What's covered in this guide?
This guide details how to manage leave and unavailability requests. For more information on unavailability requests, see here.
Staff can apply for leave through the Workforce.com Mobile App or online at my.workforce.com
Staff can submit unavailability requests through the Workforce.com Mobile App or online at my.workforce.com which lets you know the days and times a staff member can't work.
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.
Approve leave requests
To approve leave requests, access Workforce.com in a web browser at my.workforce.com.
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Requests to see your list of pending leave requests
Select View Request or click the dropdown arrow ˅ next to it
Select Approve
Note: approved leave requests are added to timesheets. The employee will be notified that their request has been approved.
Select Decline
Note: managers can choose to give a reason for declining. The reason entered will be visible to employees.
Tip: To decline a leave request that has already been approved, select View > Decline.
Approve leave requests on the rota
To approve a leave request on the rota:
Go to the rota
Click on the pending request
From the left hand side panel, select More Information
Select Approve
Edit pending leave requests
To edit a pending leave request:
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Leave to see your list of pending leave requests
Select View Request
To edit the dates, type of leave, attachments, and reason, go to Leave Details > Edit
To edit the daily breakdown including number of days, time frame, and teams, go to Daily Breakdown > Edit
(optional) To set the leave request to apply to only one team, go to Daily Breakdown > Edit > Advanced Settings
Select Update or Save
Block out periods of leave
Custom events show employees what important events are happening 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 > Prevent Staff from Taking Leave.
For more information on setting limits on leave and unavailability requests, see our help guide Leave Blackouts.
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 of new leave requests
Once a day Workforce.com sends an email to admins and/or managers 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. (see our guide on email notifications here).
Note: To reduce spam, managers who have not logged into Workforce for 1 month will not receive this notification.
Leave requests explained
Start Date: the date that the leave request begins on
Duration: shows how long the leave request is
Hours: shows how many hours total the leave request is
Leave Type: shows available types based on your leave settings
Current balance: shows the current leave balance of the employee
Projected balance: shows the expected leave balance of the employee should the pending leave request be approved
Created: shows the date that the leave request was created
Reason and attachments (optional): for employees to provide more detail on the reason for requesting time off and/or for attaching documents like medical certificates.
Team (optional): allocates leave cost to a team
View/Edit Daily 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.
Events and Schedules: shows events created on the rota, public holidays, or any shifts the employee is scheduled for during the leave request
Decline and Notify: ability to decline the leave request with the option to provide a reason (not required). Note: any reason provided will be visible to the employee.
How the unavailability process works
Unavailability requests allow staff to submit days and times they cannot work each week. This can be enabled or disabled in Settings > Permissions > Employee Permissions.
When an employee submits an unavailability request, it will be in a pending status until a manager approves or declines the request. When a manager approves an unavailability request, the unavailability will show on the rota when attempting to schedule the employee:
Approve unavailability requests
To approve leave requests, access Workforce.com in a web browser at my.workforce.com.
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Unavailability to see your list of pending leave requests.
Select Review
Select Approve
Note: approved unavailability requests are included on the rota. The employee will be notified that their request has been approved.
Select Decline and Notify > Decline
Note: managers can choose to give a reason for declining. The reason entered will be visible to employees.
Unavailability requests explained
Date: the date that the unavailability request begins on
Repeats: shows if the unavailability request repeats
Frequency: shows the cadence the unavailability request repeats, if it repeats (ie., weekly)
Requested: shows the date the unavailability request was requested
Reason (required): shows the employee's reason for the unavailability request
Status: shows the status of the unavailability request
Events: shows events created on the rota and public holidays that will occur during the unavailability request
Decline and Notify: ability to decline the unavailability request with the option to provide a reason (not required). Note: any reason provided will be visible to the employee.
FAQs
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.
Why can't an employee submit an unavailability request?
An unavailability request is unable to be submitted for a particular date if:
The request falls within the 'Minimum number of days notice required for unavailability' set in your organization settings, or;
There is already a rota published for the period that the employee is requesting to be unavailable