Delegation of Pending Items on Exit (Core HR)

Overview

When an employee exits your organization, approvals and other inbox items assigned to them may remain pending. These items can delay workflows if they are not transferred to another owner.

During the exit process, Keka identifies the departing employee’s pending inbox items and reassigns eligible items based on updated team, reporting, project, client, and Keka role mappings.

If an item cannot be reassigned automatically, an HR admin must review and reassign it manually. This helps ensure that pending work does not remain assigned to an employee after their exit.

Who can access this feature?

HR admins who have permission to manage employee exits can review and reassign pending inbox items.

The feature is available to all Core HR customers.

Before proceeding, ensure that the departing employee’s team and role dependencies are updated, including:

• Direct reportees
• Dotted-line reportees
• Project assignments
• Client assignments, where applicable
• Keka roles

How pending inbox items are reassigned

Keka identifies the dependency associated with each pending inbox item and determines whether it can be reassigned automatically.

 
Examples of automatically reassignable items may include leave approvals, loan approvals, probation evaluations, project-related items, and role-based expense approvals.

Self-owned acknowledgements, peer feedback, and other manually assigned items require review because Keka cannot determine a replacement from the employee’s dependency mappings.

Reassign pending inbox items during an exit

Step 1: Open the employee’s exit process

Navigate to:

Org > Exit > Exit Process > Exit in Progress

Locate the exiting employee and select:

Actions > Manage

Step 2: Open Team & Role Dependencies

Under Exit Actions, select Team & Role Dependencies.

Step 3: Update the employee’s dependencies

Review and update the departing employee’s:

1. Direct reportees
2. Dotted-line reportees
3. Project assignments
4. Client assignments, where available
5. Keka roles

Assign a new owner for each applicable dependency.

These mappings help Keka determine the appropriate new owner for eligible pending inbox items.

Step 4: Save the changes

After all applicable dependencies and inbox items have been reviewed, select Save.

The reassignment is applied based on the confirmed exit and its effective date.

After reassignment:

• The item is archived in the previous owner’s inbox.
• A corresponding item is created in the new owner’s inbox.
• The item’s existing status is preserved.
• The original due date and SLA are preserved.
• The reassignment is recorded in the item’s activity log.

View the reassignment activity

The inbox item’s activity log records the latest reassignment.

The log includes information such as:

• Previous owner
• New owner
• Person who initiated the reassignment
• Reassignment date and time

The relevant reassignment entry is available to the previous and new owners where they have access to the inbox item.

Example scenario

A reporting manager has three pending leave approvals and one role-based expense approval when their exit is processed.

During Team & Role Dependencies, the HR admin:

1. Assigns the manager’s direct reportees to a new reporting manager.
2. Assigns the departing employee’s Keka role to a new role holder.
3. Reviews the pending inbox items.

Keka then:

• Maps the leave approvals to the new reporting manager.
• Maps the expense approval to the new Keka role holder.
• Archives the items from the departing manager’s inbox.
• Makes the items available in the respective new owners’ inboxes.
• Records the changes in the activity logs.

If the departing manager also has a peer feedback item, the HR admin must select its new owner manually because peer-based items cannot be mapped automatically.

Important notes

• This release supports reassignment during an employee exit only.
• Transfers, reporting manager changes outside the exit process, role changes, project manager changes, client manager changes, and long leave do not independently trigger this flow.
• Only inbox items that are pending and available for reassignment are included.
• Items created after the exit follow the applicable standard workflow routing.
• Items that became orphaned before this functionality was introduced are not migrated or reassigned automatically.
• Self-owned and peer-based items require manual review.
• Manually assigned candidate-related items, such as certain offer approvals, may require manual reassignment.
• Existing item status, due date, and SLA are preserved when ownership changes.
• Accurate reporting, team, project, client, and Keka role mappings are required for automatic reassignment.
• The inbox is a shared service used across multiple Keka modules, so the exact item types displayed depend on the modules enabled for the organization.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to a pending item after it is reassigned?

The item is archived in the previous owner’s inbox and made available in the new owner’s inbox. Its existing status, due date, and SLA are preserved.

Does Keka automatically reassign every pending item?

No. Keka automatically reassigns an item only when it can identify a new owner from the employee’s updated dependencies.

Self-owned, peer-based, and manually assigned items require HR review.

Can HR select a different owner manually?

Yes. HR can select a new owner for items that cannot be mapped automatically.

Can the same process be used when an employee is transferred?

No. Transfer-based reassignment is not included in this release.

Does changing a reporting manager outside the exit process reassign pending items?

Not as part of this release. Reporting manager changes and other employee-movement scenarios are identified as future use cases for the shared inbox service. [Inbox Serv...acements 1 | Word]

Are previously orphaned inbox items reassigned automatically?

No. The feature is not retroactive. Previously orphaned items must be handled separately.

Are items created after the exit included?

No. New items follow the standard workflow routing applicable at the time they are created.

Are offer approvals reassigned automatically?

An offer approval that was assigned manually or as a peer-based assignment may not have a dependency mapping. In such cases, HR must review and reassign it manually.

Is the reassignment recorded?

Yes. The item’s activity log records the previous owner, new owner, the person who initiated the reassignment, and the reassignment timestamp.

Which inbox item types can appear in this flow?

The flow can include eligible pending inbox items from different modules, such as leave, attendance, onboarding, probation, loans, expenses, assets, documents, performance, hiring, travel, and other approval workflows. Availability depends on the modules and workflows configured for the organization.