By following the steps below, you can ensure that escalation actions are triggered appropriately, enhancing the efficiency and responsiveness of the approval process. The process includes
Creating escalation policies,
Adding them to the approval steps
While you have the option to create new policies, EmpowerID offers a Default Escalation Policy for your convenience. This default policy includes predefined actions and escalation cutoff days.
To use these policies, you need to create and add them to the approval steps. However, you must make additional configurations if you plan to use the Notify escalation action type to send email notifications. It is important to note that failure to configure these settings will result in the notifications not working.
More information about the default policy and additional configurations can be found in this documentation.
Step 1: Creating Policies
Creating an escalation policy is the first step in managing business requests that haven't been acted upon within a specified timeframe. This policy outlines the actions and timeframes for escalations. Once created, these policies can be applied to multiple approval steps with similar escalation situations. Follow the instructions below to create an escalation policy.
Navigate to Low Code / No Code Workflows and click on the Approval Policies.
Click on the Escalation Policies Tab.
Click on the Create New ➕ icon.
Provide a Name and Display Name for the escalation policy and click on Save.
Search for the recently saved policy and click on the link to open the view one page.
In the View One Page, Find the accordion for Escalation Actions and click on the Add icon.
Provide the necessary values and click on Save.
Escalation after X Days: Number of days after which the escalation action should execute.
Escalation Actions: Actions to be performed as part of the escalation. Escalation actions can include notifications, adding assignees, auto-closing items or steps, etc. Each type of action has specific configurations:
Notify: Select the participant type (e.g., potential approver, potential approver's manager) who will receive the notification.
Add Assignee: Define the type of assignee (person, group, management role) to be added after a specified time.
Auto-Close Item: Define the decision action (approve, revoke, certify, convert to JT) to auto-close the item after a specified time.
Auto-Close Step: Close a specific step in the approval flow, allowing the process to move to the next step.
Name: Name of the escalation step.
Display Name: Provide a user-friendly label or "Display Name."
To add more steps, repeat the same steps.
Click on the Publish button on the display screen. Unpublished policies will not be available for mapping to approval steps.
Step 2: Adding Escalation Policies to Approval Steps
Approval steps are part for configuring approval and routing in the approval engine. This section focuses solely on linking escalation policies to approval steps. Note that the approval step must also be added to policies. Please refer to the full documentation for comprehensive instructions on configuring approval steps and policies.
After creating an escalation policy, the next step is to map this policy to specific approval steps within your workflow. This ensures that each approval process step triggers the defined escalation actions appropriately. Follow the instructions below to add escalation policies to approval steps,
Navigate to Low Code / No Code Workflows and click on the No Code Flows.
Select the Approval Steps tab and click on the Add icon to create a new approval step.
Provide the necessary details and click on Save to save the approval step. Please ensure that you select the desired escalation policy from the Escalation Policy dropdown, which we created earlier.
You have successfully created an approval step with a configured escalation policy by following these steps.
Default Escalation Policy
A default escalation policy is applied if no specific policy is configured for an approval step. The default escalation policy includes the following three actions:
Notify Potential Approver: After three (3) days of no action, send a notification to the potential approver.
Notify Potential Approver Again: This action sends another notification if no action is taken within seven(7) days.
Notify the Target Person's Manager: If no action is taken on the business request item after fifteen (15) days, notify the target person's manager.
Additional Configuration for Notify Escalation
You need to ensure the notify escalation action works in these additional configurations. Failing to configure this might result in its failure.
Ensure Notification Policies are Configured
Notification policies for business request escalations are shipped with the product; however, you must ensure they are configured correctly. These policies define who gets notified and when during an escalation triggered by inactivity in a workflow.
Navigate to Low Code / No Code Workflow → Notification Policies.
Click on the Notification Policies tab.
Verify that the notification policies are configured. The policies for the Business Request Event (Global) type should be set to "Renotification," and notification policies should be configured for each participant type (e.g., potential approver, target person manager) and used in the escalation steps.
Email Templates for Escalation
The Email Notification Policy should include an email template as the notification message. Currently, the out-of-the-box email template is being used for the notification policies. The template MyTasks_BusinessRequestTtem_ApprovalStep_Approval_Renotification is currently used for all re-notification policies and contains a general notification message.
Ensure Notification Preferences are Configured
Create notification preferences for each participant type to ensure users receive email notifications. Note that these preferences are currently created from the database, not through a UI.
Navigate to Low Code / No Code Workflow → Notification Policies.
Click on the Notification Preferences tab.
Ensure that the Notification Preferences are created for all participant types used in the escalation actions.
