Flexibility is the keynote of Oracle's approach to absence management and PTO accrual plans. You set up the rules that define how you record absences, who is entitled to paid leave of each type, and how much time can be taken.
Yes, you can define as many types of absence as you require, and assign them to categories for ease of reporting. You can also define reasons for absence, to provide additional reporting information. For example, the category might be "family leave," the type might be "maternity," and the reason might be "birth." Each absence type can be recorded in days or hours.
You can control which groups of staff are eligible to take absences of each type. Absences are recorded on element entries. By linking the element to organizations, jobs, grades, employment categories, or other assignment components, you control who can take each absence type.
You can use Batch Element Entry (BEE) to make entries of absence elements, and other timecard data. You can record the number of days or hours absent, and any other information you have designed the element to hold (such as absence reasons). If you use Oracle Time & Labor, or another time entry application, you can send timecards to BEE using the API.
Alternatively, employees can enter their own absences through self-service, or their line managers can do this for them. These absence records can be submitted for approval before they are recorded in Oracle HRMS.
You can also use the Absence Detail window to enter proposed or actual absences, and to see the effect of the absence on any corresponding PTO accrual plan.
Each accrual plan is associated with one absence element (and hence one absence type). Each entry of time off reduces the net accrual on the plan. You can also associate any number of other elements with a plan and determine how entries to these element affect the accrual calculation. This is useful for recording time bought or sold, or unused PTO brought into a new plan on enrollment.
A few types of accrual plan are seeded with the system. However, accrual plan rules vary from enterprise to enterprise, and country to country. Oracle HRMS provides you with the flexibility to define your own plan rules. Here is just a selection of the rules you can set up:
The length of the accrual term (often one year), and the start date, which may be fixed (such as 1 January) or vary by employee (such as the anniversary of the employee's hire date). Some plans have no start date, but always calculate accruals for the previous 12 months (or other length of time).
The frequency of accrual, such as monthly, or once each pay period. In other plans, employees receive their full entitlement up front, at the beginning of the accrual term.
The amount of accrual and any ceiling on the amount that can be held. These figures may be fixed or vary by length of service, grade, time worked, or other factors.
What happens to unused PTO at the end of the accrual term.
Rules for part time employees, and for employees with suspended assignments
Rules for new hires, including when they can begin accruing PTO and when they can begin to use it.
When you enter an absence you can see, at the employee level, how much absent time of the same type has already been recorded for the employee. If the absence affects net entitlement in a PTO accrual plan, you can see current and projected entitlement figures for the plan. In another window, you can view a full absence history for an employee.
Across all employees, you can view absences of a certain type or category, within a specified time period. Using the Absences Report, you can track absences of one or more types for employees in each organization.
Employees can view their own accrual balance on the web using Self Service, and line managers can do the same for all the employees they manage.
See:Accrual Balances Maintained by SSHR
See: Leave and Absence Management:Self-Service Functionality