CSU Absence Management Business Process Guide for Approvers

The Absence Management Business Process Guide for Approvers covers the overall Absence Management business process used by Managers/Approvers in manager self service. It describes the pages and fields used to enter, approve, and manage Absences in the Absence Management module.

Definitions:

Process Prerequisites / Assumptions:

Diagram Definitions:

1. Current Period – The current period, based on the open Absence Management calendar
2. Prior Period – Absences can be entered up to three periods previous to the current period
3. Future Period – Absences can be entered for one future period (not depicted in diagram).
4. Auto-Notification – Email notifications are automatically sent to employees who are self reporters:

• when an Absence is entered on behalf of the employee
• when an employee Absence is deleted by a Manager or a Timekeeper
• when an employee Absence is marked as “Needs Correction”

Each of the functions in the Absence Management process is accomplished using a specific “role”:

1. Timekeeper Role

2. Manager Role

3. Employee Role

4. Payroll/Central Administrative Unit Role

The function of the roles and the recommended Absence Management overall business process, depicted in the previous diagram, is as follows:

1. Employees: On a monthly basis, employees are responsible for absence reporting, including confirmation, if applicable, that no absences were taken. Employees can enter, review, and submit their Absences in self service for the current, prior, or future period. Employees can delete Absences when they are in the status of “Submitted” or “Needs Correction”. Employees who are self reporters are notified via email when absences are marked “Needs Correction” and when Absences are entered on their behalf by a Timekeeper or Approver.

2. Timekeepers: Timekeepers review Absences entered by employees for accuracy and manage absence activities by reviewing and auditing absence transactions. Timekeepers may use the Timekeeper Absence Review page to mark Absence transactions with the appropriate review status to indicate whether the transaction is correct or require further action. Employees are automatically notified via email when a Timekeeper marks their transaction as incorrect. The ‘review’ process is optional and may be performed as part of the Approver’s review and approval step. Timekeepers may enter Absences for employees who are not self reporters and for those who cannot enter their own Absences. Timekeeper initiated absence transactions will generate email notifications to employees who are self reporters.

3. Managers/Approvers: Managers/Approvers review and approve absences for their employees. Managers may also enter Absences on an employee’s behalf in the event that the employee or Timekeeper is unable to enter the Absence(s). Absences entered by Approvers are automatically submitted with an approved status. Manager initiated absence transactions will generate email notifications to employees who are self reporters.

4. Payroll/Central Administrative Unit generates Absence Management self service notifications to their campus populations, enters Catastrophic Donations, runs the prior period process, enters adjustments, executes and finalizes the Absence Management calculation, and audits all Absences.

The following depicts the roles and functions in Absence Management and the pages within the Absence Management system used to accomplish each task.

The following types of absence validations occur on the absence entry page.

1. Absences with Balance Validation: The balance validation checks the current Absence transaction against the most recent finalized Absence balance and any pending Absence transactions entered in the ‘allowable’ period. This includes any late absences enter for the three previous months, the current month, and one future month. If the employee does not have sufficient balances to cover the usage, an error will generate indicating that the absence entered exceeds the available balance. Employees are not allowed to use more time than available.

2. Absences that Generate Online Messages: Absence transactions that require additional documentation to be submitted by the employee will trigger an online message specifying that documentation is required.

3. Absences that Require Comments: Certain Absence transactions require supporting information to be entered at the time of submission. If the transaction requires such information, the “Add Comments” link will appear in red to indicate that a comment is required. If a comment is not entered with the transaction, an error will generate indicating that the absence entered requires an entry in the "Comments" field.

The table below lists Absence elements delivered in Self Service and the validations, notifications, and rules associated with each. The availability of each element is based on the employee’s Absence Management eligibility group. Eligibility groups are based on the collective bargaining agreements.

Managers/Approvers review and approve absences for their employees.

They may also enter Absences on an employee’s behalf in the event that the employee or Timekeeper is unable to enter the Absence(s). Absences entered by Approvers are automatically submitted with an approved status. Employees who are self reporters will receive an email notification when the Manager/Approver enters absences on their behalf.

