Nominations - Setting up an Approval Structure for Nominations

Background

This article provides information about Approval Structures for Nominations and how those structures are set up. Learn more about the supported features, how approval levels work, how to appoint approvers, and much more.

Overview

When setting up a Nomination program, clients can determine the relationship between employees and approvers through one of four methods:

1. Open: anyone can nominate a colleague for an award. Users with the Approver role can review any of the nominations on the system, at the approval level they have been appointed for (approval levels will be covered later in this article).
2. Open (selectable): anyone can nominate a colleague and freely select an approver. Approvers can only review entries assigned to them, and only one level of approval is available.
3. Open (nominee): all eligible nominees must be linked to an approver, at each of the approval levels the program requires. Approvers can only review entries about nominees linked to them, within the levels they are assigned to.
4. Closed: all eligible nominators must be linked to an approver, at each of the approval levels the program requires. Approvers can only review entries about nominators linked to them, within the levels they are assigned to.
5. Flex Approvals: Approvers are automatically calculated from the organization hierarchy based on the criteria chosen.

Supported Features

The table below explains what features each method supports.

Please note:

- In order to be appointed successfully, approvers need to be registered to the site. Unregistered users cannot be given the Approver role.

- If the Approver role is manually removed for a person, it will not automatically be reinstated through the employee data file and must be added manually through the permission for that member. 

- There is a limit of 5 to the number of approval levels a nomination program can have.

Useful Information

The Way Approval Levels Work

Most clients only have one level of approval for each of their nomination programs. This means that, in order for a nomination to be turned into an award or rejected, only one approver needs to review it.

Clients with more complex hierarchies can set up multiple levels of approval. For example, two levels of approval would mean that:

1. The approver at level 1 is the first to receive the nomination. They can choose whether to approve or reject it.
2. Nominations that have been rejected at Level 1 do not move forward in the process
3. Nominations that have been approved at Level 1 are submitted to a Level 2 approver. This is the person who makes the final decision on whether to turn it into an award or reject it.

More than one approver can be assigned to each approval level. However, once a nomination is submitted, each level of approval only needs to be actioned once, regardless of how many people have permission to access it (i.e. approver committees are not supported).

Clients can customize the number of required approval levels for each specific award. For example:

• There can be an award that only requires two levels of approval within a program that normally requires three levels
• However, there cannot be an award that requires three levels of approval within a program that normally allows two.

How To Appoint Approvers in the Open (Nominee) and Closed Methods

The most common way of linking approvers to employees is in bulk, through the employee data file. Clients will need to add the approver’s employee ID in the row corresponding to the employee they are linking the approver to.

If the Nomination Method is Open (Nominee) or Closed, clients need to add extra columns to their employee data file, depending on how many programs and / or approval levels they have.

Here’s an example for one program with two approval levels:

Here’s an example for two separate programs with one approval level each:

Here’s an example for two separate programs (the first has two approval levels, the second only has one):

The Meaning of Multiple Approvers

Clients using the Open (Nominee) or Closed method can link employees to multiple approvers. This can help them set up appropriate approval relationships in situations when multiple people have oversight of an employee’s work (e.g. a Retail employee working in a branch with multiple Store Managers). Once we enable multiple approvers for a scheme, we wont be able to turn it off. A new award scheme will have to be created to support the change in the approval method.

When linking multiple approvers to employees through the employee data file, the columns will accept approver IDs as comma-separated values, as in the example below (two separate programs, one level of approval each):

Clients who would like to use this feature need to request it from their Account Manager, Client Success Manager, or Client Support Team before they can start using it.

The Meaning of Alternate Approvers

Approvers who need help processing the nominations assigned to them can appoint one or more Alternate Approvers to approve or reject nominations on their behalf. This can help achieve a quicker turnaround of nominations submitted and reviewed.

Each approver can appoint their Alternate Approvers through the Review Nominations page on the website. This option is not available in Reward Manager. As it's each individual Approver's choice, Alternate Approvers cannot be added at program level.

Alternate Approvers can be appointed indefinitely or for a specific period of time. A notification email will let them know they have been appointed, and how long the appointment will last.

