Here are our product releases for Week 14 of 2026, which includes May 11 - 14, 2026.

AI

• Hero AI can now answer natural language questions about company announcements, helping users quickly retrieve, filter, and summarise important internal updates without manually scrolling through the Company Feed. (Released: 11 May 2026)

Automations

• Custom Forms now support configurable submission notifications, allowing organisations to notify specific employees or shared inboxes and choose whether alerts are sent after every submission or only once all recipients have responded. This helps reduce missed submissions and manual follow-up. (Released: 12 May 2026, Global forms users)

Digital Onboarding

• Added a welcome video and downloadable guide to the onboarding journey, plus a new payroll responsibilities and deadlines step so new NZ organisations can better understand their setup journey and formally acknowledge payroll obligations before completing onboarding. (Released: 13 May 2026, Auto-provisioned ANZ organisations)

HR Rostering & Timesheets

• Admins can now restrict employees from submitting unavailability during blackout periods, while managers retain the ability to override the restriction when needed. This helps organisations reduce staffing gaps during peak periods. (Released: 7 May 2026, organisations using work sites and position rostering)
• Improved roster performance by loading shifts in batches as managers scroll, significantly reducing initial load times for large schedules and creating a smoother rostering experience. (Released: 11 May 2026, organisations using work sites and position rostering)
• Managers can now choose a work type when creating an open shift before it is claimed, reducing follow-up edits and helping ensure shifts and payroll are more accurate from the start. (Released: 13 May 2026, organisations using work sites and position rostering)
• Organisations can now connect Lightspeed (O-series) POS to automatically sync sales data into rostering every 15 minutes, making it easier to forecast demand and align staffing with business activity. (Released: 13 May 2026, organisations using work sites and position rostering)
• Organisations can now prevent employees and managers from creating future-dated timesheets through a new setting, helping keep timesheet submissions cleaner and more accurate before approval and payroll processing. (Released: 13 May 2026, all organisations)
• Employees can now clock in and out at the Hero Time Clock kiosk using facial recognition, creating a faster, hands-free experience and reducing the need to search for names or enter PINs. Additional kiosk improvements also support automatic PIN generation, optional photo capture, branded colour display, and clock-out notes. (Released: 11 May 2026, admins, managers, and employees in W&P organisations using HTC Kiosk)

ITOps & Security

• Payroll users can now change their app passcode directly within the EH Work App instead of logging out and back in, bringing the payroll mobile experience into line with HR users. (Released: 11 May 2026, Payroll EH Work users)
• Updated the EH Work App reset password flow with clearer platform labels and automatic routing for single-platform users, reducing confusion and helping users recover access more easily. (Released: 11 May 2026, EH Work users)
• Users who lose access to both their account email and two-factor authentication can now complete a secure self-service recovery flow, including verification of a new email address, reducing manual intervention and improving security. (Released: 13 May 2026, users going through the Employment Hero CX supported Account Recovery flow)

Leave

• Independent contractors can now record unavailability through a dedicated self-service workflow instead of using employee leave, while managers can view contractor unavailability alongside employee leave for easier scheduling and oversight. (Released: 15 May 2026, contractors, managers, admins)

Performance Management

• Hero AI now has access to both upcoming and past 1:1 meeting information, helping users prepare for meetings, review past discussion points, summarise notes, and follow up on action items more easily. (Released: 29 April 2026 and 6 May 2026)
• The 9-Box Talent Grid now has its own dedicated page with synced filters, direct scoring actions, CSV exports, and improved empty states, making talent review easier to use and more consistent across the platform. (Released: 11 May 2026, Platinum, Plus, Unlimited, Elite)
• Chat now supports voice notes across web and mobile, allowing users to record, review, and send audio messages in one-to-one or group chats for faster communication on the go. (Released: 11 May 2026, Employment Unlimited + Chat add-on customers)
• Chat has been enhanced with richer message context and usability improvements, including read receipt details, reaction insights, member lists, in-app camera on mobile, thread notifications on web, and a refreshed web interface. (Released: 11 May 2026, Employment Unlimited + Chat add-on customers)
• Hero AI can now answer natural language questions about announcements in the Company Feed, helping users quickly find, summarise, and review important company communications. (Released: 11 May 2026)
• Admins can now mark approved requisitions as filled or reopen them later, helping keep active hiring lists focused on roles that still need action while retaining visibility of historical records through filters. (Released: 11 May 2026, Platinum, Plus, Unlimited, Elite)
• The Shoutout Report has been standardised with a more consistent interface, synchronised filtering, new trend charts, easier exports, and dashboard pinning to make recognition reporting more reliable and easier to analyse. (Released: 12 May 2026, Global, Premium, Platinum, Plus, Unlimited, Engage, Elite)

Platform Experience

• The mobile Home screen now surfaces additional employee quicklinks, including Certifications, Documents, and HR Policies, helping employees reach commonly used areas faster without extra navigation. (Released: 11 May 2026, HR organisations)

Recruitment

• ATS system emails sent to candidates can now automatically use a company’s own branding, while recruiters can customise automated messages and use AI assistance to draft or improve email content. This creates a more professional and flexible candidate communication experience. (Released: 13 May 2026, recruiters and organisation admins using the ATS / Recruitment module)
• Recruiters can now upload up to 25 candidate CVs at once into the job pipeline, review parsed information before candidates are created, and fix missing details in bulk, making high-volume candidate intake faster and more accurate. (Released: 11 May 2026, all users)
• Recruiters can now see where search keywords matched within a candidate profile, including skills, work experience, education, and certifications, helping them assess relevance faster without manually scanning each profile. (Released: 12 May 2026, Recruiters)
• Recruiters can now attach a Position Description document to jobs in ATS and optionally publish it on the public careers page, giving candidates clearer job information and helping improve hiring criteria quality. (Released: 27 March 2026 and 12 May 2026, Recruiters and candidates)
• Candidate LinkedIn and GitHub profile links now appear directly in ATS profiles when detected from resumes or added manually, giving recruiters faster access to relevant professional and technical background information. (Released: 12 May 2026, Recruiters)
• Eligible EH Jobs candidates can now sign up directly to Hero Foundation without needing a partner referral, with a simpler onboarding flow, upfront eligibility checks, and a clearer success experience that encourages immediate job browsing. (Released: 13 May 2026, EH Jobs candidates)
• New job seekers on the Employment Hero Jobs site now use a password-first sign-up and sign-in flow aligned with the broader Employment Hero platform, making account creation more secure and more familiar while reducing friction. (Released: 13 May 2026, Job Seekers)