Approve Absences – Overview of the “Approve Reported Absences” page

The “Approve Reported Absences” page is used to validate and approve Absence transactions entered by Self Reporters and Timekeepers. Timekeepers may assist Approvers in the review process by reviewing and validating the absence transactions and marking them “Reviewed” or “Needs Correction”.

Approvers may also update Absence entries that require correction using the “Needs Correction” status and including a comment explaining the issue. This is the same functionality used by Timekeepers and will generate an email notification to the person who entered the transaction.

Columns displayed on the “Approve Reported Absences” page

1. Select – Use the check box to select employee(s) for review
2. Emplid – Employee ID
3. Empl Rcd – Employee record number
4. Current Period Absence – The status of absence entries for the employee. “Current” means the entire allowable entry period (three prior months, current month, and future month).

• Appr – All reported absences for this employee have been approved
• Sub – Absences have been submitted and require approval
• None –No absences have been reported for this individual

1. Name – Employee’s name
2. Status – Employee’s HR status
3. DeptID – Employee’s department number
4. Dept Name – Employee’s department name
5. Job Code – Employee’s job code
6. Job Title – Employee’s job title
7. Full/Part-time – Employee’s employment status (full-time or part-time) Note: The list of employees may be sorted by clicking any column name on the page.

Note: The list of employees may be sorted by clicking any column name on the page.

To access the absence entry page, go to myNorthridge portal and locate the HR/Manager-Time & Attendance Portal Pagelet. Select the “Approve Absences” link.

 The Approve Reported Absences page will appear.

1. Click the “Select” box next to the employee’s name to select the employee(s) or click on the “Select All” button to select all employees in the list.

2. Click the “Deselect All” button to clear all of the selected employees (as applicable)

 3. Click “Continue” on the bottom of the page to display Absence entries awaiting approval.

4. Validate all transactions and any corresponding comments in the Entry Comments column. Mark any transactions that are not correct by updating the “Review Status” field to “Needs Corrections”, enter a note in the “Add Comment” field to explain the issue. Continue to review all transactions and update the “Review Status” field as appropriate. It is not necessary to use the “Review Status” field to mark each transaction as “Reviewed” before the transaction can be approved.

5. Click the “Approve” checkbox to approve individual transactions or click “Select All” to select all acceptable Absences for approval.

6. Click “Submit” to approve all transactions that are correct.

Note: Transactions with a review status of “Needs Correction” will not be selected for approval with the “Select All” function.

7. Click OK to confirm the approval.

8. If there are additional Absences awaiting approval, the approval page will appear. If all Absences have been approved, the confirmation page will indicate that all Absences have been approved and the summary employee list will appear.

9. Absence transactions that are marked “Needs Correction” will automatically trigger an email to the person who entered the absence.  Use the “Add Comment” link to include any additional information and click “Submit”.

SAMPLE EMAIL

The “Manager Absence Entry” page includes all of the functionality/validation as the employee entry page, plus the following additional functionality.

1. Approver initiated absence transactions are automatically updated to a status of “Approved” when time is submitted.

2. Approvers may delete Absence entries with “Submitted”, “Reviewed”, “Approved”, or “In Process” statuses.

3. Approvers may navigate through their employee list by using the “Next Employee in List”, “Previous Employee in List”, and “Return to Employee List” links.

4. To access the absence entry page, go to myNorthridge portal and locate the HR/Manager-Time & Attendance portal pagelet. Select the “Enter and View Absences” link.

• The Manager Absence Entry page will appear.

• The columns displayed are the same as the “Approve Reported Absences” page. Select employees by using the "Emplid" hyperlink in the first column.

• Once an employee is selected, the “Report and View Employee Absences” page will appear.

Note: The employee list may be sorted by clicking any column name.

The “Manager Absence Entry” page has the same functionality as the employee entry page, except for the additional hyperlinks at the bottom of the page to navigate to “Return to Employee List”, “Previous Employee in List” and “Next Employee in List”.

Once an absence is submitted, an email notification will be sent to the employee.

Managers have access to Absence Management reports based on the security structure defined for them within the Absence Management system.

It is recommended that Absence Management activities are validated by the Manager as part of their review using these reports.

