Best practice to re-run workflows

[Brian24]

We currently have on boarding/off boarding workflows setup for users joining and leaving the organization. From time to time users will leave and re-join the organization. We're looking to automate the on-boarding process for these users as currently we create a manual task as a workflow can only be run on a record once.

I'm looking for the best practice to re-run workflows. I know 'Run Multiple' exists but we will need to set strict criteria on our workflow conditions to prevent an on boarding workflow from unintentionally running multiple times.

Is Archiving the workflow context after X days an option in this case?

Is either Run Multiple or Archiving best practice in either case? Unfortunately, I don't see any documentation around for either feature, Run Multiple or Archiving workflows specifically.

[Allen Andreas · Accepted solution]

Hi,

So in the data you're receiving from HRIS this should have that flag if they are a rehire or not, that way your workflow can pivot accordingly?

I can understand not wanting to reuse usernames (in the context of one existing and then creating a duplicate or reissuing the same but for another user). So with that said, same as above, with the rehire process and flag indicator, that will help you query for the prior AD account and simply activate that which would sync over your LDAP and SN processes accordingly for their user account within the system.

So you have an onboarding flow and then there's a sort of "reactivation" process flow. Those are separate and if built out separately allows you quickly reactivate a user to get them back to the job quicker, you're able to tap in to more information a lot quicker with a reactivation and this also allows you to follow this same path for employees who are returning from FMLA, etc.

Are you currently receiving a rehire type flag in your HRIS integration? And/or a sort of reactivation flag? If not, is that a possibility?

Anyways, I know your question was around re-running a workflow, which you can do by simply restarting the very same workflow over again, but I was approaching this from a process conversation instead.

You can use this thread as an example of script to use to restart a workflow: https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=d1877ed9dbdf230411762183ca96...

So in the end, your question around best practice, if you can tell from my type of responses, is to treat it as a separate occurrence. Tracked separately both from a fulfillment perspective and SLA/KPI perspective. It's not best practice to re-run a workflow on a same item that could be days, months, years, old just because they're coming back.

Please mark reply as Helpful/Correct, if applicable. Thanks!