Assigning Approvers

Why Assigning Approvers Matters

When setting up approval policies, you decide who reviews and approves content at each stage. CalmCompliance lets you choose specific individuals, entire groups, or both. Individual approvers work when you need a named person's authority (e.g. Health & Safety Officer)—clear accountability, but can create bottlenecks if they're unavailable. Group approvers let any team member approve—faster, with automatic coverage during absences and no policy updates when membership changes. Use groups for flexibility; reserve individuals for roles that truly require a specific person. Set Required Approvals per stage: 1 = any single approver advances (fastest), 2+ = consensus, all = everyone must approve (strictest but slowest).

How to Assign Approvers

When Creating or Editing a Policy

1. Go to Settings > Governance > Approval Policies

2. Click New Template or Edit on an existing policy

3. For each stage, use the Approvers selector to add users and/or groups

   • Add individuals for specific roles (e.g. Facilities Manager)

   • Add groups when any qualified team member can approve

   • You can mix both in the same stage

4. Set Required Approvals—how many approvals this stage needs to complete

   • With 5 approvers and 2 required, the first 2 to approve complete the stage

5. Click Save Stage (or Create Template for new policies)

Adding or Removing Approvers in an Existing Policy

1. Find the policy in the list and click Edit

2. Find the stage you want to change and click to edit it

3. Use the Approvers selector to add or remove users and groups

4. Adjust Required Approvals if you've reduced approvers—ensure you have enough to meet the count

5. Click Save Stage, then Save Changes

Changes only affect new approval workflows. In-progress workflows keep the original approvers.

Common Questions

What happens if someone is in both individual approvers and a group? They only need to approve once. CalmCompliance deduplicates, so each person gets one notification and makes one decision.

What if I remove someone from a group that's an approver? New workflows won't include them. Existing in-progress workflows will continue with them as originally assigned.

Can an approver delegate to someone else? No. If you need delegation, add both people to the approvers (or add them to the same group).

How many approvers is too many? 1–3 per stage is typical. For groups, 4–8 with 1–2 required approvals works well. More than 10 usually means you should reconsider your structure.