1. Excess Plus/Minus-Negative - This report provides a listing of employees who are on non-standard work schedules who have positive balances for Excess Plus/Minus.

2. Excess Plus/Minus-Positive - This report provides a listing of employees who are on non-standard work schedules who have negative balances for Excess Plus/Minus.

3. Excessive Hours in a Single Day – This report provides a listing of employees who reported more hours than their schedule.

4. No Time Reported – This report identifies absence eligible employees who have not reported any time away from work and have not reported “No Time Taken”.

5. Reported Absences – This report shows a listing of all reported absences by employee.

6. Reported Absences Not Approved – This report identifies reported absences that have not been approved.

All reports can be run individually online or as a group and downloaded to Excel for more detailed analysis.

To access absence management reports, go to myNorthridge portal and locate the HR/Manager-Time & Attendance pagelet. Select the “Run Absence Reports” link.

1. Enter a Run Control ID and click “Search”. To add a run control, select “Add a New Value”.

NOTE: Create only one Run Control (e.g. “REPORT”) and reuse the same Run Control every time you access this page.

2. The report Run Control Page is displayed. Approvers have access to various reports for Absence Management.

Run an Individual Report

1. To run an individual report, enter the search criteria, and click the report name.

 2. The report results will display online. The default display is to first tab “Absence Info”.

 3. Select the “Employee Info” tab to see additional employee information.

 Run Reports in Batch Mode

Reports can also be run in ‘batch mode’ and can include multiple reports. These reports create CSV file(s) which can then be downloaded to Excel or other programs for review.

Batch reporting is recommended for reports that return large data sets. Click the checkbox next to the report(s) or click “Select All” select all of the reports in the list. After populating the report selection, click “Submit” to run the reports.

1. Allow the process to run for a few seconds then click the “Refresh” button to get the latest status.

2. The process is complete once the Run Status shows SUCCESS and Distribution Status shows POSTED.

3. Once the process is complete, click the “Details” link.

Note: Depending on the volume of data being retrieved and the number of jobs in queue, the process may take several minutes to finish.

Select the “View/Log Trace” link to access the report.

Locate the CSV output file to view the report.

The report contains both the employee information and absence details.

The table below outlines the criteria used to determine an employee’s Absence Management pay group.

The “Manager Balance Inquiry” page is used to view employee absence balances. Information about the functionality is detailed below.

Search Page:

1. Department: Department number.
2. Emplid: Employee ID
3. Empl Rcd#: Employee Record number.
4. Name: Employee Name. Note: This is a “wild” search. Enter a full name selection (e.g. Smith) to retrieve all employees’ whose name has the word “Smith” in it.
5. Pay Group: This is the Absence Management Pay Group for which the employee belongs. Refer to the “Absence Management Pay Group Determination” section of this guide for reference.
6. Union Code: Bargaining Union Code
7. Payroll Status: Employee’s current employment status.
8. HR Status: Employee’s current employment status by category (Active or Inactive).

Enter the selection criteria on the search page and click SEARCH.

Display of Employee Data:

The employee’s name is displayed on top of the page.  Information is separated into three different tabs.

1. Absence Balances. This tab contains information about the accrual dated and balances for sick, vacation, and personal holiday.
2. Compensatory Time. This tab contains compensatory time balances (e.g. CTO, Excess, Holiday Credit, Holiday CTO, Additional Day Off, etc.).
3. State Service for Absence. This tab contains state service balances.

The “Graduated Vacation Chart” to view a summary of accrual rates and maximums by bargaining and administrative units.

View Details:

The Details link provides the connection to the employee’s current absence activities and absence history

Click the  icon under “Details” to retrieve the history page.
Note that several tabs will appear across the top. Select the tab that contains the information needed. Select “All Absence Balances” to view all absence types.

Explanation of Fields:

1. Period ID: The calendar period for the row of information that is displayed. Balances as of Date: The “as of” date for the information displayed.
2. Previous Balance. The ending balance from the previous finalized payroll period.
3. Earned. Hours earned for the absence type.
4. Taken. Hours used for the absence type.
5. Adjusted. Hours adjusted for the absence type.
6. Catastrophic Donated. Hours donated to another employee for the absence type.
7. Balance. Ending balance.