WFM UK: Holidays: Managing Your Team's Holiday Requests – Fourth & HotSchedules Customer Success Portal

Overview

This article provides guidance on the following actions:

Authorising and declining holiday requests - where employees have requested holiday using Employee Self Service (ESS) or on the main portal/desktop
Creating and authorising holiday requests on behalf of employees
Deleting holiday requests and holidays
Using the Holidays and Absences Calendar
Holiday Request History

At the bottom of this article, you will also find some troubleshooting tips.

Authorising Employee Holiday Requests

When employees create holiday requests using their Fourth solution, managers can administer the requests from their own HR Homepage. Managers should receive alerts/notifications when holiday requests are created (see our troubleshooting tips below for more info).

To see all employee holiday requests, from the side menu, go to HR > HR Homepage

All unauthorised holiday requests from employees who report to that manager will be listed.

Fig.1 - Employee holiday requests on a manager's HR Homepage

It is possible to quickly authorise a holiday request directly from here - tick the relevant 'Authorise' box(es) and then select the Authorise button at the bottom of the screen
Best practice, though, is to select an individual holiday request to view it in detail before authorising
Then select Search

This will bring up all holiday requests for that employee, authorised and unauthorised.

Review and check over the days that have been requested
When ready, tick the 'Authorise' box(es) as necessary and select Authorise

The employee's holiday will then be logged in the system, and the days deducted from their allowance. The holiday will also be updated in the Holidays and Absences Calendar - see further below.

Any unticked days will remain unauthorised and still show on the HR Home page. These should be regularly processed (authorised or declined), as too many on the list can prevent new ones from appearing.

Fig.2 - Searching for and authorising employee holiday days

Declining Employee Holiday Requests

To decline a holiday request, select the required day from the list shown in Fig.2
Use the Status drop-down, select Declined and then Save

Fig.3 - Searching for and authorising employee holiday days

Employee Notifications

If employees are using ESS to request holidays, it is possible to configure the app to send notifications when their holiday requests are authorised/declined. For guidance, please see WFM UK: ESS Mobile: Holiday Request Notifications.

Creating and Authorising Holiday Requests on Behalf of Employees

Sometimes employees will request holiday outside of Fourth but still need it to be recorded in the system. In this instance, managers will create and authorise employee holiday requests on their behalf.

From the side menu, go to HR > Employees > Employee List

Fig.4 - HR > Employees > Employee List

Search for and select the required employee

Their Employee Summary page will display, which includes a 'Holidays and Absences' section.

At the top of the screen, select Create Holiday Request

Fig.5 - Employee Summary

Select the date range that the employee requires
- Best practice here is to enter the full period that the employee will be away from the business. This will avoid anyone being accidentally scheduled to work whilst on approved annual leave. If days are marked as OFF on the rota, an employee can still be scheduled to work, whereas a Holiday day cannot be overridden.
- If your organisation uses holiday hours instead of days, enter the No. of hours and then Save
Then use the Calculate Number of Days button to confirm how many days are being requested
Use the Half Day? and Unpaid? tickboxes to create a holiday request of that type if needed. Unpaid days will not be deducted from the employee's holiday allowance or payment deducted from salaried employees' pay
- If a salaried employee has requested unpaid holiday and a deduction needs to be made to their salary, this should be recorded as an absence - see here for guidance: WFM UK: UI Refresh HR: Creating an Absence
When ready, select Save

Fig.6 - Calculating number of days and saving

Each requested day will then display as an individual 'Unauthorised' request. Also, on the right side of the screen, there is a clear record of how many days per year the employee has been allocated, how many of those days they have accrued and how many days have been taken to date.

For more information on holiday allowance and accrual, please see:

WFM UK: Holidays: Allowance Calculations for Full and Part-Time Employees
WFM UK: Holidays: Allowance Calculations for Flexible Employees

The next steps should be taken by the line manager or whoever has permission/access to authorise holiday requests.

Each requested day will have its Authorise box ticked by default - untick any as required or Delete if any were created in error
There is another opportunity to mark any days as Unpaid - tick the box(es) as required
Then, to authorise the selected days, select Save

The holiday information will then be updated and the booking completed on the system.

Fig.7 - Authorising holiday days

Deleting Holidays

Holiday days can be deleted any time before the holiday is taken. To do this,

Go to HR > Holidays and Absences > Employee Holidays
Search for the required employee
Tick the 'Delete' box(es) as needed and then use the Delete button

To remove an already taken holiday,

Go to HR > Holidays and Absences > Employee Holidays
Search for the required employee
Where the 'Delete' tickbox shows as 'N/A', select the holiday request and then change the Status to Removed
- If you do not see the Removed option, please contact your system administrator as this is controlled by a permission
Select Save

The holiday day will then be removed from the employee's record and added back into their holiday allowance.

Using the Holidays and Absences Calendar

The Holidays and Absences Calendar colour-codes and displays all employee holidays and absences for easy reference.

The calendar is for information purposes only - no actions (authorising, deleting, etc) can be carried out from it.

Go to HR > Holidays and Absences > View Calendar

Fig.8 - HR > Holidays and Absences > View Calendar

Use the filters and select Search

The calendar view is colour-coded - there is a key at the bottom, indicating icons for 'Holiday', 'Lieu Day', 'Absence', and 'Unauthorised Holiday'.

As shown in Fig.9 there are options to Print Calendar and Export to Excel

Fig.9 Calendar View in Colour

To view a year summary of the months in which holidays/absences etc have occurred for an individual employee, select the Graph icon next to their name

Fig.10 - Graph Icon against employee's name

Within this screen (see Fig.7), a complete breakdown of the employee’s Holidays and Absences for the year can be viewed and/or printed.

Fig.11 - Breakdown of an employee's holidays

Holiday Request History

It is possible to see the history of an individual holiday request from an employee's HR Info in the system.

Go to HR > Employees > Employee List > search and select Employee > Employee HR Info > Holidays > select the Holiday > go to History

A new window will appear, showing the history of the holiday request - who created it, who authorised/declined it, and the date and time.

There are several reports available that show holiday request data in greater detail. Please see WFM UK : Holidays: Reporting for more information.

Troubleshooting

Question/Problem: Manager not Receiving Alerts when Employee Holiday Requests are Created

It is possible to configure email alerts and notifications for managers to receive when their employees create holiday requests.

For hierarchy-based notifications, where the 'reports to' manager receives notification, please use 'notifications.
See here for guidance: Setting up Line Manager Holiday Notifications

To have holiday request alerts go to specific employees (not necessarily the 'reports to' manager), please use 'alerts'.
See here for guidance: Setting Email Alerts

Question/Problem: Unable to Book Holidays on Certain Days

If an employee is set to not work on certain days (the weekend, for example) then those days will not be available as holiday days.

To check this, go to HR > Employees > search for and select the employee
Go to Employee Info > Employment Details > scroll down to 'Days Available to Work'
Check the tickboxes, as shown below

Fig.12 - 'Days Available To Work' tickboxes

Question/Problem: Booked Holidays Not Showing on System

If booked Holidays are not displaying on the system, check to see if they have been deleted.

To do so:

Go to HR > View Employee > select Employee > Employee HR Info > Holidays > Deleted Holidays

When a Holiday is selected to be removed, it appears under ‘View Deleted Holidays’.

Question/Problem: This Job Title Does not Allow for this Paid Holiday Request

Check the employee's holiday allowance. If zero, it could be that they have recently started working at the organisation and have not yet worked any hours. 'Hours worked' is required for the flexible employee holiday allowance calculation, so the employee will need to have some recorded hours worked in the system via a submitted schedule.