> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.skillsdb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Journeys
> Model and automate multi-step employee workflows in SkillsDB — from completing required training to manager approvals, career assignment, and notifications.
**Quick Summary:** Journeys let administrators define an ordered sequence of steps a person moves through automatically over time — for example, the path from finishing required training to being promoted into a new career. A person enrolls when they meet the journey's enrollment condition, then advances through each step in order until the journey is complete.
## Overview
A Journey is an admin-built workflow made of ordered **steps**. Each person enters a journey when they meet its enrollment condition, then advances through the steps **strictly in order** — step 2 only becomes active once step 1 is satisfied — until the journey is complete.
Journeys solve a real problem: the multi-step processes a person moves through over time, such as the path from completing required training to a promotion, are usually run manually across training records, manager conversations, and career assignments. There is no single place to define the sequence, watch who is in progress, or audit what happened. Journeys give you that single place.
The most common use is promotion automation: when an employee completes all required training for a target career, a journey can route an approval to their manager, request a sign-off from a specific approver, automatically assign a new career or career level, and notify stakeholders — all without manual hand-offs.
Only administrators can see and manage journeys. Employees are silent participants: they are enrolled, progressed, and assigned automatically, with no journey-facing screens. The one exception is approvals — a manager or designated approver receives an email and an inbox item linking to a single **Activity Page** where they action their approval, even though they cannot otherwise see the Company section.
**Note:** The Journeys feature must be enabled for your SkillsDB account. Contact your account manager if you do not see **Journeys** in the **Company** sidebar menu.
***
## Prerequisites
Before you create a journey, you need:
* **Permission level**: Administrator or Global Administrator role
* **Target career**: At least one career (job role) with required training defined, to use as the enrollment condition
* **Access requirement**: **Company > Journeys** in the left navigation
***
## Understanding journey states
A journey is always in one of three states. The state determines which actions are available and whether new people can enroll.
| State | Meaning | Available actions |
| --------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------- |
| Draft | Being built; not yet live. No one can enroll. | Edit, Activate |
| Activated | Live. Eligible people enroll and advance. | Deactivate |
| Inactive | Previously activated, now turned off. No new enrollment. | Activate |
You can edit a journey's steps only while it is in **Draft**. Activated and Inactive journeys are read-only to preserve the integrity of in-progress enrollments.
***
## The five step types
When you add a step, you choose one of five types and give it a name and description. Each type has its own configuration and its own rule for when it is satisfied.
| Step type | Configuration | Satisfied when |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Training Completion | A target career | The person has 100% of the required training for that career approved. The first step of every journey must be this type and serves as the enrollment condition. |
| Manager Approval | None | The enrolled person's direct manager approves from the Activity Page. |
| Custom Approval | Fixed Approver (a specific user) or Case-by-Case | The fixed approver approves; or, for Case-by-Case, any admin approves or reassigns. |
| Assign Career/Level | A target career and optional career level | Runs automatically: the career (and level, if set) is added to the person. If they already hold the exact assignment, the step is a no-op and still counts as satisfied. |
| Notification | One or more recipient users | Runs automatically: a link to the person's Activity Page is sent to the recipients. The step satisfies immediately after sending. |
**Note:** The target career used for the enrollment (first) step may differ from the career granted by a later Assign Career/Level step. For example: complete training for "Senior Technician" → approvals → assign "Lead Technician".
***
## Creating a journey
Build a journey in a two-step creation dialog, then add its steps.
Navigate to **Company > Journeys** and select **+ Journey**.
On the **Details** step, enter a journey **Name** and **Description**. Journeys do not have a due date.
On the **Build** step, select **Add Step**, choose a step type from the selector, then name the step and set its type-specific configuration. The first step must be a **Training Completion** step.
Reorder steps so they run in the intended sequence. Step 1 is always the enrollment condition.
When you save, you are taken to the journey landing page, where the journey remains in **Draft** until you activate it.
***
## Activating a journey
Activation makes a journey live so that eligible people begin enrolling. SkillsDB validates the configuration before activating.
Activation is blocked, with a clear message, if any of the following are true:
* The journey has zero steps.
* The first step is not a Training Completion step.
* A required step configuration is missing — for example, a Training Completion step without a target career, or a Custom Approval step without an approver choice.
