Manager Requests in UKG were never supposed to feel this complex. When Amanda, an HR Director at a healthcare organization, reviewed the volume of transfer, promotion, and bonus requests submitted by managers each month, she saw an unfortunate pattern: long forms, inconsistent data, and duplicate manual entry into UKG. Despite their best efforts to streamline processes using Service Now and People Assist (PA), the system still felt disconnected. Manager Requests in UKG—something as routine as a shift transfer or bonus approval—had become a productivity bottleneck.

Her team had implemented UKG more than a decade ago. Back then, integrating ServiceNow with UKG made sense—it offered flexibility and allowed them to automate some requests. But over the years, expectations changed. Managers wanted faster, simpler tools. HR wanted fewer errors and less re-entry. Leadership wanted insights in real-time.

The Reality of Efficiency

Amanda’s team decided it was time to move some requests into People Assist to reduce reliance on third-party tools. However, they quickly hit limitations.

The PA forms became long and difficult to use. While they could build a promotion or transfer request form, it required a lot of setup—and worse, it still required HR staff to re-enter the data into UKG afterward. Customizing drop-down fields or hiding irrelevant choices (like bonus reasons) proved difficult. Filtering required deep configuration, and most options applied system-wide rather than to specific roles or locations.

Meanwhile, the MSS module offered some improvements but lacked the ability to hide irrelevant choices. For instance, managers would see every possible bonus reason—even if only a few applied to their department.

Amanda had hoped to simplify Manager Requests in UKG, but the new setup wasn’t much better than the old one.

The Turning Point

That’s when Amanda’s IT partner introduced her to CloudApper hrPad—a no-code, tablet-based interface that works alongside UKG. It wasn’t designed to replace PA or MSS. Instead, it acted as a visual and functional extension—customizable enough to fit the organization’s unique workflows but fully integrated with UKG’s back end.

They started with one goal: make manager-initiated requests easier.

With hrPad, Amanda’s team built role-specific request forms that pre-filled employee data, automatically filtered choices like bonus types or eligible positions, and dynamically changed based on location, department, or shift. A transfer request for one facility looked entirely different from one at another. No training needed. No confusion.

They also created an approval workflow that routed requests to the right HR contacts and synced approved data directly back into UKG—eliminating double entry entirely.

The Result

In just a few weeks, the organization saw major improvements:

  • Time Savings: Managers submitted requests in under half the time it previously took.
  • Fewer Errors: With smart filtering and pre-filled fields, form accuracy jumped.
  • HR Productivity: Re-entry was gone. HR teams could focus on reviewing instead of duplicating data.
  • Better User Experience: Managers appreciated that they only saw relevant options. It felt like a system built for them—not forced on them.

Amanda finally achieved what she had hoped for: Manager Requests in UKG that felt modern, smart, and easy to manage.

The Broader Impact

What Amanda experienced isn’t unique. Organizations across healthcare, manufacturing, and retail are realizing that while UKG offers a solid core platform, manager-facing workflows need more flexibility. The ability to hide, rename, pre-fill, and automate actions—without depending on developers or IT—is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s essential.

CloudApper hrPad doesn’t compete with UKG—it expands it. By sitting on top of existing modules and enhancing the way requests are captured and routed, it empowers managers and HR teams to do more, with less friction.

Conclusion

Amanda’s story is a reminder that digital transformation doesn’t always mean replacing systems—it means enhancing them to work smarter. For organizations looking to simplify Manager Requests in UKG, CloudApper hrPad offers a clear path forward: fewer steps, fewer errors, and a better experience for everyone involved.