Handling Leave Absences

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Handle leave absences.
  • Generate time forms for time absences.

Leave of Absence (LOA) in Time Off

Leave of absence (LOA) is a period of often extended leave, such as parental leave or a sabbatical, that changes the employee’s status to, for example, Not Active.

You can integrate LOA management with your Time Off application, allowing employees to request LOA in the same way as they do for any other absence.

Note

LOA isn't available in the mobile Time Off feature.

Refer to the Introduction to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Time Off unit to review the settings required to enable and use LOA in Time Off.

Admin Center for managing Employee Central settings, with toggles for Time Off, Leave of Absence, and Time Sheet.

If you don’t use Time Off to manage your vacation, PTO, and other absences, but want to use the Time Off functions to request and manage LOA, you can enable this by switching on Time Off for Leave of Absence Only in addition to Time Off.

Configure Leave of Absence

Steps

  1. Create a holiday calendar if one does not already exist and assign it to the employee (refer to the Absence Requests in Time Off unit for configuration and assignment instructions).

  2. Create a work schedule if one does not already exist and assign it to the employee (refer to the Absence Requests in Time Off unit for configuration and assignment instructions)

  3. Create an event reason for the leave of absence with the corresponding employee status, such as Unpaid Leave.

    1. Navigate to Manage Organization, Job, and Pay Structures→Create New Event Reason.

    2. Enter the Effective Date. 01/01/1900 is recommended.

    3. Enter the Event Reason ID. For example, enter LOAPAR.

    4. Enter the Event Reason Name. For example, enter ParentalLeave – Unpaid.

    5. If the employee is to continue in an active status, set the Status field to Active, or set it to Inactive.

    6. Set the Event to Leave of Absence.

    7. Set the Employee Status to Unpaid Leave.

    8. Set the Display in Internal Job History Portlet to Yes if the event must be included in the job history display.

      Event Reason screen for Parental Leave with fields for status, event type, and employee status.

  4. Create an event reason for the return to work with employee status active.

    1. Navigate to Manage Organization, Job, and Pay Structures→Create New Event Reason.

    2. Enter the Effective Date. 01/01/1900 is recommended.

    3. Enter the Event Reason ID. For example, enter RETLEAVE.

    4. Enter the Event Reason Name. For example, enter Return to Leave.

    5. Set the Status field to Active.

    6. Set the Event to Return to Work.

    7. Set the Employee Status to Active.

    8. Set the Display in Internal Job History Portlet to Yes if the event must be included in the job history display.

      Event Reason for Return From Leave, including fields for status, event type, and employee status.

  5. Create a time type for the LOA leave to include the two events.

    1. Go to the Manage Time Off Structures→Time Type.

    2. Country/Region is optional.

    3. Category must be Absence.

    4. Enter Only full day bookings allowed for Permitted Fractions For Unit Day.

    5. In the LOA Event Reason (Plan) field, enter the LOA event reason Parental Leave – Unpaid.

    6. In the LOA Event Reason (Return to Work) field, enter the return to work event reason Return from Leave.

    7. Enter Calendar Days for Calculation Based On.

    8. Ensure that the Absence Class is Unspecified.

    9. Ensure that Unit is Days.

      Manage Data for UK Parental time type, detailing configuration settings and absence rules.
      Detailed configuration for UK Parental time type, including absence rules and related take rules.

      Note

      • Do not assign a time account type to LOA time types.

      • LOA can only be requested in full days.

      • LOA can be displayed based on calendar days or work schedule, depending on the duration display setting on the LOA time type.

      • A leave of absence needs to have a minimum duration. Do not enter a leave of absence for a few days. Do enforce the minimum duration by using SAVE rules.

      • You must choose the event reasons shown as your leave of absence event reasons. Do not use different event reasons or override these events in, for example, a rule. Leave of absence won't work correctly if you do that.

  6. Assign the time type to the time profile (refer to the Absence Requests in Time Off unit for configuration and assignment instructions).

    Note that a user-triggered workflow is triggered when the LOA request is made by the user and needs a manager approval.

  7. To create a user-triggered workflow, follow these steps:

    1. Select Manage Organization, Pay and Job structures→Create New→Workflow.

    2. Enter the Workflow ID and Name.

    3. Make selections as shown under Step 1 in the following figure.

      • Denote the Approver Type as a Role.

      • Denote the Approver Type as the Manager.

      Workflow configuration for Leave of Absence, detailing steps, approvers, and roles.

    An administrator-triggered workflow is triggered when an LOA is made on behalf of the user by the administrator. This workflow sends an e-mail to the employee’s manager and does not require an approval.