For the duration of their appointment, Alternate Approvers will be able to see, approve and reject all nominations submitted to the original Approver, for any program or at any approval level the original Approver is assigned to.

If an Alternate Approver adds an approval reason to a nomination that has been set to be shared on the Social Wall, the approval reason will appear as a comment on the Wall, and the author of the comment will be the original Approver.

Clients who would like to use this feature need to request it from their Account Manager, Client Success Manager, or Client Support Team before approvers can start using it.

The Role of a Super Approver

A Super Approver has access to all nominations submitted through the platform, within any program and at any level of approval.

Super Approvers do not need to be linked to specific Nomination programs or specific employees in order to view, approve and reject nominations. 

When a Super Approver approves a nomination on a programme with multiple approval levels set up, the nomination will still need to be approved at the other approval levels. 

The Super Approver role cannot be delegated to an Alternate Approver. 

To assign the Super Approver role to a user, please make a request to the Client Support Team.

If nominations have multiple levels of approvals, then:

• An RR approver will approve all levels in one go only if they are approvers on each level [Except in OPEN nomination mode with multiple approvers on each level]
• A Super approver will only be able to approve one level at a time, unless they are set as approvers on the consecutive levels [Except in OPEN nomination mode with multiple approvers on each level]
• An Internal User will only be able to approve one level at a time

The super approver will need to approve each level separately, unless they are actually set up as approvers on the consecutive levels.
The OPEN nomination mode is special because it allows for a pool of approvers on each level - in that scenario, you, as a REGULAR approver, will need to approve each level separately, unless you are always the first approver on the list for each level.

R&R Nomination Modes With Examples

As mentioned above, there are currently 5 nomination method modes:

• Open
• Open (Nominee)
• Closed
• Open (Selectable)
• Flex Approvals

We will create a Test Programme with 3 levels of approvals and 3 awards credited at each level:

Programme Approver Levels

Programme Awards

3 Approvers Level 1

2 Approvers Level 2

1 Approver Level 3

1. Open

In Open Nomination Mode, all approvers can see all nominations and process them. Nominees and nominators do not need to be linked to specific approver. If an Approver has no special rights, they can approve only the awards that are on their assigned level or below.
For example, if Flo (Level 2 approver) tries to approve a Level 3 Award:

Award goes to Reed and after approval looks like this (see log):

If the approver was Don (Level 1 Approver), the award would have been waiting on level 2 for approval.
If the approver has the role Reward Recognition Super Approver or Internal User and its none of these 3 approvers, then he will have to approve the award on each level separately:

2. Open (Nominee)

In Open (Nominee) Nomination Mode, nominees must be linked to an approver in order to nominate them. The nomination will go to the nominees approver(s) to process. Approvers can be different members on each Level.
Same examples from 1. Open can be used.

3 Levels Award, approved on each level by a different Approver

3 Levels Award, approved by the same approver assigned on all 3 Levels at once

Super Approvers and Internal Users can approve only per each level individually.

3. Closed

In Closed Nomination Mode, nominators must be linked to an approver in order to nominate. The nomination will go to the nominators approver(s) to process. Approvers can be different members on each Level.
Same examples as 1. Open and 2. Open (Nominee) can be used, but this time nominators must be linked, not nominees.

4. Open (Selectable)

In Open (Selectable) Nomination Mode, anyone can nominate someone for an award. Nominators can freely choose an approver to process the nomination. Approvers cannot be different members on each Level, it must be the same person, which makes levels redundant or obsolete. Thats why, the best usage of Open (Selectable) is with only 1 level for the award.

5. Flex Approvals

In Flex Approvals Nomination Mode, approvers are automatically calculated from the organization hierarchy based on the criteria chosen.

Important

On multiple level awards, if there is not assigned Approver for the next level, the nomination cannot be approved even by a member with the role Reward Recognition Super Approver or Internal User and will remain stuck.

Award can be sent to Level 1 Approver (Don is approver only on Level 1), but if he is not set to be Level 2 and 3, he would not be able to process the award.