To activate, open the journey landing page and select **Activate**. Once activated, any eligible employee who reaches 100% required-training completion for the first step's target career is enrolled automatically. Their **Started on** date equals the date the triggering training was approved.
**Warning:** Enrollment happens only while a journey is **Activated**. A person who meets the enrollment condition while the journey is Draft or Inactive is not enrolled.
***
## Deactivating a journey
Deactivating a journey stops new people from entering it. How SkillsDB handles people already mid-journey depends on whether anyone is in progress.
* If **no one is in progress**, the journey deactivates directly with no warning.
* If **at least one person is in progress**, a warning shows the count and offers two choices:
* **Let them complete** — the journey deactivates, but in-progress people finish their journey.
* **Remove in-progress people** — the journey deactivates and all in-progress people are removed.
To deactivate, open the journey landing page and select **Deactivate**, then choose how to handle in-progress people if prompted.
***
## Monitoring progress
The journey landing page summarizes participation with three tiles — **In Progress**, **Complete**, and **All** — plus a summary of the configured steps.
Selecting any tile opens a person-journey table where each row is one person's run through the journey, with columns:
* **Name** — the employee's name.
* **Started on** — the date the enrollment condition was met.
* **One column per step** — the step name, the number of days since the prior step, and a status chip (grey if incomplete, green if complete).
* **Completed on** — the date the final step was completed, or blank if still in progress.
Selecting a row opens the **Activity Page** for that person-journey.
***
## The Activity Page and approvals
The Activity Page shows a single person's status and a full activity log detailing each step in sequence. It is also where approvals are actioned.
* A **Manager Approval** step is approved by the enrolled person's direct manager.
* A **Custom Approval (Fixed Approver)** step is approved by the configured approver.
* A **Custom Approval (Case-by-Case)** step can be approved or reassigned by any admin.
Approvers reach the Activity Page through a link in the approval email and a matching item in their SkillsDB **Inbox**. A non-admin approver — a manager or fixed approver — gets access to only that one person-journey's Activity Page to action their approval; they cannot see other journeys or the Company section.
**Note:** If an approval step is rejected or simply not approved, the person-journey stalls on that step — the step chip stays grey and no rollback occurs. The step can be approved later to resume the journey.
If an enrolled person has no direct manager set when a Manager Approval step becomes active, the step cannot be auto-routed. SkillsDB surfaces the condition on the Activity Page and notifies admins.
***
## Permissions
| Action | Who can do it |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| See **Company > Journeys** and all journey data | Administrator, Global Administrator |
| Create, edit, activate, deactivate, and delete journeys | Administrator, Global Administrator (editing is restricted to Draft state) |
| Approve a Manager Approval step | The enrolled person's direct manager, via the Activity Page link |
| Approve or reassign a Custom Approval (Case-by-Case) step | Any administrator, from the Activity Page |
| Approve a Custom Approval (Fixed Approver) step | The selected fixed approver, via the Activity Page link |
| See the Journeys feature at all | Not available to Employee, Manager, or Full Access roles, except an assigned approver's scoped, single-journey approval action |
***
## Common Questions
No. Managers cannot see the Company section, so they cannot browse journeys or journey data. The only exception is approvals: when a Manager Approval step routes to a manager, they receive an email and an inbox item linking to the Activity Page for that one person-journey, where they action their approval. They see nothing else.
The person-journey is not rolled back. Once a Training Completion step has been satisfied, later expiry or revocation of the underlying training does not reverse the person's progress through the journey.
No. If a person who is already in progress on a journey meets the enrollment condition again, they are not enrolled a second time and no duplicate person-journey is created.
No. The Assign Career/Level step only adds a career or career level. If the person already holds the exact career-and-level assignment, the step does nothing and still counts as satisfied. Existing assignments are never replaced or removed.
In this version, every journey's Type is "Promotion". The column is reserved for future journey types and is the same for all rows today.
***
## Related Articles
Define the careers and required training that drive journey enrollment.
Understand how training is approved — the signal that triggers journey enrollment.
See how approval requests reach managers and approvers.
Compare journeys with the survey workflow they are modeled on.
## Need More Help?
If you need additional assistance:
* Email [support@skillsdb.com](mailto:support@skillsdb.com)
* Use the in-app help chat
* Schedule a training session with your account manager