With Humaans, you can configure how each leave type is approved within your organisation. Some examples of approval flows are:
A fixed user flow where certain users have their requests redirected to a specific approver eg. C-suite being reviewed and approved by an EA
A no approval flow where all types are set to no approval and notifications configured as necessary
Dynamic team / Department flows where any user moved in or out of that Team / Department will be assigned to this flow automatically on assignment.
In this guide, we'll discuss:
How to create and configure an approval flow.
How to enabling/disable approvals and notifications.
Assigning users to an approval flow.
The Default flow
All users will initially be assigned to your Default flow. You can build flows that are assigned to users dynamically based on Department, Team or Place of work that map users to these flows. If a user is removed from a flow or a flow is deleted they will be re-added to your Default flow.
Creating a new approval flow
New approval flows can be created to match the rules to fit the needs of different users in your company with the following steps:
In the Home menu, click Time away, then click Approval flows.
Click Create approval workflow, then name the approval flow.
Select whether approval or no approval is needed for each leave type.
Select who else receives notifications for each leave's time away request.
Assign users to the approval flow individually, or by their Place of work, Department or Team tags.
When you're ready, click Save in the top right-hand corner.
All available leave types will be configurable in a flow regardless if they are in the users policy. This allows you to group users into approval flows regardless of the policy allocation they have.
Editing an existing approval flow
You can configure rules within existing approval flows with the following steps:
In the Home menu, click Time away, then click Approval flows.
Click Edit next to the desired approval flow.
Select whether approval or no approval is needed for each leave type.
Select who else receives notifications for each leave's time away request.
Assign users to the approval flow individually, or by their Place of work, Department or Team tags.
When you're ready, save your changes by clicking Save in the top right-hand corner.
Approvals
The available settings for approvals for each leave type are as follows:
Requires approval - this leave will not be registered until approved by one of the users set as an approver
No approval - this leave will be registered as soon as the booker submits the request
Notifications
You can also decide who within your organisation gets notified about requests. Approvers will always get notified if approval is required.
The available settings for approvals are as follows:
@Manager - as set in the Reporting to field of a users Role details.
@Manager's Manager - as set in the Reporting to field of a managers Role details.
Specific users - choose a specific approver assigned from your users.
If approval is required, users set to approve will receive the following notifications
My tasks,
Email,
Slack (if integrated and enabled. For more, see Managing time away notifications with Slack).
Users with notifications enabled within the approval flow will receive details of the booking through:
Email,
Slack (if integrated and enabled).
Users can individually manage their notifications within their profiles. For more, see this guide.
Changes to a person flow or a config will trigger notifications to the new members that didn’t receive the notification already for existing pending time away requests. It will also remove slack messages if the user is not an approver any more.
Assigning users to an approval flow
In Approval flow settings
Users can be assigned individually or by their Place of work, Department or Team tags. Users can only be assigned to one flow at a time. If moving a user from one flow to another in the settings a warning will appear.
In Manage time away
Users can be switched to a new approval flow in their Manage time away screen. In the Days taken card select Approvals and a window will open showing their currently assigned flow and a drop down to select a new flow. Once selected and saved the new Flow will apply to this user going forward.
If a user is Removed from an approval flow or that flow is deleted they will be reassigned to the Default flow
Creating custom approver macros
You can create custom approver macros by using a Custom field.
In Settings > Custom fields select Add custom field
Name your field
The supported sections are
Profile > Basics
Employment > Details
Employment Role
Type must be Person
When updating in user profiles any active user can be assigned to this field
When selecting your approver or user to receive a notification you can set this custom person as your approver
If the person set in the Custom field is changed the newly assigned Person will inherit any pending requests and future notifications. If they are removed entirely then approvals and notifications will fall to Owners and Admins.