Set Up and Manage Your Company's Leave Policies

Managing employee leave efficiently is crucial for any organisation, ensuring both compliance and employee satisfaction. Flowtly provides a comprehensive set of tools to streamline your company's leave policies, from defining different holiday types to processing employee requests and monitoring balances. This tutorial will guide you through setting up and managing your company's leave policies, ensuring a smooth and transparent process for both your administrators and employees.

1. Understanding Flowtly's Leave Management Module

Flowtly's Holidays module is the central hub for all leave-related activities. It allows you to define various leave types, allocate entitlements, manage requests, and maintain a clear overview of your team's absences. By centralising this process, you reduce administrative overhead and improve transparency across your organisation.

Accessing the Holidays module can be done directly from the main navigation menu or through quick links on your Home dashboard.

Tip: Before you begin configuring, it's beneficial to have a clear understanding of your company's current leave policies, including different leave types, accrual rules, and approval workflows. This preparation will make the setup process much smoother.

2. Configuring Holiday Types

The first step in setting up your leave policies is to define the various types of holidays or leave available to your employees. Flowtly allows you to create custom holiday types with specific rules for accrual, carry-over, and approval.

• Navigate to Settings: From your Flowtly dashboard, click on Settings in the main navigation.
• Access Holiday Types: In the Settings menu, select Holiday Types. Here, you'll see a list of any existing holiday types your company has defined.
• Create a New Holiday Type: Click the + New Holiday Type button (or similar interface element, usually in the top right or bottom left) to begin creating a new entry.
• Name: Provide a clear, descriptive name for the leave type (e.g., "Annual Leave," "Sick Leave," "Parental Leave," "Compassionate Leave"). This is what employees will see when requesting leave.
• Code: An optional, short identifier or abbreviation for internal use (e.g., "AL," "SL," "PL").
• Description: A brief explanation of the leave type, which can be visible to employees to help them understand the policy.
• Accrual Method: This is a critical setting that determines how employees gain leave days.
• Fixed: Employees receive a fixed number of days at the start of a defined period (e.g., 25 days on 1st January each year). You will typically set an Accrual Start Date and Accrual Frequency (e.g., annually).
• Per Period: Employees accrue leave days gradually over a period (e.g., 2 days per month). If you select this, you'll specify the Accrual Frequency (e.g., monthly, weekly, bi-weekly) and the Days per Period (e.g., 1.66 days for monthly accrual of 20 days per year).
• Carry-over Rules: Define how unused leave days can be carried over from one accrual period to the next. You can set a maximum number of days allowed to be carried over (e.g., 5 days) or disallow carry-over entirely, requiring employees to use all leave within the period or forfeit it.
• Maximum Days: Set an upper limit on the total number of days an employee can accumulate for this specific leave type. This prevents excessive build-up of leave.
• Approval Required: Specify if requests for this holiday type need approval from a manager or administrator. It's generally recommended for most leave types to maintain control and oversight.
• Visibility: Determine if this holiday type should be visible to all employees, only administrators, or specific groups of employees. This is useful for sensitive leave types or those applicable only to certain departments.

• Save Your Holiday Type: Once all details are entered and reviewed, click Save. Repeat this process for all different leave types your company offers.

Note: Carefully consider the Accrual Method and Carry-over Rules. These settings directly impact how employee leave balances are calculated and managed throughout the year. For Per Period accrual, make sure to align the frequency with your company's payroll or calendar cycles to ensure accuracy.

3. Assigning Holiday Entitlements to Employees

Once your holiday types are configured, you need to assign the appropriate entitlements to your employees. This sets their initial leave balances and determines how many days they can take for each leave type.

