A workflow is a work process that consists of a series of tasks scheduled to be completed by a certain date.
Imagine that you have a date for a new employee to start work, and you need to do a variety of tasks before they begin: Collect documents, prepare a workplace, order equipment to make the adaptation of a newcomer simple and clear, etc.
Onboarding is a repeatable process because every time you have a new employee you need to go through the same steps. But what if such a process could be created for other recurring events in the company, to have an algorithm of action in advance? Preparing for birthdays, and anniversaries, updating documents, certificates, insurance, etc, can be quite stressful. A workflow is a list of tasks that need to be completed before a deadline to ensure the event goes smoothly.
Events that create the necessity for a workflow are called triggers.
How to create a trigger?
When setting up a workflow, you now have four options:
Manual triggering- This option requires manual initiation whenever needed.
Once-off - Schedule a specific date for a one-time workflow run.
Date-related employee attribute - Utilize employee-related dates, such as the start of probation, to trigger the workflow.
Recurring - Introducing a new scheduling option that allows you to trigger the workflow at regular intervals, whether weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Creating a work anniversary trigger event
Let's create a new trigger event, for example, Work Anniversary. To do this, go to Workflows - New workflow.
1. Name the event.
2. Create a description for the event.
3. Choose whether this event is date-related.
In our case, the "Anniversary" event depends on the date. To set this up, navigate to the "New Trigger" tab, and select the "Date related employee attribute."
Next, decide the preparation window before the event – for instance, let's set it to 7 days in advance. From the attributes drop-down menu, locate "Anniversary of employee." These attributes offer great flexibility, including options like:
- First day of employment
- Last day of employment
- End of probation period
- Birthday of employee
- Anniversary of employee
Additionally, you can choose "Custom date field of employee" and then pick the necessary field from the custom fields' drop-down list. This is useful if the event is linked to a specific date or field in the employee's profile, such as a family member's birthday.
Setting the conditions
Let's move on to selecting the persons who will be affected by the trigger event. For example, we want to celebrate the anniversaries of only full-time employees. You need to select this condition in the ''Workflow applies to'' section.
In this case, the workflow will apply exclusively to full-time employees. For example, we want to further narrow down the circle of people whose work anniversary we want to celebrate. Let's add another condition for the choice of location: All full-time employees who work only in a certain city.
What if we want to clarify that these should be employees who were hired before the beginning of the year? Let's add the following clarification.
Now our work anniversary workflow will be triggered automatically 7 days before the anniversary date for 9 people who work full-time in Kyiv and Odesa and were hired before 1.01.2022. Please note that the system automatically counts the number of employees that meet the selected conditions.
Thus, you can specify who will be covered by your workflow. If your team has processes that are set up for certain projects, managers, selective employees from different departments of different locations, etc., the system will help you single them out to help you plan an algorithm of actions for a certain date.
How to create the workflow actions
After creating the trigger event, we proceed to fill it with tasks for execution.
To do this, click + on the trigger field and select what you want to add. Here are the options:
Trigger a workflow
Send a webhook for third-party applications (for example, integration via Zapier).
Google Workspace action
Tasks can also contain subtasks, each of which can have different performers. This is how the workflow task tree is formed.
Workflow history
Every workflow you create will have a History tab. Once you've created workflow actions and assigned them to specific individuals, the "Workflow history" tab becomes a real-time dashboard for tracking progress.
Delve into the workflow details to precisely identify which actions have been successfully executed.
The employee who receives tasks from the workflow sees them on their Me dashboard, in the Tasks tab.
Tasks discussion
If, for example, you want to leave a comment about the task you have been assigned, you can do it in the Activity tab. Click on the task in Task and leave a note in the comments section.
Benefits of using workflows
Allows you to create an algorithm of process actions and tasks which can then be flexibly assigned to any employee or group of employees multiple times.
Takes into account all important dates and allows you to choose a custom date or trigger
Can be assigned automatically or manually
Allows you to add tasks, emails, or webhooks to integrate the process with third-party applications or services, such as Zapier, Jira, Trello, etc.
Allows you to involve employees from different departments or projects, forms of employment, etc.
Allows you to see the progress of execution
Allows you to add and configure many processes to create a full-fledged workflow map in the team
For teams that are growing rapidly, looking for new specialists, and demanding high efficiency in the workplace, having Workflows in the system is a must. It simplifies the working routine for everyone involved in the team and is an indispensable assistant for automating hybrid and remote work, full-time and part-time employees, contractors, etc.