  8. To create an administrator-triggered workflow, follow these steps:

    Note

    Approvals are not allowed when the LOA is requested by an administrator.

    Workflow configuration for Administrator Request LOA, detailing steps, approvers, and roles.

    1. Select Manage Organization, Pay and Job structures→Create New→Workflow.

    2. Enter the Workflow ID and Name.

    3. Make selections as shown under CC Role in the following figure. This workflow sends an e-mail to the employee’s manager and does not require an approval.

  9. Assign the workflows to the time type.

    1. Go to the Manage Time Off Structures→Time Type.

    2. Assign the user request workflow to the field Workflow Configuration and the administrator workflow to the field Admin Workflow Configuration as shown in the following figure.

      Configuration for UK Parental time type, including settings for absence requests, region, and leave reasons.

  10. Create the rule that triggers the workflow.

    1. Select Configure Business Rules→Create New Rule.

      Configure Business Rules for creating and managing MDF-based object rules, with options for rule details and scenarios.

    2. On the displayed UI, scroll down to the Metadata Framework section and select Rules for MDF Based Objects.

    3. Create the rule as shown in the following figure. The rule checks if the requester is the user. If it is, the worklow on the time type record field Workflow Configuration is triggered. If the requester is not the user, that is, the administrator, the workflow assigned to the Admin Workflow Configuration field is triggered.

      Scenario for MDF-based object rules, showing conditions and parameters for configuring workflow context based on user login.

  11. Assign the rule to the Employee Time Object.

    1. Go to Configure Object Definitions.

    2. Select Object Definition and Employee Time.

    3. In the Rules section, add the workflow trigger rule to saveRules.

      Object Definition for Employee Time, detailing attributes like code, status, and fields with data types and lengths.
      Rules configuration showing save rules for workflows, with sections for initialize, validate, and post-save rules.

Request Leave of Absence (LOA)

Steps

  1. Select Time OFF. The UI is displayed in the following figure.

    Displaying time sheet details, upcoming time off, and time off balances, with options to administer time.

  2. Select Administer Time. The UI is displayed in the following figure.

    Time Information for Ian Grant showing absences with details like start and end dates, hours taken, and approval status.

  3. Select New Absence. The UI is displayed in the following figure.

    Create Absence form for UK Parental leave, including fields for start date, expected return date, and comments.

  4. Enter the LOA in the Time Type field and then enter the start and expected return dates. Submit the request. The result is a change to the employee status in Job Information as shown in the following figure:

    Job Information for Ian Grant showing change history with details on parental leave status and event reason.

Return the Employee to Work

Steps

  1. Return the employee by going to the Administer Time Workbench.

  2. Select the edit absence and enter the Actual Return Date.

    Edit Absence for UK Parental leave, including fields for start, expected return, and actual return dates, with comments section.

    Only on entering the Actual Return date, the Return to Work event is created in Job Information.

    Job Information for Ian Grant showing change history with details on return from leave status and position.

Impact of LOA on the Job Information Record

The LOA affects the job information record of the employee.

Job Information for Ian Grant showing change history with details on unpaid leave status and parental leave reason.

When the employee is placed on LOA, the Job Information record shows the status as in the preceding figure.

Details on return from leave, including position and cost center.

When the employee is returned to work from LOA, the Job Information record shows the status as in the preceding figure.

Automatic synchronization for Clock In/Clock Out employees is now supported for leave of absence scenarios. When a LOA is created, the employee Job Information is updated with the correct employee status. When a Clock In Clock Out employee leaves or returns from a LOA, the Clock In Clock Out employee synchronization process is automatically triggered.

Generation of Time Forms for Time Absences

It's possible to generate forms by using templates based on Time Management data stored in the system.

You can use templates to generate a statement to view the leaves taken by an employee. Leaves includes sick leave, maternity leave, and so on. With Time Forms, you can perform the following tasks:

  • Create new templates or edit the existing template.
  • Map dynamic content in the template.
  • Download forms in PDF and Word format upon employee request.

Refer to the following table for additional information regarding the Time Forms feature:

Time Forms Generation

By using employee self-service (ESS), it's also possible to generate forms by using templates based on absence data stored in the system.

With the Time Form employee self-service (ESS) scenario, an employee can perform the following tasks:

  • Generate and preview the template.
  • Download the forms in PDF format.
  • E-mail the forms in a PDF format or as an HTML message.

This functionality supports employee self-service (ESS) for generation of the forms.

Time Forms Employee Self-Service (ESS)

For creating absence forms, showing language selection and a form preview with absence details.

Learning

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