Managing Workflows

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

Understand workflow configurations.
Manage in-progress requests.
Identify advanced workflow settings.

Workflow Main Concepts

Workflows are part of the self service process. When an employee or manager makes a change, an approval is triggered when workflow derivation is configured. The role of the administrator is to ensure the completion of workflows and to manage workflow participation.

The approval processes in your production environment were created by your implementation consultants based on your specific business requirement, such as transactions for pay increases, job changes, and bonuses.

Workflows promote internal controls and communication by requiring employees to approve or receive notice of a change that is taking place.

Workflow participants or employees involved in the workflow process receive notification via email. If the system requires their approval, then a notification displays on the Home page and in their To-Do List when they log in to the system. Additionally, any user can see workflows where they are a participant or initiator on the Pending Request page of the employee files.

The administrator’s role is to ensure the completion of workflows and manage updates to workflow participants. Incorrect participants or stalled workflows can decrease efficiency in your HR operations. Common administrator tasks for workflows may include:

Manage workflow participants (includes approvers)
Set up and add dynamic roles to workflow
Configure and add workflow group
Manage workflow requests

Permissions

To manage workflows, you need the following administrator permissions:

Manage Foundation Objects
Manage Foundation Object Types
Manage Workflows

Additionally, to trigger workflows and business rules when importing data, set the appropriate permissions in Employee Central Import Settings.

Screenshot of the Employee Central Import Settings section

Navigate to Manage Permission Roles and click on Permissions. Choose Administrator Permissions and find the Employee Central Import Settings. Currently, workflows only trigger incremental data loads.

Workflow Administration

To manage workflows, use the action search to navigate to Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures. In the Search field, select Workflow Configuration. The second selector shows all of the workflows currently available in the instance.

In the figure below, you can see that for an Address Change, the approver is the Dynamic Group, Talent Approval, and two external email addresses will be cc’d when the process is finalized. To make changes, click Take Action and Make Correction on the top-right of the screen.

A screenshot shows Workflow Configuration selected in a Search box and Address Change in a second search box. The screen displays data about the workflow event.

Caution

Avoid modifying the workflow ID, because the IDs are referenced in business rules. If you need to make changes, only modify the workflow participants, description, or name.

Workflow Participants

There are three types of workflow participants:

Approvers: An approver actively participates in the workflow. An approver is required to move the request along by either approving or denying (which sends the request back) the request. Approvers can also post comments to the workflow.
Contributors: A contributor is a type of participant that can only add comments to the workflow. They do not actively approve or deny the request. Contributors also get notified of any progress.
CC Role: This is a passive participant. CC Roles get notified upon the completion of the request.

When adding approvers, there are eight areas to consider.

The first area is Approver Type. The Approver Type can be a Role, such as the manager of an employee, a Dynamic Role (a system determined approver based on employee data), or a Dynamic Group (a pool of employees wherein anyone can offer approval).

The second area allows you to select from a list of Roles, Dynamic Roles, or Dynamic groups (based on the first area).

The third area allows you to decide if the approver can edit the transaction. No Edit means that the approver cannot update the request. Edit with Route Change means that the approver can make changes and the system decides if a new event reason and workflow are necessary.

The fourth area determines whether the approver is for a future role or current role. For example, when an employee is being transferred, you might want to include their current or Source manager and their new or Target manager.

The fifth area is where you can determine if the workflow role is based on the employee for whom the change is made or the initiator of said change.

The sixth area is where you can decide if a workflow should stall or skip a step if the group or position is empty.

The seventh area is where you can restrict access to part of the workflow content for which the user has permissions. Permissions allow the workflow participants to only see and edit the content for which they are permitted. For example, you can use permissions so that changes to compensation are not shown to participants of some groups.

Note

An eighth area, the Workflow Email Configuration section, now displays as well. This can be used to send out specific email notifications for each workflow step. However, you must have Document Generation enabled and several configurations set up before using this feature.

For a workflow contributor, type includes the same options as approver plus the additional option, person. This feature allows an administrator to select an individual employee in the system.

For a CC role, the type contains the same options as a contributor plus an additional option, external email. This feature allows an administrator to notify an individual employee outside of Employee Central.

For CC roles and contributors, you can have the same options except for Edit Transaction.

A screenshot of the Workflow Configuration section shows eight sections under Step 1 for adding an approver. The preceding text gives more information.

