Engage Mobile: My Holidays in Employee Self Service (ESS)

Overview

'My Holidays' within Employee Self Service (ESS) allows users to request, view and delete Holidays.

The following topics are covered in this article (select each one to be taken to that topic):

• Implementation
• Using My Holidays via ESS
• Requesting a Holiday
• Deleting a Holiday Request
• Booking Days Off
  

Implementation

To enable the My Holidays functionality:

• Go to HR > Company Admin > Locations and select the required Location
• Tick the box against Display Holiday tab within ESS?
• Scroll down and Save

My Holidays should now be enabled within ESS for the required Locations.

Please note: If necessary, please liaise with your Fourth contact to have this setting made available. 

Fig.1 – Enabling Holiday Tab within ESS (new UI)

Using My Holidays via ESS

The My Holidays tab is available for all ESS users and displays the individual employee's holiday information.

Fig.2 – 'My Holidays' tab

‘Remaining’ and 'Allowed' holidays are displayed in the circular graph, and information on taken, booked, reserved, accrued, and 'carried-over' holiday days/hours will also be displayed on this page - see Fig.3. 

Flexible Employment

If an employee is on flexible employment status, the average days and hours worked will be displayed from across the last 52 weeks and the day rate as of the previous day.

Full Time/Casual Employment Status Holidays

For full-time, part-time or casual employees, the 'average hours worked' and 'day rate' will not be displayed. 

Fig.3 – Flexible (left) and full/part-time or casual employment (right) holiday details

'Upcoming Holidays' and 'Past Holidays' are displayed below the allowance.

Employees should review these regularly to ensure that they are correct.

Fig.4 – Upcoming and Past Holidays

Requesting a Holiday

• To request holiday, select the + icon

Fig.5 - + Icon

• Select the required date range for the holiday and then Apply

Fig.6 – Date Selection

The next page displays the total requested number of days.

• To book selected dates as Unpaid or Half Day, tick the required boxes
• Once confirmed, select Submit

Fig.7 – Holiday Confirmation

The holiday days will display as ‘Pending’, and once authorised, will display as ‘Approved’ or ‘Declined’.

Deleting a Holiday Request

If a holiday has been booked in error or is not needed anymore, the request can be deleted, even if already authorised. 

Please note: Holiday days can only be deleted if they are in the future, or the rota week that contains the day has not been completed or submitted to payroll. To remove a holiday for a submitted rota, please speak to the admin user within your organisation. 

• To delete a holiday, select the Holiday Day from the list and then the Delete Request button

Fig.8 – 'Delete request' button

Booking Days Off

Depending on Portal settings and Internal processes, the best practice way of booking days off is to select Unpaid Holiday for the days that are not to be deducted from the employee’s holiday entitlement, i.e. the usual days off for the employee. 

This will not deduct pay from a salaried employee unless the Payroll Global Setting Unpaid Leave Pay Type is enabled to deduct unpaid holidays from salaried employees. 

As shown in the example below, the employee works 4 days. They have booked the entire period, marking their normal days off as ‘Unpaid’ so that these aren’t impacting their Holiday allowance, and this means that these days off cannot be accidentally scheduled within the Rota.

It is possible to rename the 'Unpaid' label to something more descriptive. See here for guidance.

 
Fig.10 – Booking an Unpaid Day

 
Fig.11 – Days Off Booked as Unpaid Days