WFM UK: UI Refresh HR: Holiday Management

Overview

This article outlines advisable processes when handling Holiday requests and recording days off. 

Adding a Holiday to the Rota

When adding a holiday to the rota, it is advisable to schedule the employee's Holiday for the full period they are 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. 

Fig.1 - Holiday displayed on the rota

Recording Days Off

• Days off should be entered within the holiday request as unpaid, as per Fig.2 below

In this example, five holiday days have been booked and the standard days off are not deducted from the holiday allowance. 

Please note: There is a Payroll Global Setting that will deduct these days from the salary. Ensure this is not enabled to use the functionality as explained.

• When reviewing the Rota, a Holiday can be identified as unpaid by selecting the specific day for more details

Fig.3 - Identifying an unpaid holiday

Authorising Holiday

Once an employee has entered a Holiday request, the manager is responsible for ensuring the correct amount of days have been selected as unpaid e.g. an employee who works five days a week should have two unpaid days ticked per seven days.

If there are too many unpaid days selected, the manager should then decline the request, the boxes cannot be ticked or un-ticked retrospectively. If the employee requires the additional days, they can be deducted from their holiday allowance. Failing that, they can be processed via the absences functionality as unpaid leave.

Unpaid Leave

When a request for unpaid leave is made, this must be entered as an absence. It is advisable to have an absence type created in the system named ‘Unpaid Leave’. This will deduct a days pay from a salaried employee.

Reporting on Days Off in Holiday Requests

The Employee Hours Worked export in the Rotas module is the most suited report to identify holidays and unpaid leave. This report can be filtered by date range and returns data regarding all Holidays (HOL) and Unpaid Holidays (UHOL) taken by all employees.

A ‘COUNTIF’ formula can be used to total the amount of paid/unpaid holidays taken in the selected period. See below example - Fig.4.
 

Fig.4 - Example of a COUNTIF formula

Please note: As this report is retrieving all Rota data for all Locations, it is advised to limit the search period to a maximum of three months due to the volume of data being collected. 

The Weekly Employee Status Summary export in the HR module is another useful report to identify Holidays and unpaid Holidays. However, this report contains numerous other fields, see below. 

Fig.5 - Weekly Employee Status Summary Report

Back Pay for Additional Holiday Pay

A Global Setting is available to include any additional payments that are in the current pay run within the additional Holiday pay calculation.

• Go to HR > Administration > Global Settings > Edit Default Holiday Settings
• Select Holiday Calculations
• Under the Additional Holiday Pay section, the setting is titled Use payments within the current pay run within additional holiday pay calculation

Fig.6 - Use Payments in Current Pay Run option

By turning the setting on, any additional payments that are in the current pay run within the additional Holiday pay calculation are included.

Renaming 'Unpaid Holiday' Label

Not every day off is an unpaid holiday - it could be a weekend or not the employee's working pattern. Because holidays are booked in blocks, renaming the label to something other than 'Unpaid Holiday' can help to reduce confusion, as employees aren't actually deducted anything for these unpaid days

• Go to HR > Administration > Global Settings > Edit Default Employee Settings

Fig.7 - Global Setting – Rename unpaid holiday?

When this field has no text entered, the system will continue to function as normal.

When the field does have text entered, all pages and reports where the label “Unpaid” appears will display the updated name.

Pages that will display the renamed label:

• HR > Employees > Employee List > search for and select an Employee > Employee HR Info > Holidays
• HR > Employees > Employee List > search for and select an Employee > Employee HR Info > Holidays > Create a Holiday Request
• Rotas > select Rota Week > select the Holiday hyperlink
• Rotas > select Rota Week > Weekly Attendance > select the Holiday hyperlink

Fig.8 - Renamed ‘Unpaid’ field in the Create A New Holiday Request screen

Exports that will display the new label:

• Rotas > Reports > Exports > Payroll Data Export
• HR > Reports > Exports > Holidays Status Export
• HR > Reports > Exports > Weekly Employment Status Summary
  
• HR > Reports > View Reports > Holiday Status

Additional Holiday Information

Further available articles and reports regarding holidays are detailed below:

WFM UK - HR: UI Refresh - Creating Holidays

WFM UK - HR: UI Refresh - Creating a Holiday Request

WFM UK - HR: UI Refresh - Viewing the Holidays and Absences Calendar

Reports

Employee Holidays – It is advisable to check this report on a weekly basis prior to creating a Rota and submitting a Rota to Payroll
Holiday Year to Date Report 
Holiday Status Report