How HR Teams use Secure Custom Fields

HR teams use Jira to manage everything from hiring pipelines and onboarding to performance reviews and employee exits. These workflows often involve collaboration with hiring managers, IT, legal, and finance, sometimes all inside the same Jira issue.

But when those issues contain compensation details, performance ratings, or internal HR comments, visibility becomes a problem. Jira’s native permissions don’t allow field-level access control, so everyone sees everything.

That’s why HR teams turn to Secure Custom Fields for Jira. It helps protect sensitive employee data while keeping workflows efficient and collaborative.

The Challenge: Confidential employee data in shared workflows

Let’s say you’re managing a candidate’s hiring process in Jira. You might collaborate with:

• Recruiters who need access to interview feedback
• Hiring managers who need to see onboarding tasks
• IT staff managing device provisioning
• Legal or finance teams reviewing contract terms

But none of them should see:

• The candidate’s salary expectations
• HR’s internal justification notes
• Medical disclosures or termination details

Jira only lets you restrict access at the issue or project level, not for specific fields inside the issue. That’s where Secure Custom Fields for Jira comes in.

Why Field-Level visibility matters for HR

When it comes to employee data, privacy, trust, and compliance are non-negotiable.

HR teams need to:

• Share issues without exposing sensitive fields
• Control who can see performance ratings, compensation packages, or medical information
• Keep everything in Jira without relying on emails or private spreadsheets
• Prove compliance with internal data governance or regulations like GDPR

Secure Custom Fields for Jira allows you to assign field visibility based on specific users, groups, or project roles; So only the right people see the right data.

How HR Teams use Secure Custom Fields

Step 1: Identify which HR fields require protection

Start by reviewing the fields in your HR workflows that contain sensitive or confidential employee information.

Examples include:

• Expected Salary
• Final Compensation Package
• HR Comments
• Performance Score
• Promotion Decision
• Medical Disclosure
• Termination Reason

Ask yourself:

• Who needs access to this field i.e. who truly needs to see this information?
• Who should never see it, even if they’re assigned to the issue?

This step helps you map out where visibility needs to be tightened.

Step 2: Set role-based visibility for each field

Secure Custom Fields for Jira lets you restrict field access by:

• Project roles (e.g., HRBP, Recruiter, Manager)
• Groups (e.g., Legal, Talent Acquisition)
• Specific users

This allows all stakeholders to work in the same Jira issue, but only see the information relevant to them.

Example field visibility setup:

Step 3: Use secured custom fields to strengthen compliance and privacy controls

Employee data must be handled carefully, especially in regions governed by strict privacy laws like GDPR, HIPAA, local labor and data protection laws, or internal policies.

Secure Custom Fields for Jira helps HR teams:

• Ensure sensitive fields are only seen by authorized users
• Reduce the risk of accidental disclosure
• Maintain clear access logs
• Simplify privacy audits and internal reviews

This protects both your employees and your organization from data mishandling risks.

💡 Bonus tip

Automate field visibility based on status or project progress

Pair Secure Custom Fields for Jira with Jira Automation to show or hide fields dynamically as workflows progress.

Examples:

• When a candidate moves to “Offer Extended,” reveal Compensation Package to Legal.
• When onboarding is marked “Complete,” hide IT Notes from general view
• When performance review status = “Finalized,” make Performance Score visible to the HRBP only.

Here’s a quick video walkthrough on how to set up Jira automation with secure custom fields:

These rules are easy to configure using Jira Automation, with no coding required. They ensure visibility evolves with the workflow, without manual errors.

TLDR

• Jira’s native permissions expose all fields to everyone with issue access
• Secure Custom Fields for Jira lets HR control field-level visibility
• Keep compensation and evaluations secure, even inside shared workflows
• Automate access changes as the process evolves
• Build smarter, safer HR workflows without slowing down hiring or onboarding

Ready to protect sensitive employee data in Jira?

Secure Custom Fields for Jira gives HR teams the power to manage sensitive workflows without sacrificing speed, visibility, or collaboration.

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