HR & Payroll Suite

The Human Resources add-on (₦5,000 per seat per month) transforms Deskpadi into a comprehensive people-management platform. It covers everything from employee records and attendance through to payroll, performance management, and offboarding — all tightly integrated with the core platform's roles, departments, and approval workflows.

Employee Directory

The Employee Directory is the single source of truth for every person in your organisation. Each employee record stores essential information that feeds into payroll, attendance, leave, and org-chart features.

What is stored

• •Full name, email address, and phone number.
• •Department and job title / role.
• •Employment start date and employment type (full-time, contract, intern).
• •Bank account details for payroll (encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM).
• •Emergency contact information.
• •Profile photo and any uploaded documents (offer letter, ID copies, certificates).

Managing employees

• •HR Admins can add new employees manually or import a batch via CSV.
• •Employee profiles can be updated at any time — changes are recorded in the audit trail.
• •Deactivated employees are soft-deleted and retained for 90 days before permanent removal.
• •Use filters to search by department, role, employment type, or start-date range.

Organisation Chart

The Org Chart provides a visual, interactive representation of your company's reporting-line hierarchy. It is built automatically from two fields on each user record: reportsToId (who this person reports to) and managedDepartments (which departments a manager oversees).

How the hierarchy works

• •Each employee can have one direct manager set via the reportsToId field.
• •Managers can oversee one or more departments through the managedDepartments list.
• •The chart renders top-down from the Super Admin or CEO node, branching into departments and teams.
• •Click any node to view the employee's profile, direct reports, and department assignments.

My Team view

Managers see a dedicated "My Team" section that shows only their direct reports and the departments they manage. This scoped view makes it easy to handle approvals, reviews, and attendance for your immediate team without navigating the full org chart.

Attendance Tracking

Attendance tracking records when employees start and end their workday. The system supports multiple modes and includes automated features to detect absences and anomalies.

Attendance mode

Attendance is controlled by the attendanceMode setting, configured by an Admin in Settings → Attendance. There are three modes:

• •DISABLED — Attendance tracking is turned off entirely. No clock-in/out buttons are shown. This is the default for new organisations.
• •SELF_SERVICE — Employees clock in and out manually from their dashboard. The system records timestamps and calculates hours worked.
• •DEVICE — Clock events are captured from a physical device (biometric reader or kiosk). The platform receives events via API integration.

Clock-in and clock-out

• •In SELF_SERVICE mode, employees see a prominent clock-in button on their dashboard.
• •Clicking it records the current time as the arrival time. A clock-out button replaces it.
• •Late arrivals are flagged automatically based on the configured start time and grace period.
• •Employees can add notes to explain late arrivals or early departures.

Absent sweep

Every day at 11:00 PM WAT, the system runs an automatic absent sweep. Any employee who did not clock in during the day — and is not on approved leave — is automatically marked as absent. This ensures attendance records are always complete without manual intervention.

Anomaly detection

The system monitors for unusual attendance patterns. If an employee is marked absent for three or more consecutive working days without approved leave, an anomaly alert is raised. HR Admins and the employee's direct manager receive a notification to investigate.

Weekly summary

Every Monday morning, managers receive an automated weekly attendance summary for their direct reports. The summary includes total hours worked, late arrivals, early departures, and absent days for the previous week.

Attendance policy settings

Admins can configure the following attendance policy parameters from Settings → Attendance:

• •Start time — The official start of the workday (e.g., 8:00 AM).
• •End time — The official end of the workday (e.g., 5:00 PM).
• •Grace period — Minutes after start time before an arrival is considered late (e.g., 15 minutes).
• •Half-day threshold — The number of hours below which a day is counted as a half-day rather than a full day (e.g., 4 hours).

Payroll

The Payroll module handles salary computation, statutory deductions, and pay-slip generation for Nigerian employees. It is designed around Nigerian tax and pension regulations.

