Work Flow

Yes, but it all depends on your definition of "simple workflow". Give us some details.

We have a form for changing a position code - a user would complete the form - then it would need to be approved or denied by his/her boss. If denied - it would notify the author that it was denied - if approve - it would be route to HR.

You will need to add a status field to this table and restrict access to data based on this status.
For instance, when record is added status can be set to 'needs approval'. You can create a custom view then where only 'needs approval' records are displayed and restrict access to this view to those who belongs to 'Boss' user group.
'Boss' person can change status to 'approved' or 'denied'. There will be another custom view where only 'approved' records are displayed and only 'HR' group will have access to this view.
'denied' records - that can be yet another view where authors only have access. You may want to also use 'Users can see and edit their own data only' security option on that view so no author can see other authors records.