Setting up approval flows for openings and offers

Relevant for: Recruiters

How do I set up approval flows for openings and offers in Leapsome?

Go to 'Settings' > 'Automations' > 'Approvals' and click 'New approval flow'. Choose 'ATS opening' or 'ATS offer' as the process, add your approval steps, and click 'Save'. Without an approval flow, openings and offers are approved automatically.

Approval flows make sure the right people sign off before you hire. With an opening approval, headcount is approved before anyone starts hiring for it. With an offer approval, compensation and terms are approved before the offer goes to the candidate. Recruiting uses the same approval flows as other processes in Leapsome, so approvers review recruiting requests the same way they review other approvals.

Table of Contents:

• When should I use approval flows in Recruiting?
• How do I create an approval flow for openings or offers?
• What happens when an approval flow applies?
• Who can set up and approve recruiting approval flows?

When should I use approval flows in Recruiting?

• When finance or leadership needs to sign off on new headcount before hiring starts
• When offers need approval from HR, leadership, or the hiring manager before they're sent
• When only requests from certain people, teams, or locations need approval

How to create an approval flow for openings or offers

1. Go to 'Settings' > 'Automations' > 'Approvals' and click 'New approval flow'. You can also click 'New approval flow' directly in the 'ATS opening' or 'ATS offer' section of the page.
2. Enter a 'Name' and choose the 'Process': 'ATS opening' or 'ATS offer'.
3. Under 'Relevant requesters', choose 'All requesters' or 'Selected requesters', e.g., by user, team, work location, custom attribute, or access role.
4. Under 'Steps', choose an 'Approver' for each step, e.g., specific people, the requester's manager, an admin, an HRBP, a custom access role, or a hiring team role on the job, such as the job's Hiring Manager. Click 'New step' to add more steps.
5. Optional: turn on 'Enable implicit approval' to automatically approve steps the requester could approve themselves. Turn on 'Applies to admins' if module and platform admins should also need approval for their own requests.
6. Click 'Save'.

Note: An approval flow is matched to the person who creates the opening or offer, not to the candidate. If several flows match the same person, the flow highest in the list is used. You can drag flows to change their priority, and use 'Check approval flow for employee' to see which flow applies to someone.

What happens when an approval flow applies?

Openings

• When a flow applies, the main button on the opening form reads 'Submit for approval' instead of 'Publish'.
• A submitted opening shows 'Waiting for approval' and changes to 'Open' once it's approved.
• If you move a pending opening back to draft, or cancel or fill it, the running approval stops.

Offers

• After you click 'Submit for approval', the offer shows 'Pending approval' and then 'Ready to send' once it's approved.
• If an approver declines the offer, it goes back to 'Draft'. The offer creator gets a notification, including any comment from the approver.
• Offer creators are also notified when their offer is approved.
• If you revise an approved offer, it needs approval again when a flow applies.

Note: If an approval can't start, the opening or offer stays in its previous state.

Who can set up and approve recruiting approval flows?

• Admins who can configure approval flows set them up. To set up flows for recruiting processes, they also need access to openings or offers. You can see the details in the permission descriptions in 'Settings' > 'Employees' > 'Feature access matrix'.
• Approvers can open the offer they're asked to approve, even without other offer permissions.