Important Information About Pushing Workflow Edits to Active Appraisals

This topic explains what happens when an administrator chooses to push changes made to a workflow to associated active appraisals, and how standard Talent Management behavior may impact whether appraisal changes are retained when this happens.

How Appraisals are Affected When an Administrator Updates a Workflow

When administrators update a performance workflow associated with active appraisals they are prompted whether they want to update all associated appraisals with these changes. If they select Yes, all associated appraisals still in the first Planning phase will be updated. Pushing workflow edits through to previously launched appraisals is typically done only to catch errors post launch. Before you choose to do this, read closely to understand the process.

• Launched/Active Appraisals Are Only Updated If The User Chooses to Do So: When Administrators update a performance workflow, if active appraisals are based on that workflow the administrator will be prompted to choose whether to push these changes to all associated appraisals. You have the option to select Yes or No. If you select Yes, only associated appraisals still in the first Planning phase will be updated.
• The Phase of the Appraisal Matters: Only Appraisals in First Planning Phase Are Updated: Even if an administrator selects, Yes, when prompted if they want to update existing appraisals, only associated appraisals still in the first Planning phase will be updated. This means:
  • If the workflow has no Planning phase or has another type of phase before the Planning phase (for example a Performance, Assessment, or Review type phase), then No active appraisals will be updated, even if you selected that you wanted to updated existing appraisals.
  • If an appraisal has multiple Planning phases, appraisals will only be updated if currently in the initial Planning phase. If you have clicked Move to Next Phase, No active appraisals will be updated, even if you selected that you wanted to update existing appraisals.
• Moved to Next Phase: The appraisal must be in the Planning Phase, and in the first phase for workflow changes to carry over to an associated appraisal. After you click the Move to Next Phase button to progress the appraisal onto the phase after the first Planning phase, any workflow changes made will not update the appraisal, even if you move it back into the first Planning Phase.
• Updating a Workflow Does Not Trigger Notifications: When an administrator makes edits to a workflow and chooses to push those changes through to active appraisals, this action cancels the existing appraisal and creates a new appraisal. The typical notifications events, for example, Appraisal Created, Appraisal Cancelled, and more, do not get triggered. This makes the process seamless to the end users.

What Happens to Content on Appraisals When an Administrator Pushes Workflow Updates

When editing a workflow and updating existing appraisals, the following information is important to know regarding what will happen to content on appraisals, for example, goals, competencies, skills, or scales.

• Manually Added Content and Library Content Is Copied: Content manually added to the appraisal prior to the workflow being updated will be copied from the existing appraisal to the new appraisal. This applies to content manually added/edited or added from the library.
• Manually Removed Content Will Reappear: Content defaulted from the appraisal workflow which has been manually removed by an end user from an existing appraisal will reappear in the new appraisal as it was not removed at the workflow level.
• Journal Entries are Retained: Any associated Journal entries for content from the existing appraisal(s) will be retained in the new appraisal. This applies whether the journal entries are a workflow metric or manually added.
• New Content Added to the Workflow Will Appear on the Appraisals: New Content added to the edited workflow will be added to the new appraisal, since this is a change coming from the workflow. For more information, see below, Best Practices for Managing Performance Workflows.
• Category Scale Changes: When Category scale changes are made in a workflow and an administrator chooses to push workflow updates, these category changes will apply to all active appraisals.
• Content Weights : Depending on the workflow edits made, weights may no longer be evenly distributed due to manually edited content weights or content that has been manually added. Talent Management handles content weights in one of two ways, depending on the configuration in Step 6 of the workflow, and the configuration of the System Setting View Appraisal Weights:
  • If the Manager has the permission to edit weights (Manager is selected in the View Appraisal Weight System Setting), the manager must manually revise the weights of the content.
  • If the Manager is not allowed to edit weights (Manager is not selected in the View Appraisal Weight System Setting), Talent Management automatically adjusts the weights for the appraisal. This will take effect when the user clicks the Content tab, and the expectation is that the weight will be evenly distributed across all of the content.
• Signatures: Signatures completed in the existing appraisal are retained and copied to the new appraisal. No new signatures will be prompted based on changes made in the edited Workflow. Refer to Best Practices for Managing Performance Workflows for information on the process to use if you need to collect signatures based on changes.