Introduction
The are several options for enrolling both ERG leads and participants. The right option for your population will depend on whether you are offering open enrollment with no approval required, pre-selecting potential members, or screening new leads and members through a membership request process.
ERG Membership Settings
As an ERG platform admin, you can set up preferred enrollment workflow on the 'Membership' tab.
Navigation: Manage > Enrollment > Membership Settings
The options below can be specific to the role of ERG Lead or ERG Participant:
1) Apply to join
Administrator approval required - workflow:
Step 1: Upon accessing the ERG platform URL, the user clicks the Join button, chooses their desired role(s), inputs their email and receives a verification email with a link to complete the membership request form.
Step 2: The admin is notified via email when a user has submitted the form. The admin can approve or decline requests by accessing 'Pending Membership Applications' from the Home dashboard.
Step 3: Once declined or approved, the user is notified via email. If approved, the user logs in via the link in the email and completes their user profile, much of which will likely have been populated by the membership request form, as these two elements often share profile field data.
Read more: Add or edit Membership Form, The Membership Request workflow, Collecting Membership Requests
Approval based on eligibility rules of user profile - workflow:
Step 1: Admins configure the fields on the membership form with conditions that must be met by the user responses. Read more: Setting up Eligibility Criteria
Step 2: Upon accessing the ERG platform URL, the user clicks the Join button, chooses their desired role(s), inputs their email and a verification email is sent to them with a link to enter the platform and complete their profile. If their eligibility data meets the criteria, they can move forward to Step 3.
Step 3: Users can then request to join or join open ERGs available to them.
No approval required - workflow:
Step 1: Upon accessing the ERG platform URL, the user clicks the Join button, chooses their desired role(s), inputs their email and a verification email is sent to them with a link to complete their profile.
Step 2: User can then join or request to join any ERG that is available for open enrollment.
2) Invited by others
This is a great option if you are implementing an 'open enrollment' environment for your ERGs. You can enable both leads and/or participants to spread the word and help recruit other participant-level members, not new leads. This invitation works just like an invite sent from an admin. The two options are:
Allow ERG Leads to invite
Allow ERG Participants to invite
Be aware that this setting removes admin of control and visibility into who is joining. Another option is to offer a field in the membership request form that allows users to send referrals to you of others who might be interested in joining.
Member Workflow:
Step 1: User accesses Users in the left nav and selects 'ERG Participants' from the dropdown.
Step 2: User clicks the 'Invite ERG Participants' button on the upper right of the page.
Step 3: User completes invitation form by adding role selection and recipient emails. Users can also view the 'Invitation Emails' tab to edit/personalize their invitation email. Once invitations are sent, users can track via the 'Track Invitation Status' tab.
3) Administrator invitation
By default, admins are always able to invite leads and members by can sending invitations via email to a selected group. They can invite users directly a couple of ways:
Invite Users tool - Send time-limited, trackable invitations that do not create user accounts until accepted. Navigation: Manage > Enrollment > Invite Users
The workflow is similar to those previously mentioned: User receives an invitation email and clicks the invite link in the email to complete the signup process, reviews and completes their profile as needed.
Read more: Sending Invitations to Users (video tutorial, 2:23)
Add Users tool - Add users via a .CSV import or manually add users to the platform, thus creating their account and automatically sending an invite. Navigation: Manage > Enrollment > Add Users
An admin can input the user profile details and click to 'Publish', thus sending a notification to the user to complete and publish their profile (complete all mandatory fields so that they can now join an ERG).
Read more: Add Users Tool
End User Joining Workflow
1) End user accesses program URL: When the end user accesses the program URL they arrive at the ERG Program Overview page. Upon clicking the green button shown below, they are prompted to go through the signup process.
Program Overview page (customizable):
2) User clicks 'Become a Member' (or other custom terms, e.g. 'Join Now'): Depending on whether one or both roles are available for open enrollment on the platform, the user is presented with their joining options.
3) User opts in: Once the user makes their role selections (if both roles are available for open enrollment in the program), they will add their email and captcha verification and click 'Continue'. A verification email is sent to their email address with a link to complete signup by setting up a password and completing their profile.
If your organization has integrated your SSO login, the user will be presented with the SSO login window and go right to their profile for completion.