Offer Letter Workflow - Approval

The Approval column on the offer letter status type panel on the Applicant Profile > Statuses tab enables you to view/edit the approval workflow, create an approval workflow, and submit the offer letter for approval.

Note: The approval workflow for offer letters is associated with the user defined in the Primary Owner field on the General tab of the requisition template.

PERMISSION NAME PERMISSION DESCRIPTION CATEGORY
Offer: Edit Letter Content Grants ability to access and manage the Offer Letter step when creating or editing a job requisition. Grants ability to edit the offer letter content and settings on the Applicant Profile page. To manage offer letter content on a job requisition, this permission must be used in conjunction with the Requisition: Manage permission. To manage offer letter content on the Applicant Profile page, this permission must be used in conjunction with the Offer: Manage Offers permission. This permission cannot be constrained. Recruiting
Offer: Manage Offers

Grants ability to manage all functionality available in the Offer Letter Management table of an applicant's profile, as well as view offer letters on the Documents tab of the Applicant Profile page. This permission must be used in conjunction with the Requisition: Manage or Requisition: Owner permission. This permission cannot be constrained.

Note: Users must also be assigned the Offer: Edit Letter Content permission in order to edit offer letters that are generated from a template.

Note: Users must also be assigned the Offer: Select Letter Template permission to change the template that is used when generating offer letters.

Note: Users must also be assigned the Applicants: Access Sensitive Statuses permission to access offer letters that are defined as sensitive.

Recruiting
Offer: Select Letter Template Grants ability to select, edit, and modify the offer letter template that is used when generating an offer letter on the Applicant Profile page. This permission must be used in conjunction with the Offer: Manage Offers permission. Users that do not also have the Offer: Manage Offers permission cannot change the template used when generating offer letters. This permission can be constrained by OU and User's OU. Creator constraints apply. Recruiting

Submit for Approval

For offer letter versions that have not yet been submitted for approval, clicking Submit for Approval submits the offer letter for approval.

Cancel Approval

For offer letter versions that are currently in the approval process, clicking Submit for Approval opens the Cancel Approval Warning pop-up. Click Submit on the pop-up to cancel the approval workflow for the current offer letter version and begin the approval workflow for the new version.

View/Edit Approvals

The View/Edit Approval link enables you to view/edit an existing approval workflow or define an approval workflow.

View/Edit Existing Approval Workflow

To view the existing approval workflow for an offer letter version, click View/Edit Approval. This opens the View/Edit Approvals pop-up.

The approval workflow appears on the pop-up. From here, you can do the following:

Once all changes have been made on the View/Edit Approvals pop-up, click Save.

Add Approvers

Click Add Approval to open the Select Approvers pop-up. Select an approver from the approver list, and then click Done. This closes the pop-up and adds the approver to the View/Edit Approvals pop-up.

Approval workflows can only have one Manager and one Hiring Manager approver.

Change Approvers

The following changes can be made:

  • Change Manager and Hiring Manager Approvers - You can change the manager and hiring manager by removing the existing users, and then selecting Manager and Hiring Manager from the Select Approvers pop-up. Note: The manager is the requisition owner's manager, and the hiring manager is defined on the requisition template or job requisition.
  • Change User Approvers - You can change the users in the approval steps that are configured for specific users as approvers by clicking the Select icon in the Approver box, and then selecting a different user from the Select User pop-up. This includes the ability to change the users in approval steps that are configured with an OR rule.
  • Create OR Rule - You can create an OR rule for a step that is configured for a specific user by clicking the plus icon to the right of the Approver box, and then selecting a user from the Select User pop-up.

Remove Approvers

Approval steps can be removed by clicking the Trash Can icon to the left of the step.

If a step includes an OR rule, then both approvers for the step are removed.

Reorder Workflow Steps

Approval workflows can be sequential, concurrent, or both. To reorder the approval workflow, change the step number in the numeric text box to the left of the approver. There must be at least one step with a "1" entered.

Define Approval Workflow

If an approval workflow is not defined on the requisition, then you can define a workflow on the View/Edit Approvals pop-up. Defining an approval workflow is not required.

