Hi @JTowns,
The options for enrollment depend a bit on the circumstances. Usually, workflows have certain enrollment triggers. You can think of these as HubSpot being constantly on the look-out for contacts who match certain criteria. A common one would be the fact that contact submitted the form. Upon form submission, the contact would enroll in the workflow.
If a contact does not organically meet the enrollment criteria, you can manually enroll them. This would be an alternative to reviewing the initial enrollment triggers and usually makes sense if a contact (or record) is an exception to the rule. If you find that you have more and more of these exceptions, you’d update the enrollment criteria of the workflow. You could then for example say that you want contacts who submitted a certain form OR contacts who visited a certain page or join a certain list.
When updating workflow enrollment triggers, keep an eye out for the option that asks you whether you want to retroactively enroll contacts who meet the criteria or just the ones from now on. The first option might cause a bulk enrollment of contacts.
So no, you don’t have to always enroll contacts manually. That would indeed not be the opposite of automation.
Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!