A saved search formula with

{nextapprover}

(an employee reference) shows the entity id instead of the name. Any workaround to get the employee's name?

Did you tried: {nextapprover.name} ?

Yep

ERROR: Field Not Found

try {nextapprover.altname} and {nextapprover.entityid} hopefully one of those should get you what you want. When I'm having trouble with a field, I use the dropdown selector and look through what they have there and then see what it spits out in the formula so I don't have to go hunting in the interminable dropdown of fields next time.

{nextapprover.altname}

works, thanks @James Morris