ESS Leave System Information
Date Released: Tue, 11 December 2012 16:59 +0200
There are various roles assigned to all staff in respect of the leave system and they are: -
a) Applicant - that is you apply for leave
b) 1st Approver - this is usually the line manager and the person responsible for approving leave for a particular staff member(s). Not all staff approve leave but many do.
c) 2nd Approver - this is usually the line manager of the 1st approver. When the 1st approver does not approve a request for leave within 5 working days it is escalated to the 2nd Approver. This is the way we have set up the system and it is in line with our Support Staff Leave policy which outlines the process as regards the timing and approval of leave.
d) HR Approval - this approval is usually done once the leave has been approved by either the 1st or 2nd Approver. The reason for this approval is to ensure that the leave that has been approved is in line with the Support Staff Leave policy and also that the staff member has maximised the use of their leave - for example a staff member may apply for long leave which expires in 2016 but have contractual leave that expires in the next month or so. In cases like this HR will contact the staff member to discuss whether they want to change the type of leave that they have applied for to ensure that staff are not prejudiced.
e) Impersonator - this is someone who applies for leave on behalf of a staff member (usually a staff member who does not have access to a computer).
In each of the instances above email is generated every time something is either approved or not approved.
A list of e-mails that you may receive:
a) When you apply for leave you will receive the following notification which will state: -
You are the applicant for this request. This is a notification and no action is required by you.
When you receive an email like this you can ignore/delete it once you have read it
b) When you are required to approve leave you will receive a notification and the email you receive will state the following: -
You are the new approver for this request. You are required to action this request.
In instances like this you are required to go into the leave system and approve or decline the applicants leave.
c) There are times where you may be the 1st Approver but if for whatever reason the 1st approver does not approve the leave application it will escalate to the 2nd Approver with the following message: -
ESCALATED: New S.Staff Annual Leave Request for (NAME OF STAFF MEMBER).
You are the approver for this request, but this request has now escalated to another approver. This is a notification and no action is required by you.
When you receive an email like this it means that the 1st approver has not approved or declined the leave (in other words no action has been taken). BOTH the 1st Approver, the 2nd Approver and the Applicant will receive an email advising them that the request for leave has been escalated. As the 2nd Approver you need to do one of the following: -
i) Go into the system and approve the leave
ii) Get hold of the 1st line Approver and ask them to do it and ignore the email.
The 1st line Approver can still go into ESS and approve the leave even though the notification has indicated that no action is required. The reason that the request escalates is that staff need to have their leave approved within a week of applying for it (as per our Support Staff leave Policy) – the escalation is so that staff are not on leave without approval – this has implications for group life.
d) Once leave has been approved you will receive another notification which will state the following: -
POSTED SUCCESSFUL: New Long Leave Hist Leave Request for (STAFF MEMBER’S NAME)
You are the submitter for this request. This is a notification and no action is required by you.
No action is required – as a staff member you are now know that your leave has been approved. Similarly if your leave has been declined you will receive a notification informing you as follows: -
POSTED UNSUCCESSFUL: New Long Leave Hist Leave Request for (STAFF MEMBER’S NAME) has been declined (and the reason for it being declined)
You are the submitter for this request. This is a notification and no action is required by you.
e) When you are an impersonator you will receive a notification that you have applied for leave for on behalf of someone. You will also receive the approval.
If at any time you are unsure whether you are required to action something you can go into ESS and you will see whether you have leave requests that are pending that require approval for you, whether your own leave request is still pending or has been approved.
We understand that the workflow and process around leave generates a lot of emails. This is necessary in terms of ensuring the necessary audit trails and that staff (both those applying for leave and those approving leave) are kept informed of the progress of the application. Please do not let this stress you out – just delete them once you have read them and determined that no action is required – the history is stored in the system and can be accessed whenever you need it.
We currently have a situation where both the submitter and the applicant of a leave request receives a notification – this means you receive 2 emails for the same application – whilst annoying we have found that we deactivate one of these then emails stop sending all together. VIP (the company who developed the system) are aware of this and for now there does not seem to be any way around it. Again, most of these emails do not require any action and state this clearly.
Lastly, notifications for leave currently get ‘stacked’ in the email queue and then are released in batches which is why heaps of them come through at a time. This is the way in which our email system has been set up and is not linked to ESS in anyway.
Whilst we have an automated system that allows staff to apply for and have leave approved the conversation that takes place when applying for leave is not automatedJ - So notwithstanding the fact that you can apply for leave without any discussion with your line manager, this is not recommended. HR encourages all staff to discuss their leave plans with their line manager before applying for leave. By doing this you are likely to ensure that the approval of your leave goes smoothly.
I hope this clarifies things for staff. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact the HR Generalist for your area.
