This article details the upcoming changes to the leave management process for UK customers. 

Questions

• What are the upcoming changes to leave?
• When will the new functionality be introduced?
• What are the migration steps?
• How do I manage my leave types after the migration?
• What is a Leave type?
• What is a Leave Policy?
• How do I manage part-time workers?
• How will leave balances be managed after the migration?
• Will any data be lost in the transition from Payroll to HR Leave?
• How will this affect my employees?
• Should we still apply leave in Payroll?
• Will leave balances be locked once a leave request is processed?
• Where can I find any further information?

Answers

  What are the upcoming changes to leave?  

Clients that are currently using both Employment Hero HR and Employment Hero Payroll, will be transitioning to a new, improved leave functionality, located in the HR platform.

The improvements include: 

• The ability to add tiered leave directly to your leave categories, without the need for multiple Leave Allowance Templates. This allows for additional leave to be automatically assigned to your employees, based on length of service. 
• The ability to automatically set pro-rata rules against your leave categories, to automatically calculate leave entitlements for part-time workers. 
• The ability to attach an automated return to-work process to a sickness leave category if required. 

  When will the new functionality be introduced?  

Clients will be migrated in two phases, depending on their existing leave set-up.  You will be contacted when your organisation is ready to migrate to the new functionality.

    What are the migration steps?  

• We will migrate your existing leave categories from Payroll to HR. This action is completed in the backend of the platform and does not impact your employees or managers.
• We will provide guidance on how to create your leave policies in HR. These leave policies will replace your existing leave allowance templates in payroll. This should take no more than 1 hour of your time
• Your existing balances will be migrated to the new functionality within the HR platform 
• You will be all set up and ready to go on the new functionality

  How do I manage my leave types after the migration?  

After the migration, new leave types will be created in your HR platform by the Administrators of your HR platform. Once created, leave types will automatically synchronise to your payroll platform. 

For more information on managing leave types in HR and Payroll, please refer to this guide 

  What is a Leave type?  

A leave type in HR is also known as a leave category in payroll. Leave types are selected by your employees to determine the type of leave they are taking (e.g. Annual Leave / Sick Leave)

  What is a leave policy?  

A HR leave policy, replaces the leave allowance template functionality in payroll. Leave policies will be assigned to your leave types to determine: 

• Company holiday entitlement/s - the number of days that your employees are assigned to in a holiday calendar year
• Holiday calendar year - the start and end dates of your leave year. This determines the dates your employees are awarded a new balance each year
• Pro rata rules for part time employees -
• Tiered leave - the ability to set tiers to allow employees to be automatically assigned an increased leave balance based on length of service

For more information on creating leave policies in HR, please refer to this guide.

  How do I manage part-time workers?  

By selecting the Pro Rata for Part Time/Casual Employees option in a leave policy, Employment Hero will automatically calculate leave balances for your part timer workers.

Pro rate balances will be calculated based off the normal working hours per week field in HR and the employee's work hours on their employee file. Refer to these articles for the process steps:

• Update your company Typical Work Day (hours) field
• Update an employee's work hours
• Update an employee's custom hours
• Update your pro rata rules

Once the above steps have been taken, the leave balance will be pro-rated accordingly.

NOTE: If an employee is assigned to a public holiday calendar in HR, the public holidays will not be pro-rated.To learn how to assign a public holiday calendar, click here<></>

  How will leave balances be managed after the migration?  

After the migration, leave balances will be controlled from your HR platform and can be adjusted in bulk or individually when required. Leave balances will no longer be controlled by a pay-run in your payroll platform, but will update automatically in HR on approval of a leave request. For more information on managing leave balances, refer to these articles

• Adjust an employee's balance
• Adjust employee balances in bulk

  Will any data be lost in the transition from Payroll to HR Leave?  

Your leave categories and leave balances will be migrated to HR, however your leave policies (previously known as leave allowance templates) will need to be recreated in the new functionality. Our customer success team will assist you in recreating leave allowance templates as leave policies.

  How will this affect my employees?  

There will be no change to the way employees request leave. This will be a seamless transition and employees will continue to submit leave in their desktop or on the Employment Hero Work app, according to the following processes:

• Submit, view and edit leave via the HR platform
• How do I manage my leave requests as an employee?

  Should we still apply leave in Payroll?  

Leave requests will continue to be applied in a pay run to ensure the payroll leave balances and HR balances are aligned. Refer to the following guide for applying leave in a pay-run: Apply leave in a pay-run

  Will leave balances be locked once a leave request is processed?  

Leave balances will continue to lock in the normal way, once a leave request has been processed in a pay-run. This ensures leave taken can not be deleted from the platform.