From 1 October 2026, Worksome sends a Right to Work check to every new worker carrying out work in the UK through the platform. This includes PAYE workers, sole traders and workers operating through their own limited company.
By default, the check request is sent to the worker as soon as the hire is created, and payments are held until the check is approved. If your team would like more control, you can set up an approval step so that a hire does not progress until someone on your team has confirmed the worker's check is complete.
This article explains how to set that up and how your approvers can check a worker's status.
Note: Most clients do not need this setup. Workers are explicitly told not to start work before RTW status is cleared and also that all payments are held until a check is approved. Adding an approval step means hires take a little longer to progress, and someone on your team needs to review each one. If you're unsure whether it's right for you, speak to your Customer Success Manager.
Before you start
Approvals must be enabled on your account. Approvals is not switched on by default. Ask your Customer Success Manager, or contact us through the support chat, to enable it.
You need the right role. Only account Owners and Administrators can create approval groups and workflows.
Your approvers need access to the HD report. Right to Work statuses are shown on the Right to Work page of the HD report (V13 or later), which your approvers open from Insights in the left-hand menu. Opening it requires the Access to account insights permission - Owners, Administrators, Hiring Administrators, Finance and Compliance Officers have this, the basic Hiring role does not. If you can't see the page, ask your Customer Success Manager to upgrade your report.
Let your CSM know that you want to use an approval flow for RTW checks.
This one matters. A hire waiting for approval sits as a draft, and Worksome does not normally send a Right to Work check for a draft hire. Without this change, the hire would wait for an approval while the approver waits for a check that is never sent. Your Customer Success Manager needs to enable draft-stage checks for your account before you switch a workflow live.
How it works
A hire is created for a worker carrying out work in the UK.
Worksome sends the Right to Work check request to the worker, who completes it with their ID document and, where relevant, their UK Share Code. Reminders are sent automatically if they don't respond.
The hire waits for approval. It stays a draft and shows as Hire offer - Pending approval. The contract is not sent to the worker for signature, the worker is not notified, and the contract cannot be edited while it is pending.
Your approver checks the worker's Right to Work status on the Right to Work page of the HD report.
Once the status shows Approved, your approver accepts the hire and it continues as normal. The offer then reaches the worker. If the request is denied instead, the hire is cancelled.
Important: The approval step is a human check, not an automatic one. Worksome does not read the Right to Work result and approve the hire for you, and an approver is able to approve a hire whose check is still outstanding. What the approval step guarantees is that somebody has to look before the hire can progress — the HD report is where they look. Write that instruction into your group instructions so it is in front of them in the email.
Step-by-step guide
Step 1: Create an approval group
Go to Company Settings > Approvals > Groups.
Click Create group.
Give the group a clear name, for example Right to Work.
Add the team members who will review Right to Work statuses.
Optionally, add group instructions. These are included in the approval request email, so they are the best place to tell approvers what to do. We recommend something like: "Before approving, check the worker's Right to Work status on the Right to Work page of the HD report. Only approve when the status is Approved."
💡 Tip: Team members with the Compliance Officer role are not added to approval groups automatically. If you want them to approve, add them to the group by hand.
Step 2: Create the workflow
Go to Company Settings > Approvals > Workflows.
Click Create Workflow.
Name the workflow, for example UK Right to Work.
Choose the type Hire Created Approval. This is the only workflow type that holds a hire back from progressing.
Step 3: Choose which hires it applies to
In the editor, each workflow has a Custom rule and an Approved by chain. Under Approved by, press Select and choose the Right to Work group you created in Step 1.
For the rule itself you have two options:
Leave the custom rule empty. The workflow then applies to every hire on your account. This is the simplest and safest option, and it is the right one if nearly all of your hiring is in the UK. Be aware it will also hold hires outside the UK.
Scope it with a custom field. Approval conditions can be built from system variables — budget and the hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and fixed rates — or from your own custom fields. There is no built-in variable for country or work location, so to limit the workflow to UK hires you need a custom field on your jobs that identifies them, such as Work location. Press Add conditional and set the condition to match your UK value. All conditions in a rule must be met, so they combine with And.
If you already use approvals for other reasons, for example budget sign-off, you can add the Right to Work group as an additional step instead of building a new workflow. Press Add approval step and drag the groups into the order you want them to approve in. The first group must approve before the next one is notified, and every group in the chain must approve before the hire can progress. Within a single group, any one member can action the request on the group's behalf.
