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Department Site Join Approval

Department Site Join Approval is a ready-to-use SharePoint governance workflow that lets an intranet hub owner review and approve which department or project sites are allowed to join the hub. When approval is required, a site owner's request to join is held until the hub owner approves it, so the intranet family stays curated and on-brand - all without custom development.
Author
Microsoft
Built with
Features
Communication Site, Hub Site, Site
Category
Workflows

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Overview

  • Controls which sites can associate with a hub
  • Turned on by the hub owner as an approval requirement
  • Holds each join request until the hub owner reviews it
  • Keeps hub navigation, news rollup, and search scoped to approved sites
  • Association is a link, not a migration, so nothing moves
  • A native SharePoint hub capability, with no custom development

Common Use Cases

  • Keeping a corporate intranet hub curated as departments join
  • Governing which project sites roll up to a PMO portfolio hub
  • Controlling regional hub membership across offices
  • Ensuring only approved sites appear in hub news and search
  • Preventing unrelated sites from cluttering a hub
  • Maintaining a clean information architecture as the org changes

Common Questions About Department Site Join Approval

If LookBook 365 is code-free and out-of-the-box, why does it include this workflow example?

Hub join approval is a native SharePoint hub setting a hub owner turns on – not custom code. SharePoint routes the association request and records the decision itself, inside your Microsoft 365 tenant, with nothing to build.

Who can require approval to join a hub?

The hub owner can require approval before a site associates, and administrators can restrict which people or groups may associate sites at all.

Does joining a hub change a site’s permissions?

No. Association never changes permissions – everything that rolls up to the hub is security trimmed, so people only see what they already have access to.

Can a site belong to more than one hub?

A site associates with only one hub at a time. For a site that fits two, pick the primary hub and add a plain navigation link from the other.

Who creates the hub itself?

Only a SharePoint administrator can register a site as a hub. Once it exists, the hub owner manages association and approval day to day.

Can you set this up and train my team?

Absolutely. I set up your hub, decide where approval is required, and show your hub and site owners how associations and approvals work day to day. As your intranet grows, I design the hub structure and governance so it stays organized.

Hub Join Approval Process Diagram
Hub Join Approval Process Diagram