Streamline Leave Management: Setting Up Holiday Types and Request Workflows

This tutorial will guide you through the process of setting up and managing employee leave in Flowtly. You'll learn how to define various holiday types, handle national bank holidays efficiently, and establish a streamlined request and approval workflow, ensuring your leave management is both organized and compliant.

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Streamline Leave Management: Setting Up Holiday Types and Request Workflows

Effective leave management is crucial for employee satisfaction and operational efficiency. Flowtly provides robust tools to configure different types of leave, manage national holidays, and automate the request and approval process, making it simple for both employees and HR teams.

Let's dive into setting up your leave management system.

1. Configuring Holiday Types

First, you need to define the various types of leave your employees can request. Flowtly allows you to customize these to match your company's policies, whether it's annual leave, sick leave, parental leave, or something else entirely.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

• Navigate to Holiday Type Settings:
• Log in to your Flowtly account with administrative privileges.
• From the main dashboard, locate the navigation menu (usually on the left or top).
• Go to Settings > Time Off (or Leave Management) > Holiday Types.

• Add a New Holiday Type:
• On the Holiday Types page, click the + Add New Holiday Type button.
• A form will appear, prompting you for details:
• Name: Enter a clear name for the holiday type (e.g., "Annual Leave," "Sick Leave," "Parental Leave," "Unpaid Leave").
• Description: Provide a brief explanation of this leave type and any specific policies associated with it. This description can be visible to employees.
• Accrual Method: Select how this leave type accrues. Options might include:
• None: For types like "Sick Leave" where days are granted annually rather than accrued.
• Per Year: A fixed number of days are granted at the start of each year.
• Per Month: Days accrue gradually each month.
• Per Week: Days accrue weekly.
• Hourly: Days accrue based on hours worked.
• _Note:_ If your system integrates with payroll or time tracking, these settings become very important for accurate balances.
• Default Duration: Set a default number of days for a single request of this type (e.g., 1 day for "Sick Leave", 5 days for "Annual Leave"). This can be overridden by employees during the request.
• Visibility: Determine whether this holiday type is visible to all employees, specific departments, or roles.
• Requires Attachment: If this leave type (e.g., medical leave) often requires supporting documents, enable this option. Employees will be prompted to upload files during their request.
• Allow Negative Balance: Decide if employees can request more leave than they currently have accrued.
• Is Paid/Unpaid: Mark whether this leave type is typically paid or unpaid. This can impact payroll calculations and reporting.

• Save Your Holiday Type:
• Once all details are entered, click Save or Create Holiday Type.
• You can repeat this process for all necessary leave types your organization uses.

Tip: Consider grouping similar leave types (e.g., "Maternity Leave" and "Paternity Leave" under a broader "Parental Leave" category if your policies allow, or keep them separate for distinct tracking). Clear naming helps employees choose the correct option.

2. Managing Bank Holidays and Public Holidays

Bank holidays (also known as public or national holidays) are essential to manage as they often apply to all employees in a specific region and typically don't count towards an employee's accrued leave.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

• Access Bank Holiday Settings:
• From the main navigation, go to Settings > Time Off (or Leave Management) > Bank Holidays.

• Add or Import Bank Holidays:
• Import from Template: Flowtly often provides templates for common national bank holidays. Look for an option like Import Bank Holidays or Load National Holidays. Select your country/region, and the system will pre-populate the standard holidays for the current year.
• Manually Add a Bank Holiday: If you need to add a custom bank holiday or one specific to your region not covered by templates:
• Click + Add New Bank Holiday.
• Enter the Name (e.g., "New Year's Day," "Christmas Day").
• Specify the Date for the holiday.
• Choose which Locations or Departments this bank holiday applies to. This is crucial for multi-location businesses.
• Add an optional Description.

• Review and Update Annually:
• Bank holidays can change year-to-year (e.g., substitute days if a holiday falls on a weekend). It's good practice to review and update your bank holiday calendar at the beginning of each year to ensure accuracy.
• Flowtly's system often allows you to view upcoming bank holidays and make adjustments.

Note: Properly setting up bank holidays ensures that employee leave requests on these days are not deducted from their personal leave balances, simplifying calculations for everyone.

