Approving, rejecting and withdrawing a job

How approvers review, edit, approve or reject a job, and how the person who submitted it can withdraw the request.

When a job is submitted for approval, each approval level is assigned to a group of people. Members of the group at the current level review the job and either approve it or reject it. This guide covers what the approver sees and does, and what happens to the job afterwards. For how workflows are set up and how a job is submitted, see the article "The approval workflow".

Who can approve, reject and withdraw

• A member of the approval group assigned to the current level can approve or reject. Group members are Admin, HR or Member users of your organisation. Agency users can never approve.
• An Admin can approve or reject at any level, even if they are not in the group, for groups that belong to their own organisation.
• HR users can only approve or reject when they are in the group for the current level.
• Only the person who submitted the request, or an Admin, can withdraw it.

Approvals move one level at a time, in order. Only the group at the current level can act, and the next group is asked once the current level has approved.

Where approvals arrive

• Email. Each person in the group at the current level gets an email with the subject "Action required: [job title] needs your approval", and a Review Job link that opens the job.
• My approvals. Choose My approvals in the left navigation. The table lists every job waiting on you, with the columns Job, Company, Approval level, Submitted by and Submitted. Select a job title to open it. If nothing is waiting, the page says "Nothing is waiting for your approval." Only jobs where you are a member of the group at the current level are listed, so an Admin who is not in the group will not see that job here.
• Jobs list. Admin and HR users see a badge next to the Jobs heading, for example "3 awaiting approval", and jobs in Pending Approval are highlighted in the list.

The email is only sent if you are an active user, Email notifications is on, and Approval action needed is on. You can change these under Settings > Notifications. If you switch email off, nothing else alerts you that a job is waiting, so check My approvals regularly.

Reviewing a job

1. Open the job from the email link, My approvals or the Jobs list. A Member can open a job in Pending Approval only if they are in the group at the current level.
2. Stay on the Details tab. Until a job is approved and set up, this is the only tab shown.
3. A banner at the top shows Pending Approval, the group that is awaiting the decision and the level (for example "Level 1 of 2").
4. Read the job details, then scroll to the bottom to reach the Approval Actions card. The Approval History card sits below it and shows the justification the submitter entered, plus any earlier rounds of approval.

The Approval Actions card shows the current level, its label and the group it is assigned to. If you are not permitted to act, it says "You are not authorised to approve or reject at this level. Only members of [group] or admins can take action." and shows no Approve or Reject buttons.

Editing a job during approval

Each level of a workflow is set to either Can edit + approve or Approve only. Only members of the group at the current level, and only when that level is set to Can edit + approve, can change the job while it waits. An Admin can also edit if admin bypass is switched on for your organisation. For everyone else, the Edit option in the actions menu (the three dots at the top right of the job) reads Edit (blocked during approval) and cannot be selected.

1. Open the actions menu and choose Edit.
2. Change the job details on the Edit Job page and choose Save changes.
3. Go back to the job and approve or reject as normal.

Saving an edit does not approve the job or move it to the next level. You still have to approve. The application form cannot be edited at this stage, because it is set up after approval.

Approving

1. In the Approval Actions card, type an optional note in the box marked Comments for approval or denial. It can be up to 2,000 characters.
2. Choose Approve.

Your comment is stored in the Approval History. What happens next depends on the level:

• If more levels remain, you see "Approved at level 1. Moving to level 2." The job stays in Pending Approval and the group at the next level gets the "Action required" email. The person who submitted the job is not emailed at this point.
• If you were the last level, you see "Job has been fully approved!" The job moves to Pending Setup, ready for its application form, recruitment team, pipeline and publishing choices. The person who submitted it gets an email titled "Job [title] has been approved", which includes your name and comment.

Rejecting

1. Choose Reject in the Approval Actions card. The Reject Job window opens.
2. Enter a Rejection Reason. This is required and can be up to 2,000 characters. Leaving it blank shows "Reason Required".
3. Choose Reject Job.

A rejection at any level ends the whole request, not only that level. Approvals already given at earlier levels do not carry over. The job goes back to Draft and the submitter gets an email titled "Job [title] has been rejected" containing your name and reason. Be specific, because that reason is what they will work from.

The submitter can edit the draft and submit it again. It then starts again at level 1 as a new round. When they open the job, a banner says it was previously rejected and shows the reason, with a View history link to the full record.

Withdrawing a request

If the job needs changes before anyone has decided, the submitter can pull it back.

1. Open the job and scroll to the Approval Actions card.
2. Choose Withdraw Approval Request.
3. Optionally enter a Reason for Withdrawal, then choose Withdraw.

The job returns to Draft and the round is recorded in the Approval History as withdrawn. The members of the group at the current level get an email titled "Approval withdrawn: [job title]". Withdrawing is not available once the request has been fully approved or rejected. The button also appears for HR users, but only the submitter or an Admin can complete a withdrawal. Anyone else gets an error saying so.

What each outcome does to the job

Approval does not publish the job. Publishing is chosen later, in the setup steps.

Problems you might hit

• "You are not authorized to approve this step". You are not in the group for the current level. Ask an Admin to check the group membership, or to act on the job.
• "No active approval cycle found for this job". The request was withdrawn or decided by someone else while you had the page open. Refresh the job to see its current status.
• The job does not appear in My approvals. It is either waiting at a different level, or you are not in the group for the current level.
• An Approval Failed message appears. The page reloads the job after an error, so check the status and Approval History before trying again. The decision may already have been recorded.
• No email arrived. Check the notification settings above, and that the email address on your user is correct.