Dynamic Roles and Groups

A dynamic role is a flexible way to assign users and groups as workflow approvers based on the job information of the subject user.

For example, you can create a dynamic role identifying Janet James as the approver for promotion requests in business unit Corporate Industries. If Carla Grant promotes Marcus in the Corporate Industries group and the promotion event reason is used, the system routes the approval to Janet James.

When a dynamic group is used on a workflow, the request is sent to all group members. However, only one of the members is expected to act on the request.

The groups are created using the same interface as RBP. Dynamic groups are managed using the Manage Workflow Groups tool.

Four-Eye Principle

You can enable the Enforce Four-Eyes Principle On Workflow Step Approval in the Platform Feature Settings that enforces a security mechanism so that the initiator cannot be an approver for the workflows using Dynamic Groups and Dynamic Roles.

The logic uses person-based ensuring that employees cannot approve requests they initiated, regardless of which employment is used for submission or approval.

Workflow E-Mail Notifications

By navigating to E-Mail Notification Template Settings, administrators can also modify the e-mail notification templates that are used to notify participants. There, the administrator can update company-specific language for each of the templates listed. Administrators can change the text that an approver receives during the workflow process. They can also manage e-mail notification for the following workflow actions:

Approval
Rejected
Pending
Canceled
Skipped
Lock Down
Unlock
Contributor
CC Role
Approved
Sent back

A screenshot of the Workflow Action Approval Notification section shows customization options and an e-mail template which is editable with the preceding text as follows: ''You are now viewing the default''.

Create a Dynamic Group

In this activity, you will create a new workflow group for HR.

Note

This exercise is a standalone activity and is not required for completing other hands-on exercises for this course.

Use the simulation if you don't have a practice system.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

Use Action Search to navigate to Manage Workflow Groups.
Select Create New Group and type in the name of Dynamic Group: HR.
For the people pool, choose the category Job Code.
Search for HR and Select AllJob Codes that include HR.
Click OK.
Update the number of people in the group and click on the number.
Make a note of a user in the Dynamic Group for later testing.
Click Done and OK.

Edit a Workflow

In this simulation, you will add a user to an existing workflow.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

Use Action Search to navigate to Manage Organization, Pay, and Job Structures.
Select Workflow Configuration from the Search dropdown menu.
Select Hire (New or Rehire) (HIRE) from the second Search dropdown menu.
Click Take Action and select Make Correction from the dropdown menu.
Select Person from the first empty CC Role Type dropdown menu.
Type Carla in the CC Role search box and select Carla Grant.
Click Save.

Manage Workflow Requests

The system notifies administrators of stalled workflows. From the admin alerts page, an admin can take action to change approver, decline, lock down, or move to next step.

Administrators can manage workflow requests by navigating to Manage Workflow Requests. There, the administrator can search for a workflow using the filters and take the appropriate action:

Actions

Actions	Description
Lock Down/Unlock	You can lock a workflow so that it is prevented from being processed. A locked workflow doesn't age. A workflow in lockdown is not visible to approvers. When unlocked, the workflow is refreshed and the number of days stalled is reset to zero.
Add/Change/Remove Approver	You can add an approval step, change an approver, or delete an approver in an in-progress workflow. You can specify whether further workflow changes are allowed.
Route Request	You can skip an approval step with this action
Decline	You can decline a request if it's not a valid request anymore.

Delegate Workflows

Auto Delegation

A user can set up an auto-delegate through Quick Actions on the homepage. To enable auto-delegation, the user needs to have the RBP permission, Allow Auto-Delegation. When auto-delegation is enabled, all workflows with a setting of Is Delegate Supported = Yes are routed to the nominated user.

When you assign a delegate, you can specify the start and end times for the auto-delegation. If they leave those fields blank, the auto-delegation is indefinite until manually turned off. This includes workflows received through job relationships, dynamic roles, dynamic groups, and positions. If you enable the Company System and Logo Settings→Allow delegatees to accept or reject a workflow delegation request option, the delegate has the option to approve or reject the delegation. A delegate can also view their delegations and delegation periods under the Delegation Requests for Me tab.

Once the workflow route is delegate-enabled, the user can set up an auto-delegate from the Quick Actions in the homepage. When auto-delegation is enabled, all workflows with auto-delegation enabled are routed to the nominated user.

Workflow Auto-Delegation by Groups

Workflow auto-delegation by groups feature will allow approvers to assign different delegates for a subset of request types. For example, a user may want to delegate their manager for termination, change in compensation and promotion requests, and delegate a subordinate for all other requests.

