Program Management: Program Emails

Contents

Overview

Program emails are similar to system notifications, but rather than notifying users about what actions have been taken, it notifies them about what actions should be taken to stay on track with the organization's Betterworks program. The two processes that program emails track are

  • Creating goals
  • Completing conversations

Program Emails for Goal Creation

Generally, organizations that use goals and milestones (aka objectives and key results) set them at the start of a business period (i.e. each quarter). 

However, as Program Lead, you will want to ensure that employees are not just setting these goals and milestones, then forgetting about them. New priorities may arise, the needs of the organization may shift, and employees may have decreased/increased bandwidth. As such, it's important that employees regularly track their progress throughout the business period. 

Program emails eliminate the need to send reminders at certain intervals by automating the process. 

1. Review (or set) your organization's business periods.

2. Set your timeline. 

3. Trigger ad-hoc program emails (optional). 

Program Emails for Conversation Completion

Conversations provide an opportunity for managers and their direct reports to discuss goal progress, performance, career development, etc.

As with goal creation, Program Leads will want to ensure that employees are actually completing their scheduled conversations.

Conversations have their own set of automated notifications, but you can use program emails to trigger ad-hoc notifications. 

Note: Managers are included in all program emails. As such, if a manager has several direct reports who fit the criteria, they'll be included in several program emails.  

Additional Resources

FAQs

Can I customize the text in the program emails? 

Program emails will always include the specific name of the employee, your organization's logo, and custom naming. However, you cannot customize the text. 

Can I specify which employee groups receive the program emails?

Program emails are automatically sent to subsets of employees based on specific, hard-coded, criteria. Those criteria cannot be broken down further. 

Example: Jane can trigger a program email to all employees who haven't created a goal yet. However, cannot trigger a program email to employees who haven't created a goal and who are part of the Finance department.

Will program emails be sent on weekends? 

Program emails are automatically configured to skip weekends. They will be sent the next available weekday.