Managing Approvals

Spock streamlines the approval process for any type of leave request. When submission requires approval, each request is automatically directed to an approver. Approvers can be auto-assigned based on your organizational hierarchy or manually appointed to any member of your team.

Upon a member submitting a leave request, Spock promptly notifies the designated approvers. Approvers can then review and approve the request directly from Slack notifications or via our user-friendly Dashboard. Once an approval decision is made, Spock immediately updates the requestor and concurrently informs other relevant approvers.

You can view assigned approvers within each member's profile.

How to set up an approval workflow

You can set up approval for any leave type:

1. Go to Settings > Leave Types
2. Select Leave Type you want to add approval
3. Set Approval is required to ON

From now approval will be required when this leave type is requested.

How to approve a leave request

When a member submits a leave request with the required approval, Spock sends a notification to approvers. The approver can approve the request in 3 ways:

1. Directly in Notification - Notification message contains buttons that can approve the request.

   

2. Spock Home Tab - A list of pending approvals is displayed in Spock Home Tab.

   

3. Dashboard - In the dashboard in the Leaves section pending requests of approvals are displayed.

   

How approvers are selected

When a team member submits a leave request, Spock identifies the appropriate approvers and sends them a notification for approval. There are two primary methods Spock uses to select approvers:

A. Approvers are selected based on Organizational Structure

The organizational structure (OS) represents the company's hierarchy. Spock allows you to create teams that represent departments or projects. The next element which defines OS is member roles:

• General Manager: Can approve leave requests from any team member.
• Team Manager: Can approve leave requests from members of their own team.

For a detailed explanation of the selection process, refer to the Approval Workflow Rules

B. Approvers are assigned manually

Spock also allows you to bypass the OS-based selection by manually assigning approvers to any member. To assign custom approvers, follow these steps:

1. Go to member's profile
2. Click on the Approval tab

3. Here, you'll find information about the current approval workflow and the selected approvers.

   

4. Click Select Approvers Manually

   

5. Choose approvers by typing name 

   

6. The approver can by any member

   

7. Click Save

   

Now members' approvers are set. Every time a member requests leave these approvers are selected.

Approval Workflow Rules

The approval workflow in Spock follows a structured set of rules to ensure efficient and appropriate handling of leave requests:

1. General Manager

• Leave requests submitted by a General Manager are automatically approved.

2. Manually Selected Approvers

• If a user has manually designated approver(s), these approver(s) will be responsible for approving the leave request.

3. Team Member

• For team members, the approver(s) are their respective Team Manager(s).

4. Non-Team Member

• If the user is not part of any team, the approver(s) default to the General Manager(s).

5. Team Manager

• Leave requests submitted by a Team Manager are auto-approved.
• This rule can be overridden by enabling the appropriate policy (Settings > Policies > Auto-Approval for Team Managers' Leave Requests). When this policy is activated, the General Manager(s) become the approver(s).

6. General Manager Approval

• A General Manager has the authority to approve any leave request within the organization.

By adhering to these rules, Spock ensures that your approval process is both streamlined and adherent to the organizational hierarchy and policies.