This tutorial will guide you through the process of setting up and managing employee holiday requests within Flowtly. You'll learn how to configure various holiday types, understand how employees submit their leave requests, and efficiently approve or deny those requests, ensuring smooth absence management for your organization.
1. Configure Holiday Types
Before your team can request time off, you need to define the different types of leave available. Flowtly provides flexible options to set up categories like annual leave, sick leave, parental leave, and more.
- Navigate to Holiday Types Settings:
- From your Flowtly dashboard, click on Settings in the left-hand navigation menu.
- Under the "Human Resources" section, select Holiday Types.
- Create a New Holiday Type:
- On the Holiday Types page, click the + New Holiday Type button.
- A form will appear for you to define your new leave category.
- Define Holiday Type Details:
- Name: Enter a clear, descriptive name (e.g., "Annual Leave," "Sick Leave," "Unpaid Leave").
- Description (Optional): Provide a brief explanation of this holiday type's purpose or rules.
- Requires Approval: Toggle this setting. If enabled, requests for this holiday type will need approval from a manager or administrator. It's generally recommended to require approval for most leave types to maintain control over staffing and schedules.
- Paid Holiday: Indicate whether this leave type is paid or unpaid. This impacts payroll calculations and employee expectations.
- Unlimited Entitlement: If this holiday type doesn't have a fixed annual limit (e.g., for some sick leave policies or specific agreements), check this box. If unchecked, you'll specify an entitlement later.
- Can Carry Over: If employees can carry over unused days from one year to the next for this leave type, enable this. You'll then specify the maximum days that can be carried over.
- Apply to All Employees by Default: If this holiday type applies to everyone in your organization, enable this. If it's only for specific groups or individuals, leave it unchecked, and you can assign it manually.
- Visibility: Choose who can see this holiday type when requesting leave (e.g., "All Employees," "Specific Groups").
- Associated with Work Schedule: For more complex scenarios, you can link holiday types to specific work schedules, which can influence how leave is calculated.
Tip: Consider your company's leave policies carefully when configuring each holiday type. For instance, for "Sick Leave," you might set it as "Paid," "Unlimited Entitlement" (if applicable), and "Requires Approval." For "Annual Leave," it would likely be "Paid," "Limited Entitlement," and "Can Carry Over."
- Save Your Holiday Type:
- Once all details are entered, click Save.
- Repeat this process for all holiday types relevant to your organization.
2. Manage Employee Holiday Entitlements
After setting up holiday types, you need to ensure employees have the correct entitlements assigned to them. Entitlements define how many days of a particular leave type an employee is allocated for a given period.
- Access Employee Profiles:
- Navigate to People from the main menu.
- Search for and click on the name of the employee whose entitlements you wish to manage.
- Go to the Holidays Tab:
- Within the employee's profile, click on the Holidays tab.
- Review and Adjust Entitlements:
- Here you will see a list of all holiday types and the employee's current entitlement for each.
- If a holiday type was set to "Apply to All Employees by Default," the entitlement will likely be pre-populated or will need to be added here.
- To add a new entitlement or modify an existing one:
- Click + Add Entitlement or click on an existing entry to edit.
- Select the Holiday Type from the dropdown.
- Enter the Number of Days for their annual entitlement.
- Specify the Effective From date for this entitlement.
- Optionally, add a Comment for internal notes.
- Click Save.
Note: If an employee starts mid-year, you might need to pro-rata their annual leave entitlement. Flowtly often has features to assist with this, or you can manually adjust the "Number of Days" accordingly.
3. Employees Submitting Holiday Requests
Once holiday types and entitlements are configured, employees can easily submit their leave requests through Flowtly.
- Accessing the Holiday Request Feature (Employee View):
- Employees can typically find this under their Home dashboard, specifically within a "My Holidays" widget, or directly by navigating to People Dashboard and then selecting My Holidays.
- Initiate a New Request:
- Click on the + Request Holiday button.
- Fill in Request Details:
- Holiday Type: Select the appropriate leave type from the dropdown menu (e.g., Annual Leave, Sick Leave).
- Start Date & End Date: Use the calendar pickers to specify the first and last day of the requested leave. Flowtly will automatically calculate the number of days based on their work schedule, excluding weekends and non-working days.
- Half-Day Options: If applicable, select if the start or end day is a half-day, and specify "Morning" or "Afternoon."
- Notes (Optional): Add any relevant comments for their manager, such as the reason for leave or contact information during absence.
Tip: Flowtly often displays the employee's remaining entitlement for the selected holiday type, helping them ensure they have enough days before submitting.
- Submit the Request:
- After reviewing all details, click Submit Request.
- The request will then be sent to the designated approver (usually their direct manager or an HR administrator) for review.
4. Approving and Denying Holiday Requests
Managers and administrators play a crucial role in reviewing and acting on submitted holiday requests.
- Accessing Pending Requests:
- Approvers will typically receive a notification via email or through the Flowtly Action Center.
- Alternatively, you can navigate directly to Human Resources > Holidays and then click on the Requests tab to view all pending requests.
- Reviewing a Request:
- Click on a pending request to view its details.
- You'll see:
- Employee Name
- Holiday Type
- Requested Dates
- Number of Days
- Employee's Notes
- Remaining Entitlement for the employee.
- A calendar view often shows other team members' absences, helping you identify potential conflicts.
- Taking Action on the Request:
- Based on your review and the team's availability, you have several options:
- Approve: If the request is acceptable, click Approve. The employee will be notified, and their leave will be recorded.
- Deny: If the request cannot be granted (e.g., due to staffing shortages, policy violation), click Deny. You will usually be prompted to provide a reason, which will be communicated to the employee.
- Request More Info: If you need further clarification, you can use this option to send a query back to the employee.
Note: Timely approval or denial is crucial for employee satisfaction and effective workforce planning. Utilize the notifications and Action Center to stay on top of pending requests.
5. Monitoring and Reporting Holidays
Flowtly provides tools to give you an overview of all employee holidays, past, present, and future.
- Holiday Overview:
- Navigate to Human Resources > Holidays.
- The Overview tab often presents a calendar view or a list of all approved holidays across the organization. This helps in visualising team availability.
- You can usually filter by department, team, or holiday type to get specific insights.
- Entitlement Balances:
- Within the Holidays section, you might also find a tab for Entitlement Balances, allowing you to quickly see how many days each employee has remaining for different holiday types.
By diligently setting up your holiday types, managing entitlements, and processing requests, you can ensure a streamlined and transparent leave management process for everyone in your organization.
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