Custom Fields: Endorsements

Endorsements allow you to have more control and observability to the changes made in the strategic objectives. The audit trail lets you have more visibility into the approvals and rejections that is attached with those changes made and by keeping every stakeholder notified. You can configure endorsement custom fields to capture data like RACI, change control, etc. This'll allow you to endorse or reject changes and capture specific qualitative data points of interest to your strategy and organization.

Create endorsement custom fields:

Either create a new template or in an existing template, add this custom field:

1. From the profile picture/initials, click Admin > Settings > Custom Fields tab.
2. Either click Create new template or click the existing template to edit it.
   • If its a new template, give the template a name. Replace Untitled with the template name by entering into the text box.
3. Now, select an entity (Objective, Measure, Project or Action) for which you need to add the custom field, and click Add Group.
4. Click into the New Group text, and enter the name of the group. In the relevant entity's sidebar, you'll see only the group ("RACI" in this example) displayed and all the fields (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed) added to it will be seen only on expanding the group. Click the trash icon to delete a group.
   
5. Click Add Field to proceed.
6. Choose Endorsement from the Field type dropdown list. 
7. Enter the name of your field in the Label dropdown and click <Field name> - New endorsement field.
   
8. As and when you fill in the details, you can see a preview of it.
   • Endorsement type- choose whether the change or update requires endorsements or just a review
     • Endorsement required - If this type is chosen, then the selected users can endorse or reject the changes and attach a comment. These users will be notified whenever a change is made.
     • Notification only - If this type is chosen, then the selected users when notified, can just review the change but will not be able to endorse or reject.
   • Endorsement for - choose what change needs the endorsement. At this point, endorsement is supported only for progress change made in objectives.

Each field is auto-saved once populated. Click Add Field to add additional custom fields within the same group, or Add Group to create a new group of custom fields. While you can drag and drop the fields to reorder them within the group or move between groups, you can also drag and drop the groups in any order so that they appear the way you want them in the Sidebar.

If you wish to add an existing custom field, then select that field from the Label dropdown list. And, if you edit a value in the custom field, click Edit values. See Add or Edit existing custom field section in Create Templates and Custom Fields for details.

Apply to plans and select the endorsers and reviewers:

Click the three dots against the plan name and click Plan settings. Choose the relevant template from the Custom field template dropdown and click Save to apply the custom field to the plan. 

Once applied to a plan,

1. Edit the objective from its sidebar.
2. Expand the endorsement custom field section.
3. Select the users from the dropdown list. The selected users will be allowed to endorse or review when its progress is updated.
4. Click Save.

Once applied to a plan, you'll see a new tab - Endorsements in the goal hub of all the objectives in that plan.

Endorse, reject or review:

Once you select the users in the Edit sidebar view, whenever a progress update is made on the objectives (made by progress updates on its associated success criteria - measures, projects or actions), the relevant users are notified. Based on the notifications set in your Profile settings, you'll be notified in-app (Bell icon at the top-right in any page and Recent notifications area of your Home page) or in mail or both.

The mail notification will look like this:

Click on the notifications in-app or View changes in the mail - this'll open up the Endorsements tab of the relevant objective's Goal hub.

If you're an "Endorser":

If you're an user who is selected for "Endorsement required" type field, then clicking on See endorsement will let you to Approve or Reject the progress change. Select the appropriate radio button, write a comment in the text box, and click Submit. Click the Pencil icon if you wish to edit the endorsement.

If you've selected multiple users for endorsing a change, every one of them will be able to approve or reject the changes.

If you're a "Reviewer":

If you're an user who is selected for "Notification only" type field, then clicking on See endorsement will let you to just review the changes and the approval status.

This is an early release of the feature, and we'll be adding more enhancements in the future. Some of them are:

• Allowing a team to be selected from the user dropdown.
• Supporting endorsement for due date, owner/collaborator changes.
• Adding endorsement custom field for other entities like measures, actions and projects.
• Integrating endorsement information in reports.
• Building a quick view or dashboard that has the information of all the endorsed or pending endorsements.

Here's a quick video on Endorsements:

FAQs

Is there a timeline or due date by which the action (endorse/reject) can be done?

No, there're no timelines or due dates.

Can the endorsers only be Admins? Or can they belong to other roles as well? Can a “Viewer” be an endorser?

An endorser can be an admin, manager or contributor. Viewers cannot be endorsers. A reviewer can be an admin, manager, contributor or viewer.

Should the users be added to the workspace before making them as endorsers?

Yes. Endorsers have to be a named user in the system, so they’ll need to be at least invited before being able to be selected in the endorsement custom field.

What happens if the endorser is removed from the list or deleted or disabled from the workspace?

If they're removed from the list, then they'll not be able to edit the endorsement, i.e., there'll be no Pencil icon now. But they'll be able to see the endorsements trail.

If an endorser is deleted or disabled, you'll still see their endorsement in the logs.

Will the endorsement information be available in reports?

Not at this point in time. However, you'll be able to see the logs in the Endorsements tab of the relevant objective's goal hub.

If you're selected as an endorser or reviewer of a plan that you do not have access to, will you be able to still endorse or review?

No. Though you'll see a notification regarding the progress change, clicking on it will show an error message.

Is there a dashboard or quick view to look at the endorsements that're endorsed or pending endorsement?

Not at this point in time.

Can they do a bulk endorsement or rejection? 

No, it is one-by-one for now.

Will the Activity tab in goal hub have the audit trail of the endorsement activities? 

No, the endorsement activity won’t be mirrored to the Activity log, the activity log will show what triggered the need for the endorsement but not the actual endorsement, that'll live in the Endorsement tab.

I do not see the Endorsements tab in my objective's goal hub.

Please check if the custom field template that has the endorsement added is applied to the plan in which your objective resides. You can see the Endorsements tab only if the custom field template is applied to that plan.

I'm an endorser but I did not receive the endorsement notification.

This might be because of two reasons:

• There was no progress change on the objective and hence no notification was triggered.
• Or, you've disabled the notification mode in your profile settings.

Can I edit the endorsement that was previously done?

Yes, click the  icon next to the endorsement status to edit it. Remember that if you've been removed as an endorser after your endorsement was done, then you'll not be able to edit it.