Nigerian statutory deductions

The system automatically calculates the following deductions based on each employee's gross salary:

• •PAYE (Pay-As-You-Earn) — Income tax calculated using the graduated PAYE tax bands. The system applies the correct marginal rates and consolidation relief.
• •Pension — Employee contribution (8% of basic + housing + transport) and employer contribution (10%) under the Pension Reform Act.
• •NHF (National Housing Fund) — 2.5% of basic salary, contributed by employees earning above the threshold.
• •NSITF (Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund) — 1% employee and 1% employer contribution of gross earnings.

Salary structures

Define salary structures that break down gross pay into components: basic salary, housing allowance, transport allowance, utility allowance, and any custom components. Each component can be a fixed amount or a percentage of the gross. Salary structures can be assigned to individual employees or applied at the department level.

Running payroll

1. Navigate to Payroll → Run Payroll and select the pay period (month/year).
2. The system auto-populates all active employees with their salary structures.
3. Review the computed figures: gross pay, each deduction line, net pay.
4. Apply any ad-hoc adjustments (bonuses, deductions for unpaid leave, loan repayments).
5. Submit the payroll run for review by a Finance Officer or Super Admin.
6. Once approved, pay slips are generated and employees are notified.

Review and finalise

Payroll runs go through a two-step approval process. The preparer submits the run, and a reviewer (Finance Head or Super Admin) checks the figures before finalising. Once finalised, the payroll is locked and cannot be edited — any corrections must be made as adjustments in the next pay period.

OKR System

The Objectives and Key Results (OKR) system helps your organisation set, track, and measure goals at every level — from company-wide strategic objectives down to individual contributors.

Cycles

OKRs are organised into quarterly cycles. Each cycle progresses through a defined lifecycle:

• •DRAFT — The cycle is being set up. Objectives and key results can be created and edited freely.
• •ACTIVE — The cycle is in progress. Employees submit check-ins and update progress on their key results.
• •CLOSED — The cycle period has ended. No further check-ins are accepted. Managers begin scoring.
• •SCORED — Final scores have been submitted and the cycle is archived for reporting.

Objective levels

Objectives can be created at three levels, forming a cascading alignment:

• •COMPANY — Top-level strategic objectives set by leadership (e.g., "Expand into 3 new markets").
• •DEPARTMENT — Department-level objectives that contribute to company objectives (e.g., "Launch marketing campaigns in target markets").
• •INDIVIDUAL — Personal objectives that contribute to department objectives (e.g., "Create 5 localised ad creatives").

Key results

Each objective has one or more key results — measurable outcomes that indicate whether the objective is being achieved. Each key result has:

• •A target value (the goal) and a current value (actual progress).
• •A weight that determines how much it contributes to the objective's overall progress.
• •Progress is calculated as (current / target) × 100, weighted across all key results.

Check-ins

During an ACTIVE cycle, employees submit regular check-ins on their key results. Each check-in records the updated current value and includes a confidence level indicating how likely the employee believes they are to hit the target.

Auto-status

The system automatically assigns a status to each key result based on its progress relative to the elapsed time in the cycle:

• •BEHIND — Progress is significantly below the expected pace.
• •AT_RISK — Progress is slightly behind schedule and may not be met without intervention.
• •ON_TRACK — Progress is on pace to meet or exceed the target by cycle end.
• •COMPLETED — The key result has reached or exceeded its target value.

Finalization and scoring

When a cycle is closed, scoring begins from the bottom up. Individual contributors score their own key results, managers review and adjust scores for their reports, and department heads aggregate department-level results. Company objectives are scored last based on the roll-up of department scores.

Analytics

The OKR dashboard provides real-time analytics including completion rates by department, average scores across cycles, trending objectives, and alignment coverage (percentage of employees with at least one active objective).

Performance Reviews

Performance reviews provide a structured process for evaluating employee contributions over a defined period. Reviews can be run independently or integrated with the OKR system for data-driven assessments.

