When setting up leave for each employee, there are a few fields that are crucial to understand. These fields define how leave days are calculated, how often they reset, and whether they accrue over time. Below is a breakdown of each part:

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Leave Categories #

• Sick Leave: Typically, this is leave used for employee illness.
• Annual Leave: This is standard leave, often used for vacations.
• Special Leave: This may include other types of leave such as bereavement or emergency leave.
• Study Leave: Leave specifically granted for employees pursuing studies.
• Family Leave: Leave granted for family-related reasons, such as maternity or paternity leave.

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Fields for Each Leave Type #

Each leave type includes the following key fields to set up leave for employees:

1. Current Balance:
   • This shows the current number of days an employee has available for this type of leave.
   • It represents the leave days they can take immediately. For example, if an employee has a current balance of 30 sick leave days, they can take up to 30 days off due to illness.
2. Leave Days per Cycle:
   • This field indicates how many leave days the employee is entitled to per leave cycle.
   • For example, if 15 days of annual leave are given per year (cycle), that will be recorded in this field.
   • It’s important to note that annual leave is often accrued over the duration of the cycle (e.g., each month), whereas other leave types like sick leave or study leave might reset in full at the end of the cycle.
3. Cycle Duration (Months):
   • This determines the length of time before the leave resets or accrues again.
   • For example, for annual leave, you might have a 12-month cycle, meaning the leave allowance is granted annually. For sick leave, the company might set up a 36-month cycle.
   • Sick leave and other types (study, special) typically have longer cycles, and once the cycle is over, the balance may reset to the allocated leave days for the new cycle.
4. Increase per Cycle (Days):
   • This field determines if an employee’s leave allowance increases with every cycle.
   • For example, if you want to reward long-serving employees with one extra day of annual leave every year, you can set the Increase per Cycle field to 1 day for annual leave.
   • If the value is set to 0, the leave allocation remains the same with each new cycle.

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Additional Leave Settings #

On the right-hand side of the employee’s Leave Information screen, there are three key options that further refine leave management:

1. Employee Works 5-Day Week:
   • Toggle this on if the employee works a standard 5-day workweek (Monday to Friday).
   • Toggle it off if the employee works shifts, weekends, or follows a different work schedule.
2. Disable if Employee Works on Public Holidays:
   • When this is enabled, public holidays will not count as part of the employee’s leave days.
   • Important: Public holidays are determined by the employee’s operational country setting. This means that the system will automatically exclude public holidays based on the country selected in the employee’s record.
3. Disable if Employee Works on Weekends:
   • If this is enabled, weekends will be excluded from the leave count when the employee takes leave. For example, if an employee takes leave starting on a Friday, the weekend will not reduce their leave balance.
4. Operational Country:
   • This field determines the public holiday calendar that applies to the employee.
   • Based on the selected country, the system will automatically adjust leave calculations to account for local public holidays. For example, if an employee is based in the United Arab Emirates, the UAE public holidays will be used to ensure they aren’t deducted from the employee’s leave when applicable.

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How the Leave Settings Work Together #

For example:

• If the employee works a 5-day week, with public holidays excluded, the system will make sure that the employee’s leave is not deducted on national holidays.
• If the employee works in South Africa, selecting South Africa as the operational country will ensure that only South African public holidays are applied to their leave calendar.
• Weekend settings will further exclude weekends from the leave days, which is especially important for employees who follow a Monday-Friday workweek.

If the employee takes leave, the Current Balance will decrease accordingly. For annual leave, if the employee takes 5 days off, their balance will decrease from 15 days to 10 days.

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Key Points for HR Staff: #

1. Cycle Duration and Leave Days per Cycle are crucial to understand when configuring leave. They define how often leave resets and how many days employees get.
2. Always review each employee’s balance and make sure the setup matches the company policy.
3. Annual leave accrues gradually across the cycle, while other types (like sick leave or study leave) often reset at the end of the cycle.
4. The Increase per Cycle field allows you to reward employees by increasing their leave entitlement over time.

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Understanding the Workflow #

1. Company Level Setup: Initially, the company-wide leave policies are configured under Company > Company Details > Leave Management, which sets the default parameters for each type of leave.
2. Employee Level Setup: For individual employees, you can customize their leave balances, cycles, and entitlements from their employee records.
3. Tracking Leave: Employees and managers can view and track leave using the Employee Self-Service (ESS) portal or their manager dashboards.

By setting up the correct leave configurations at both the company and employee levels, HR can ensure accurate leave tracking and compliance with company policies.