• Navigate to People: From the main navigation, select People. This will take you to your employee directory, listing all individuals within your organisation.
• Select an Employee: Click on the name of the specific employee for whom you want to assign or adjust holiday entitlements. This will open their individual profile.
• Access the Holidays Tab: Within the employee's profile, navigate to the Holidays tab. Here, you'll see an overview of their current leave balances for different holiday types, their pending requests, and their historical leave data.
• Add/Edit Entitlements:
• To set a new entitlement for a specific holiday type, look for an option such as "Add New Entitlement" or "Manage Leave Balances."
• Select the Holiday Type you configured in the previous step (e.g., "Annual Leave").
• Enter the Initial Balance (e.g., 25 days for annual leave). This is the starting number of days for the employee for that type of leave.
• Specify the Effective Date from which this entitlement applies. For existing employees, this might be the start of the current leave year; for new hires, their start date.
• If the chosen holiday type has an Accrual Method defined (e.g., "Per Period"), Flowtly will automatically start calculating and adding days to the employee's balance based on the rules you set for that holiday type, starting from the Effective Date.
• You can also manually adjust an employee's balance if needed (e.g., for a special grant of leave, a buy/sell leave scheme, or a correction). When making manual adjustments, it's crucial to add a clear note or reason for audit purposes.
• Save Changes: Ensure you save any modifications made to the employee's entitlements to apply them to their profile.

Practical Tip: For new employees, remember to set up their pro-rata entitlements if your company policy requires it. You might need to adjust the initial balance or the Effective Date accordingly. Additionally, periodically review employee entitlements, especially after policy changes, promotions, or significant life events that might alter their leave allowance.

4. Employees Requesting Leave

Flowtly simplifies the leave request process for employees, making it intuitive and transparent. This empowers employees to manage their own leave within defined parameters.

• Access the Request Form: Employees can usually request leave in a couple of convenient ways:
• From the Home dashboard, there might be a quick link or a dedicated widget titled "Request Leave" or "Submit Holiday Request" for immediate access.
• Alternatively, they can navigate directly to the Holidays module from the main navigation menu and then select an option like "Request New Leave" or "Apply for Leave."
• Fill in Request Details:
• Holiday Type: Employees select the specific type of leave they are requesting from a drop-down list of available holiday types (e.g., Annual Leave, Sick Leave, Parental Leave).
• Start Date & End Date: Employees specify the exact dates for their requested leave. Flowtly can often automatically calculate the total number of working days requested based on the employee's individual Work Schedule (e.g., excluding weekends and public holidays).
• Half Days: If applicable, employees can indicate if the start or end day of their leave is a half-day, allowing for precise tracking of partial absences.
• Notes: Employees can add any relevant notes, explanations, or specific circumstances related to their request. This is particularly useful for sick leave or special requests.
• Attachments: They can upload supporting documents if required by company policy (e.g., a medical certificate for sick leave, or travel itinerary for extended leave).
• Submit Request: Once all the required details are entered and reviewed, the employee clicks Submit. The request will then be automatically routed for approval to the designated manager or administrator, as defined in the holiday type settings.

Communication is Key: Ensure your employees are well-informed about how to request leave through Flowtly and have a clear understanding of your company's leave policies, including minimum notice periods for different leave types and any documentation requirements. Flowtly's Emails & Notifications can be configured to automatically inform employees about the successful submission and subsequent status updates of their requests.

5. Managers Approving and Rejecting Leave Requests

Managers play a crucial role in the leave approval workflow, ensuring that team availability is managed effectively. Flowtly centralises this process, making it easy for managers to review and act on pending requests efficiently.

• Access the Action Center: Managers will typically find pending leave requests awaiting their attention in their Action Center. This is a dedicated area within Flowtly for all tasks and approvals that require their intervention. They can access it from the main navigation bar.
• Review Holiday Requests: In the Action Center, there will be a specific section or filter for "Holiday Requests" or similar, listing all pending leave applications from their direct reports or assigned teams. Managers should click on a pending request to view its full details.
• Evaluate the Request:
• Managers should carefully review the requested Holiday Type, Start Date and End Date, the calculated number of days, and any Notes or Attachments provided by the employee.
• Flowtly often provides valuable contextual information, such as the employee's current remaining leave balance for that specific holiday type, and a team calendar view. This team calendar is invaluable for checking for potential conflicts with other team members' approved leave, ensuring adequate staffing levels are maintained during the requested period.
• Consider company policy, project deadlines, and team capacity before making a decision.
• Take Action: Based on their thorough review, managers can choose one of the following actions:
• Approve: Authorise the leave request. Upon approval, the employee's leave balance will be updated, and the approved leave will be automatically populated into the company's central holiday calendar, making their absence visible to relevant stakeholders.
• Reject: Decline the leave request. It is crucial for managers to provide a clear, concise, and constructive reason for rejection in the comments section to maintain transparency and facilitate communication with the employee.
• Ask for More Information: If clarification is needed, or if the request is incomplete, managers can send the request back to the employee with a specific query, allowing the employee to provide additional details without having to resubmit the entire request.
• Confirm Decision: Once an action is selected (Approve, Reject, or Ask for More Info), the manager must confirm their decision. The employee will then receive an automatic notification via Flowtly, informing them of the status update on their leave request.

