This guide details how to manage leave requests.
Staff apply for leave through the Workforce.com Mobile App or online at my.workforce.com
Leave is approved by managers online at my.workforce.com. Managers see leave requests for the teams that they manage. To learn more about who can approve leave, see Assign permissions to staff
How the leave approval process works
When an employee submits a leave request, it will be in a pending status until a manager approves or declines the request. When a manager approves a leave request, timesheets for the leave dates are automatically created containing the leave hours.
How to approve leave requests
To approve leave requests, access Workforce.com in a web browser at my.workforce.com.
Navigate to Leave > Requests to see your list of pending leave requests.
Next, approve or decline the leave request using one the below options:
Approve: approved leave requests are added to timesheets. The employee will be notified that their request has been approved.
Decline: managers are prompted to give a reason for declining. The reason entered will be visible to employees.
Delete: deleted leave requests are also moved to the declined tab, ensuring an audit trail is available, however no notifications are sent to the employee.
Tip: To decline a leave request that has already been approved, see 'Tools' in the top right of the approved leave request.
How to block out periods of leave
Custom events show employees what important events are on when applying for leave, and can be used to show unsuitable times to take leave and restrict leave requests for a period altogether.
To create a custom event, navigate to Schedule > Events & Comments > + Add New Event.
To display a 'Leave discouraged' warning, select 'Discourage staff from taking leave'. This warning appears on both the schedule, and on the leave application form for employees when any of these dates are selected. Note: the 'Discourage staff from taking leave' option shown above won't prevent leave requests from being submitted during this period, but employees will be warned that it's unlikely to be approved. All leave requests ultimately require approval:
To restrict leave requests for a specific event or period of events, select "Prevent staff from taking leave". A 'Maximum number of requests' can be entered to assist in managing staffing levels for the event:
In the instance that the leave quota has been met, a disclaimer on the employees mobile app explains why leave cannot be requested for the date:
Note: the 'Prevent staff from taking leave' option shown above will prevent leave requests from being submitted during the period and employees will be unable to submit leave requests. Managers and Admins are able to submit leave on behalf of the employee and override the setting.
Allow employees to view when other employees are on leave
To allow employees to see when other employees are on leave, navigate to Settings > Permissions and select Allow staff to view the full leave calendar. When this setting is enabled, employees can see approved leave requests of other employees on both the schedule and the leave calendar.
Note: The leave reason is not shown, but the leave type will be visible. Pending and declined leave requests are not shown - only approved leave requests are visible.
See who submitted, approved or declined a leave request
An audit trail of all leave changes, and the times that each change was made can be found by navigating to the respective leave request and clicking Tools > View History.
Notifications when employees submit new leave requests
Once a day Workforce.com sends an email to admins and/or managers (see https://help.workforce.com.co/en/articles/4213261-configuring-settings#6-time-off for leave notification configuration settings) notifying of new leave and unavailability requests. To view or change your notification preferences, navigate to your user profile in the top right hand corner > My Notification Preferences.
Note: to reduce spam, Managers who have not logged into Workforce.com for 1 month will not receive this notification.
Leave requests explained
Leave Type: shows available types based on your leave settings
Team (optional): allocates leave cost to a team
All-day: turn off to edit leave request times for part-day requests
Dates
Breakdown: shows the hours and days leave will apply. The breakdown is determined by your leave auto-fill settings, and can also be manually edited
Total hours: the sum of the leave breakdown
Reason (optional): for employees to provide more detail on the reason for requesting time off
Attachment (optional): useful for attaching documents like medical certificates
Troubleshooting and FAQs
An employee doesn't see the option to apply for leave
Each leave type will only be visible to employees that are defined in the 'applies to' settings for the leave type. To edit who each leave type applies to, navigate to Compliance > Leave Types then click the relevant leave type to edit. Check the Applies to section to see if the leave type is set to an employment type or tag that is associated with this employee.
How to edit a leave request after it has been export to payroll software (how to edit a locked leave request):
Once a timesheet containing leave has been exported, the leave request can only be modified once the timesheet is unlocked. The Admin permission level is required to unlock timesheets. To unlock a timesheet, navigate to the respective timesheet and click unlock timesheet in the top right.
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