3. Configuring Request and Approval Workflows

This is where you define how leave requests are submitted, reviewed, and approved within Flowtly. Workflows bring automation and structure to your leave management process.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

• Navigate to Workflow Settings:
• From the main navigation, go to Settings > Time Off (or Leave Management) > Workflows (or Approval Flows).

• Create a New Workflow:
• Click + Add New Workflow or Create New Approval Flow.
• Name the Workflow: Give it a descriptive name (e.g., "Annual Leave Approval," "Sick Leave Approval for Managers," "Unpaid Leave - HR Approval").
• Assign to Holiday Type(s): Crucially, link this workflow to one or more Holiday Types you created earlier. You might have one workflow for all paid leave, or separate workflows for different types requiring distinct approval chains.

• Define Approval Steps:
• Workflows are typically built with multiple sequential steps. For each step, you'll define:
• Approver: Who needs to approve at this stage?
• Line Manager: The employee's direct manager.
• Specific User: A particular individual (e.g., HR Manager, Department Head).
• Role/Department: Any user with a specific role or from a particular department.
• Project Manager (if leave is project-related).
• Action: What action is required (e.g., Approve, Reject, Review).
• Conditions (Optional): Set specific criteria for this step to be triggered. For example:
• If request is > 5 days, then require HR approval.
• If holiday type is 'Unpaid Leave', then require CEO approval.
• If employee is in 'Sales' department, then require Sales Director approval.
• Order: Arrange the steps in the correct sequence (e.g., Employee submits -> Line Manager approves -> HR reviews).

• Configure Notifications:
• Within each workflow step, you can set up automated email notifications.
• On Submission: Notify the first approver when an employee submits a request.
• On Approval/Rejection: Notify the employee and subsequent approvers about the status change.
• On Escalation: If a request isn't acted upon within a certain timeframe, notify an alternative approver.
• Customize the content of these notifications to provide clear information.

Tip: Start with a simple workflow, such as "Employee requests -> Line Manager approves," and then add complexity as needed. Always test your workflows by submitting a dummy request (if your system allows) or by having a colleague submit one.

4. Setting Up Minimum Notice Periods and Conflict Checks

To maintain operational continuity, you might want to set rules for how far in advance employees need to request leave.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

• Access General Leave Settings:
• Go to Settings > Time Off (or Leave Management) > General Settings.

• Configure Notice Periods:
• Look for fields like Minimum Notice Period for Leave Requests.
• Enter a number (e.g., 2 for two days, 7 for one week) to enforce how many days in advance a request must be submitted before the leave start date.

• Enable Conflict Checks (If Available):
• Flowtly often includes features to prevent staffing issues. Look for options such as Prevent overlapping leave for critical roles or Limit simultaneous leave for department.
• Configure these to ensure a minimum number of employees are always available for specific roles or departments.

Note: Clear communication of these policies to employees is key. Consider adding a link to your company's leave policy in your Flowtly knowledge base or employee handbook.

5. Employee Self-Service and Manager Approval in Practice

Once your holiday types and workflows are set up, employees can easily submit requests, and managers can approve them.

• Employee Experience: Employees typically log into Flowtly, navigate to their Time Off or Leave section, view their current leave balance, and submit a new request by selecting the Holiday Type, Dates, and adding any Notes or Attachments.
• Manager Experience: Managers receive notifications (via email or within Flowtly) about pending requests. They can review the details, check team calendars for conflicts, and then Approve, Reject, or Request More Info.

Summary and Next Steps

You've successfully set up different holiday types, managed bank holidays, and configured approval workflows in Flowtly. This foundational setup will greatly streamline your leave management, reduce administrative burden, and ensure compliance with your company policies.

Next Steps:

• Communicate the new leave request process and policies to your employees.
• Encourage employees to familiarize themselves with the self-service portal.
• Regularly review your holiday types and workflows to ensure they remain aligned with your evolving company policies.
• Utilize Flowtly's reporting features to monitor leave trends and balances.

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Learn more

• Holidays
• Employees
• Emails & Notifications
• System Logs & Audit Trail