Managing Workflows

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to manage workflow configurations.

Workflow administration

Workflow approval process

Workflows are typically configured as part of the self-service process. While employees and managers are responsible for keeping their data accurate, the HR Operations team plays a key role in reviewing and approving these changes.

When an employee or manager submits a change, a workflow is typically activated. Workflows are built in the implementation process. The role of the administrator is to ensure the completion of workflows and to manage the workflow participants.

In the figure, Example: Workflow Approval Steps, you can see a sample workflow with two approvers after the manager initiates the change. Although there is no set number of approvers that could be added to a workflow, you need to consider what is enough to meet your business requirement without taking too much time.

Workflow Configuration

Configure a workflow

Workflow is an XML-based Foundation Object. It is a Foundation Object generally categorized as Others, and just like any other XML-based Foundation Object, workflow records are managed in Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures tool.

In the figure, Workflow Configuration, you can see the workflow record for an Address Change. There is one approver, the Dynamic Group Talent Approval, and two external e-mail addresses that will be cc’d when the process is finalized.

Types of Workflow Participants

Workflow participant screenshot

By default, 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 nor 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.

Complete the interaction to learn more about setting workflow participants.

Workflow Administration

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 transactions using promotion as the event reason for employees in Corporate Industries. If Carla Grant promotes Marcus within the Corporate Industries group and the promotion event reason is used, the system routes the approval to Janet James.

To create Dynamic Role records, useManage Organization, Pay and Job Structures in Admin Center.

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 Notification

Workflow Action Approval notification

Standard workflow e-mail templates can be found in E-Mail Notification Template Settings. Though the standard templates can be modified, you cannot customize the notification for each workflow participant. You'll have to use Document Generation to create a fully customized template where each participant receives a custom notification.

Workflow e-mail templates use tags, as shown in the figure, Workflow Notification. See the Workflow Implementation guide for a full list of the supported tags.

Standard workflow e-mail templates are selected by default and cannot be disabled. They are available for the following workflow actions:

  • Approval

  • Rejected

  • Pending

  • Canceled

  • Skipped

  • Posted

  • Lock Down

  • Unlock

  • Contributor

  • CC Role

  • Approved

  • Sent back

Approver skip

The system provides a sophisticated logic to skip the same single approvers in consecutive steps of the workflow to ensure improved processing efficiency without compromising data quality and legal compliance.

All the successive workflow steps with the same single approver, except the last one, will be skipped automatically. The skipped steps are displayed on the Workflow Details page. All skipped steps are indicated in the Activity area of the page.

By taking steps out of long approval chains, the skip option improves the efficiency of processing workflows without affecting data quality. An example is demonstrated in the following table.

Skip logic

Steps: Original ApproversSkipped?Explanation
Step 1: User 1YesHas the same single approver as Step 2.
Step 2: User 1YesHas the same single approver as Step 3.
Step 3: User 1NoStep 4 has a different approver.
Step 4: User 2YesHas the same single approver as Step 5.
Step 5: User 2NoStep 6 has multiple approvers, even though one of them is the same approver as Step 5 (User 2).
Step 6: User 1, User 2NoThough it has exactly the same approvers as Step 7, it's not skipped because we only skip steps with a single approver.
Step 7: User 1, User 2NoHas multiple approvers.
Step 8: User 2YesHas the same single approver as Step 9.
Step 9: User 2NoThis is the last step, without the following step.

Enabling the Skip option

The option to skip approvers is enabled in Company System and Logo Settings.

Approver Replacement

Approver replacement ensures that an employee who is the subject user of a workflow cannot serve as a step approver. Instead, the system automatically assigns their manager as the step approver.

The logic uses person-based; if the approver is the same person as the workflow subject user, this person will be replaced by the manager of the approver's employment. This logic applies to:

  • Contributor roles and CC roles, who'll be replaced when they happen to be the same person as the subject user.
  • Delegation scenarios, where it will prevent the person who's the subject user of a workflow from being a delegatee.

