Approval processes may vary depending on the employee group, department, location, or more. You can create customized approval steps for specific employee groups with filters and rulesets. Once you add a ruleset, any employees who match the filter's criteria are exempt from the default approval workflow. You can then set up different approval steps for these employees.
To create a custom approval process, you must:
- Create an employee filter.
- Add a ruleset in the approvals settings, and use the employee filter.
Employee filters
Employee filters define the criteria an employee must meet to be assigned a custom approval process. When creating a filter, you can add rules based on attributes in Personio. For example, add a rule where employees must have a specific Role, Status, or Hire date, etc. to be considered in the filter.
Create an employee filter
To create an employee filter, follow these steps:
- Go to the Approvals settings via Settings > Automations > Approvals.
- Select the relevant attendance, employee information, or absence type tab that requires a custom approval process.
- Click Manage employee filters.
- Enter a name for the filter in the text box and click the + symbol.
- The newly created filter appears. Click (Edit).
- Click + Add Rule, then use the dropdown menus to define the filter by attribute. Click Submit.
- Equals: includes any employees who match the criteria in the filter.
- Does not equal: excludes any employees who match the criteria from the filter.
- Add more rules to refine the filter. You can only use the "equals" rule once per attribute. See Employee filter rules and logic.
- Click Submit.
Once you create an employee filter, you must add a ruleset to the approval process.
Example configuration:
Planeta wants to create a custom approval process for all Employees in the Marketing department of their New York office. To create a filter for this employee group, they add the following rules to the filter:
- Rule 1: Department equals Marketing
- Rule 2: Office equals New York
Note:
Review the logic behind employee filters to avoid overlapping rules, and ensure you create the most accurate filters as possible.
Employee filter rules and logic
When creating an employee filter, the following rules apply:
- Criteria are linked by AND-logic. A filter will only apply to employees who meet all the criteria entered within the rules.
- An employee filter cannot store more than one "equals" rule for the same attribute. For example, you cannot add a "Department equals Marketing" rule and a "Department equals Customer Support" rule within the same filter.
- To include more than one rule for the same attribute, use the reverse logic. Add a "does not equal" rule multiple times until you exclude all attributes except those necessary.
- Each employee can only be subject to one ruleset. If there are overlapping rulesets applied to the same employee, the most recent ruleset will apply.
Example overlapping rules scenario
Planeta wants to create two custom approval processes for leave requests:
- One for leave requests submitted by employees in the Sales department.
- One for leave requests submitted by employees in the London office.
To set up these custom approval processes, a Planeta Administrator creates two separate employee filters:
- One filter contains the rule "Department equals Sales".
- One filter contains the rule "Office equals London".
The Planeta Administrator adds two new rulesets to the "Paid Leave" absence type in the Approvals settings. One ruleset using the Sales Department employee filter, and another ruleset using the London office employee filter.
Problem: this combination contains overlap. Employees in the London office who are also members of the Sales department are now included in two different filters. In this case, Personio cannot assign a custom approval process, and defaults to the most recently added ruleset, "Office equals London".
Solution: the Planeta Administrator can avoid this overlap by refining the "Office equals London" filter. They can add another rule: "Department does not equal Sales".
Rulesets
After creating an employee filter, you must add a ruleset to the approval that requires a customized process.
Add a ruleset to an approval process
To add a ruleset and create a custom approval process, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings > Workflows > Approvals.
- Select the relevant absence, attendance, or employee information tab that requires a custom approval process.
- Click Add new ruleset.
- Select the relevant employee filter, and click Add.
- Click Add approval step and define the chain of approval steps for the filtered employee group. Add up to six steps.
- Click Save.
The steps outlined in the ruleset will apply to all employees who match the selected filter's criteria. Repeat the steps above for each area (absence, attendance, employee information) that requires this custom approval process.
Example rulesets
Custom approval for a specific employee group
Planeta's default approval process requires supervisors to approve paid leave requests. But, Planeta requires all paid leave requests submitted by members of the Customer Service department to be approved by the Head of Customer Service. To create a custom approval, a Planeta admin must:
- Create an employee filter named "Customer Service Department"
- Add a rule to the filter: "Department equals Customer Service".
Note: The Head of Customer Service is also included in the Department, so the admin must add another rule to exclude them: "Position does not equal Head of Department". - In the approval settings, add a ruleset to the Paid leave absence tab.
- Select the "Customer Service Department" filter.
- Add the approval step: "Employees with role Head of Customer Service Department".
Custom approval for a specific person
Planeta's default approval process for unpaid leave requests requires a supervisor's approval. But, Planeta requires approval from the CEO for any unpaid leave requests submitted by a specific person, John Doe. To create this custom approval, a Planeta admin must:
- Create an employee filter named "John Doe".
- Add a rule to the filter: "Email address equals johndoe@planeta.com".
- In the Unpaid leave tab of approval settings, add a ruleset.
- Select the "John Doe" filter.
- Add the approval step: "Employees with role Chief Executive Officer".
Note:
You must update this approval process if the CEO leaves the company, and the role isn't immediately filled. Otherwise, all requests that normally require the CEO's approval will be approved automatically.