The Mystery of Kronos Workflow Notifications

One (of many?) Kronos Workforce Central Mysteries

My favorite definition of a mystery is not one that is usually found when looking up the word in a dictionary. It was once told to me that a mystery is anything that has not yet been revealed. I like this definition because it gives me hope that most things that are not known now will be known in the future. Sometimes, the answer hasn’t been revealed because the path to solving it is not clear. This can also be true for Work Flow Notifications. 

I have found in working with many of my clients in the past that the way that Work Flow Notifications in Kronos Workforce Central Timekeeper operate is not intuitive to the people that are learning how to set them up. They often don’t have a clear understanding of the different types of notifications and how HyperFind Queries drive the inclusion of data in the notifications and the distribution of those notifications.

Let’s use an example of a typical Work Flow Notification, where a manager has not yet approved employee time cards after the pay period has closed. Which mangers get a notification, and who is listed as not approved in the notification, is based on the intersection of three elements. 

1. The Manager’s Employee Group Set

   (Which employees a manager sees in Kronos).

2. The Employee HyperFind Query

   (Who is in the list of employees without time card approval).

3. The Recipient HyperFind Query

   (Who will receive a notification if conditions 1 and 2 are met).

So, if an Employee is in the Employee HyperFind Query AND if the Manager is in the Recipient HyperFind Query AND if the Employee is in the Managers Employee Group, the Manager will get an email with a list of those employees whose time card has not yet been approved.

It is important to emphasize the Employee Group Set since, unlike the Time Off Request process, the Work Flow Notification process does not use the “Reports To” value in the People Editor. Because it is based on Employee Groups, ALL managers in Kronos that have visibility to an employee whose time card is not approved.

What if you don’t want the President of the company to get a notification that one of Pat Super’s employee's time cards has not been approved yet? Not a problem. A few tweaks to the Manager and Employee HyperFind queries and the creation of multiple Workflow Notifications can help you narrow down which employees are seen by which managers. 

Here’s an example of how this might work. Let’s say there are five types of employees:

• Level 1 Presidents

• Level 2 VPs

• Level 3 Directors

• Level 4 Managers

• Level 5 Employees

Work Flow 1

• Manager HyperFind would include Level 1 Managers

• Employee HyperFind would include Level 2 Employees

Work Flow 2

• Manager HyperFind would include Level 2 Managers

• Employee HyperFind would include Level 3 Employees

Work Flow 3

• Manager HyperFind would include Level 3 Managers

• Employee HyperFind would include Level 4 Employees

Work Flow 4

• Manager HyperFind would include Level 4 Managers

• Employee HyperFind would include Level 5 Employees

I hope this blog helps take some of the mystery out of Work Flow Notifications and helps explain what is going on behind the scenes. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or would like to share your own experiences with Work Flow Notifications.