Manage Requests

Employees use Employee Self-Service (ESS) for Scheduling to request changes to their current schedules. ESS automates schedule processes to collect employee input, and reduces the time spent by managers in sorting, correcting, and posting final schedules.

Managers can do the following in response to requests from employees for changes to their schedules.

To allow employees to submit requests, activate submission and request periods Defines a time span during which shifts can be changed by an approved request. — see Manage Employee Visibility Periods

Note: If historical time-off requests Request subtypes that employees use to request time off for vacation, illness or recovery, appointments, personal time, or other absences. Time-off requests can be configured to support many different employment scenarios. are enabled, the timecards are signed off, and edits are enabled for historical corrections Edits that occur after timecards are approved and signed-off., you can approve, refuse, or cancel time-off requests in signed-off periods.

  1. Managers are notified of employee schedule requests. To review the notifications, do one of the following:

    • Click Tap Home . Click Tap My Notifications > Employee Requests. 
    • Click Tap Notifications  to open a preview summary of requests, alerts, and other notifications. To open the detailed view, click tap View All. In Categories, select Employee Requests.
  2. Select a request. 
  3. In Details, click tap the tabs to see:

Caution: If employees change managers after they submit requests but before these requests are approved or refused, neither the previous nor the new manager can act upon these requests. The employee has to cancel these requests and submit them again for the new manager's approval.

Action bar

(Optional) Click Tap any of the following:

  1. Click Tap Notifications  to open a preview summary of requests, alerts, and other notifications. To open the detailed view, click tap View All.
  2. In Categories, select Employee Requests.

  3. Select a submitted or pending request.

    If recommendations are configured for time-off requests, the system recommends whether to approve a request:

    • Green = Approval is recommended.

      The request presents no accruals or team absence issues.

    • Orange or yellow = Approval may be acceptable.

      The request has accruals warnings or spans a percentage of days that approach or are at the daily quota of time-off requests.

    • Red or pink = Refusal is recommended.

      The request exceeds accruals balances or spans a percentage of days that are above the daily quota of time-off requests.

  4. (Optional) Click Tap Add Comments .

    Comments identify the reason for shifts or pay codes in the schedule. The comment is part of only the schedule request, not of the shift or paycode.

    Note: You can also use comments and notes to indicate why you are approving or refusing a request. You can add comments and notes to requests in active, pending, submitted, approved, or refused states. Once saved, you cannot edit or delete a comment or a note.

    Select a comment from the Type drop-down list. Optionally, enter a note for the comment. You can enter more than one comment and note.

    Click Tap Apply. 

  5. If a time-off request includes multiple, non-consecutive days or date ranges, or multiple pay codes, you may be able to edit or approve parts of the request.
  6. Click Tap one of the following:
    •  Approve

      If a time-off request requires approval by more managers, the system notifies the other approvers of your approval.

      Caution: You cannot approve a time-off request that mixes requests that are based on recommendations and requests that are not. Instead, approve only the types of requests that are based on recommendations separately from the requests that are not.

    •  Refuse
      Note:
      • If a time-off request requires approval by multiple managers, and is refused by any approver, the request is refused.
      • If you refuse a request to work a shift that is offered on the Shift Market, the shift returns to the Shift Market so that someone else can request it.
      • Managers can "refuse" requests, but employees can "reject" requests from other employees such as to swap shifts.
  7. Click Tap Done. As configured, the system notifies the employee.
  8. If requests affect partial shifts, you may have to adjust the schedule to remove odd shift segments Parts of shifts that are assigned to a job in the business structure, either primary or transfer jobs. or breaks.

Managers can delay approval or refusal of requests.

  1. Select a request. 
  2. (Optional) Click Tap Add Comments .

    Click Tap Add Comment. Select a comment from the Type drop-down list. Optionally, enter a note for the comment. You can enter more than one comment and note. 

  3. Click Tap  Pending. 
  4. Click Tap Done. As configured, the system notifies the employee.

Managers can edit the parameters of requests such as to change the dates or add comments and notes.

  1. Select a request. 
  2. Click Tap Edit  . 
  3. In Review, do one of the following:
    • Delete the request or, if the request has multiple periods, you can delete the individual periods. Click Tap Delete . 

      Important: Deletion is immediate; you do not get a prompt to confirm.

    • Edit the request or, if the request has multiple periods, you can edit the individual periods. Click Tap Edit  .

      You can change any of the following:

      In Dates, click tap the calendar. Select the dates from the calendar.

      How to use the calendar

      Click Tap the Dates icon and select the dates for your request

      • To select one or more days, click tap the days.
      • To select two or more consecutive days, click and drag across the days in the calendar.
      • To remove days from the selection, click tap the selected days.

