Grade Step Progression Process

For those using GSP, I have a few questions on business process and would appreciate any information you could supply to any of these questions, or any comments regarding the process:

• How often are you scheduling 'Run Grade Step Progression'? Daily / Weekly? (Do you use a value in 'Days back from effective date?')
• Do you use Automatic or Manual?
• Is there a way to notify the process owner of an upcoming change to grade/step? E.g are there any system alerts/notifications for GSP?
• Do you / how do you notify employee of a change to grade/step (and therefore pay rate)?