Alternate Approvers - Overview

Introduction

Whether an approver is on annual leave, away on business, or simply needs support managing a high volume of nominations, Alternate Approvers help ensure that recognition doesn't get held up waiting for an approval.

By assigning one or more Alternate Approvers, approvers can delegate their Nomination review responsibilities to trusted colleagues, helping maintain momentum and ensuring employee recognition is processed without unnecessary delays.

With the latest enhancements, Alternate Approvers are now fully supported for programs using Flex Approvals, making the feature available across our most flexible and widely adopted nomination approval method.

About Alternate Approvers

An Alternate Approver is someone who can manage nominations on behalf of another approver.

Once assigned, Alternate Approvers can access and process nominations that would normally be routed to the original approver. This allows approvals to continue seamlessly when the original approver is unavailable.

Alternate Approvers can be assigned:

• For a specific period of time (for example, during annual leave)
• Indefinitely, until the assignment is removed

You can appoint one or multiple Alternate Approvers, depending on your needs.

What's New

We've refreshed the Alternate Approver experience to make it easier and more intuitive to manage.

As part of this update, we've:

• Introduced a streamlined user experience for managing Alternate Approvers
• Enhanced the underlying functionality to improve reliability
• Extended functionality for Flex Approvals nomination method
• Improved alternate approver workflows across nomination programs

These improvements help reduce approval bottlenecks and ensure nominations continue moving through the approval process, even when key approvers are unavailable.

How To Assign an Alternate Approver

Approvers can manage Alternate Approvers directly from the Review Nominations area of the platform.

1. Navigate to Review Nominations
2. Open the Alternate Approvers section
3. Select the colleague(s) you would like to appoint
4. Choose whether the appointment should:
   • Run indefinitely, or
   • Have a specific start and end date
5. Save your changes

Once assigned, the Alternate Approver will receive an email notification confirming their appointment and, where applicable, the duration of the assignment.

What Alternate Approvers Can Do

During an active assignment, Alternate Approvers can:

• View nominations assigned to the original approver
• Approve nominations on the original approver's behalf
• Reject nominations on the original approver's behalf
• Process nominations across all programs and approval levels where the original approver has approval responsibilities

Social Wall Comments

If an Alternate Approver adds an approval reason to a nomination that is configured to share approval comments on the Social Wall, the comment will appear under the name of the original approver.

This reflects the fact that the approval action was performed on behalf of the original approver.

Things To Know

• Alternate Approvers are managed by individual approvers and cannot be assigned at a program level.
• Multiple Alternate Approvers can be appointed at the same time.
• Assignments can be temporary or ongoing.
• Alternate Approvers are configured through the Review Nominations experience.
• The feature helps prevent nominations from remaining pending when approvers are unavailable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I assign more than one Alternate Approver?

A: Yes. You can assign multiple Alternate Approvers if required.

Q: Can an administrator assign Alternate Approvers for someone else?

A: No. Alternate Approvers are managed by the individual approver and cannot be configured at the program level.

Q: Can I set an end date for an assignment?

A: Yes. You can choose a specific date range or leave the assignment open-ended.

Q: Will Alternate Approvers be notified when they're assigned?

A: Yes. An email notification is sent when an Alternate Approver is appointed.

Q: Does this work with Flex Approvals?

A: Yes. Alternate Approvers are now fully supported for Flex Approvals, helping ensure nominations continue to progress even when the assigned approver is unavailable.