This tutorial will guide you through configuring Flowtly to efficiently manage employee leave and absence. You'll learn how to set up various holiday types, establish and manage company-wide public holidays, and streamline the approval processes for leave requests, ensuring a smooth experience for both employees and HR.
1. Understanding and Configuring Holiday Types
Holiday Types are the different categories of leave that your employees can request (e.g., Annual Leave, Sick Leave, Parental Leave). Properly configuring these is the foundation of efficient leave management.
1.1 Accessing Holiday Type Settings
- Navigate to the Administration section from your Flowtly dashboard.
- In the Administration menu, find and click on Holiday Types. This page displays a list of all existing holiday types configured in your system.
Tip: Before making changes, familiarize yourself with any default holiday types already present in your Flowtly instance. Some might be pre-configured to meet common industry standards.
1.2 Creating a New Custom Holiday Type
If your organization has unique leave policies or needs to track specific types of absence, you can create custom holiday types.
- On the Holiday Types page, click the Add New button, usually located in the top right corner or at the bottom of the list.
- A form will appear, prompting you to enter details for the new holiday type:
- Name: Enter a descriptive name for the holiday type (e.g., "Compassionate Leave", "Training Leave", "Unpaid Sabbatical").
- Code: Provide a short, unique code (e.g., "CL", "TL", "USL"). This is often used for internal tracking or integrations.
- Description (Optional): Add a brief explanation of the holiday type, its purpose, or specific conditions.
- Type: Select the category this leave falls under (e.g., "Paid", "Unpaid", "Statutory"). This helps in reporting and compliance.
- Approval Required: This is a crucial setting.
- Check this box if requests for this holiday type must go through an approval workflow (e.g., annual leave, compassionate leave).
- Uncheck it if the leave is automatically approved or simply for tracking purposes without formal approval (e.g., some types of sick leave where notification is sufficient).
- Accrues: Check this box if employees accrue time for this leave type over a period (e.g., annual leave accrues monthly). Leave this unchecked for types like sick leave or public holidays, which typically do not accrue.
- Carries Over: If the accrued balance for this holiday type can be carried over to the next year, check this box. This is typically applicable to annual leave but not sick leave.
- Default Duration: Specify if a request for this holiday type defaults to a "Full Day" or "Half Day". Employees can usually adjust this when making a request.
- Visibility/Applicability (if available): Depending on your Flowtly configuration, you might be able to specify which departments, locations, or employee groups can request this holiday type.
- Click Save to create the new holiday type.
Practical Tip: When defining "Approval Required," consider your company's HR policies. For instance, while annual leave always requires approval, some companies might allow employees to log short sick leaves without prior approval, relying on a notification system instead.
1.3 Editing or Deleting Existing Holiday Types
- On the Holiday Types page, locate the holiday type you wish to modify or remove.
- Click the Edit icon (often a pencil) next to the entry to make changes.
- Click the Delete icon (often a trash can) to remove it. You will usually be prompted to confirm this action.
Caution: Deleting a holiday type might affect historical data or pending requests. It's generally better to make a holiday type inactive or restrict its visibility if it's no longer used, rather than deleting it outright, especially if it has associated records.
2. Managing Public and Bank Holidays
Public holidays (or bank holidays) are fixed dates when all or specific groups of employees are not expected to work. Flowtly allows you to manage these system-wide, ensuring they are automatically factored into leave calculations and calendars.
2.1 Accessing the Holidays Section
- From your Flowtly dashboard, navigate to Human Resources.
- Click on Holidays. This section will display all public holidays configured for your organization. You might also find this under the People Dashboard.
2.2 Adding a Single Public Holiday
You'll typically add public holidays year by year or as they are announced.
- On the Holidays page, click the Add Holiday button.
- Fill in the details for the public holiday:
- Date: Select the specific date of the public holiday.
- Name: Enter the official name of the holiday (e.g., "New Year's Day", "Christmas Day").
- Description (Optional): Add any relevant notes.
- Mark as Public/Bank Holiday: Ensure this option is checked. This ensures the day is recognized as a non-working day for all employees it applies to.
- Applicability (if available): If your organization operates in multiple regions with different public holidays, you might have options to apply the holiday to specific locations, departments, or legal entities. Select the appropriate scope.
- Click Save to add the public holiday to your system.
Practical Tip: It's good practice to add all known public holidays for the upcoming year well in advance. This prevents scheduling conflicts and ensures accurate leave tracking. Check official government calendars for your operating regions to ensure accuracy.
