Available for the following HR plans: Platinum
Available for the following User Access level: Admin
Managing HR tasks efficiently is essential to keeping your Canadian business running smoothly. Employment Hero’s Workflows feature helps automate and streamline repetitive HR processes, ensuring consistency, reducing manual effort, and improving compliance with provincial regulations. Whether you’re onboarding new employees in Ontario, managing expense approvals in BC, or tracking key certification renewals, Workflows provide a structured approach to help you save time and stay organized. To learn more about Workflows, you can read this article.
What are Workflows?
Workflows allow you to automate and standardize HR processes by setting up predefined When-If-Then sequences. These sequences guide users through each step, ensuring that required actions—such as document signatures or account provisioning—are completed in a timely and consistent manner. You can customize workflows to match your organization’s unique processes, assign tasks to the right people, and monitor progress seamlessly.
Key Benefits of Workflows
Increased Efficiency – Automate repetitive HR tasks like welcome emails and task assignments to save time and reduce manual errors.
Consistency and Compliance – Ensure all steps in a process are followed correctly, reducing the risk of missing legal deadlines or regulatory issues.
Improved Collaboration – Assign tasks to different team members across departments, track progress, and ensure clear accountability.
Customization – Tailor workflows to fit specific provincial requirements, unique internal processes, or different employee groups.
Better Employee Experience – Provide clear, automated guidance for employees and managers, making mandatory HR tasks easier to complete.
Daily Activity: How to Get Started
Using Workflows in the Canadian platform is designed to be simple. You can choose to use pre-built templates from the Template Hub or build a custom automation from scratch.
Access Workflows – Navigate to the Workflows icon (the flowchart symbol) on the left-hand navigation menu.
Select a Pre-Built Workflow or Create a New One – Go to the Browse Templates tab to use a "One-Click" setup for common processes, or click Create New to start from a blank canvas.
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Define the Logic (When-If-Then) – Complete the sequence:
WHEN this happens: Select a trigger, such as "Employee has completed onboarding setup" or "Expense Created".
IF these conditions are met: Add filters, such as specific locations (e.g., Toronto HQ), teams, or amounts (e.g., expenses over $100).
THEN do this: Choose the action the platform should take, such as "Request Approval," "Send Email Notification," or "Create Task".
Assign Tasks and Set Rules – Determine who is responsible for each action and define due dates or backup approvers.
Monitor Progress – Use the Manage Workflows tab to track task completion, edit active flows, or receive notifications when actions are overdue.
Common Use Cases for Workflows
Employee Onboarding – Automate welcoming new hires, assigning provincial induction tasks, and ensuring all compliance documents are signed. To learn more, you can go to this article.
Account Provisioning – Automatically create Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 accounts as soon as a new employee starts.
Leave and Expense Approvals – Set up multi-level approval chains that route requests to the correct manager based on the employee's team or the claim amount.
Employee File Changes – Trigger an approval workflow whenever an employee requests to change sensitive data, such as banking details or their home address.
Performance Reviews – Structure and schedule performance appraisals with automated reminders and task assignments for managers and staff.
Questions
Do I need to publish a workflow for it to work? Yes. After building or selecting a template, click "Save Flow" and "Publish" for the automation to become active. Actions triggered before publishing will not be captured by the new workflow.
Can I stop admins from bypassing approval steps? Yes. For sensitive workflows like leave or expenses, you can navigate to the Workflow Settings and toggle on Restrict Admin Overrides to ensure the designed approval path is always followed.
Where can I see which workflows are currently running? Click the Workflows menu and select the Manage Workflows tab. Here, you can see all active and inactive workflows, filter them by category (e.g., Onboarding, Time Off), and see when they were last edited.
Explore content
Getting started: Onboarding your employees. This guide helps you to onboard your employees in Employment Hero.
Available workflow templates. This feature allows you to create automations for you to take action when a set of requirements is met or a specific action occurs.