Leave (Workflow)
Leave Workflow
System Configuration>>Workflow>>Company-Workflow Links
How To Set Up A Leave Workflow
The Leave Workflow allows you to set up a user-defined sequence of steps by which leave is processed in your organization. The Leave Work flow starts at the Employee (request for leave) and ends at HR (final processing in the Leave module).
Work flows can be:
Set up for all leave types or for a specific leave type.
Based on reporting relationships or job roles. If the latter is used, then any employee in the specified job role can be in the approval process these employees need not have any special privileges.
Set up for all countries, departments, leave types or for a specified criteria.
Note: The Leave Workflow can only be setup by a user with System Configuration Access.
Please consult your HRplus System Administrator for assistance if you do not have the
required permission.
Once an employee’s leave request is sent to the workflow, the workflow processor attempts to find the appropriate workflow for processing. Once found, the employee’s leave request is then sent through the consecutive sequence of required approvals as defined in the workflow stages
Set Up A Leave Workflow
Click on New Company-Workflow Link and link the company(ies) to the workflow as needed. Note: Each company must be linked individually.
Module: Select Leave.
Company: Select the company you are setting the Workflow for.
Active: Flag if the link is Active or Inactive.
Once your Company-Workflow link is setup, you can navigate to Workflow Definitions to begin building the Workflow(s).
Navigation: System Configuration>> Workflow>> Workflow Definitions
How To Set Up Workflow Definitions
Workflow Definitions
Creating the Workflow Definition entails the setting up of the general workflow parameters.
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How does it work?
A Workflow can only be setup in System Configuration.
Only Users with System Administration permissions can access these screens.
If you do not have access to the screen, please contact your company's System Administrator.
Step 1: Enter a New Workflow Definition
Click on New Record and enter the information as prompted.
Workflow Name: Give the Workflow a Name that corresponds with the definition of the workflow that you are building. E.g. If building a workflow for the HR department only, then the Workflow Name can be Leave Workflow_HR
Module: Select Leave from the drop-box.
Country: If setting up a workflow for a company within a specific country, select the applicable country. If the workflow is applicable across All Countries, select the ‘All Countries’ option.
Division, Department, Section: Similarly, select the Division, Department and Section for which you are building the Workflow. If the Workflow is applicable across all entities, select ‘All Divisions’, ‘All Departments’ and ‘All Sections’
HR Module Type: A list of all leave types built into the application is displayed within the drop- box. Select the leave type to which the workflow will apply. Alternatively, you can select ‘All Leave Types’ if there are no specific workflow rules for each leave type.
Effective Date: Select the date on which the workflow will become effective. Use the diskette icon to save the record.
Status: Check Active or Inactive to indicate the status of the workflow Note: You cannot use a workflow if it is inactive. Additionally, a workflow that is already in use (with transactions in the
workflow process) cannot be made inactive. It is recommended, therefore, that you do not make the workflow Active until all parameters associated with the workflow are setup.
Use the diskette icon to save.
Stage Number: Enter the number for the stage of the workflow.
Process: Select the process that will be carried out at that stage of the workflow.
Form: Select the form appropriate to the stage of the workflow.
Step 2: Enter a New Workflow Stage
Click on the plus sign to the left of the Workflow Definition record to expand. Next, click on New Stage and enter the information as prompted.
Stage Approver: Select the Approver for the workflow stage.
Reporting Structure - The employee's immediate supervisor is responsible for approving this stage of the workflow.
Role / Alternate Role - Select a role defined in your Workflow Roles setup for 1st and 2nd Approver.
Position / Acting in Position - Select any Position in the company.
Auto Escalate: If the Leave Request is not approved within a specified time frame, select 'Yes' to escalate.
Auto Escalate Action: Specify the action to perform upon escalation.
Auto Escalate After (Days): Enter the number of days after which the record will be escalated.
Void After (Tries): Enter the number of auto escalation tries after which the record will be voided.
Process at Home of Workflow: Set to no allows you to search search in all companies (multi- company environment), divisions, departments and sections.
Step 2.1: Enter Workflow Stage 1
As per the workflow processes, the first stage is ‘Enter Leave Record’ i.e. the employee, via the Self
Service Module, can enter a Leave Request.
Stage Number: Enter ‘1’ for the 1st Stage
Process: Select ‘Enter Leave Record’ from the drop-box Form: Select the ‘Leave Entry Form’ from the drop-box
As this stage does not require a role and does not need auto-escalation, you can simply save by
clicking on the diskette icon.
