Triggers (Workflows) – StaffSavvy Support

Introducing Triggers

What is a Trigger?

A Trigger is a set of actions performed automatically by the system once triggered by an event. All that needs to be done to set up this automatic process is choose what event will cause this domino effect of actions. Then choose the actions that will follow on from the Trigger event. An action can be a single direction, such as sending an email to a line manager, or it can be a series of actions, such as send an email to a line manager, but also their squad leader and issue a document the staff member needs to sign. This all depends on how complex you need your trigger. Triggers were built for both simple automation tasks and to complete more complex processes.

Why are they useful?

Triggers are extremely flexible and can be used to help automate some of your day to day processes. If there are certain policies or protocols that always need to be followed, if you set up a trigger you can guarantee compliance and decrease the administrative load from managers trying to chase up things with individual staff members when it can all be set up automatically.

Trigger Terms

There are several key features that go into making up a trigger that are as follows:

Trigger: A set of actions that are performed automatically by StaffSavvy when something happens.

Event: Something that happens that can ‘fire’ a trigger. For example, an Event might involve a staff member completing a training stage.

Action: Something the system needs to do when the event happens. E.g. sending an email.

Triggers are extremely flexible ways to automate your workflow, making simple and useful changes to staff accounts.

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The image above shows the Triggers list, which is where all of your triggers will be shown. It is found under System > Manage Triggers. You can then add a trigger under the Actions menu.

Once you have a trigger, you will see a list, as in the image above, that gives you access to edit triggers, edit actions, and copy the trigger. Each trigger can be switched on or off. You can set up triggers and turn them on as needed by using the option shown next to their current status. You can also set a category for each trigger to help organise your triggers and filter by search. This is useful if you have many triggers and need to access them quickly.

Trigger Setup

To create a new one, click 'Create a New Trigger' in the actions bar. The Trigger has a title and notes field, which helps you keep track of what each trigger is being used for.

To begin with, set up a title relevant to what you need the trigger to do, for example, if you want to set a trigger on a staff member's birthday, you might name it ‘Birthday reminder’. These are both helpful details but the main configuration option is the 'Triggered When' button.

Trigger Events

The “Triggered when…” drop-down chooses the ‘event’ that will start the trigger running. Depending on the type of event, you will also be shown some additional options. You can choose from the drop-down list what will trigger this action.

There are a lot of trigger events that fall into these main categories, relating to: Absences, Awards, Check-ins, Documents, Expenses, Holiday, Recruitment, Regular Scheduling, Reports, Shifts, Staff, Time Entries, Training and Work Eligibility.

With triggers related to duration, such as ‘Number of days…’, you have the option to set up how soon the trigger itself is enacted. Duration triggers can now be set to run immediately. This might be used for expiring documents if you want to trigger the action immediately after this, as happened without a grace period.
After selecting the Trigger event you will need to fill in any remaining details. If your event is related to a duration, like the example above, you would need to select the period of time you want to apply this over. You must also select the number of instances before the event will be triggered.

So, for example, in the image above, it had been set up so that an action would be triggered if there were two or more instances of lateness within a two week period. The period here would be over 14 days (but could be any duration). Then you would select the number of occurrences (two shifts). Then under attendance flags select 'Lateness' so that the system is only taking into account shifts where the staff member has been late.

This is one example, other examples of a Trigger event could be, assigning a 'Staff Check-in' Document when account details are updated, or a staff contract has changed. This trigger event would be Staff account details changed. The complementary trigger action would be to assign a staff member a Check-in Document.

On all events, you have the option to exclude levels so that staff on those access levels will not trigger this event.

Trigger actions

Once you have created your trigger, click Edit Actions to view and add your Actions. You can have as many actions as you wish on a trigger. Actions range from adding/removing skills and venues from an employee’s account to sending emails and creating tasks.

When adding an action, you’ll see a form similar to the one you used when you completed adding a Trigger. You will be asked what type of action you want to add and then shown options based on that type of action.

Some exciting action options include being able to email all accounts assigned to a specific level using our trigger filters, or our most recent addition to actions is to 'Assign a Check-in form' via actions.

Most actions are straightforward and simply require you to pick an option, such as assigning an exam or form or document. Whereas some options are more complex. For example, if you chose the action: Email Squad, first you would need to select the Squad you want to email. Secondly, it will give you space to write out the email and the email subject heading.

Another example would be if you chose to set Task for a Skill. You would need to set the Skill it applies to, write out the task message and attach any additional documents in the message. You also would need to set who will be able to review tasks status, respond to questions about the task. Additionally, you must set the amount of days the task needs to be completed in; whether this is a group task or must be completed individually and whether or not the task is optional.

You can sort by skill and triggers, and you can also filter by level. This is really helpful if you are working with freelancers and contracted staff, as they might require different check-in forms or requirements.

Once you have chosen all of your actions, click save. If the trigger is enabled, the changes will be made instantly, and any new events will use the new settings. All executed actions on a trigger are recorded and will be available for audit purposes in a future update.

Triggers in practice

Now we have gone through how triggers work lets explore what that could look like in practice. For an example, say you want to set up a reminder to managers that lets them know when a staff member's birthday is approaching.

You would first set up the details, and call it Birthday Reminder. You can also add a note about the purpose of the Trigger for other managers to see.

Under Triggered When, you would select the 'Triggered on the staff member's birthday' option. The triggered when button offers a wide variety of triggering actions that can be quite specific, so make sure to look through them all to see if they would be useful for your company's running. Then you might want to set exemption levels, for those you do not want to trigger the action to. The exempt levels follow access levels. For this example we want to exclude freelancers and casual staff from this Trigger.

Once you save this page you will be prompted to add an action. Under 'What should we do?' you want to select the 'Email Line Managers' option.

Create a subject line for the email and start writing the email content. It might look something like this

" A staff member has a birthday today - please send them a message! "

If you wanted to add dynamic formatting you could personalise your email by copying and code into the main text box. For example if you copy 'Name:' here into the text, it will then include the full name of whoever triggered the event. Additionally, if you then copy and paste ‘link’, the system will go through to find the name, and then it will also give a link to their account. It would look like this:

" #name# has a birthday today - please send them a message!

#link# "

This means whoever the email has been sent out to will know the name and have the link to the account of the person who has the birthday and will be able to act accordingly.

Once saved and turned on, when it is a staff member's birthday their line manager will get an email saying it's that staff member's birthday.