Sending reminders until the action is done

Some emails wait for an answer: a leave request to approve, a document to sign, an onboarding task to do, a consent to give. Their template carries a Reminder block that sends the email again until the action is done, and can then notify the person’s manager. This article explains how to set these reminders. It is for the administrators of your space.

Before you start #

• You need the “Email templates” permission at the Execute level (role matrix, Platform administration section, Emails group). At the Access level, the block shows the current setting without letting you change it.
• The block only exists on emails that wait for an action. An information email (leave approved, expense reimbursed…) has none.
• The template editor is described in Editing an email template.

Emails that send reminders #

In the catalogue, Reminder on at the bottom of a card flags an email whose reminder is switched on. The emails concerned include:

• leave, substitute and leave cancellation requests, and the pending medical certificate;
• attendance to confirm, clocking anomaly, rejected attendance, unconfirmed hours, submitted attendance record;
• the expense report to approve and the draft to submit;
• the Flex Office booking to approve and the workplace update;
• the document to sign or to validate, the signature campaign to validate;
• onboarding tasks, the onboarding step and the employee profile to complete;
• the GDPR consent, the payroll review reminder, the Swiss payroll hires to complete;
• the Training emails that wait for an action: overdue mandatory training, request to decide, attendance sheet to close, unsigned agreement.

Each email comes with a setting suggested by Illizeo, for example a single reminder one business day after a leave request, or two reminders seven business days apart for a consent.

Setting the reminder #

1. Open Settings › Manage Illizeo › Email and click the template card.
2. In the form, scroll down to the Reminder block.
3. Turn on Send reminders until the action is done.
4. Set First reminder after (1 to 90 days after sending), Then every (1 to 90 days between two reminders) and At most (1 to 24 reminders).
5. Tick Notify the manager (N+1) after the last reminder if nobody should stay stuck without their manager knowing.
6. Tick Count business days (weekends and public holidays excluded) so that the delays skip the recipient’s weekends and public holidays.
7. Read the summary sentence below the settings, for example “1st reminder 3 business days after sending, then every 3 business days, 2 reminders at most.”
8. Click Save.

The reminder text #

Two fields, specific to each language, sit below the settings:

• Reminder subject: left empty, the reminder subject is the email subject preceded by “Reminder:” (“Rappel :” in French).
• Reminder intro: left empty, the reminder reuses the intro text of the email.

The title, the button and the note stay those of the email. The template variables can also be used in these two fields. Like the rest of the template, they are saved language by language: fill them in in each tab.

What happens next #

• After the email is sent, the first reminder goes out once the first delay has passed, then the next ones at each interval, up to the maximum number.
• Before each reminder, Illizeo checks that the action is still waiting for the person. As soon as it is done (request decided, document signed, task completed), or the request has been delegated, reassigned or deleted, the reminders stop by themselves.
• If all the reminders went unanswered and escalation is ticked, the person’s manager receives the email at the next due date, with a line saying that the person has not acted. The reminders then stop. With no known manager, they simply stop.

Stopping reminders #

• Turning off Send reminders until the action is done pauses the reminders in progress: they resume if you turn the block back on.
• Disabling the email itself in the catalogue also stops its reminders.

Good to know #

• Reminders go out throughout the day: Illizeo checks every hour which ones are due.
• The same email sent again for the same request does not reset the counter.
• In approval workflows, the No-action behavior card links to this block to set the reminders of requests (see Flows & approvals). Flex Office offers the same shortcut for the workplace update.
• The Training module sets the first sending of its reminders in its own reminder rules; the following reminders follow this block (see Administering the Training module).

FAQ #

A manager feels they get too many reminders. #

Lower the number of reminders in At most, lengthen the interval in Then every, or untick the escalation to the manager.

I cannot see a Reminder block on a template. #

That template is an information email: it waits for no action and is sent only once.