The second stage of the workflow is an approval stage. As such, we will enter the Stage information
as follows:
Stage Number: Enter ‘2’ for the 2nd Stage.
Step 2.2: Enter Workflow Stage 2
Process: Select ‘Review and Recommend Leave’ from the drop-box.
Form: Select either ‘Leave Approval Form’ or ‘Leave Approval Form Detailed’ from the drop-box.
In this example, we will not use the Reporting Structure at this stage as we want the application to direct leave requests to the employees’ direct supervisors.
We do, however, want the leave request to be auto-escalated should the employee’s Direct Supervisor not receive the request (if on leave etc.)
Auto Escalate Action: Chose the appropriate action as per your company’s leave rules. In this example, we will choose ‘Send to HR’ as we have a second level of approval.
Note: If the Auto Escalate feature is used, the processor will automatically attempt to process the record on the workflow after the specified number of days using the specified action. The processor keeps track of the number of attempts made at automatically escalating the record on the workflow. When this number reaches the specified number of tries after which the
record may be voided, the record is automatically voided.
Next, we will enter a third Stage of the workflow. This is the 2nd level of approval. In this example, we have instructed the application to send Leave Requests that have been approved by Direct
Supervisors to the HR Manager for final approval. As such, we are utilising the Role option.
Role Name: Select the name of the Role from the drop-box (role definitions previously setup will be displayed in the list).
Auto Escalate Action: Notice that, as this is the last stage that we are setting up, we have instructed the application to Reject and Stop Workflow if the 2nd approver does not approve the request.
Step 2.3: Enter Workflow Stage 3
System Configuration>> Workflow>> Workflow Roles
How To Set Up Workflow Roles
Workflow Roles allow the application to send employee Leave Requests to the appropriate person(s) within the company for approval, if this person is not the employee's direct supervisor.
When defining each stage of a workflow, the options are shown below to define the approver for that stage:
Reporting Structure: This is the employee's Direct Supervisor, and the Secondary Supervisor is used as the alternate in the primary's absence. How to set up Reporting Relationships?
Role/Alternate Role: If a request is to be approved by a specific role/job.
N.B. If the Role/Alternate Role option is being selected when defining the approver for a stage, then you must select the job/role and alternate job/role here BEFORE you can define the approver for the stage.
HRplus facilitates setup of multiple levels of approval, across countries, companies, divisions, departments and sections, according to the workflow rules of more complex organisational structures.
To setup roles, click on New Record and enter the information as prompted.
In the example above, we will use two levels of approval:
The employee’s direct supervisor as the first level
The HR Manager as the second level
Here, we will only setup the Role for the HR Manager as the second level approver as the workflow processor will identify the employee’s direct supervisor from the Reporting Relationships setup either in the Personnel or Payroll module.
Role Code & Role Name: Enter a user-defined Code & Name of the Role that you are setting up.
Workflow Roles
Note: It is important that you setup the parameters of the Workflow Role identical to the Workflow Definition so that the application will know to which Definition the role applies.
• Upon saving the record, click on the plus sign to the left to expand. Next, click on New Role Definition to define further parameters of the role.
• In the Job Details field, select the Job of the second approver. Notice that the role is linked to a Job and not a person nor a particular position. This is to allow the application to find someone to approve the record in the event that a particular position is not filled.
The Job Scope allows you to define further parameters for the identification of an approver as follows:
Table of Job Scope Definitions
Example of Job Scope Configuration
In this example above, we have configured the application to select the Human Resources Manager
found only within the parameters setup within the Workflow Definition as the Level 2 Approver.
Next, we will return to the Workflow Definition and setup the Workflow Stages as per the Workflow Processes
My Benefits>>My Leave>>Request Leave
How To Apply for Self Service Leave Request - Entitlements
Self Service Leave Request Example:
Lily, a Branch Manager, has signed in to the Employee Self Service Portal to request 8 days of Vacation Leave.
She looks at her entitlement and sees that she has accrued 28 vacation days. She then clicks on the Request Leave button to enter her Leave Request.
Step 1: View My Leave Entitlements
Cumulative
Non-Cumulative Leave
Under the 'Entitlements' Tab, you may view all Cumulative Leave (Leave that rolls over) and Non-
Cumulative Leave (leave that resets annually).
Step 2: Request Leave
For this example the employee is requesting eight (8) days Vacation Leave.