Step 4: Set the workflow live
Switch the workflow to Live.
Click Update in the top-right corner.
The workflow applies to hires created after it is set live. Existing hires are not affected, and hires that have already been offered are not re-evaluated.
Create your next hire as a test and confirm it sits as Pending approval rather than going straight out to the worker.
How approvers review a request
When a hire matches the workflow, everyone in the current group receives an email and an in-app notification, along with any group instructions you wrote. They can act from the Approvals item in the main menu, which lists Pending and Reviewed requests, or from the Approvals tab on the hire itself.
Open the hire in Approvals and note the worker's name.
Open the HD report from Insights and go to the Right to Work page (🛡️).
Find the worker and check their status against the table below.
You can filter by right to work check status - e.g. if you want to see everyone with status 'Approved' or you can filter directly by worker name or hire id.
Back in the approval request, choose Approve to move it to the next step, or Deny to stop the process and cancel the request. A comment is required when denying. Note that the HD report will take up to 2 hours to refresh and show approval statuses.
What each status means
Status | What it means | What to do |
Approved | The check is complete and approved | Accept the hire |
Not Started | The worker hasn't started the check yet | Wait. Worksome reminds the worker. Feel free to remind them as well |
In Progress | The worker has started but not finished | Wait |
In Review | Submitted, and we are reviewing it — usually a UK Share Code | Wait. Normally reviewed within one business day |
Declined | The check didn't pass | Don't accept yet. Worksome contacts the worker to resubmit |
Resubmitted / Check Resent | A fresh check has been issued to the worker | Wait for the new result |
Expired / Abandoned | The worker didn't finish the check in time | Don't accept yet. Contact your Customer Success Manager |
Blank | No check has been raised for this worker yet | Don't accept yet. If it stays blank, contact your Customer Success Manager |
Note: UK and Irish passport checks are normally approved straight away once the worker submits them. Checks that need a UK Share Code are reviewed manually by Worksome. Where our team has confirmed a worker's status by hand, the report shows Approved in the same way as an automatic pass.
The report also shows the evidence behind each result - document type, issuing country, when the check was raised, when it was approved and much more.
The report refreshes on a schedule rather than instantly, so a check completed in the last hour may not have appeared yet. For more on reviewing approvals, see How to manage Approvals.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to chase the worker to complete the check? No. Worksome sends reminders to the worker and follows up on anything outstanding. It does help if your hiring managers remind workers to complete the check as soon as they receive it.
How long does a check take? UK and Irish passport checks are normally instant. Share Code checks are usually reviewed within one business day. Checks submitted in the evening or at weekends may take longer.
Does this apply to workers outside the UK? The Right to Work check itself only applies to work carried out in the UK. Whether the approval step applies to other hires depends on what you did in Step 3 — an empty custom rule applies to every hire on the account.
Can we remove the approval step later? Yes. An Owner or Administrator can switch the workflow off at any time in Company Settings > Approvals > Workflows. Hires already waiting for approval still need to be actioned.
Will workers who have already been checked be asked again? Not while their existing check is still valid. Workers with time-limited permission to work are asked for a new check once their current permission expires, so build a little time into hires that start close to an expiry date — check the visa and document expiry columns in the report.
Can approvers see the status without opening the HD report? Not today. The approval request window shows the hire and the reasons the request was raised, but not the Right to Work result, so approvers need the report open alongside it.
Troubleshooting
Hires are progressing without an approval. Check the workflow is Live, that its type is Hire Created Approval, and that the custom rule is not narrower than you intended.
An approver cannot see the Approvals menu. They only see it once they are a member of a group used by a live workflow.
A status stays blank, and the hire never gets a check. This is usually because draft-stage checks have not been enabled on your account — see Before you start. Contact your Customer Success Manager.
Insights says a custom dashboard has not been configured for your account. The HD report has not been set up for you yet — contact your Customer Success Manager.
You need to change a contract that is pending approval. Contracts cannot be edited while an approval is pending. Deny the request, make your changes, and re-create the hire.
Related guides
Need help setting this up?
Contact your Customer Success Manager or reach out through the support chat. You can also email us at hello@worksome.com. We're happy to help!