Custom fields let you add your own questions to every staff profile, such as equality and diversity information, preferred pronouns or uniform size. This guide explains how to set them up, how to fill them in and who can see the answers.
At a glance
You create the fields once in Settings → Custom fields, and they appear on every staff profile in your company.
Answers are stored on a new Custom fields tab on each staff profile.
Only people with the Manage custom fields permission can set up fields, or see and edit the answers. This keeps sensitive information private.
Some fields can be filled in automatically from information Florence already holds. For example, an age band is worked out from a person's date of birth.
Every time someone views or changes a staff member's answers, it's recorded on that person's Audit tab.
Before you start: get the permission to add custom fields
To give someone access:
Go to the staff member's permissions (you'll need permission to manage permissions yourself).
Under Managing your team, turn on Manage custom fields.
1. Creating a custom field
Go to Settings → Custom fields.
Click Add custom field.
Fill in the panel that opens:
Field name: the question or label staff will see, e.g. Ethnicity or Uniform size.
Source: choose Custom to type or pick answers yourself. Or choose an automatic source such as Date of birth (see section 2).
Field type (custom fields only):
Single select: a dropdown with a list of options to choose from. Use this for things like ethnicity or gender.
Text: a free-text box. You can set a Maximum length if you want to keep answers short.
Include "Prefer not to say": switch this on to add a Prefer not to say choice. We recommend it for any equality and diversity question.
For Single select fields, add your Options (see below).
Click Add field.
The field now appears on every staff profile.
Setting up options for a dropdown
For each option you can set:
Option: the answer shown in the dropdown, e.g. White – British.
Group (optional): a heading to group related options under. For example, you could group several options under Asian or Asian British. Groups make long lists much easier to scan.
Asks for a written answer: switch this on for options like Other or Prefer to self-describe. When someone picks that option, a Please describe box appears so they can type their own answer.
2. Fields that fill themselves in (automatic sources)
Some information can be worked out from details already on the staff profile. At the moment you can do this with Date of birth, which places each staff member into an age band.
When you choose Date of birth as the source:
Florence suggests a starting set of bands: 18–25, 26–35, 36–45, 46–55, 56–65 and 66+. You can change these to suit your reporting.
Each band has a From age and To age. Leave To age blank on the last band to mean "and over".
Each staff member is placed in the first band their age falls into. This updates by itself as people have birthdays, so there's nothing to keep up to date.
Managers can't type in or change the answer, because it always comes from the date of birth. If no date of birth is recorded, the field shows Not specified.
If you switch on Include "Prefer not to say", a manager can choose Prefer not to say for someone who doesn't want their age band recorded. This replaces the calculated band.
On the staff profile, hover over an automatic field to see where its answer comes from (e.g. Calculated from Date of birth).
3. Filling in custom fields on a staff profile
Open the staff member's profile.
Click the Custom fields tab. You'll only see this tab if your company has at least one custom field and you have the Manage custom fields permission.
Fill in or update the answers.
For dropdowns, pick an option. If the option asks for a written answer, fill in the Please describe box.
Leave a field blank if you don't know the answer yet.
Click Save.
4. Editing a custom field
From Settings → Custom fields, click the pencil icon next to a field and make your changes. Then click Save changes.
To protect the answers you've already collected, some things can't be changed once a field exists:
You can change | You can't change |
The field name | The source (Custom or an automatic source) |
Whether "Prefer not to say" is offered | The field type (Single select or Text) |
Options that nobody has picked yet | The wording of an option that staff have already picked |
Option groups and age bands |
|
Add new options |
|
Want to reword an option that's already been used? Archive the old option and add a new one with the wording you want. This stops existing answers from quietly changing meaning. Florence will tell you if an option can't be renamed.
Archiving an option
Archived options are hidden from the dropdown so nobody can pick them in future. Any staff member who already has that answer keeps it, and it shows on their profile as Archived option: [name].
If you need a field to work differently (e.g. switch from Text to Single select), archive it and create a new one.
5. Archiving a custom field
If you no longer need a field:
Go to Settings → Custom fields.
Click the bin icon next to the field.
Confirm by clicking Archive field.
The field is hidden from all staff profiles, but existing answers are kept.
Archived fields stay listed on the Settings → Custom fields page. They're greyed out and marked Archived, so you always have a record of every field you've used. You can't edit an archived field. If you archive one by mistake, contact our support team and they can restore it.
6. Privacy and the audit trail
Custom fields are built for sensitive information, so there are extra safeguards:
Restricted access: only staff with the Manage custom fields permission can see answers.
Every view is logged: each time someone opens a staff member's Custom fields tab, it's recorded on that person's Audit tab as Equality and diversity data, along with who viewed it and when.
Every change is logged: the Audit tab also shows when answers were added or changed, and by whom. The answers themselves aren't shown in the audit log.
Deleted when a person is anonymised: if a staff member's data is anonymised (for example, after a data deletion request), their custom field answers are permanently deleted.
Frequently asked questions
Can staff fill in their own answers? Not at the moment. Answers are entered by managers with the Manage custom fields permission, on the staff profile.
Why can't I see the Custom fields tab on a profile? Either you don't have the Manage custom fields permission, or your company hasn't set up any custom fields yet.
I'm an admin. Why can't I see Custom fields in Settings? The permission isn't switched on automatically for anyone, admins included. Ask someone who can manage permissions to turn on Manage custom fields for you.
Why can't I rename an option? At least one staff member has already picked it. Archive the option and add a new one instead, so existing answers don't change meaning.
Someone's age band says "Not specified". Why? There's no date of birth on their profile. Add their date of birth and the age band will fill in automatically.
Can I get an archived field back? Yes. Contact support and they can restore it, along with all its answers.