Welcome to HCM
AxisSynapse HCM is the workforce module — pay, time-off, benefits, equity, year-end tax forms, performance, learning, and the manager surfaces that bind them together. This guide is the orientation for every employee landing in HCM for the first time.
TL;DR — Open
/hcm/mefor your personal home. The Action Inbox at the top shows everything waiting on you (approvals, open enrollment, expiring documents). Ten cards below cover pay, time-off, benefits, learning, goals, and more. Managers also have/hcm/teamfor direct-report management.
The three audiences
| Field | What it does | Accepted values / default |
|---|---|---|
| Employee | Day-to-day self-service: pay stubs, time-off, benefits, learning, expenses, goals, career. | Home: /hcm/me. |
| Manager | Approvals, team analytics, 1:1 check-ins, calibration sessions. | Home: /hcm/team. Default scope is direct reports; toggle to full subtree as needed. |
| HR admin | Workspace-wide configuration: payroll runs, year-end transmission, benefits enrollment windows, comp bands, compliance reports. | Home: /hcm. Admin-only surfaces sit under the workspace nav rather than the self-service rail. |
What's in HCM
| Field | What it does | Accepted values / default |
|---|---|---|
| Pay & taxes | Pay slips, year-end forms (W-2 / 1099 / T4 / 1095-C), direct deposit, multi-state withholding. | Self-service for every employee; HR transmits to the IRS / SSA / CRA on a 4-eyes SoD. |
| Time-off | Requests + balances + FMLA / CFRA / NY-PFL / MA-PFML tracking + sabbaticals. | Accrual engine supports 6 methods + tenure tiers + max caps + waiting periods. |
| Benefits | Open enrollment, life-event mid-year change with documentation, FSA / HSA limits, COBRA, EDI 834 transmission. | Frozen IRS limits for 2025-2027; § 1.125-4 evidence chain with SHA-256 lock + HR 4-eyes. |
| Equity & total comp | Grants, vesting (4-yr cliff supported), § 83(b) helper, total-comp statements. | RSU / ISO / NSO / RSA. Board cosign on grant; mid-cycle adjustments tracked. |
| Performance & career | 1:1 check-ins, 360 feedback (anonymous, k-anon n<3 reveal block), pulse surveys, calibration, career framework + AI coach. | Lattice/15Five/Culture-Amp/Workday-Talent territory. |
| Learning | Course catalog, cmi5/xAPI runtime, badges, streaks, leaderboard, peer-authored courses. | Real LRS conformance (xAPI 1.0.3); not a glorified video player. |
| Recruiting | Requisitions, interview scorecards, EEOC-categorized rejection, Indeed-compatible job feed, AI rejection drafter. | Greenhouse / Lever territory. |
| Workforce intelligence | Org chart + matrix relationships + DEI funnel + workforce analytics dashboard. | Visier-territory; available to HCM admins. |
| Compliance | EEO-1, OFCCP AAP, ADA accommodations, I-9, year-end tax. US-federal-contractor ready. | Admin surfaces; auditor-friendly evidence exports. |
How a typical day starts
Sign in to your workspace
Use whichever sign-in your admin enabled — SSO, password, or passkey. See Sign in to your workspace.
Land on /hcm/me
Your HCM home greets you with the Action Inbox at the top. Items there are pending YOUR action — approvals to give, documents to sign, open enrollment to complete, 1:1 prep to do.
Take care of inbox items first
Clearing the inbox is the fastest path to the rest of your day being unblocked.
Then dive into a card
Pay stubs, time-off, benefits, learning — each card on the home deep-links into the matching self-service surface.
Trust and privacy posture
Three guarantees worth reading before you trust the workforce module with payroll, benefits, and PII:
- K-anonymity on DEI surfaces. No demographic aggregate is rendered until the group has at least the workspace's configured k-floor. See Privacy.
- AI surfaces anonymize PII before sending. Names, emails, account numbers, and dates of birth are stripped before any prompt reaches the AI gateway. The AI never sees raw payroll or banking detail.
- 4-eyes on irreversible actions. Payroll ACH transmit, year-end tax seal + transmit, equity grant cosign, calibration finalize, and account erasure all require two different admins before they commit.
Audit-trail backbone
Every HCM action that touches money, regulated identity data, or worker classification emits an audit code. The full catalogue is at Reference → Audit codes. Each walkthrough in this module lists the codes it emits + their severity so compliance teams know what to expect.
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