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 configure the default anonymization rules for countries without a local rule. It contains the Enable anonymization checkbox, where you set the minimum number of workers required in a population group – All, Male, or Female – for average compensation values to be displayed in a generated pay information letter. This applies to situations where individual compensation could be identified in small worker groups.
To prevent such disclosure, enable anonymization and enter the required value in the Population threshold field. If any population group falls below this threshold, compensation averages will be replaced with a placeholder.
You can also customize the replacement text in the Anonymization placeholder text field (maximum 50 characters).
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.
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:
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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 Anonymization threshold value – 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 population headcount for each group against the applicable threshold.
The threshold 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 threshold and placeholder text are used.
If no local rule exists for that country, the global threshold and placeholder text apply.
In both cases, if any population group falls below the configured threshold, the placeholder text replaces the corresponding average compensation value in the generated letter.
Consider this example: The global rule has a population threshold of 3 and placeholder text "Confidential." France has a local rule with a 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.