert configuration

The Global alert configuration section defines default alert rules that apply to all countries that do not have a local rule configured. It contains two alert settings:

• Enable warning period, which highlights pay information requests that are approaching the resolution deadline.

• Enable overdue period, which points to requests that have exceeded the resolution deadline.

Enabling each setting displays a mandatory Number of days since request field, where you must specify how many days after request creation the alert is triggered.

Global anonymization configuration

In the Global anonymization configuration section, you can define the default anonymization rules for countries without a local rule. Anonymization prevents individual compensation from being identified in small worker groups by hiding average compensation values in generated pay information letters.

To configure global anonymization, proceed as follows:

1. Select the Enable anonymization checkbox.

2. Enter the minimum number of workers required for average compensation values to be displayed:

   • Worker category headcount threshold: the minimum number of workers in a worker category.

   • Gender headcount threshold: the minimum number of workers of a given gender within the worker category.

   If the worker category or a gender group falls below its threshold, its average compensation is replaced with a placeholder.

3. Optionally, enable Prevent indirect disclosure to also anonymize the population counts across genders when a group falls below its threshold. This prevents anonymized values from being calculated from the other figures in the letter.

Global alert configuration and Global anonymization configuration

Local rule definition

At the bottom of the page, the Local rule definition section allows you to configure alert and anonymization rules for specific countries when they differ from the global settings. You can define rules for one country, multiple countries, or all countries at once.

To add a local rule, click Add local rule. In a pop-window that will appear, you can configure:

• Location – one or more countries to which the rule applies; select them by checking boxes in the drop-down list.

• Warning period – number of days after which the approaching-deadline alert is displayed for workers in the selected countries.

• Overdue period – number of days after which the overdue alert is displayed for workers in the selected countries.

• Worker category headcount threshold and Gender headcount threshold – minimum number of workers in the worker category and in each gender group below which compensation averages are anonymized.

• Prevent indirect disclosure – whether population counts across genders are also anonymized when a group falls below its threshold.

• Anonymization threshold – minimum population group size below which compensation averages are anonymized.

• Anonymization placeholder – the text used to replace anonymized values in generated pay information letters.

To save your changes, click Confirm. Your rule will appear in the Local rule definition table. To Edit, Copy, or Delete a rule, click the three-dot icon on the right side of the table row and select the relevant action.

Local rule definition table with example rules

Rule precedence

Local rules always take precedence over global rules. The system applies the following logic when processing a pay information request:

• The system checks whether a local rule exists for the worker's country.

  • If a local rule exists, it is applied in full. Global values are completely ignored, even if the local rule only partially defines the settings.

  • If no local rule exists, the global rule is applied as the default baseline.

Disabling rules for a country

You can disable alerts and anonymization entirely for specific countries by leaving the corresponding values empty when creating a local rule. The system interprets empty values as follows:

• No Warning period value – no approaching-deadline alerts are triggered for that country.

• No Overdue period value – no overdue alerts are generated for that country.

• No threshold values – no anonymization is applied when generating letters for workers in that country.

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When you save a local rule without values, the system treats this rule as disabled for the selected countries. In the Local rule definition table, disabled settings display as Not enabled.

Impact on the Planner

Country-specific alert behavior

Because alert thresholds can differ per country depending on the worker's local configuration, pay information requests created on the same date may display different alert statuses in Planner > Pay Information. For instance, two requests submitted on the same day could show one as Overdue, another as Approaching deadline, and a third with no alert at all, if the workers' countries have different warning and overdue periods configured.

Requests created on the same date with different alerts based on local rule configurations

Country-specific anonymization in pay information letters

When generating a letter in response to a pay information request in accordance with the EU Pay Transparency Directive, the system computes counts and average amounts per worker category, gender, and compensation elements within the source data snapshot. If anonymization is enabled, it evaluates the headcount of the worker category and of each gender group within it against the applicable thresholds.

The thresholds, the Prevent indirect disclosure setting, and placeholder text that apply to a given letter depend on the worker's country:

• If the worker's country has a local anonymization rule, that rule's thresholds, Prevent indirect disclosure setting, and placeholder text are used.

• If no local rule exists for that country, the global thresholds, Prevent indirect disclosure setting, and placeholder text apply.

In both cases, if the worker category or a gender group falls below its configured threshold, the placeholder text replaces the corresponding average compensation value in the generated letter.

Consider this example: The global rule has a gender headcount threshold of 3 and placeholder text "Confidential." France has a local rule with a gender headcount threshold of 5 and placeholder text "FR-N/A." For a French worker, the system uses threshold 5 and placeholder "FR-N/A." For a worker in a country without a local rule, the system uses threshold 3 and placeholder "Confidential."

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For more about Pay Information in the Planner, see Submitting & managing pay information requests.