Leave Management
- Michelle Drewes
Users with Leave Management access maintain absence thresholds, blackout dates, view district leave balances/details, escalate approvals, revert leave requests, export leave requests, view staff leave expense reports and maintain sub categories.
Role: Users with Leave Manager, District Manager or Admin roles.
Absence Thresholds
Allows percentage threshold to be created, by building, to notify users and approvers if there are outstanding leave requests, on a given day for the specified building, that exceed the allowable threshold.
If threshold has been exceeded for that day and you are submitting a new leave request for the same date, you will receive an error preventing you from posting your leave request.
If threshold has been exceeded and you are approving a leave request, a notification is displayed stating there are open leave requests for a certain date and building that exceed the percentage of absences allowed for that day. These leave requests will also be highlighted in red. However, this is only a warning and you may proceed with approving (or rejecting) them.
Blackout Dates
Blackout Dates consist of a period of time or specific date where leave requests are typically restricted (i.e. holidays, etc). Refer to district policy and/or USPS Job Calendars on what leave types and dates in conjunction with employees/positions or pay groups and departments are considered blackout periods on the district calendar.
Create a Blackout Date
From Blackout Dates,
Click ‘Create’
Provide a label for the blackout period.
Check the escalate flag if you want the leave request to bypass the normal workflow and go directly to the Leave Manager for approval. ESS-846 If set, when a LR is created on that blackout date, an email will be sent to all leave managers.
Check ‘Enabled’ to activate the blackout date.
Check ‘Entire Day’ if it applies to the entire day or leave unchecked to select a start/ending time (i.e. 2 hour delay)
Select start and end dates and start/ending times (if ‘entire day’ is unchecked) for your blackout period.
If specific leave types should be included in the blackout date, select all that apply.
You can filter by employee and their position. (or leave blank to include all positions for an employee).
If specific employees aren’t selected, you can filter by Pay Group and/or Department Codes.
Click ‘Create’ to save your Blackout date or ‘Cancel' to exit without saving changes.
If the district wants to restrict leave requests during blackout dates, in System>Configuration>Leave Type Configuration, the ‘Disallow Blackout Date’ box can be checked for specific leave types. This will prevent an employee from creating a leave request for the specified leave type during a blackout period.
Blackout Dates Grid Options
The Blackout Dates grid allows the user to filter blackout information by entering their search query in the filter row.
view entire black out record
edit an existing black out record.
delete an existing black out record
District Leave Analysis
The District Leave Analysis provides leave information balances as well as leave request details for all staff. It is split into two grids.
The top grid displays the leave balance information for all staff. Use the filter row to narrow down your search. If you would like to view employee leave request information, checkmark the desired employees and click on ‘See Leave for Selected’. Their leave requests details will then be displayed in the bottom grid. You also have the option to export all or selected employees leave balance information to a spreadsheet via ‘Export Grid Items’ as well as customize your top grid by clicking the more
icon.
The bottom grid displays the leave request information from the employees selected from the top grid. You also have the option of exporting the selected employees leave request information to a spreadsheet via the ‘Export Grid Items' as well as customize your bottom grid using the more icon.
Escalated Approval
The Leave Request Escalated Approval grid will display outstanding staff leave requests. The user will be able to singularly or mass approve outstanding leave requests directly, bypassing the workflow approval.
View an Escalated Leave Request
If you prefer to view the details of a leave request before approving it, click on 
Approve: A pop-up confirmation window will appear providing a note area to optionally enter a reason for the approval. Click Approve. The leave request will bypass the rest of the workflow and will be updated with an approved status. The originator will be notified that the request has been approved. The originator may open their leave request to view the ‘Leave Request Approval Trail’ which will include the approver who approved the leave, optional notes they entered, and the date/time the leave it was approved.
Reject: A pop-up confirmation window will appear providing a note area to enter a reason for the rejected request. Click Reject. The originator will be notified that the request has been rejected. The leave request will be updated with as a status of ‘rejected’ and displayed in their ‘My Leave Requests’ grid . The originator may view the leave request to click on the ‘Leave Request Approval Trail’ to see the approval trail of who rejected the leave, optional notes they entered, and the date/time the leave it was rejected. The originator also has the option of editing the leave request, if needed, and re-submitting it.
