Managing Employee Unavailability via the Roster

This feature is only available to users with rostering enabled

Payroll admins and managers with the 'manage employee rosters' permission can manage the unavailability on behalf of employees. Management of this is available via the roster or Swag. See here for instructions on managing availability via Swag. 

N.B. If an employee is taking extended time off, this is more efficiently managed using a 'leave without pay' request as opposed to an unavailability. More information about applying leave without pay can be found here.

A manager, with 'Manage employee rosters' permission (via their access permissions on the 'Manage users' page, can:

• edit an employee’s existing unavailability record. If a record is edited, the employee should receive a notification advising as such;
• delete an existing employee unavailability record. If a record is deleted, the employee should receive a notification advising as such, including the details of the unavailability that was deleted;
• add unavailability on behalf of the employee. When adding unavailability, the details needed include:
  • Frequency: select whether on an ongoing basis or not. If yes, select the specific day of the week and enter an end date (if there is one). If not, select the specific date.
  • Duration: is it all day or from a specific start/finish time?
  • Reason: enter any relevant notes (this is not a mandatory field to complete).

Managing employee unavailability via the roster

To manage an employee's unavailability, first navigate to the 'Rostering' screen under the 'Payroll settings' tab.

Adding an unavailability

1. From the rostering screen, click on the Employee option at the top of the roster screen to reveal the list of employees
   
   
2. Click on the required employee from the list
   
   
   
   
3. From the employee context panel, click the 'Availability' tab -> ADD to enter an unavailability 
   
   
   
   

   You have the following options:

   • Day: if you select 'ongoing' unavailability, you'll be asked to choose the day this unavailability occurs on
   • Time: if the unavailability is for a specific time of the day, you'll need to set a start and end time
   • Frequency: set the frequency to be a one off or ongoing (recurring) unavailability
   • Duration: set the unavailability to be all day or for a specific period in the day
   • Date: the date the unavailability will start
   • End: the date the unavailability will end (optional)

Reason: the reason for the unavailability

You will now see the employee's current unavailability under the 'Unavailability' section

Adding a period of unavailability

This allows full access users, and managers with access to apply a 'period' of unavailability by entering a start and end date, as opposed to a 'per day' basis. 

Get started by clicking on the employees name within the roster, or from the 'employee list' as shown in the previous section. 

In order to enter a period of unavailability, you need to tick the "on an ongoing basis" option:

If this option is not ticked, you won't be able to select an 'until' date within the calendar. Instead, you will only be able to select a single date and create a daily unavailability. 

After ticking the "on an ongoing basis" option, the system will default to display 'perpetual' with the calendar icon beside it. If the unavailability has an end you can click on the calendar icon next to 'perpetual' and select the end date:

The next configurable option is the start/end time. By default, 'All day' is selected, however you can untick that option and enter in specific start/end times if required:

The user is able to select specific days, or 'Select all', and this will apply the unavailability to all selected days that fall within the date period earlier chosen: 

Lastly, you can enter a reason for the unavailability which is an optional field. 

Editing/Deleting an unavailability

You can edit or delete an existing unavailability from both the unavailability tab after clicking on the employee's name within the roster......

OR by clicking into the actual unavailability 'shift':

 

Once you have the unavailability details, you can either edit the necessary changes (and click the 'save' button or click the 'delete this unavailability' option if you wish to delete it.

Viewing availability

Within the rostering page, there are 2 ways to view an unavailability. Via the 'Availability' tab (where you go to add an availability), and within the roster itself. 

From within the Availability tab

There are 4 columns within the availability tab:

1. Date - this will display the relevant date/s. If it's more than 1 day it will show as a date range. eg: 1/10/21 - 15/10/21 or 2/9/21 - perpetual (if there is no end date);
2. Every - this will display the relevant day/s. Multiple days in a row will display as a range. eg: Monday - Wednesday;
3. Duration - this will display the time duration. eg: 10am - 4pm or All day;
4. Reason - this will display the reason if one has been entered.

To the far right of the unavailability details is the pencil 'edit' icon, and the 'delete' icon if you need to make changes, or remove the unavailability. 

From within the roster

Once an availability has been added, a tile is added to the roster, and if you click on that tile, a context panel will display with all the details of that unavailability:

Notifications

When an employee unavailability is changed by a manager, employees will receive a notification letting them know via email and/or Swag (if they have it installed).

Managers can also receive an email notification when an employee unavailability changes by going to 'Account' -> 'Manage Notifications' and selecting 'Email me when an employee that I supervise is unavailable to work'

 

If you have any feedback or questions please contact us via support@yourpayroll.com.au