Review cycles

HR Admins create review cycles with a specified type and date range. Supported review types:

• •MID_YEAR — A mid-year checkpoint, typically covering January to June.
• •ANNUAL — A full-year review covering the entire calendar or fiscal year.
• •PROBATION — A review conducted at the end of an employee's probation period.

Goals, weights, and ratings

Each review cycle can include predefined goals or allow managers to set custom goals per employee. Goals are assigned weights so that more important objectives contribute more to the overall rating. Ratings use a configurable scale (e.g., 1–5 or 1–10).

Self-assessment and manager assessment

1. The employee completes a self-assessment, rating themselves on each goal and providing comments.
2. The manager reviews the self-assessment and submits their own ratings and feedback.
3. If there are significant discrepancies, a calibration discussion may be held.
4. The final rating is recorded and the review is marked as complete.

OKR integration

When the OKR module is active, review cycles can pull in the employee's OKR scores from the corresponding period. This gives managers objective, data-backed context when assessing performance. OKR scores appear alongside the review form for easy reference.

360° Feedback

The 360° Feedback module enables multi-directional feedback — from managers, peers, direct reports, and even external stakeholders. It gives employees a well-rounded view of their strengths and areas for development.

Feedback cycles

HR Admins create feedback cycles with a defined period and participant list. Each cycle specifies which employees are being reviewed and who is invited to provide feedback.

Anonymous option

Feedback cycles can be configured as anonymous, meaning the identity of feedback providers is hidden from the employee receiving the feedback. This encourages candid and honest responses. Managers and HR can still see who provided feedback for audit purposes.

Peer reviews

Peers are invited to rate the employee on predefined competencies and provide written comments. Responses are aggregated and presented as an average score per competency, along with anonymised comment summaries.

Onboarding

The Onboarding module streamlines the process of bringing new hires into your organisation. It ensures every new employee completes the same set of essential tasks before they are fully operational.

Checklist templates

HR Admins create onboarding checklist templates that define the tasks every new hire must complete. Templates can be department-specific or company-wide. Typical tasks include:

• •Complete employee profile and upload identification documents.
• •Read and acknowledge company policies (code of conduct, IT security policy).
• •Set up IT accounts (email, VPN, tool access).
• •Attend orientation sessions or complete onboarding training modules.
• •Meet with direct manager and team members.
• •Submit bank details for payroll setup.

Task tracking per new hire

When a new employee is onboarded, a checklist instance is created from the relevant template. HR and the employee's manager can track which tasks are complete, which are pending, and which are overdue. Automated reminders are sent for tasks that remain incomplete past their due date.

Offboarding

The Offboarding module ensures a smooth and compliant departure process when an employee leaves the organisation, whether through resignation, end of contract, or termination.

Clearance status

• •PENDING — The offboarding process has been initiated. Clearance tasks have been assigned to relevant departments.
• •IN_PROGRESS — Some departments have cleared the employee but others are still pending (e.g., waiting for asset return or IT access revocation).
• •CLEARED — All departments have confirmed clearance. The employee's final pay can be processed.

Exit interview

HR can schedule an exit interview and record the employee's feedback, reasons for leaving, and any suggestions for improvement. This data is stored for organisational insights and retention analysis.

Asset return

The system cross-references the employee's assigned assets (from the core Assets module) and creates a checklist of items to be returned. Each item is individually marked as returned, and discrepancies are flagged for follow-up.

IT access revocation

IT Admins receive a notification to revoke the departing employee's access to all systems — email, VPN, platform login, and any third-party tools. A confirmation checkbox ensures this step is not missed.

Final pay

Once clearance is complete, the Payroll module calculates the employee's final pay, including prorated salary, unused leave encashment, any outstanding loan balances, and applicable deductions.

Benefits Management

Track and manage employee benefits and entitlements. The Benefits module supports common Nigerian corporate benefit types.