2.3 Managing Existing Public Holidays
Similar to holiday types, you can edit or delete public holiday entries.
- On the Holidays page, find the public holiday you wish to modify.
- Click the Edit icon to update its details (e.g., name, date, applicability).
- Click the Delete icon to remove it from the system.
Note: If a public holiday changes dates or is removed by authorities, ensure you update your Flowtly system promptly to maintain accurate records.
3. Streamlining Leave Approval Workflows
Efficient leave management isn't just about defining holiday types; it's also about setting up a clear and timely approval process. Flowtly integrates approval workflows to ensure requests are handled smoothly.
3.1 Understanding the Approval Process in Flowtly
Flowtly's approval mechanism typically involves assigning responsibilities to individuals who can review and act on leave requests. This is often based on the organizational hierarchy (e.g., direct manager approval) or specific roles (e.g., HR approval).
3.2 Defining Approvers Through Responsibilities
For leave requests to be approved, you need to designate who has the authority to approve them. This is usually managed through the Responsibilities feature.
- Navigate to Administration > Responsibilities.
- Here, you'll define roles and assign them to individuals. For leave management, common responsibilities include:
- Manager: Typically, an employee's direct manager is their primary leave approver. Ensure that each employee in Flowtly has their manager correctly assigned in their People profile.
- HR Approver: For certain types of leave or for oversight, an HR team member might be a secondary approver or the primary approver for specific cases.
- To ensure managers can approve leave:
- Go to People and select an employee.
- Edit their profile to ensure the correct "Manager" is linked. This establishes the reporting line for approval workflows.
Tip: Clearly communicate the approval hierarchy to all employees. When employees know who their approver is, it reduces confusion and speeds up the process.
3.3 Configuring Approval Settings for Holiday Types
When you created or edited a holiday type (Section 1.2), you saw the "Approval Required" checkbox. This is where you tie the holiday type to the workflow.
- If "Approval Required" is checked for a holiday type, Flowtly will automatically route requests for that type to the designated approver(s).
- For more complex workflows (e.g., multi-level approvals where a manager's approval is followed by HR's approval), these settings might be found under Settings > HR Settings or within the Holiday Types configuration itself. Consult your Flowtly administrator or documentation for specific advanced workflow configurations.
Best Practice: Regularly review your approval workflows. As your organization grows or policies change, you may need to adjust who approves what and in what order.
3.4 Employee Perspective: Requesting Leave
For employees, requesting leave is a straightforward process in Flowtly.
- Employees can usually request leave from their Home Dashboard or by navigating to People Dashboard > My Holidays.
- They will click a button like "Request New Holiday" or "Request Leave".
- The request form will typically ask for:
- Holiday Type: They select from the list of available holiday types (e.g., Annual Leave, Sick Leave).
- Start Date & End Date: The duration of the leave.
- Duration (Full Day/Half Day): For specific start/end days.
- Reason/Notes: An optional field for employees to provide context for their request.
- Once submitted, the request enters the approval workflow.
3.5 Approver Perspective: Processing Leave Requests
Approvers receive notifications and can manage requests through a centralized area.
- Notifications: Approvers typically receive an email notification when a new leave request is submitted.
- Action Center: All pending requests (including leave approvals) are usually visible in the Action Center on the Flowtly dashboard. This provides a centralized hub for all tasks requiring action.
- To process a request:
- Go to the Action Center.
- Locate the pending leave request.
- Click on the request to view its details (employee, dates, type, reason).
- You will have options to Approve, Decline, or Request More Information.
- Add comments if necessary (e.g., explaining why a request was declined or providing alternative dates).
- Once an action is taken, the employee is usually notified of the decision, and the employee's holiday balance and calendar are updated accordingly.
Efficiency Tip: Encourage approvers to regularly check their email notifications and the Flowtly Action Center to avoid delays in processing leave requests. Timely approvals contribute significantly to employee satisfaction and operational planning.
Summary and Next Steps
By configuring holiday types and defining robust approval workflows, you empower your organization to manage employee leave efficiently and transparently. This streamlined process reduces administrative overhead, improves communication, and ensures compliance with company policies.
Your next steps should involve:
- Regularly reviewing your holiday types to ensure they align with current company policies and legal requirements.
- Updating public holidays annually to keep your system accurate.
- Training employees and managers on how to submit and approve leave requests using the Flowtly system.
- Monitoring the leave management process for any bottlenecks and making adjustments to workflows as needed.
