In just a few days, a new Kin will be released to beta. Our mission of the new tool is to speed up the time it takes you to get your work done. We don’t think you should be spending any more time in Kin (or any workplace software for that matter) than necessary. Kin’s new design is addressing that charge in quite a few ways.
If you’re interested in taking it for a spin, sign into Kin as you normally do and you can click over via the banner at the top of the page. All of your data is the same, regardless of which version of Kin you choose – there’s no migration or additional set up required.
Get your work done more quickly.
The most noticeable change you’ll see is that we’ve rebuilt Kin’s navigation. We’re no longer tucking features into ambiguous sections (such as “Company”), and the secondary navigation is neatly housed together with the primary navigation. There’s also a global create button in the upper-right corner to quickly create time off requests, reviews, and so on.
Upload and share files faster
One of Kin’s most valuable features, Files, got an overhaul to the way you upload, edit, and share documents. We streamlined the experience of uploading multiple files at once, and we improved the way you add capabilities to your documents, such as digital signatures.
Manage time off with better clarity
Time off is the most used feature in Kin, and we redesigned both the employee’s tool and those of the employer to improve insight into things like time off accruals and historical time off requests.
As for creating new time off policies, we’ve built in some best practices we recommend, such as the types of policies you should offer, and recommended allotments of time.
If you’ve ever been confused about your company’s accrual rates, there’s a helpful visualization of how your time off policies calculate balance increments.
Expect more frequent improvements
We built Kin from the ground up using Vue.js – it’s a huge improvement over the old Backbone.js app in terms of speed of product improvements and overall maintainability. This is all to say that we’re looking forward to speeding up delivery of some long overdue features and improvements.
Dozens of smaller improvements
The small improvements we’ve made around the app are too numerous to note here. You’ll see ’em sprinkled throughout the app though – time-off exports, for example, got a fresh approach. So did the controls you use to sort and filter your team’s data in the top bar of each page. Employee reviews are simpler to create in a one-off manner as well – a small step toward making reviews easier and more effective for you.
It’s in beta for a reason
We’ll be in beta for a short while which means you can switch between the new and old versions, if you’d like, while we wrap up some loose ends and polish the corners.
What’s most important for us during this beta period is your feedback; the new Kin is great, but it’s not finished. Your thoughts on how we’re doing will help us smooth out the rough edges we know the product still needs.
To get in contact with us, please either email us at TheTeam@KinHR.com or schedule a chat directly with Melissa in the lower right hand corner of your browser.