• •HMO (Health Maintenance Organisation) — Assign HMO plans to employees, track coverage tiers (individual, family), and manage plan renewals.
• •Pension — Record pension fund administrator (PFA) details and RSA PIN numbers. Pension contributions are automatically calculated by the Payroll module.
• •Car allowance / company vehicle — Track vehicle assignments or car-scheme entitlements by grade level.
• •Housing allowance — Record housing benefit entitlements and any employer-provided accommodation arrangements.

HR Admins can define eligibility rules per benefit type based on employment type, grade level, or tenure. Benefits data is displayed on the employee profile and can be included in payroll calculations.

Staff Loans

The Staff Loans module allows organisations to offer salary loans to employees with structured monthly deduction schedules.

• •Employees submit loan requests specifying the amount and preferred repayment tenure.
• •The request goes through the standard approval workflow (manager → HR → Finance).
• •Once approved, the loan amount and repayment schedule are recorded.
• •Monthly deductions are automatically applied in the Payroll module until the loan is fully repaid.
• •Employees can view their outstanding balance, payment history, and remaining instalments from their profile.

Training & Certifications

Track employee training activities, professional certifications, and compliance-related qualifications. This module helps organisations ensure that mandatory certifications are always current.

• •Record training sessions with title, provider, date, and completion status.
• •Upload certification documents and set expiry dates.
• •Automated reminders are sent to employees and HR when a certification is approaching expiry.
• •Filter employees by certification status to identify compliance gaps.
• •Generate training reports showing completion rates by department.

Probation Reviews

Manage the probation period for new employees. The Probation module helps you schedule review checkpoints and record outcomes systematically.

• •Set a probation period length (e.g., 3 or 6 months) per employee or as a company-wide default.
• •Schedule one or more review checkpoints during the probation period.
• •At each checkpoint, the manager assesses the employee against predefined criteria.
• •Record the outcome: extend probation, confirm employment, or terminate.
• •Employees are notified of their probation status and any upcoming review dates.
• •Successful confirmation triggers an automatic update to the employee's employment status.

Surveys

The Surveys module enables HR teams to create and distribute company-wide surveys to gather employee feedback, measure engagement, and inform organisational decisions.

Question types

• •Multiple choice (single or multi-select).
• •Rating scale (e.g., 1–5 stars or 1–10).
• •Free-text response.
• •Yes/No.
• •Net Promoter Score (NPS) format.

Distribution and collection

• •Target a survey at the entire organisation, specific departments, or individual employees.
• •Set a response deadline and send automated reminders to non-respondents.
• •Responses can be anonymous or attributed, depending on the survey configuration.
• •View real-time response rates and aggregated results on the survey dashboard.

Performance Improvement Plans (PIP)

A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is a formal process to help underperforming employees improve within a defined timeframe. The PIP module provides structure and accountability.

• •Managers create a PIP with specific improvement goals, measurable milestones, and a timeline.
• •The PIP is shared with the employee and HR for visibility.
• •Regular check-in dates are scheduled for progress reviews.
• •At each milestone, the manager records whether the target was met, partially met, or missed.
• •If all milestones are met by the PIP end date, the plan is auto-closed with a successful outcome.
• •If milestones are consistently missed, the PIP outcome informs subsequent disciplinary or termination decisions.

Disciplinary Management

The Disciplinary module provides a structured, auditable process for handling employee misconduct or policy violations. It supports progressive discipline with full documentation.

Disciplinary actions

• •Query — A formal written query issued to an employee requesting an explanation for alleged misconduct. The employee submits a written response which is reviewed by HR and the manager.
• •Warning — A verbal or written warning issued after a query response is deemed unsatisfactory. Warnings are categorised (first warning, second warning, final warning) and tracked on the employee's record.
• •Suspension — Temporary removal from duties, with or without pay, pending investigation or as a disciplinary measure. The suspension period, pay status, and conditions are recorded.
• •Termination — Dismissal from the organisation. Termination triggers the offboarding workflow, including clearance, asset return, IT access revocation, and final pay calculation.

All disciplinary actions are recorded with dates, descriptions, supporting documents, and the outcome. This creates a complete audit trail that supports fair and consistent enforcement of company policies.