Configuring Work Schedules

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to configure work schedules to support employee time management.

Work Schedules

A work schedule defines the employee´s working pattern, for example, they days and hours that an employee is to work. This helps SAP SuccessFactors Time Off to accurately calculate time off, identify working/non-working days and to calculate leave entitlements.

Work schedules usually apply to groups of employees. However, if, for example, an employee has an extraordinary schedule for which HR doesn't want to create a generally applicable schedule, you can create an individual work schedule, applying only to that employee.

To create a work schedule,

Navigate to the Manage Time Off Structures app and then choose Create New→Work Schedule.

Work Schedule Models

You can choose from three models for setting up your work schedule. You make your choice from the options offered in the Model field of the work schedule object. Your options are the following:

Simple
Period
Schedule

Note

With a work schedule day model, you can define how the number of hours worked on a particular day should look. You can then use the day models in your work schedule if you choose the period or schedule models.

Whichever option you choose, you enter a starting date. This date acts as the reference point for day 1 of the work schedule.

Work Schedule - Simple Model

You can use this model if you are working only with work schedules that always start on the same day of the week, as with, for example, a Monday to Friday work week.

If you select the simple model, you can enter, for example, a schedule consisting of 5 working days of 8 hours, plus 2 non-work days, like in the figure, work schedule - simple model. It is important to include both working days and non-working days. You can enter in as many days as necessary to cover the work pattern.

Enter the planned working time for each day directly in the Work Schedule Days section.

You need to enter the planned working time for each day separately.

Work Schedule - Period Model

A day model contains the number of hours for a day. You can combine the day models you create to make a period model work schedule. You should include one day model with no working hours to cover non-work days.

If you have a lot of work schedules, you can create different work schedule day models and reuse the work schedule day models to create period models.

For each day of a period model, select one of the following categories in the Work Schedule Days section: Day Model / Panned Hours / Non-Working Day.

The Work Schedule - Period Model is displayed.

In the period model, you enter a start date and a list of day models, along with the number of days. A period schedule can be used if workers work different shifts, such as the early shift or late shift, from week to week and the schedule is repeated. Period work schedules must also include non-working days.

Work Schedule - Schedule Model

If you have shift term workers, you can create a period model with the appropriate shift and create schedule models out of this period model with different start dates, for example, employee A starts with early shift and employee B starts the same day, but on the late shift. Employee C starts the same day, but works on the night shift.

You need to define the time recording variant because period models are supported for both duration-based and clock time-based time recording.

The Work Schedule - Schedule Model is displayed.

In the schedule model, you enter a start date and a period model. If the start dates for the period model and schedule model are different, the start date for the schedule model overrides that for the period model.

For all three workers, the same 3 Week Shift (3WeekShifts) can be applied, just with different start dates. Take a look at the example in the preceding figure.

The same 3 Week Period model is applied to all three shift groups. The start date for the period model is January 5, 2015 and it includes the first week as an early shift, the second week as the late shift, and the third week as the night shift. You can apply this same period to three different "schedules", only changing the start dates of each schedule. By having the start date as 12/29 (as seen in ShiftGroup1) this date starts employees that are assigned to this schedule with the late shift for the first week, since the start date of the period is still January 5, 2015. For employees assigned the schedule as the same start date as the period start date (January 5, 2015) as in ShiftGroup2, those employees will start out with the early shift. Finally, the third shift group will start the week of January 5^th with the night shift, due to the schedule starting date being 01/12/2015.

Work Schedule - Clock Times

You need to define the time recording variant because period models are supported for both duration-based and clock time-based time recording.

The work schedule examples mentioned previously have all used the Duration time recording variant.

As we said, you can choose Clock Times as the time recording variant in the period work schedules and in the schedule work schedules. To configure these, you need to create and maintain segments in your work schedule.

Select Clock Times as a recording variant in Period Work Schedule.

Cross-Midnight Work Schedule

Cross-midnight shifts are not supported within simple work schedules.

Only clock time-based time recording supports cross-midnight shifts.

