How to set up an Automated Assignment — an assignment that fires for users whenever they meet a trigger condition, without manual intervention.
An Automated Assignment uses a trigger and audience criteria to assign content automatically as users meet the criteria. Build it once and it serves a population that changes over time — new hires, new partners, users who hit a milestone — without anyone re-running it.
Automated Assignments are built through the Assignment builder (Share → Assignments). For the standalone Automations area (Share → Automations), see Creating an Automation — they share the same underlying engine but the Assignment builder framing is more direct for simple cases.
For the strategic frame, see Designing Assignments: Direct vs. Automated.
How to Create an Automated Assignment
1. Open the Assignment builder. Click Share in the left navigation, then Assignments.
2. Click + New Assignment.
3. Name the assignment. Use a name that describes the trigger and audience: "Onboarding Track — New Sales Hires Day 1" is clearer than "New Hire Training."
4. Confirm Automated Assignment is selected on the right side. Click Next.
5. Select the trigger. Common options:
- A User Was Hired Today — fires daily for users whose hire date matches today
- A User Was Hired Exactly X Days Ago — fires daily for users hitting that hire-date anniversary
- A User Has Completed Content — fires after a specific Content piece, Track, or Journey is completed
- A User Has Completed an Assignment — fires after a specific assignment is completed (with optional delay)
- A User Is Added To Continu — fires on first login
- A User Is Updated — fires when profile attributes change
For the full trigger reference, see Automation Audience Trigger Guide.
6. Configure trigger details. For "Completed an Assignment" or "Completed Content," select which Assignment or Content piece. For hire-date triggers, set the number of days.
7. Select the audience. Define who the trigger applies to. Most often this is a Smart Segmentation rule (e.g., "Sales department + EMEA region") or a Group.
8. Apply exclusionary logic if needed. See Using Exclusionary Logic in Assignments.
9. Select the content. What gets assigned when the trigger fires.
10. Set the due date. Either an absolute date or a relative window from the trigger date (e.g., "due 30 days after trigger").
11. Configure notifications. See Assignment and Automation Notifications.
12. Review and activate. The Automation is dormant until activated — confirm activation before walking away.
Test Before Activating Broadly
An Automated Assignment with the wrong trigger or audience can create thousands of incorrect assignments before anyone notices. Test against a small test audience (two or three users) before activating against the real population. The Automation can be deactivated and edited if testing reveals an issue.
0-Day Delay Behaviour
If your trigger is "A User Has Completed Content" or "A User Has Completed an Assignment" and you set a 0-day delay, the Automation fires retroactively for every past completion the moment you activate it. On content that hundreds of learners have already completed, this can create a flood of assignments.
For future-only firing, use a 1-day delay instead. See Automation Audience Trigger Guide for trigger-specific timing details.
Common Mistakes
Forgetting to activate. The single most common cause of "my Automation isn't firing" — see Troubleshooting Automations.
Missing user attributes. Hire-date triggers need hire dates. Department-based audiences need department values. If users don't have the required attributes, the Automation won't fire for them.
Skipping the test audience. Activating against the real population without testing first is the most common source of unintended mass assignments.
Using Automated when Direct is right. If the audience is fixed and known, a Direct Assignment is faster to set up and easier to reason about.
See Also
- Designing Assignments: Direct vs. Automated — strategic frame.
- Automation Design Best Practices — design principles for automations.
- Automation Audience Trigger Guide — full trigger reference.
- Creating a Direct Assignment — the Direct alternative.
- Creating an Automation — the Share → Automations flow for the same engine.
- Troubleshooting Automations — when an Automation isn't firing.
Share → Assignments → +New Assignment → Automated → trigger + audience + content + due date + notifications → activate. Test against 2-3 users first. Watch for 0-day delays on completion triggers.