Release Notes WFM: Batch Updating Furloughed Employees

What’s Changing?
New Functionality that allows quick updating of the Furloughed Status page for multiple employees at once.

Please note: A CSV/Excel Batch Upload facility is also being developed and will be released separately.  Additional release notes will be published shortly.

Proposed release date: 17th April 2020

Reason for the Change
Following the recent announcements relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, it has been necessary to add additional functionality for Customers to update multiple employees’ Furloughed Statuses.

Customers affected
All HR & Payroll customers.

For a full list of Fourth's Covid19-related articles, please visit Fourth Products and Covid-19

Release Notes
A new link has been added to the HR module which allows users to mark multiple employees as furloughed.

• Go to HR module > Employees > Employee List
• Select Batch Update COVID19 Furlough Status

 

Fig.1 - Batch Update COVID19 Furlough Status link on Employee List

The following search criteria can be used to list employees:

• Location
• Division
• Job Title
• Employment Type
  • All
  • Paid by Rota Only
  • Salaried Only
• Furlough Periods 
  • No Furlough Period – Employees who have never been placed on Furlough
  • Started Initial Furlough Period – Employees on Furlough with no end date
  • Ended Initial Furlough Period – Employees on Furlough with a specified end date

 

• When ready, select Search

 

 
Fig.2 - Searching for employees

A list of employees will show with the following details:
 

• Employee Name
• Employee Number
• Start Date
• Location
• Division
• Job Title
• Employment Type
• Update?
• Contract Hours – this value will display the contracted hours or average hours depending on the employment status of the employee
• Earnings/Period – this value will be the calculated average basic pay for the period stated (weekly/fortnightly/four weekly/monthly)
• Start Date (Furlough)
• End Date (Furlough)
• Period Status

Within this screen, multiple employees can be placed on Furlough at once, or employees can be updated individually.

Updating Furlough Status

Once a list of employees has been generated, their Furlough Status can be updated.
 

• To update records individually, select the Update tickbox that appears next to an employee record

 

Fig.3 - Updating an individual employee

 

• It is possible to select the tickbox for multiple individual records within this page before selecting Save
• To update all records within the displayed list, select the Update tickbox at the top of the list of employees

 

Fig.4 - Updating multiple employees

The tickboxes against all employees within the list will then also update.
 

• It is possible to then remove the tickbox from individual employees by de-selecting the Update tickbox next to each required employee record

 

Fig.5 - De-selecting an individual employee after all have been selected

Updating Effective Start Date

After the Update tickbox has been selected to furlough employees, the Effective Start date needs to be added.
 

• To update employees individually, select the required Start Date next to their employee record

 
 

Fig.6 - Setting Start Date for an individual employee

It is possible to update the effective start date for all employees that have been selected to be furloughed.
 

• To update multiple employees’ start dates, select the date from the calendar at the top of the employee list and select SET

 

Fig.7 - Setting Start Date for multiple employees

 

• Once the start date has been entered, select Save

An information pop-up will appear to confirm the changes.
 

• Select OK

 

Fig.8 Batch furlough information pop-up

The page will update, and the employees’ Furlough Statuses will be set to “Active”.
 

Fig.9 - Updated Batch Furlough employee list

Updating Effective End Date

When employees’ Furlough Statuses need to be ended, this can also be done on the batch update page.
 

• To update employees individually, select the required date from the End Date field next to the employee record

 

 
Fig.10 – Setting the End Date for individuals

It is also possible to update the effective end date for all employees that have been furloughed.
 

• To update multiple employees’ end dates, select the date from the calendar at the top of the employee list and select SET

 

Fig.11 - Setting an end date for multiple employees

 

• Once the end date has been entered, select Save

An information pop-up will appear to confirm the changes.
 

• Select OK

 

Fig.12 - Batch Furlough information pop-up

The page will update, and the employee’s furlough period will be ended.

Updating Individual records

To check the details of employee’s Furlough Status pages, the page can be accessed directly from the batch update screen.
 

• To view an employee’s Furlough Status page, select the employee name on the employee list

 

Fig.13 - Selecting an individual employee from the Batch Furlough Employee List

 

Fig.14 - Employee Furlough Status page

The employee’s Furlough Status can be updated here if required.

Information

The ability to upload Furlough Status, and effective start and end dates will be available soon. Further information will be released that shows to update employee Furlough Statuses using an Excel template.