🌞🏗 Next-level alert setup tips

Read time: 4 minutes

Hey there! This week’s newsletter is short and sweet 😇 

Last week, we got into the weeds of Workday alert setup with a 7-step setup guide for configuring well built alerts. If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Today, we’re tying up loose ends on alert setup with two important topics…

1️⃣ The most annoying alert quirk (and how to work around it)
2️⃣ Notification routing rules and setup

Let’s get right into it so you can fix those ugly alerts before your next meeting 😜

Repeating body details… feature, or quirk?

Have you been on the receiving end of a clunky, confusing Workday notification that looks something like this?

If you have, I assure you, you’re not alone! Here’s what’s happening…

When multiple notification topics are generated within a single alert for one recipient, the Body Details 🔁 repeat 🔁 within the notification.

In the example above, there were 3 notification topics (3 workers—Squidward, Spongebob, and Pearl), and the notification was sent to one recipient (one manager, Mr. Krabs).

Most Workday customers find repeating Body Details to be an annoying quirk of alerts. However…

💡 If you know how to build your notification to account for repeating Body Details, this quirk becomes a helpful feature! With repeating Body Details, you can include dynamic data for multiple notification topics (typically workers or transactions) within one alert.

The lackluster alert above was set up like this…

You’ll notice there are no Introductory or Concluding Comments in this setup. All of the notification’s Body text exists within the Body’s Details.

Unlike Body Details, Introductory and Concluding Comments appear just once in a notification, even if there are multiple notification topics. With this in mind, here’s how to fix the setup in the example above…

✅ Place your greeting within the Introductory Comments. Make it generalized rather than dynamically personalized (i.e., “Hello” versus “Hi [Manager Name]”). Don’t worry—your notification will still have a personal touch since it will include the receiving Manager’s employees’ data!

✅ Add a strategic line break at the beginning of the Details. This will space the repeating Details in a more aesthetically pleasing and readable way.

Here’s your updated setup…

Here are your upgraded results—the Workday and email notifications respectively…

And finally, here’s a side-by-side to highlight the improvements…

In conclusion, it’s certainly possible to make the repeating Body Details work for you rather than against you. Even without Workday’s Notification Designer, you can achieve a substantively useful and reasonably aesthetic notification if you get your setup details right 😊

One last thing! Notification Routing Rules…

Recall that as you set up your alert, you have the option to select a Notification Type. This is set to “General Notifications” by default.

Notification Type, along with your tenant settings, determine which Notification Routing Rule your alert will follow. Notification Routing Rules determine how (email, mobile push, etc.) and on what frequency (daily, immediately, muted) your notifications are delivered. These settings are tucked away within the “Edit Tenant Setup - Notifications” task.

If your notifications aren’t being delivered as expected, your Notification Routing Rules are a good place to begin troubleshooting.

To explore your Notification Routing Rules, run the task, “Edit Tenant Setup - Notifications”. Click on the “Alerts” tab, then click the related actions button on your Routing Rule of interest. Check out the Channels, Default Frequency, and Allowed Frequencies on each rule:

If you know exactly which Notification Routing Rule you need to view or edit, you can take a more direct route by using the tasks “View Notification Routing Rule” or “Edit Notification Routing Rule”, respectively.

The Default Frequency determines on what cadence the notification will be delivered by default. Every worker, however, has the ability to individually override these default settings by visiting “Change Preferences” (found within the menu accessed by clicking their photo in the upper right hand corner of their screen)…

If an employee isn’t receiving notifications as expected, and your Notification Routing Rules look good, your next best bet is to check the employee’s Preferences. It’s possible they set their personal Frequency to “Mute”!

Anddd that’s a wrap on alerts, for today 😎

As always, thank you for reading!

We’re celebrating you and your pursuit of a Well Built Workday 🥳 

Until next time!

Ceci & Mia

Co-Founders of Well Built Solutions