Mass Approve or Mass Reject Escalated Leave Requests
Click on one or more checkboxes to the left of each staff member listed to approve or reject their leave request(s). Click or Approve or Reject. By taking this action, it will automatically approve or reject the leave, bypassing the workflow process.
Export Leave History
Allows user to view exported leave requests, revert exported leave requests and export (reverted) leave requests again. In order for a leave request to appear on this grid, it must first be exported via Leave Requests>Export Leave Requests option.
View Requests: ability to view all exported leave requests inclusive of the date range used when exporting the leave. You may then click on the
Revert Leave Details: ability to remove exported flag from selected leave requests in order to revert their status back to ‘approved’ in ESS. The leave requests will be displayed in the Leave Requests>Export Leave Requests menu again.
Export Again: Ability to recreate the already exported leave in a CSV file that may be uploaded into USPS. This option does not change the status of the leave request.. they remain with an exported status.
If you need to cancel an exported leave request that has already been posted to USPS, after using the revert option above, the leave request will be back at an approved status. From there, the user can cancel the leave request in ESS. In USPS, the district may create an adjustment to the employees attendance/leave record.
Export Leave Requests
Allows users the ability to export leave requests with a status of ‘approved’ in order to post leave information into USPS. Once exported, the leave request status will be updated to ‘exported’.
Available approved leave requests are displayed in the grid (example below)
User may filter approved leave requests by:
Start Date and End Date: Enter a start date or a start and ending date and it will filter on approved leave inclusive of the date(s) entered
Specific Employees: Select one or more specific employee(s) approved leave
Specific Pay Groups/Building Codes: Option to select one or more pay groups and/or building codes associated with approved leave
Leave Type/Appointment Type: Select approved leave by one or more specific leave types (sick. personal, etc) or appointment types (certified, classified)
Once your grid includes the desired leave you would like to export, click on ‘Export Leave Requests’. You will be provided with two export methods:
CSV File: All filtered leave appearing in the grid will be saved into a CSV file called ‘leave-request-export.csv’. The file can then be imported into USPS manually via the USPS Utilities> Attendance/Absence Import.
Direct to USPS: All filtered leave appearing in the grid will be automatically posted to USPS. A resulting ‘leave-request-export-errors.csv’ will be generated listing the number of records that were posted successfully as well as any possible errors that prevented certain leave entries from posting to USPS.
Once leave is exported, the status of the leave requests will change from ‘Approved’ to ‘Exported’ and the leave will no longer appear in the Export Leave Request grid. When viewing your leave requests via My Leave Requests (or Supervised or District Leave) options, you will be able to see ‘exported’ leave requests that you have created or approved.
Leave Expense Report
Allows user to view all district leave requests that contain leave expense information. This is a view only grid.
For more information on defining leave expenses information on a leave request, please refer to System>Configuration>Leave Expenses Configuration.
For more information on requiring associated expenses on leave requests, please refer to System>Configuration>Leave Type Configuration.
Sub Categories
A sub category further defines a leave type. For example, when creating a personal leave request, sub categories can be displayed allowing the user to select a specific category of personal leave (i.e. family emergency, personal business, etc.) If you require staff to select a sub category while creating their leave request, you can denote that requirement for specific leave types in the System>Configuration>Leave Type settings.
Create a Sub Category
From Leave Management>Sub Category,
Click ‘Create’
Enter a Category for the leave request sub category. The category may be 2 character max in length.
Enter a detailed description of the sub category.
Select the Leave Types that apply. You may select more than one leave type.
Check ‘Active’ to activate the sub category
Check ‘Reason Required’ if you require a Reason to be entered on the leave request.
Click ‘Create’ to save your Sub Category or ‘Cancel' to exit without saving changes.
Sub Categories Grid Options
The Sub Categories grid allows the user to filter sub category information by entering their search query in the filter row.
view entire sub category record
edit an existing sub category record.
delete an existing sub category record. For any existing leave requests that required a sub category and reason, the sub category will no longer be displayed on the leave request but the reason details will not be removed.