How to manage staff leave and unavailability

The leave/vacation & unavailability locations of your account are there to help you manage the times your employees can’t work. Leave/vacation is paid or unpaid time off work that full time and part time employees are entitled to under employment standards. There are several types of Leave/vacation with differing legislative entitlements, depending on which industry and state or territory your organisation works in. Unavailability is more informal and would be used mostly by and for your casual employees. From simple requests like, ‘Jane can’t work next Friday’ to more complex situations such as ‘Barry has University every Tuesday morning for the next two months’. Both can be requested by the employee (for approval) or entered on their behalf by a manager. The key tasks involved in managing leave/vacation and unavailability are outlined below.

Leave/vacation

Leave/vacation can be managed on the Scheduling → Leave/vacation page of your account. By default, this page will list all pending requests. This can be extended to all requests using the search filters. To create a new leave/vacation request on your employee's behalf, click the Create new button at the top of the page. By default, weekends and public holidays are skipped when multi-day requests. If you are still setting up your account, configuring the types of leave/vacation available will be covered on the Advanced setup → Building employment contracts system guide page. For a full guide on leave/vacation, go to the Docs -> Scheduling -> Leave/vacation support page.

Unavailability

Unavailability can be managed on the Scheduling → Unavailability page of your account. Like leave/vacation, this page only shows pending requests by default. All approved availability shows on future schedules as you build them and will warn you if a shift is added that might clash with it. To create a new leave/vacation request on your employee's behalf, click the Create new button at the top of the page. For a full guide on unavailability, go to the Docs -> Scheduling -> Unavailability support page.

Time off calendar

Leave/vacation and unavailability can also be visulized and managed via a consolidated calendar view. This can be found on the Scheduling → Time off calendar page. This is particularly useful for busy times of the year when working out which requests to approve.

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