With the standard goal workflow, updating the progress or status of an approved goal does not send it back for approval. The goal stays approved. What usually causes the confusion is that a goal's progress status is called Pending, which is easy to mistake for Pending Approval.
How it works
A goal has two separate labels that are easy to mix up:
- Approval state (only used when goal approval is enabled for your organization): Saved, Pending Approval, Approved or Rejected. Goals that are not yet approved are kept out of the main lists and appear under the unapproved goals section instead.
- Goal status (progress): Pending, In Progress, Achieved, Not Achieved or On Hold. These are the statuses listed down the side of the Goal List.
The goal status follows the completion percentage:
- 0% shows as Pending, meaning not started. A newly approved goal starts here.
- Above 0% and below 100% shows as In Progress.
- 100% or more shows as Achieved.
If someone sets an In Progress or Achieved goal back to 0%, its status changes to Pending. This only reflects progress. The goal's approval is not affected.
What you can do
- Go to Goals > Goal List (or My Goals for your own goals).
- Look at the goal in the main list. If it appears there with a status such as Pending or In Progress, it is still approved.
- Open the unapproved goals section. Only goals that are Saved or Pending Approval are listed there. If the goal is not in that list, it has not gone back for approval.
- To see what was changed, open the goal with More Details and check its comments. If you need a full record of who changed what and when, OrangeHRM Support can review the goal's audit records for you.
Things to note
- While a goal is waiting for approval, its progress stays at 0% and can't be updated. Progress can only be updated once the goal is approved.
- When an employee updates an approved goal's completion, the supervisor can receive a goal updated notification. This is not an approval request.
- Goal approval is optional and is turned on per organization. Your organization's goal workflow may also have been set up differently from the standard one. If goals really do appear in the unapproved list after a progress update, contact OrangeHRM Support so they can review your workflow settings.