For dynamically assigned roles at the Requisition LevelClosed Requisition level refers to the job requisition in Manage Job Requisitions. Changes made to a job requisition are referred to as being made at the "requisition level." Applicant reviewers added to a job requisition after the requisition is created are referred to as being added at the "requisition level." An offer letter template added to a job requisition is referred to as being added at the "requisition level." This term applies to the Recruiting functionality. This is a Recruiting term., the name of the user in the role appears in parentheses to the left of the role. If a user is not defined for a role, then "None Defined" appears in parentheses.

Note: If a user is not defined for a role, then the step is skipped and the offer letter is assumed Approved for that step.

To define an approval workflow:

  1. Click Add Approval in the View/Edit Approvals pop-up. This opens the Select Approvers pop-up.
  2. Select an approver from the following options:
    • Manager - This is the requisition owner's manager. This option can only be selected once as an approver.
    • Next Level Manager - This is the indirect manager at each level of the user hierarchy. This option can be selected repeatedly as an approver.
    • <OU Type> Approver - This is the person defined as the <OU Type> Approver in Requisition and Applicant Preferences.
    • Hiring Manager - This is the person defined as the hiring manager on the General step of the requisition template.
    • User - This option enables administrators to select a specific user as an approver. This option can be selected repeatedly as an approver and also added as an OR rule for each approval requirement row. For example, if a specific user is selected as an approver, then a second specific user can be included in the row to indicate that either user can approve the offer letter at that approval step.
  3. Click Done. This closes the pop-up and adds the approvers to the workflow.

Approval Workflow Order

Once all approvers are selected, define the approval order. The order can be sequential, concurrent, or both. To define the approval order, enter the step number in the numeric text box to the left of the approver. There must be at least one step with a "1" entered.

For a sequential approval workflow, approval notifications are sent in numeric order. For example, Approver B is sent the Pending Approval Notification email after Approver A approves the request.

For a concurrent approval workflow, approval notifications are sent at the same time to all approvers. For example, if a "1" is entered for Approvers A, B, C, and D, then the Pending Approval Notification email is sent to all of them at the same time.

If at least one of the approvers in a concurrent approval workflow denies the offer letter, then the offer letter is denied, even if the other approvers have not yet responded. For the other approvers in the step, the approval request is automatically retracted.

Note: A concurrent approval workflow creates an AND rule. When viewing the workflow on the Applicant Profile page, the approvers are displayed in the same row.

For a sequential/concurrent approval workflow, some approval steps are in numeric order and some steps are marked with the same number. For example, a "1" is entered for Approver A; a "2" is entered for Approvers B and C, and a "3" is entered for Approver D. In this example, if Approvers B or C deny the offer letter, then the Pending Approval Notification email is not sent to Approver D.

Note: A sequential/concurrent approval workflow could create an OR and AND rule within the same approval step. When viewing the workflow on the Applicant Profile page, the approvers are displayed in the same row. If one of the approvers in the step denies the offer letter, then the step is placed into a Denied status and the system automatically retracts the approval request for all other approvers in the step who have not yet recorded an approval decision.

Note: In a step that contains both an OR rule and an AND rule, it is possible for two or more approvers to submit an approval decision for the offer letter. This is only possible if the approvers approve the offer letter. As soon as one approver in the step denies the offer letter, the step's status is Denied. For the approvers in the step that have already approved the offer letter, their decision remains in the system.

Adding OR Rules

For approval steps that are configured for a specific user, more than one user can be added as an approver. This creates an OR rule (e.g., Approver A or Approver B can approve the offer letter for that approval step). Only one OR rule can be created for an approval step. The Pending Approval Notification email is sent to both approvers at the same time, but only one of them is required to approve the offer letter. If one of the approvers denies the offer letter, then the other approver's response is recorded but has no impact on the approval step.

To create an OR rule:

  1. Click User from the Select Approver pop-up.
  2. Click Add to add the approver row to the View/Edit Approvals pop-up.
  3. In the View/Edit Approvals pop-up, click the select icon to select the user in the first approval.
  4. To add a second approval in the row, click the plus icon to the right of the first approver. Then, select and add the approver.

Approval Required or Notification Only

The Approval required and Notification only options enable administrators to define whether or not the approver is required to approve the offer letter before the offer letter moves to the next step in the approval workflow.

