Role-based approvals are a type of approval setup that involves using a custom job field for added flexibility in the approval process for specific jobs.
The custom job field acts like a placeholder in your organization's default approvals process, which you can then customize with the correct user at the time you create a new job.
Example: Imagine you want every new job to be approved by the job’s department manager, Marianne, before recruiting can start.
Instead of adding Marianne to your default approvals process, you create and select a custom job field named “Department manager.” When you create a new job, you select Marianne from the "Department manager" dropdown list.
Set up role-based approvals
1. Create a custom job field
To start, go to Configure > Custom options > Company custom fields, then click Jobs. On the Manage job fields page, click the Add field button.
Create a custom job field with the Field type set to "User." After this, two check boxes will appear:
- Use for job approvals: This allows the custom job field to be used in job approval processes.
- Use for offer approvals: This allows the custom job field to be used in offer approval processes.
Note: These checkboxes will also appear on the settings page for previously created custom job fields with the Field type "User."
Select one or both checkboxes depending on whether you want to use the custom field in job approvals, offer approvals, or both.
Note: Checking these boxes will affect the users shown in the dropdown list during step 3. See the information below for more details:
- Checking Use for job approvals will filter the users list to only users with job approval permissions.
- Checking Use for offer approvals will filter the users list to only users who have offer approval permissions.
- Checking both boxes will filter the users list to only users who have both job approval and offer approval permissions.
2. Modify your default approval process
Go to Configure > Approvals. Find the section at the top of the page titled Default Approvals Required for All New Jobs, also known as your organization's default approval process. Like the name suggests, these settings act as the default for all new jobs that have approvals enabled.
The column on the left shows your default approval process for jobs. The column on the right shows your default approval process for offers.
Navigate to the default approval process you want to update with your new custom job field. Then, click Add Approval Step.
In the pop-up window, click Add user > Add by custom job field. Then, select the custom job field you created in step 1.
When you finish, click Save. The default approval process will display the updated settings with the custom job field.
Example: In the image below, the user added a custom job field with the name Department manager.
The updated default approvals process will apply to approvals set up for new jobs.
3. Configure the custom job field on a new job
Start by creating a new job, then scroll down to the bottom of the Job Info section. The custom job field you created in step 1 will appear as a dropdown list.
Select a user from the list.
Note: The users that appear in the list will depend on the custom job field's settings. For more information, see the note box listed under step 1.
When you finish filling in the rest of the information on the page, click the Create Job & Continue button on the bottom right side of the page. Continue through the rest of the job creation process.
Tip: If you aren't ready to finalize the job's information, you can save the job as a draft by clicking Save & Finish Later.
After you've created the job, you can see how your custom field appears in the job's approval process by going to the job's Approvals page and scrolling to the bottom. The name of the user you selected in step 3 will appear below the relevant approval process.
Example: In the image below, the user has already created a new custom job field titled "Department manager" (step 1) and updated their default offer approval process to include the field (step 2).
The user then created a new job and selected the user "Hallie Fischer" for the custom job field (step 3).
As a result of these two steps, Hallie Fischer was automatically added to the approval flow as Department manager.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
For more information, see our Approval FAQs.