However, it does not support certain scenarios, such as approvers added or updated in Manage Workflow Requests, workflows for the Position MDF object, workflows escalated, or workflows having escalation or delegation revoked.

Workflow participation

Employees can track, access and handle workflow requests all in the home page. The Approvals section in the homepage gives easy access to requests requiring their approval. The View Pending Workflows in the quick action card 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 your action.

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

Approving Requests

You can approve requests in multiple ways:

  • Approvals Card
  • To-do Panel
  • Use the link Access requests awaiting my approval from View Pending Workflows

If you do not want the users to use the quick approval option, disable the permission in RBP→Manage Workflows

Use the interaction below to learn how requests are approved.

Note

You can have additional filtering options in the My Workflow Request tool when you enable the permission, Manage Workflows→Professional Edition Manage Workflow Requests, in Role-Based Permissions.

Activation of auto delegation

An auto delegate through quick actions

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 Is Delegate Supported set to 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.

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 setup auto-delegation on behalf of employees in Manage Data→Auto Delegate Config.

The system automatically creates a ALL OTHERS 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 delegate for all requests or use delegate by workflow group provided they do not exceed three delegates.

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''.

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.

A screenshot of the Manage Workflow Requests section shows numerous options in the Take Action dropdown menu

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

ActionsDescription
Lock Down/UnlockYou 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 ApproverYou 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 RequestYou can skip an approval step with this action
DeclineYou can decline a request if it's not a valid request anymore.

Exercise: Customize an existing workflow

Business Example

ACE Corporation wants to customize the existing hire and rehire workflow to include a Dynamic Group of HR representatives. You will create the new dynamic group, and update the workflow record.

Watch the video to learn how to modify a workflow.

Task 1: Create a Dynamic Group

Steps

  1. Go to Manage Workflow Groups to create a Dynamic Group that will be used as a hiring approver. Use the information in the table to define the group.

    Dynamic Group Requirements

    Group NameHR
    People Pool CategoryAnyone with "HR" in the Job Code

    1. Log in to your instance.

    2. Navigate to Manage Workflow Groups.

    3. Select Create New Group.

    4. Use the information in the table, Customer Requirements, to define the group.

    5. Select Update in the Group Membership bubble.

    6. Select the new number that is populated in the Group Membership bubble.

    7. Verify Alex Anderson is an employee in the Dynamic Group.

    8. Select Close→Done.

Task 2: Update an existing workflow

Steps

  1. Go to Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structure and update the existing Hire (New or Rehire) workflow. Use the information in the table to define the new approvers.

    Workflow ID: Hire

    Approver 1 (Step 1)
    Approver TypeDynamic Group
    Approver RoleHR
    All other attributes remain the same.
    Approver 2 (Step 2)
    Approver TypeRole
    Approver RoleManager
    ContextTarget
    All other attributes remain the same.

    1. As an administrator, navigate to Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structure .

    2. Choose Workflow Configuration→Hire (New or Rehire) (HIRE)→Take Action→Make Correction .

    3. Update the Workflow using the provided information

    4. Select Save.

    5. Go to BCUI→Job Information→Trigger Rules section. Preview the WF_Hire rule to see that the wfConfig=Hire(New or Rehire) is set to be used when the conditions are met. No changes need to be made here.

Summary

Here are the key takeaways from this lesson:

  • Workflows trigger approvals for employee/manager changes when workflow derivation is configured, supporting controls and communication.
  • Administrators ensure workflow completion and correct participation; stalled or incorrect participants reduce HR efficiency.
  • Workflow participants include Approvers (approve/deny), Contributors (comment only), and CC Roles (notified on completion).
  • Manage workflows in Workflow Configuration; avoid changing workflow IDs because business rules reference them.
  • Manage stalled workflows via Manage Workflow Requests (lock/unlock, change approver, route/skip step, decline, delegate).
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