Efficiency Tip: Encourage managers to regularly check their Action Center to avoid delays in approving leave requests, which can impact employee morale and planning. The team calendar feature within the Holidays module is an indispensable tool for making informed decisions, especially when managing multiple team members' leave requests simultaneously.

6. Monitoring Leave Balances and History

Keeping accurate track of leave balances and historical absence data is essential for both compliance with labour laws and effective workforce planning. Flowtly provides comprehensive tools for monitoring these crucial aspects.

• Holidays Dashboard: The main Holidays module often features a dashboard view, providing a high-level overview of leave activity across your organisation. This dashboard can typically display:
• An overview of all pending and approved leave requests, allowing administrators and managers to quickly see what's in the pipeline.
• A company-wide calendar displaying team absences, making it easy to visualise who is off and when.
• Summaries of remaining leave days across different departments or the entire organisation, helping to identify potential issues like employees having too much or too little leave remaining.
• Employee Profiles: For individual insights, you can navigate back to an employee's profile via the People module and access their dedicated Holidays tab. Here, you will find:
• Their detailed leave balance for each specific holiday type (e.g., Annual Leave, Sick Leave).
• A complete request history, showing all past and pending leave applications.
• Any manual adjustments made to their balance, along with the reasons provided.
• This individual view is vital for performance reviews, one-on-one discussions, and addressing specific employee queries regarding their leave.
• Reports: Flowtly offers various reports within the Holidays module (and sometimes integrated with the Finance or Human Resources dashboards) that can help you analyse leave trends and data in more detail. These reports can include:
• Total days taken by holiday type over a specific period.
• Remaining entitlements across the organisation.
• Absence rates by department or team.
• These reports are invaluable for annual planning, budgeting, identifying potential burnout risks, and ensuring compliance with company and statutory leave requirements.

Audit Trail: Flowtly's System Logs & Audit Trail feature provides a detailed record of all significant actions and changes made within the platform, including modifications to holiday types, adjustments to employee entitlements, and decisions on leave requests. This ensures full transparency, accountability, and provides a clear historical record for compliance and internal audits.

7. Integrating with Work Schedules

Approved leave requests in Flowtly seamlessly integrate with Work Schedules. When an employee's leave is approved, their individual Work Schedule for the corresponding dates is automatically marked as an approved absence. This crucial background process ensures that:

• Accurate Time Tracking: If your company utilises Flowtly for time tracking, approved leave automatically prevents employees from logging working hours on days they are officially on leave, maintaining accurate records and preventing discrepancies.
• Resource Planning: Managers and project leads gain an accurate and real-time view of employee availability. This is fundamental for effective Project Tracking, task assignment, and overall workforce planning, as it immediately flags when an employee is unavailable for work.

While you don't typically configure this integration directly as it's an inherent feature, understanding its impact highlights how leave management in Flowtly contributes to broader operational efficiency.

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Summary and Next Steps

By following these comprehensive steps, you have successfully configured your company's leave policies in Flowtly, from defining holiday types and assigning entitlements to streamlining the request and approval process. A well-managed leave system not only ensures compliance with labour laws but also significantly contributes to employee satisfaction, morale, and efficient workforce planning.

Now that your leave policies are robustly set up, encourage your employees and managers to familiarise themselves with the system and fully utilise its features. Regularly review your holiday types and associated policies to ensure they remain aligned with your company's evolving needs, industry best practices, and any changes in local or national regulations. Don't forget to explore the powerful reporting features within the Holidays module to gain deeper insights into your workforce's absence patterns and inform future HR strategies.

Learn more

• Holidays
• Holiday Types
• People
• Action Center
• Settings