Purpose of this Article: This solution article provides step-by-step instructions on how to update your employee's emergency contact preferences.

Audience: HR Professionals with access to update Personal Data

Author: Alexis Cruz Eusebio

Version: 1.0

Last Update: 3/27/2026



In response to the October 2025 California Senate Bill 294 (SB 294) - The Workplace Know Your Rights Act, the Controller's Systems Division, in partnership with the Department of Human Resources, delivered an enhancement to indicate an employee's preference for contacting their emergency contact in case the employee is detained at their worksite or arrested during work hours. This solution article provides step-by-step instructions for Human Resources Professionals to update this information on behalf of their employees via the new SB294 Designate Contact Admin page.


Instructions on how to update your employee's emergency contact preferences:


Step 1. From your Workforce Administration homepage, click the Job Data tile.





Step 2. From your Job Data Navigation Collection, expand the Personal Information folder, select the SB294 Designate Contact Admin page, and search for the employee to update their emergency contact preference.






Step 3. Under the Arrest or Detention column, click the checkbox on or off for one or more of the employee's contacts based on the employee's contact preference, and save your changes. 


Notes:

  • A selected box indicates that the employee does want you to notify their emergency contact if they are arrested or detained at their worksite or during work hours
  • A deselected box indicates that the employee does not want you to notify their emergency contact if they are arrested or detained at their worksite or during work hours
  • Contact preference for Death, Medical Emergencies, and Absent w/o Official Leave are selected by default and cannot be deselected




This concludes the instructions to update your employee's emergency contact preference.



What else you need to know:


The SB294 Designate Contact Admin page is solely for indicating an employee's preference for notifying their emergency contact based on the emergency event. Use the existing Emergency Contact page to select the primary contact, or to add and delete contacts.



Questions?


For questions about SB 294 compliance, please reach out to Adam Young from DHR's Policy Division at [email protected].  Contact [email protected] for all other questions.