As a UKG Ready administrator, you always look for ways to simplify and streamline your processes. From HR to timekeeping, you can create workflows that automate your processes and help reduce manual work for your teams. Workflows can be created using default or user-defined workflows. Default workflows provide a good starting point to save time since they’re pre-configured to align with the most common use cases. Workflow steps and actions can be added, modified, or removed to provide flexibility and more personalization to align processes. User-defined workflows start with a clean slate and are built from scratch. Within UKG Ready, some of the most commonly configured workflows include HR Action Request, Performance Reviews, Benefits, and Time Approvals such as Timesheets, Time Off Requests, and Timesheet Change Request.
Getting Started with Workflows
To begin the configuration process, navigate to Menu > Settings > Global Setup > Workflows. In simple terms, workflows consist of steps and actions. Over 20 types of workflow steps can be used to define the task that will happen at the different points of the process. These workflow steps are commonly used for approval processes, collecting notes and documents, generating notifications, assigning tasks or actions, and more. Workflow steps work in tune with the actions. Workflow actions determine what steps the workflow will go to next. Four different action types can be configured:
- On Created – The action that kicks off the workflow and will include a Next Step setting to continue the workflow.
- On Approved – This action directs what will happen next in the workflow after completing an approval action.
- On Rejected – This action directs what will happen next in the workflow after an approval action has been rejected.
- On Done – This action typically directs the step to end the workflow.
As you configure these different actions, it creates a pathway for each step to follow. Workflows should all make the final path lead to the On Done action.
Best Practice Tips for Configuring Your Workflows
Now that we’ve reviewed the components to get you started, let’s explore some best practices to get the most value out of configuring and reporting on your workflow statuses.
Set your workflow statuses. When configuring your workflow steps, consider setting your workflow status to help streamline your reporting. This can be done by updating the Set Status Label To field within the workflow steps. The more consistency used across your workflows, the easier it is to report on where each workflow is in the process.
Be clear when naming your workflow steps and actions. When configuring your steps and actions, providing a name that is clear and not duplicated helps avoid confusion when configuring the next steps of the action.
Build your workflow steps out first. Configuring your steps first will help easily connect your actions’ next steps.
Take your Workflows to the Next Level
Once you understand the basics of building out a workflow, there are options to elevate your workflows. As your organization grows or needs more complexities to automate, additional functionality, including employee filtering and advanced steps, can be added to your workflow configurations. You can create multiple approval or action paths that are driven by employee filters. Think of your time approvals and if you have a different approval process for your salaried versus hourly employees. The employee filter can be added within your actions to send employees through different approval pathways based on that filter.
Additionally, you can use Split and Join steps to break out your workflows into multiple groups for approval or action. The Split step should be configured first, allowing you to split out the action, and the Join step will bring the steps back together. A common use case would be if you have multiple time-off approvers. You could create a Split step for your different approvers, and when one approves the time off, the Join step can be configured to bring the workflow back together into one process to send to the next step.
Workflows can be simple or complex, depending on your organization’s needs. You can learn more about workflows by checking out the courses available within the Learning Center, including the Instructor-Led course Configure Basic Workflows. Access the Learning Center within your UKG Ready solution and navigate to My Info > Help > Learning Center. Additionally, you can dive into the Workflows section of the Global Setup User Guide within the Online Documentation portal (under My Info > Help > Online Documentation).