Leave Type: Select the applicable leave type that is being requested.
Start Date/Time off: Specify the date you intend to begin your leave and confirm whether it is a request for Time-off.
Amount Requested: Enter the amount of days.
Comments: Enter user comments.
Send Now: Check if you want to send the request now for approval by default this field is checked. Notice that the Return date auto-calculates based on the Return Date parameters setup.
Click on the Submit button to send the request to the next stage of the workflow.
To see what happens next with the leave request, please click the link How to use Managers Self
Serve to approve/reject leave requests from staff?
Here you will see how the manager response to the employee's request for leave.
Home>>My Benefits>>My Leave>>Pending Requests
How To Check Employee Self Service Leave Requests - Pending Request
Pending Requests
Once an employee's leave request is sent, the employee will see it in the Pending Requests tab.
The employee can choose to add documents, view the details of the request, cancel and even delete the request at any time prior to it being sent to HR for processing by the final approver.
Note: At any point during the process, prior to the Leave Request being approved and sent to HR, the employee can choose to delete the Leave Request. The approver will receive a message informing him/her of the cancelled request. If the Request has already been approved and sent to HR,
however, only HR will be able to delete or make changes to the request.
View Pending Requests
My Benefits>>My Leave>>Rejected or Voided Requests
How To Check Self Service Leave Request - Rejected or Voided?
Rejected or Voided Requests
The employee will always have a record of all rejected or voided requests.
Step 1: View Leave Rejected Notification
Step 2: View Rejected Leave Details
Home>>My Benefits>>My Leave>>Leave Taken
How To Check Leave Taken in the Self Service
Leave Taken
In the Leave Taken screen within the Employee Self Service portal, the employee will have a view of all Leave Taken records by year. Once Leave is indeed taken and HR posts the record, the Employee Self Service view will automatically update.
Simply select the year to view the types of leave taken in that period. You filter to see a specific
leave type by clicking on the name.
In the sample below, we can view the Sick Leave records in year 2024.
View Leave Taken
View Leave Taken Details
Navigation: HOME>>Notifications
How to use Managers Self Serve to approve/reject leave requests from staff?
Approve/Reject Leave Requests - Manager Self Serve
Once a workflow is setup, the reporting relationship is critical in directing the leave request from staff to manager/supervisor.
Step 1: Direct Supervisor Receives Leave Request Notification
The employee’s Leave Request is subsequently sent to her Direct Supervisor who receives a notification of such. These notifications can be found in the HOME screen upon logging in. The Manager can also receive an email notification of the leave request.
Once approved, the Approval Progress box refreshes with up-to-date information. Here we can see
that the request is now awaiting approval from Dyllon Anderson, the HR Manager.
Step 2: Direct Supervisor Approve/Reject Leave Request
The employee’s supervisor approves the request by clicking on the Approve button in the Approve/Reject Leave Request box.
Note, the supervisor has the option of rejecting the request and leaving a comment as to why the request was not approved.
Step 3: HR Manager Receives Leave Request Notification
The HR Manager is duly notified that the employee’s request has been forwarded to him from the employee’s supervisor.
Step 4: HR Manager Approve/Reject Leave Request
The HR Manager approves the request by clicking on the Approve button in the Approve/Reject Leave Request box.
Note, the HR Manager also has the option of rejecting the request and leaving a comment as to why the request was not approved.
Once approved, the Approval Progress box refreshes with up-to-date information. Here we can see
that the request has been sent to HR.
Step 5: Employee Receives Approved/Rejected Leave Request Notification
The employee is duly notified that her request has been approved and sent to HR.
System Configurations>>Feature Management>>HR Workflow Approval Override
How can HR Override Workflow Leave Entries?
HR Workflow Approval Override
This feature enables HR to approve/reject/cancel 'stuck' workflow leave entries if required. The Cancel
button will only be displayed for Unapproved workflow leave entries.
Step 1: Enable HR Workflow Approval Override
Benefits>>Leave>>Leave Transactions>>Self Service Leave Requests>>Workflow Leave
Entries
Step 2: View Workflow Leave Entries
Step 3: Override the HR Workflow Approval
Benefits>>Leave>>Leave Transactions>>Self Service Leave Requests>>Workflow Leave
Entries>>[Select Leave Request]>>[Request Progress]
HR has the ability to override a leave record if it has been 'stuck' in the workflow or if it has not been escalated.
Step 4: View Overwritten Workflow Leave Entry
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