For employees who work night shift, it is now possible to enter a continuous planned working time segment from one day to the next. For example, you can configure a work schedule with a working time segment from 10:00pm the first day to 6:00am the second day, instead of having to add one segment up to midnight and another starting after midnight. To configure cross midnight work schedules, in the work schedule day model and the work schedule there is a field titled "Cross Midnight Allowed" that enables the ability to record time segments across midnight when you select "Yes". Additionally, for night shift workers who's shift might end at midnight, working time can be recorded to end directly at midnight as well.

You can even set a non-working day to "cross midnight allowed" and also assign a nightshift bandwidth. This option is for those cases, where an employee performs overtime on a regular non-working day, and this overtime is during the night and across midnight. In order that the logical day assignment of this records are the same as if he would work his normal nightshift it is necessary to set the cross midnight flag and the nightshift bandwidth.

You can define a cross-midnight day model for a non-working day. When creating a work schedule day model object, you can set the values for both Cross Midnight Allowed and Non-Working Day as Yes with the Time Recording Variant set to Clock Times. This makes it possible to define a cross-midnight day model for a non-working day. For example, an employee takes over a night shift from a colleague on their non-working day. For this employee, it's still a non-working day without planned working time, but the employee works in a night shift.

Work schedules always represent a rotating working pattern. For example, if you maintain seven work schedule days, the same pattern repeats every week, meaning that day 7 is always followed by day 1 again. So, you need to ensure that the end time of the last work schedule day and the start time of the first work schedule day don’t overlap. Otherwise, you will not be able to save the work schedule. For example, you have a weekly working pattern from Monday (day 1) to Sunday (day 7). The end time on day 7 is at 6am (+1 day), that is, the shift starts on Sunday, but ends on Monday. This option means that the shift on day 1 can’t start earlier than 6am.

Create a Work Schedule

Steps

Select Manage Time Off Structures→Create New→Work Schedule.
If required, you can add the optional Search Field and Country.
Enter the Model.
Options are Simple, Period (same as Simple, except Period includes planned starting hours and minutes), and Schedule.
Enter the average hours and days.
Enter the workScheduleDays.
Enter the externalCode.
Enter the externalName.
Enter the startingDate.
Note
Non-work days, such as days 6 and 7, need to appear in the work schedule too, with the number of hours entered as zero (0). Do not leave the number of hours blank in such cases.
The Starting Date field refers to the starting date of the work schedule, not the starting date of the employee to whom the work schedule is assigned, for example, if the starting date is set on Tuesday January 1, 2013, day 1 in the schedule is a Tuesday, day 2 is a Wednesday, and so on.
To define working patterns that repeat every two weeks, just continue adding days and assigning the respective hours until you have covered two weeks.
The following figure shows an example of how to create a work schedule.

Individual Work Schedule

An Individual work schedule is a work schedule designed to apply only to one employee. It is needed if a particular employee needs a schedule that you don't want to apply generally to other employees.

Prerequisites and Limitations

Time Off must be activated in full. Time Off For Leave Of Absence Only is not enough.
Flexible requesting is not available in individual work schedules.
Individual work schedules are not country/region-specific.

Create an Individual Work Schedule (IWS)

Steps

Individual work schedules are regulated by permissions. You must have the Maintain Individual Work Schedule permission.
You create individual work schedules from an employee's job information. You can't create other types of work schedule from here.
When assigning an individual work schedule with cross-midnight processing active, make sure that there is no overlap between shifts in the new individual work schedule and any schedule already assigned to the employee.

Navigate to the relevant employee's job information.
Choose Take Action to Change job and compensation information.
In Time Information section, select Find a Work Schedule.
In a new pop-up window, select New Individual Work Schedule.
Provide a name for the IWS, planned working hours for each day of week, all fields under Calculation Details, and then select Assign button.
The Individual Work Schedule has been assigned to the employee.
Note
Take a look at the Time Off implementation handbook for full information on creating individual work schedules.

Temporary Work Schedule

If you have implemented PP3, you can change an employee's work schedule for a period temporarily from the schedule assigned to employee. Here is an example: An employee is going to cover for someone who is on absent and will work that person's schedule. Or, employees can adjust their work hours or days for a specified period, for reasons such as health issues.

This is controlled through the category field in the Temporary Time Information object. The default value is 'Work Schedule'.

When the employee makes a change, it is sent to their manager for approval, if a workflow is configured.