      Click Tap Apply. 

    • If there are multiple shifts scheduled on one of the days you have selected, select an option in Apply this request to for how you want to apply the time off:
      • Whole day — Apply the time-off request to the full day. This option is selected by default.
      • Selected shift — Apply the time-off request to a specific shift.
      • Select the shift that you want to apply the time-off request to from the list of scheduled shifts that have a start time within the selected day. Shifts that have not yet been posted do not display in the shift selection list.
    • If applicable, in Deduct from, specify the accruals account you want to associate with this request.
    • In Duration select one of these options. You might not see all of the options because the available durations depend on the configuration of the request.
    • Note: The Duration field is displayed only if configured for your system. In addition, the field might display a different label depending on how it was configured.
    • For a single day with multiple shifts, when Whole day is selected in Apply this request to, you can only select a duration of either Full or Hours.
    • Note: If your request subtype Classifications of schedule requests from employees. or paycode values profile (PCVP) Assigns different paycode behaviors to different groups of employees. does not have the symbolic amount Instead of entering a specific amount for a paycode, a symbolic amount lets users enter a value such as full day, which translates to the number of hours in your shift. Other default symbolic amounts include half day, 1st half day, and 2nd half day. of Full or Hours configured, an error is displayed.
      • Full: Entire shift that day.
      • 1st Half: Total time of the first half of shifts that day.
      • 2nd Half: Total time of the last half of shifts that day.
      • Hours: Enter Start hours and End hours.
      • Tip: The start and end times reset if you select another duration. If you later select Hours, you must enter the times again.
      • Half: Half the total time of shifts that day.
      • Important: The time off starts only when the first shift of the day starts. For other half-day amounts, select 1st Half, 2nd Half, or Hours.

      Note: If your request subtype was configured with only Full, the Duration field is not displayed. If it was configured with only Hours, only the Start hours and End hours fields are displayed.

      From Deduct from, select the paycode.

      Click Tap Review.

  4. A single request can include non-consecutive days or date ranges, or multiple pay codes. To add time periods to the request:
    1. Click Tap  Add Another Period.
    2. Select the dates from the calendar.

    3. Click Tap Apply. 

  5. If configured, you can prevent the system from creating open shifts when you approve requests.

    1. Click Tap Open Shift.
    2. Select the days of the request to not create open shifts.

    3. Click Tap Apply. 

  6. Add comments to the request:

    1. Click Tap Add Comment.

    2. Select a comment from the Type drop-down list. Optionally, enter a note for the comment.
    3. You can enter more than one comment and note. Request details and history group all notes for the same comment together. 
  7. Click Tap one of the following:
    • Pending — Delay approval or rejection of requests.
    • Refuse

      Important: If a time-off request requires approval by multiple managers, and is refused by any approver, the request is refused. 

    • Approve

      If a time-off request requires approval by more managers, the system notifies the other approvers of your approval.

      Important: You cannot approve a time-off request that mixes requests that are based on recommendations and requests that are not. Instead, approve only the types of requests that are based on recommendations separately from the requests that are not.

  8. Click Tap Done. 

Caution: Request cancellation must be enabled and configured.

  1. Click Tap Notifications  to open a preview summary of requests, alerts, and other notifications. To open the detailed view, click tap View All.
  2. Select a request. Check the details.
  3. Click Tap Cancel . 
  4. Click Tap Add Comment. Select a comment from the Type drop-down list. Optionally, enter a note for the comment. You can enter more than one comment and note. 
  5. Click Tap Cancel Request. 
  6. Click Tap Done. As configured, the system notifies the employee.

When cancellation does not remove paycode edits

The paycode edit from the original request is removed automatically, but only if the paycode edit was not changed. If the paycode edit was changed, cancellation does not remove it.

To restore the schedule completely, manually remove the paycode edit and create a new shift to assign to the employee.

  • If the symbolic source of the paycode edit is Contract or Pattern:
    • The request was approved when the pattern or contract was not defined, and the length of the resulting paycode edit is zero (0). When the pattern or contract is defined, the paycode edit changes to the defined length.
    • If the pattern or contract is changed, the paycode edit also changes. Later, if the employee cancels the request, the system does not remove the paycode edit because it cannot find the exact paycode edit from the approval of the request.
  • Example: Time-off planning occurs in January, so the time-off period goes from February through January of the next year. Employees may not have accrued the vacation time that is planned for the year. So, the organization uses a Pending Vacation paycode as a placeholder for the planned time-off of the employee. Later, this paycode edit is replaced by the real paycode. Then, if the employee cancels the request, the system does not remove the paycode edit.