Beginning Oct. 21, HCM and employee portal users may notice several small changes to the user interface. 

Accessibility

Within the employee portal and HCM, the screen reader icon will be on the top bar’s left side, next to the favorites icon. 

The previous screen reader icon was on the right side of the top bar, next to the home icon. When clicked, it offered only the option to turn the screen reader mode on or off. 

The new screen reader icon offers three Accessibility options when clicked: Enable Screen Reader Mode, Keyboard Shortcuts and Accessibility Help, which details screen reader users’ options. 

Preferred Name 

For several years, CU System and most CU campus users have been able to add, modify or remove a preferred name within the employee portal. Currently, users see their legal name and preferred name displayed together in the portal. 

Starting Oct. 21, users with a preferred name will see only the preferred name displayed.   

Both values are stored within HCM, allowing HR staff to search by either name. An employee ID is still the best option to search by, but adding more criteria provides better results. Some search records will no longer have the single field “Name” with “contains” as the sole option. Instead, some search records will offer the option to search by either legal first name or preferred first name. 

BEFORE 

NOW 

Direct Deposit Security Features 

The 2024 upgrade provides increased security measures when a direct deposit account is viewed or updated. 

• All but the final four digits of account numbers are masked. For example, an account number 12345678 will be displayed as XXXX5678. 
• When a new direct deposit account is added, users will receive an alert within the employee portal in addition to a confirmation email. 

If a user designates a bank not in CU’s list, they will receive an alert message to contact Employee Services. 

W-2 

The update simplifies some navigation options on the W2 page. Instead of a link to select a different tax year, there is now a drop-down menu to select the tax year. Users can click the View PDF or View 1-2 Form buttons. 

Global Search 

Global Search, available in the top ribbon on all HCM-delivered pages, currently provides results with information about the source of each result. The new search results will provide more context about each specific result, which is helpful when searching a term used on multiple pages throughout HCM. 

Note: The upgrade will take place Sunday, Oct. 20, from 6 a.m. to midnight, during which time HCM will be unavailable. If you don’t see these changes in HCM, please clear your cache and turn off your popup blocker. 

Questions? 

Email questions and/or feedback to the HCM Community service center.