Administrators can group related requests in Manage Data→Auto Delegate Group. Workflows can be grouped by request types or objects.

Administrators can also set up auto-delegation on behalf of employees in Manage Data→Auto Delegate Config.

The system automatically creates an ALL OTHERS group when at least one group is created. This can be used as a catch-all delegate.

Once the groups are created, a user can choose to identify a single user to delegate all the requests to or identify different users per request type, provided they do not exceed three delegates.

My Pending Requests

Employees can track, access, and handle workflow requests, all in the home page. The Approvals section in the home page gives easy access to requests requiring their approval. The View Pending Workflows in the Quick Action cards in the home page gives users immediate access to requests that require their attention. These requests are organized into six categories on the Pending Workflows page. The Access requests awaiting my approval link allows users to easily navigate to all requests requiring their action.

My Requests for Approval: This category includes requests that the user has submitted and are currently awaiting approval from others. Users can see who is expected to approve each request.
My Requests Sent Back: This category includes requests that the user has submitted but have been sent back for further action. Users can update and resubmit these requests.
Pending Requests That I Approved: This category includes requests that the user has already approved and are now awaiting approval from others. Users can see who currently has the request.
Requests Reassigned to Others: This category includes delegated and escalated requests.
Requests for Comment: This category includes requests where the user has been added as a contributor, with the role of providing comments to facilitate processing.
Requests for Information: This category includes requests where the user has been added as a CC role, allowing them to stay informed and follow up on completed workflows.

Select the View Pending Workflows card to open the Pending Workflows page

Approving Requests

If you are an approver on a request, you can approve the request, provide commentary around the request, or send it back to the originator. You also may be given edit capabilities on the transaction as an approver. If you have edit capabilities, you can alter the initial request before approving.

As an approver, you can also see the actions of other approvers that come before or after you, as well as any comments they choose to post.

Approve a Pending Change Request

In this activity, you will find and approve a pending change request.

Note

This exercise is a standalone activity and is not required for completing other hands-on exercises for this course.

Use the simulation if you don't have a practice system.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

Proxy as Nancy Nash.
Using the Action Search, navigate to View my Pending Requests.
Under the Requests Waiting for My Approval, select the approval request for Steve Pappar.
View the Workflow Details. Open up the Workflow Participants.
Click Approve.
Note
You can require a user to open the workflow details to be able to approve a request. As it is, an approver can approve a workflow request from their homepage Approve Requests tile without reviewing any specific details about the workflow. When enabled, you can prevent certain users from approving workflows without reviewing workflow details in Permission Settings→Manage Workflows→Prevent Quick Approval of Workflow.

Advanced Workflow Settings

Optional workflow settings are available to be configured to avoid workflows getting stalled. If these settings are not visible in your environment, you'll need your implementation consultants to activate them in the Corporate Data Model.

Alternate Workflow

You can use an alternate workflow to include more approvers in a workflow process and take care of potential conflicts caused by future-dated records.

In the example, an address change would normally go to the Dynamic group, Talent Approval. However, if a future-dated record is identified, the system will instead trigger the alternate workflow, Data Change.

Note

Alternate workflows only works for EC effective-dated entities and not MDF objects. Hence, it is recommended to use a business rule instead of alternate workflows.

Screenshot of the Workflow Configuration: Address Change form showing data, including Alternate Workflow labeled Data Change

Auto-Escalation

This feature allows for an escalation path to be defined for a workflow. If an approver takes no action on a workflow, the workflow becomes stalled. When the workflow is stalled for the specified number of days, the workflow is automatically escalated to a specified user.

The new approver can decline the escalation, so it goes back to the previous approver. The previous approver can also revoke the escalation, thus bringing it back to themselves.

After declining or revoking, the escalation would continue with the next escalation step after the defined number of days.

An escalation path must be created within the Manage Data tool, then attached to the workflow configuration.

Screenshot of an Escalation Path in the Manage Data section

Automatic Approval

Normally, a workflow is prevented from proceeding to the next step if the current step's approver doesn't give a response. As a result, all subsequent approvers need to wait until the workflow reaches their assigned step.

It is possible to create a recurring job to auto-approve requests once they have reached a certain threshhold.

A screenshot of a workflow showing '3' under Days until Approval and '5' under Days until Auto Approval

To learn more about configuring workflows, visit the Configure Employee Central Core course

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