Temporary Work Schedule - Prerequisites

To make temporary changes, you must have the Maintain Temporary Change permission. To create individual work schedules, the Maintain Individual Work Schedule permission is also required.

The temporary change must have a start date and end date.

Create a Temporary Work Schedule

There are three ways to set up a temporary work schedule (TWS):

Search for an existing work schedule or an existing day model and assign it to the employee.
Copy an existing work schedule and adapt it as needed.
Create a new individual work schedule.

Steps

Go to employee’s job information then time information and select the Administer time link.
Select New Temporary Change.
Define a start date and an end date, and then select Create Individual Work Schedule or Create Day Model.
Choose one of three ways to make a temporary work schedule.
The temporary work schedule is assigned to the employee.
Note
It is now possible to delete or edit the assignment of a temporary work schedule with a regular work schedule pattern.
Note
The Absence Counting Rules option has been enhanced. The enhanced absence counting rule allows you to overwrite the default planned working hours derived from the employee's work schedule, temporary time information, holiday calendar, and holiday work pattern.
You can use the absence counting rule to set the deduction quantity or deduction factor for specific weekdays, shift classifications, holiday categories, holiday work patterns, or standard weekly hours.
The absence counting rule is day-based, which means it is processed for each absence day that is included in the rule. The deduction quantity for each absence day can be modified using the rule.
We recommend that you use the Absence Counting Configuration to restrict the number of absence days to be included in rule processing. For details, check the help texts for the Holiday Selection, Planned Working Time Selection, and Weekday Selection fields in the Absence Counting Configuration object.

Create a Period Work Schedule

Business Example

The ACME Corporation needs to build a 40-hour-a-week work schedule for U.S. employees. To support other work schedules, they will create Work Schedule Day Model records and include them into a Work Schedule on the period model.

Task 1: Create the Work Schedule Day Model Records

Steps

Create a Day Model for an 8-hour working day and a non-working day for the U.S. using the values given in the table: Day Models.

Day Models

Field Name	Values for Record 1	Values for Record 2
External Name	8 Hour Work Day U.S.	Non-Working Day U.S.
Time Recording Variant	Duration	Duration
Planned Hours (decimal)	8	0
Planned Hours and Minutes (hh:mm)	08:00	00:00
External Code	8_HOUR_US	NON_WORK_US

Navigate to Manage Time Off Structures.
Select New→Work Schedule Day Model.
Use the values in the column:Values for Record 1 to create the first record.
Select Save.
Similarly, use the values in column:Values for Record 2 to create the second record.

Task 2: Create the Work Schedule

Steps

Create a work schedule with the period model using a 5-day work week for the U.S. by using the values given in the table: Work Schedule table and table: Work Schedule Days.

Work Schedule

Field	Value
Search Field	U.S.
Is Individual Work Schedule	No
Model	Period
Time Recording Variant	Duration
Average Hours Per Day	8
Average Hours Per Week	40
Average Hours Per Month	173
Average Hours Per Year	2080
Average Working Days Per Week	5
External Code	MON_FRI_US
External Name	Monday to Friday U.S.
Starting Date	01/01/2021

Work Schedule Days

Day	Category	Day Model
1	Day Model	8_HOUR_US
2	Day Model	NON_WORK_US
3	Day Model	NON_WORK_US
4	Day Model	8_HOUR_US
5	Day Model	8_HOUR_US
6	Day Model	8_HOUR_US
7	Day Model	8_HOUR_US

Note

Jan 1, 2021 is a Friday. Therefore, day 1 in the model will be a Friday.

Navigate to Manage Time Off Structures.
Create New→Work Schedule.
Complete the Work Schedule details by using the table: Work Schedule.
In the Work Schedule Days for Period Model, enter the data given in table: Work Schedule Days.
Hint
When you add a Work Schedule Day, choose its Details link to locate the Day Model field.
Save the record.
Enter the average hours and days.

Summary

Work schedules define when and how long an employee is expected to work, and the system uses this to calculate how many working days an absence covers.
Two types are available: Simple, for employees with fixed working days and hours, and Period, for rotating shift patterns that use day models.
When an employee's schedule needs to change temporarily, the Temporary Time Information object handles the override for a defined period without touching their permanent work schedule.

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