  • Approval required - If this option is selected, the approver must approve the offer letter in order for the offer letter to move to the next step in the workflow. If configured in Email Management, the Pending Approval Notification email is sent to the approver in the corresponding approval step to notify them that they are required to approve the offer letter.
  • Notification only - If this option is selected and if configured in Email Management, the Pending Approval Notification email is sent to the approver in the corresponding approval step for notification purposes only. Such approvers do not have approval/denial options on the Recruiting Approvals page and are skipped in the approval process. For example, if the Notification only option is selected for the approver in the last row of the approval workflow, then the offer letter is approved when the last required approver completes their approval step.

Remove Approval Workflow Step

Approval steps can be removed by clicking the Trash Can icon to the left of the step. If a step includes an OR rule, then both approvers for the step are removed.

"No Approvals Required"

If an approval workflow is not defined on the requisition, then the View/Edit Approvals pop-up displays "No approvals required." If an approval workflow is not defined on the View/Edit Approvals pop-up and the user clicks Submit for Approval on the Offer Management table, then the offer letter is instantly approved.

Reset to Default

Click Reset to Default to reset the approval workflow to what is defined at the requisition level. If no workflow is defined at the requisition level, then the View/Edit Approvals pop-up resets to "No approvals required."

View Details

Once an offer letter is submitted for approval, the status of the approval workflow displays in the Approval column along with a View Details link. See View Details.

Approval Statuses

The following are the possible statuses:

  • Sent - This status indicates that the offer letter has been submitted for approval. The date on which the offer letter was submitted also displays.
  • Approved - This status indicates that the offer letter is approved. The date on which the offer letter was approved also displays.
  • Denied - This status indicates that the offer letter is denied. The date on which the offer letter was denied also displays.
  • Cancelled - This status indicates that the approval workflow has been cancelled. The date on which the cancellation occurred also displays.

View Details

The View Details link opens the View Details pop-up. The pop-up displays the details of the approval workflow, including the approvers, comments, and approval decisions.

The layout of the View Details pop-up is dependent upon the workflow configuration, whether sequential, concurrent, or sequential/concurrent.

In addition, approval workflows may have OR rules and AND rules. For approval steps that have an OR or AND rule or both, the approvers appear in the same row on the View Details pop-up.

  • For approval steps with an OR rule, only the approval decision of the first approver to approve or deny the offer letter is counted. The approval request for the other approvers is automatically retracted.
  • For approval steps with AND rules, all approvers have the opportunity to approve the offer letter unless at least one of the approvers denies the offer letter. As soon as at least one approver denies the offer letter, the system automatically retracts the approval request for the other approvers who have not yet recorded an approval decision. For the approvers in the step that have already approved the offer letter, their decision remains in the system.

The following information appears in the View Details pop-up:

  • Status - This column displays an icon of the approver's final decision. The following are the possible values:
    • Sent - This status indicates that the approver has not yet responded to the approval request.
    • Approved - This status indicates that the offer letter is approved for this approval workflow step.
    • Denied - This status indicates that the offer letter is denied for this approval workflow step.
    • Cancelled - This status indicates that the approval workflow has been cancelled. Note: If an approval workflow is cancelled, only the approval steps that are in a Sent status at the time of cancellation are cancelled. For approvers that submitted an approval decision, their decision and any comments entered remain on the View Details pop-up.
  • User - This column displays the approver. The following information appears for each approver:
    • Photo, if available; ghost image displays if no photo is available
    • Full name
    • Primary phone number
    • Email address link
  • Decision - This column displays the approval decision for each approver. The final decision for the step displays in bold. The following are the possible values:
    • Approved on [date approved]
    • Denied on [date denied]
    • Sent on [date approval request was sent to approver]
    • Cancelled on [date approval workflow was cancelled]
    • Request Retracted - This value displays for approvers that are part of an OR or AND rule and did not submit an approval decision.
  • Comments - This column displays the comments written by the approver when making the approval decision. If the approver did not include a comment, then the comment box does not display for the approver.

Cancel Approvals

The Cancel Approvals button cancels the approval workflow. All pending approvals are cancelled. Pending approvals that have not yet been submitted are retracted, even if the approver has posted a comment.

Once cancelled, the Approval column on the Offer Management table displays the Submit for Approval button.

Considerations

  • Creating a new version of an offer letter does not automatically affect the workflow for offer letters. When a new version is created, versions that are currently in an approval workflow or that have been sent to the candidate are not affected.
  • If a newer version is submitted for approval, then the current approval workflow is cancelled. All data from the previous approval workflow is stored for the previous version and can be accessed from the Offer Management table.