Using flow _ Excel online for Employee Appraisal

[vijayn]

Friends,

We would like to move from a paper-based appraisal process to an electronic format.

Our workflow is very simple - employee fills up the appraisal sheet/form --> manager reviews it and adds his/her comments --> HR will consolidate all the comments.

We don't want our employees to access other employees excel sheets.

We looked at creating folders for each department and separate sheet with unique access to the employee and their manager.

We see this as a cumbersome procedure, is there a efficient way to do  this? 

[JohnAageAnderse]

Hello @vijayn 

Your scenario looks like it could be based on just using Forms, Power Automate and SharePoint Online.

1. Forms is used for employees to register their appraisals. They will have to login so their entry can be identified as coming from the employee.
2. Power Automate takes the Forms entries and stores them in SharePoint Online in a list dedicated for this. Only HR has contribute permissions to the list.
3. Power Automate grants the employee and his/her manager permissions to the entry.
4. Power Automate requests the manager to review the entry and add his/her comment(s), using an approval request (to indicate that the review is finished).
5. Power Automate then requests HR to consolidate the comment(s), using an approval request (to indicate that the consolidation is finished).

The above allows:

• HR to perform the consolidation of comment(s) when requested.
• Manager to perform reviews when requested.
• Employee to view his/her entries.

Hope the above helps you on the way 🙂

Kind regards, John

[vijayn]

Thank you John for the reply.

My concern with the forms is it does not have save button for the employee to come back on a later date to complete the self appraisal? If its there, I am not sure how to use it.

 The self-appraisal forms are usually long and can't be entered in one sitting. Is there an option to save a form?

Best Regards,

Vijay  

[JohnAageAnderse]

Hello @vijayn 

Thank you for clarifying the appraisal process 🙂 This changes point 1 and 2.

1. SharePoint Online is used for employees to register their appraisals in a list. The list is configured so that only the employee can view and edit his/her entries. When the appraisal is completed, the employee indicates this using a dedicated checkbox field (Yes/No column).
2. Power Automate takes the completed appraisal entries and moves them into another SharePoint Online list dedicated for this. Only HR has contribute permissions to the list.

Using a SharePoint Online list in 1. gives the employee time enough to fill out the appraisal at his/her convenience.

Kind regards, John

[vijayn]

Thats amazing.

When you say employee registers on list? is it possible to

1. Create a list and restrict the employee access only the list (link) emailed to him? I am worried what if the employee submits the list and can see the rest of the list items (other employee responses).

So I am looking 2 lists under 1 team site? list1 for self appraisal and list 2 for managers. 

If you could share me a link on how to restrict users based on the content type or by permission given by Hr at a list level.

[JohnAageAnderse · Accepted solution]

Hello @vijayn 

In SharePoint Online, when you go into the List settings, there are Advanced settings, and in there you can set the Read access:

Read access: Specify which items users are allowed to read

• Read all items
• Read items that were created by the user

... and the Create and Edit access:

Create and Edit access: Specify which items users are allowed to create and edit

• Create and edit all items
• Create items and edit items that were created by the user
• None

The blue marked setting options are the one to use 🙂

Kind regards, John

[vijayn · Accepted solution]

You are amazing.

Just confirming my understanding. I send the New Item link to all employee asking them update their self appraisal.

2. I create flow and transfer the list 1 info to list 2.

3. I manually send the list containing the respective employees to their managers and ask them to complete the manager appraisal?

[JohnAageAnderse]

Hello @vijayn 

You use the New item link only to start the employee do the registration of his/her appraisal. If the employee can't finish in one go, he/she just saves as is. The employee can then just go back to the list and see his/her unfinished appraisal and edit it to continue.

The flow will trigger "When an item is created or changed" in the 1st list and if the employee has marked the appraisal as finished, then it copies all the information to the 2nd list and delete the original appraisal (so it no longer can be edited by the employee).

The 2nd flow will trigger "When an item is created" in the 2nd list, identifies who is the manager of the employee, and informs the manager about the new appraisal to review 🙂

Kind regards, John

[vijayn]

Hi John

Iam in the last hurdle, i have created a flow and i am able to see the manager list getting updated when I enter info in employee list.

But I am not sure how to share the link to the manager so that he sees only his employees feedback.

I currently select the list item and use the copy link function and share it with a manager. But the manager says he is not able to see the link. Should i use any other button??

[vijayn]

---

The 2nd flow will trigger "When an item is created" in the 2nd list, identifies who is the manager of the employee, and informs the manager about the new appraisal to review 🙂

Kind regards, John

---

Just clarifying, for the 2nd flow i will use the "when an item is created" trigger in the flow is it?

[JohnAageAnderse]

Hello @vijayn 

About the 2nd list 🙂

Yes, the flow trigger is when an item is created, as you want to process the item only when it has been copied from the 1st list.

The 2nd list must have permissions setup so that HR people have contribute permissions; Anyone else have no permissions.

The flow will grant the employee Read permission to his/her appraisal in the 2nd list, and grant the manager Contribute (or Edit) permissions to the employees appraisal. (search for action "Grant ...")

With the above the employee can only see his/her own appraisals (if you need that). The manager can only see and work with his/her employees appraisals. And HR can work with every appraisal.

Kind regards, John

[vijayn]

hi John,

Looks like i am getting persmission setting wrong. When I send the new item link to user, they say they are not able to access the site.

current setting

Do i have to change the the list/Self Appraisal setting to something else? so that employee can fill their appraisal and at the same not see other response.

[JohnAageAnderse]

Hello @vijayn 

For an employee to be able to register a new appraisal in the list "Self appraisal", you must ensure that he/she has Contribute permissions in the list, so Yes, you have to change the permission settings in the list.

Kind regards, John

[vijayn]

Thanks that worked with contribute permission. You have been very helpful much appreciated.

this is the flow i am working on at the moment. Please let me know if i have used the right trigger. 

Manager trigger 

[JohnAageAnderse]

Hello @vijayn 

You are on the right track! Keep on learning 🙂

Kind regards, John

[vijayn]

Hi John, I think one last step would be take the appraisal away from the managers so that they don't tweak it further.

I have two questions in this.

1. How do i ensure other managers don't see others responses. I have ticked the advanced setting (Create items and edit items that were created by ), so this will ensure the manager does not see other responses?

2.  Should I create another list for hr to consolidate or would hr with contribute access will suffice?

[Dee24665]

Hi @JohnAageAnderse, I am interested in the the topic been discussed here. I was wondering, in the case where I would use SharePoint and Power Automate becuase I want to give employees the option of saving their entries.

1. Does SharePoint Online offer a login functionality - so that entries will be identified as coming from the reviewee?

2. If not, is there any workaround of making sure that entries will be identified?

Looking forward to your reponse.

Best regards,

Deborah

[JohnAageAnderse]

Hello @Dee24665 

Yes, SharePoint Online asks the employee to login with his/her Office 365 account.

Kind regards, John

[kate84]

Can anyone share some guidance on how you structured the list that the employee should complete? Do you have a column populated with the performance question, and then another column labeled "Response" with blanks where the employee fills in these items?

Or, is each row in the list the employee's information, and each question is a column?

Thank you! @vijayn @JohnAageAnderse