How do we design a workflow that pauses for information and then resumes cleanly?

Combine clear questions, ticket threading, and explicit resume behavior so pauses feel predictable to employees and HR.

Good pause / resume design reduces duplicate tickets and “is anything happening?” confusion.

Write one question at a time

Ask for missing facts in small chunks (dates, IDs, approvals) instead of ten questions at once.
Say who should answer (“Please reply on this ticket with…”) and by when if you have SLAs.

Choose the right wait mechanism

If the assignee is in the ticket thread, a ticket reply wait is natural.
If you need a manager approval before Harriet sends email or updates a system, use an approval step instead of a plain message.

Keep context in the ticket

When the workflow resumes, Harriet should see the full thread—avoid parallel email chains that the workflow cannot read.

Example

Step 1: Ask the employee for a relocation start date on the ticket and wait for reply.
Step 2: Draft the notification to IT; pause for approval from HRBP.
Step 3: After approval, send the message and post a summary back on the ticket.

Guardrails

If sensitive details should not be visible to the employee, use internal notes where your process allows and train agents accordingly.
Test the full loop in a pilot inbox before enabling on company-wide triggers.