There may be times when you are involved in a review process, such as an Annual Review or Promotion & Tenure. A review process is referred to as a Submission, and it requires action. As a candidate or a reviewer, your processes can be accessed using the Workflow link on the Navigation Bar.
Emails are commonly received whenever a submission is awaiting completion. These emails provide a direct, authenticated link to the task awaiting your involvement. Logging in outside of the email links will require accessing the Workflow link shown above, which will bring up the Inbox and History tables where you can access a submission that you are involved in.
Inbox and History Tables
These tables contain submissions for review processes in which you are involved in. Submissions that require action will appear in your "Inbox" table, while completed submissions or submissions that are currently in another step of the process will appear in the "History" table. The information each column displays for each table is detailed below.
The information each column displays for each table is detailed below.
Inbox Table
- Name: The title of the Schedule (process) which the submission is associated with.
- Step: Specifies the step the submission is currently in.
- Candidate: Lists the name of the individual for whom the submission is intended for.
- Due Date: Indicates the due date for the current step.
History Table
- Name: The title of the Schedule to which the submission is associated with.
- Current Step: Indicates the name of the step the process is on currently.
- Candidate: Lists the name of the individual under review.
- Due Date: Indicates the specified due date for the current step.
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Actions: This column contains a list of action options available to you when expanding the facing down arrow, such as recalling the submission or downloading the contents of the submission.
Note: To learn about other ways to access a submission, see this article: How to Access a Workflow Submission.
Due Date
All steps in a process will have an assigned due date. The due dates for submissions will be visible in the "Due Date" column of both the Inbox and History tables. Additionally, when accessing a submission from the Inbox table, you can find the due date in the top header, along with the specified step you are contributing to in the submission.
Send Back
When a submission is sent back to your step by a participant that used the "Send Back to Previous Step" feature, you'll notice a blue box within the submission. This blue box contains the subject line and any message the participant may have included noting the reason for returning the submission to you. Additionally, the blue box message will specify the participant who sent it back to you, following the "from" text in the blue box. You can refer to the image below to see how the blue box would appear.
When a submission is returned using the "Send Back to Previous Step
How to contribute to a Submission
When you open a workflow task, you will see a form for candidates to fill out for their submission. Certain fields within the form may be marked as required and must be completed in order to finalize the submission. This is a configuration option that was selected when the form was created by the Workflow Administrator. Candidates may have rich text formatting options depending on the type of fields selected, allowing them to organize and emphasize their information as needed. The type of fields a candidate may see in their form are listed in the table below.
| Field Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Drop Down List: List of predefined values from which a candidate can select only one value. | |
| File Upload: Attach a file to supplement the workflow submission. Only one file may be uploaded at a time, but multiple files can be uploaded as a .zip file. | |
| Prior Submissions: Ability to add previous year submissions from the system to the current submission. | |
| Rating Scale: A predefined values from which only one value can be selected. | |
| Text:A single line of characters can be added. | |
| Text Area: Multiple lines of characters can be added. Images cannot be added to this field. | |
| Report: The report will automatically populate with data from the candidate's activities and can be run and/or refreshed by selecting the circle-arrow icon. | |
| Suggested Reviewers: If your process requires external reviewers, they can be added here by providing their contact information and adding more reviewers as needed by selecting the "Add another suggested reviewers" hyperlink. |
Saving your Progress
Since completing a form can take some time, Workflow includes the option to save progress and finish the submission later by selecting the Save Draft option from the Actions drop-down menu.
Reminders and Notifications
Based on the Workflow's configuration, candidates may receive reminder emails to notify them of approaching deadlines. Keep in mind that deadlines are soft unless the Workflow Administrator has set up an auto-advance date on the schedule, which will cause the submission to automatically advance to the next step after a specified date. When an auto-advance date is not specified, the submissions will not automatically advance to the next step even if a deadline is missed, ensuring that the workflow task never progresses before the candidate is ready.
Downloading a Submission to Review Outside of the Workflow Module
If you would like to review your submission outside of the Workflow module, you may be able to use the submission download functionality to download the contents of the submission for offline viewing. The submission download functionality may be turned off for the institution by your university administrator, who will need to submit a work request to Watermark.
Finalizing a Submission
When candidates are ready to advance the submission to the next step, they simply click "Submit" from the Actions menu to move the materials to the next step in the process.
A candidate may have additional action options if their Workflow Administrator has configured different branching options that allow the candidate to withdraw or submit their task to a different reviewer.
If the candidate has the option to withdraw from the process, they will see an option to opt out of the process that has a circled "X" icon.
If the candidate is able to submit their submission to a different reviewer, they will see them listed.
The Workflow module is available to add to Faculty Success for an additional fee. To learn more about adding it for your institution, please contact your Client Success Manager.