What are Approval Workflows?

The topic of Approval Workflows is one of the Three Pillars of PolicyStat. For more on the Three Pillars concept or to view the other two Pillars, see this article. 

All policies must complete the Approval Workflow process prior to becoming active and searchable.

Previous to PolicyStat, many clients documented approval processes through verbal, electronic, or physical methods. PolicyStat’s Approval Workflows help translate existing approval processes to defined, documented, and streamlined Workflows that maintain compliance with accreditation and/or regulatory bodies.

 

Approval Workflows (04:05)

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All policies start in a draft format and pend for approval through an Approval Workflow. When the policy completes the Workflow, it becomes active and searchable. The graphic below displays the lifecycle process for a policy to move from draft to active within PolicyStat.

Policy Lifecycle

Sample Approval Workflow

 

Starting the Approval Workflow

Once a draft is considered complete, a user with Edit rights (Owner, Approver, Area Editor, Area Manager, Site Administrator) starts the Approval Workflow process. 

For more information on this process, see this article.

 

Approve During an Approval Workflow

During the Approval Workflow process, Approvers can make approvals, comment, edit, and collaborate on any policy documents internal to PolicyStat. Once the Approver approves (by clicking Approve), automatic routing moves the policy from one Approver (or committee) to the next in line.

For more on how to approve a pending policy as it progresses through a workflow, see this article.

Reject/Edit During an Approval Workflow

If any Approver or Committee changes, edits, or rejects the policy, a new draft is created and the approval process restarts. This ensures Approvers view and approve only the latest version.

For more on how to reject or edit a pending policy, see this article.

 

Approval Workflow Process

 

Collaborative Commenting

DID YOU KNOW?

Approval Workflows cover the required steps for compliance, but PolicyStat also offers collaborative commenting to gather input from any PolicyStat users outside the Workflow within the tool.

For more on collaborative commenting, see this article.

Approval Committees

Some policies require review by a committee, and sometimes membership in the committee can be fluid and change often. PolicyStat allows a committee to be named as part of an Approval Workflow, an Approval Workflow can list a committee name and designate one Approver as responsible for marking that committee's approval. That way, the committee can discuss the policy during a meeting and mark approvals without requiring everyone to log in to PolicyStat to do so.

In the example below, on Step 3 of this Approval Workflow, Scott Whitehouse would be responsible for presenting the pending policy to the HR committee. When the members of the HR committee agree to approve the policy, Scott will be responsible for logging in to PolicyStat to provide approval on the committee's behalf. 

 

Completing the Approval Workflow/Active 

When the final Approver/committee approves, the policy becomes active and searchable for all end users.

Modifying Approval Workflows

Changes to an Approval Workflow including edits, creating new workflows, or deleting old are to be completed by a Site Administrator.

For more on those processes, please see this article.

 

A quick disclaimer that some terms may differ for your location, but the concepts are universal. Area may be known as Policy Area, Department, Category, or another term on your PolicyStat site.

 

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This article applies to the following user roles: