Absences

Use this window to record information about staff absence, including dates, times, descriptions and categorisation of the absence for subsequent analysis and reporting.

Click New to create an absence record, or click Edit to edit the selected record. The Absences window is displayed. You can record the details described below.

When you create an absence record, you can associate the entry with the employee’s activity defined in their Employment History Record. If an employee has only one primary active employment history record, there is no need to enter these details, but sometimes an employee performs two different activities. For example, from Monday to Wednesday, the employee might work as an administrative assistant, and from Thursday as a laboratory technician. In such circumstances, the absence can be associated with the appropriate activity. So if the employee was absent on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, they would have two days’ absence from the administrative assistant activity, and one day for the technician activity.

Employee Reference

View-only. This field displays the employee reference and name of the selected employee.

Activity

If the employee is assigned to more than one activity (the employee has more than one employment history record), select the activity to which the absence relates.

Working Pattern

View-only.

Absence Type and Absence Analysis

The Absence Type and Absence Analysis fields enable you to record the reason for the absence. Absences to be accumulated against the employee’s holiday allowance must be entered with the absence type for holidays set in Leave – Absence Type on the Absences tab in System Setup > Housekeeping > System Definitions. Absences to be considered for inclusion in the Suggest SSP function must be recorded by using a code defined in the Automated Sick Pay – Valid Absence Codes on the Sickness tab of the Module Definitions window.

Absence Type

Select the type of absence from the drop-down list.

You can set up the absence type descriptions displayed in the list by using Personnel > Absence Monitoring > Absence Type.

Absence Analysis

Select the absence analysis from the drop-down list.

The drop-down list displays codes associated with the selected absence type.

You can set up the absence type descriptions displayed in the list by using Personnel > Absence Monitoring > Absence Analysis.

Description

This field defaults to the description for the Absence Analysis code, but you can change it.

From Date, AM/PM, Time

Type the start date for the absence, select the period (AM or PM), and type the time to indicate the beginning of the absence.

The Time field is not used in any calculations.

To Date, AM/PM, Time

Type the end date for the absence, select the period (AM or PM), and type the time to indicate the end of the period of absence.

If the employee is on long-term absence, leave the To Date field blank until the employee returns to work. A warning is displayed if the start or end dates of an absence fall outside the employee’s dates of employment. The dates are checked against both the employee’s leave date and the contracted dates on the employee’s primary active employment history record.

Duration

This field displays the duration in days to the number of decimal places defined in Held to 0, 1 or 2 Decimal Places on the Absences tab of the HR Application – Features window. The value is calculated when you click OK to save the record, or when you click next to Duration. To calculate the duration, the system uses the date of absence entries in From Date and To Date and the employee’s working pattern. If no To Date is entered, the duration is calculated based on an ToDate of today. For open-ended absences, an automated start-of-day process in the software recalculates the duration of the absence.

You can change the value calculated for the duration. Note that the duration of an absence is not recalculated if you change From Date or To Date. However, if you click next to Duration, the system recalculates the duration.

Hours

This field displays the duration in hours. This field is not calculated, but you can enter the number of hours.

Calendar Days

View-only. This field is calculated by the system by using the From Date and To Date.

Any Action Required

Optional. Select an entry from the drop-down list to record an action that should be taken when the employee returns to work.

You can set up the absence actions displayed in the list by using Personnel > Absence Monitoring > Absence Action.

Certification of sickness

Optional fields are provided for the recording of whether the employee has obtained certification of the sickness.

Certified

If the sickness is certified, select the Certified check box to record the sickness has been certified.

Certification Type

Select the certification type from the drop-down list.

You can set up the certification types displayed in the list by using Personnel > Absence Monitoring > Certification Type.

Expiry Date

Type or select the expiry date of the certification.

The day of the week that the absence began, the day of the week on which the absence ended, whether the day before the absence started was a working day and whether the day after the absence ended was a working day are now recorded against each absence record.

After you click OK to save the details of the new or amended record, if the system recognises this record as being a holiday record for the current year, the system checks if the employee’s holiday entitlement has been exceeded by using the entry in Leave – Absence Type on the Absences tab in System Setup > Housekeeping > System Definitions. If the holiday entitlement is exceeded, a warning message is displayed, but you can save the record.