Navigation logic

• Navigation to the Approvals page from the All Apps menu.
  • If a user has access or no access to the Approval Flows and access to Approval Requests sections of the Approvals page, then they can click the All Apps button in the top left corner of the header and then Approvals under the Advanced section to open the Approvals page.
    
    
     
  • If a user has access to the Approval Flows section BUT no access to the Approval Requests section, then they can click the All Apps button in the top left corner of the header and then Settings under the Advanced section. When the Settings page opens, click Approvals under the Automation section.
    
    

Approval flow

There are three key aspects to note about approval flows:

• Multiple Levels of approvers. The approval flow enables you to set multiple levels of approvers to review and complete the same request based on the actions from a lower level approver.
  • FOR EXAMPLE:
    • If 3 levels of approvers are set, the first being Mark Smith (Manager, Employer Brand), the second being Francisco Rivierez and Molly Andrews (Sr. Manager, Talent Acquisition), and the third being Naomi Lee (VP, Talent Acquisition). The following process will occur when it comes to approvals:
      1. Hugo Reyez (Recruiter) submits an approval request to send an offer letter to a candidate.
      2. Mark Smith (Manager, Employer Brand) is notified of the request and then either approves or denies the request. If approved, then the request will move to the next reviewer.
      3. Francisco Rivierez and Molly Andrews (Sr. Manager, Talent Acquisition) are notified of the request and then one of them either approves or denies the request. If approved, then the request will move to the next reviewer.
      4. Naomi Lee (VP, Talent Acquisition) is notified of the request and then either approves or denies the request. If approved, then the request will be fulfilled.
• Approval Flow Order. The order of flows on the Approval Flows page is extremely important to the approval flows process. Items can be targeted in multiple approval flows, so when an item is targeted and meets two sets of targeting rules in two different approval flows, the system will look to see which one is listed higher in the Approval Flows list and use that approval flow over the other.
  • For example: We have 2 Approval Flows:
    • Approval #1 Targeting = Job Title contains “Product”
    • Approval #2 Targeting = Job Title contains “Manager”
      • Result: When turning on a “Product Manager” job, it will go through Approval #1 because it is higher than #2 in the approval flow ordering.
• Skip Logic. approvers can be skipped depending on their order and their level of approval.

Denied requests

If any approver in the approval flow denies a request, the approval flow will be completed and the approval marked as Denied.

• Post Job action → The job will not post, and the toggle will stay in the OFF state. 
• Send Offer action → The offer will not be sent to the candidate, and the offer will be moved to status Offer Approval Denied.

Approved requests

If the last approver in the approval flow approves the request, then the approval flow will be completed and the approval marked as Approved.

• Post Job action → The job will be turned on. 
• Send Offer action → The offer status will be moved to Send Offer, and the offer will be sent to the candidate.

Pending requests

A pending request is when an approval is currently going through the approval flow and has not been completed (has not been denied yet or the last user has not approved yet).

Resubmitted requests

A request can be edited and resubmitted at any time if the user has access to it.

When there's an approval in-progress and a user re-submits the approval BUT the resubmission is assigned to different flow at the time of resubmission, then an error will display, forcing the user to cancel the first request because the original approval request would be stuck in Pending. This ensures that the first request is moved over to the Completed tab.

Request notifications

Learn about approval request notifications here.

Approver notifications

When a user submits an approval request, then each approver in the first level/group of approvers will be notified via web notifications, if enabled, and via email.

• Approved requests – If the first level/group of approvers approves the request, then the next level/group of approvers will be notified to review and complete the request at that time. This will continue until the final level/group of approvers complete the request.
• Denied requests – If any level/group of approvers denies the request, then the higher levels/groups of approvers will not receive a notification.

Requester notifications

The user who made an approval request will be notified of the final level/group of approvers’ response both via their web notifications, if enabled, and via email.

• Approved requests – The user will be notified that the request was approved when the final level/group of approvers approves the request.
• Denied requests – The user will be notified that the request was denied when any level/group of approvers denies the request.

Updates to an approval flow

Any updates made to an approval flow will NOT affect Pending requests and will only affect approvals requested AFTER the update is published. 

For in-progress/pending requests:

• If an approval flow is DELETED, but there is an approval in-progress, then it should only apply to new requests. Job/offer requests currently in that flow must be completed.
• If an approval flow is DEACTIVATED, but there is an approval in-progress, then it should only apply to new requests. Job/offer requests currently in that flow must be completed.
• If an approval flow is UPDATED, but there is an approval in-progress, then the changes made will only apply to new requests and will not affect pending requests.

More than one user is assigned to an approver group

If Francisco Rivierez and Molly Andrews (Sr. Manager, Talent Acquisition) are both set as Approver 2 (Level 2), they both will receive the request to review the request in their For Review and Pending tabs.

Only one approver needs to approve/deny the request in order for it to move to the next level of approver or to complete the action, whichever is set next for the approval flow. Therefore, if Francisco approves the request, then the next level of approver will be notified to review and complete the request next.

No one is targeted in an approver group

If no one is targeted for an approver level/group, then the request will be sent to the default approver.

No one is targeted in both an approver group and default approver

If no one is targeted to both an approver level/group AND default approver, then the system will skip that approver unless they are the final level/group of approvers.

Approver missing error

Options for this logic include:

• If the last approver had their access to approval requests removed, then the request cannot be submitted.
• If the last approver was deactivated in the system.

When are targeting conditions checked?

The system will check the condition at the moment a user selects Post a Job in My Jobs or the moment a user selects Send Offer in the inbox to see if that job or offer has an approval flow targeted to it.

• If yes, then the system will send the request through approval flow.
• If no, then the system will complete the request (send the offer or post the job).

How long are approval requests stored in the Approval Requests section of the Approvals page?

The approval request records will live in the Approval Requests section of the Approvals page for the time selection made for the Default candidate Data Retention Period selector. Contact your CS Representative if you want to learn and/or adjust your current data retention period selection.

Turning off Approvals Feature

The Approvals Engine for either jobs, offers, or both cannot be turned off if at least one approval request is currently in-progress. This feature can only be disabled when all approval requests are completed. Contact your CS Representative to disable this feature for you.

Two or more approval flows match a request

If more than one approval flow matches an approval request, then the system will assign the offer or job request to the approval flow that was listed first.

Approver error

An approver will receive this error when they approve a request after it was re-submitted. For example:

1. User A requests to open a job.
2. The approver opens the request, but they do not update it.
3. User B updates the request and resubmits it.
4. The approver approves the request without refreshing the page.
5. The approver receives this error.

Default Approver is required publishing error

The below two conditions must be met; otherwise, the system will display an error (e.g., Default Approver is required) and prevent publishing, even if a default approver is selected.

• At least one job must match the targeting rules defined here.
• At least one valid user in the assigned approver role must have permissions to the targeted job/location.