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New leave management UK migration webinar - June 2023

Raunaq Bahl
  • Updated

We have a new leave management experience available now in the UK. You can read more about it in this collection of help articles.

If you are in the UK and are using Deputy's old leave management experience, you can migrate now over to the new system as shown in these help articles:

We also recently held a webinar on this topic which you can watch below. Questions raised live during the webinar have also been answered below.

Q&A topics

Leave policy configuration questions


How do you delete a policy?

You can not delete a leave policy at this stage. You can instead archive a leave policy, which will rollout to all Deputy accounts soon.

 

How does this work if we work a Panama shift system (a rotating shift system over a cycle of several weeks to provide 24 hour coverage) where the amount of days work differs each week?

First, you need to set the agreed working hours for each team member across their total shift cycle, whether this is over 1 or 2 or 4 weeks as you require.

When you set up a leave policy that accrues leave based on agreed hours then Deputy will be able to use the agreed hours you set in the team member's profile to calculate their leave entitlement even if they do not work the same hours or days each week.

Raun addresses this question at the 20min timestamp in the webinar video above.

 

The example of 28 days leave - are the 8 UK Bank Holidays included in this?

Is it possible to specify that leave entitlement includes the Bank Holidays - will the employee only be able to book off the remaining number of days?

That's up to your business to decide and configure. 28 days can be only holiday days excluding Bank Holidays (Bank Holidays can be set up separately in the platform), or can be included at the start of the fixed release as the number of days is a configurable field where you can enter the number of days your business decides.

Raun addresses this question at 43min 30s timestamp in the webinar.

 

It is all based on 8h per day and what about 11.5 hours shifts if it gives opportunity to set accrued leave by hours not days?

You can set up leave policies that track leave in either hours or days.

If you set up a leave policy to track in days then please read Setting standard hours for a work day when managing leave (UK only) to understand how Deputy determines how many hours are in a day of work for each team member.

 

Can different rules be set up for each area of the business?

Yes! There is no limit on the number of leave policies that can be set up. You just need to set the leave rules specific to each area and team member. You can even use the Leave Policy groups field to help organise them according to different areas if you prefer.

 

How would the accrued leave balance differ between using the average hours over 52 weeks calculator and the accrual based on a percentage per hour actually worked?

The average working hours setting sits slightly away from the from the leave accrual method section on the new policy builder page. The best way to explain this difference is:

  • The leave accrual method you select will calculate the leave entitlement for that employee. ie. how much leave in total is the employee allowed to take as time off.
  • The setting for calculating average working hours for team members on a zero hour contract provides a value for the number of hours in an average working day so that when that team member takes one day off they know how many hours they will be paid for that day off.

Raun addresses this question at the 22 min timestamp in the webinar video above.

 

We would like to use leave accrual for our permanent staff in hospitality but we need them to take more holiday at the beginning of the year when it is quiet. Our holiday year starts in January though. And our quiet period is Jan to March - can you suggest how we can do this? Could we front-load the first quarter holiday and then accrue the remainder after March for example?

Currently, you can not set up a leave policy that mixes different leave accrual types in the one policy.

We have received feedback as something businesses would like so it is on our product roadmap.

Raun addresses this question at the 26min timestamp in the webinar video above.

 

Will the new system integrate with Hibob? The current integration doesn’t update schedules when leave is approved in Hibob.

HiBob builds into Deputy and is responsible for managing the integration with Deputy. You can contact HiBob on support@hibob.com.

 

Is there an option to front-load leave balances and then add extra leave accrued by overtime?

There currently isn't an option to mix fixed leave release and per hour accrual method leave release in the same policy so you could:

  • set up a policy that accrues leave per hour and manually add leave balance to each team member's policy OR
  • set up a fixed release leave policy and manually update the leave balances with any extra leave accrued during overtime hours OR
  • set up two separate leave policies to automate both leave accrual methods but the leave balances will not be combined into one total leave balance.

Raun addresses this question at the 32min timestamp in the webinar video above.

 

We have some of the team who we would like to use the 28 days a year rule - then zero hour staff who we would like to accrue through hours worked. Can you select a policy for different levels of the team's hierarchy?

You can set up multiple leave policies including one that uses the 28 day rule and another that accrues leave based on per hour worked and then selectively apply the relevant leave policy to the required team member it applies to.

 

With the new system, can we pay a standard number of hours per holiday day for contracted hours, and accrue leave on overtime

At the moment we can not handle both accrual methods within the same policy. Yes, you can set up a leave policy that accrues a fixed number of hours of leave for their contracted hours and yes you can set up a leave policy that accrues leave based on worked overtime hours. However, you can not set up these calculations within the one policy at the moment.

 

Can we only have 1 policy per person?

Each team member can have multiple leave policies assigned to their profile.

 

How do you figure out your accrual rate?

The accrual rate, or the amount of leave a team member is entitled to while working at your business is to be determined by your business. Deputy's leave management experience can help you calculate and automate the application of leave but as to how much is appropriate is a matter for each business to decide. Please consult your human resources or legal advisor to ensure you are using the correct accrual rate for each leave policy. 

 

Is the average working hours calculation feature optional or inbuilt? We currently pay staff holiday as hours not days, at an amount of their choosing to use up their accrual as they see fit and would want to keep this option.

The calculate average working hours feature is completely optional to implement. It is turned OFF by default when you create a new leave policy.


Can we automatically allocate a default leave policy to a new employee, depending on certain other criteria? For example salaried or weekly paid employees.

At the moment, the allocation of a default leave policy to a new employee cannot be automated, and the manager is responsible for manually allocating the policies required by the employee.  

 

Migration questions

We are in the process of setting up Deputy- can we go straight into using the new system?

Please check this help article to determine which leave system you are using. You may find that you don't need to migrate at all because you are already on the new system.

If you don't need to migrate you can start setting up your leave system by reading Introduction to leave management (UK).

If you find that you do need to migrate to the new system you can start migrating when it suits you.

 

Is the migration to this mandatory or can we keep on using our current leave section?

Is there a deadline for migrating to the new system?

Is there any requirement to migrate at all? Is migrating to the new system mandatory or optional?

It's currently optional to migrate to the new system but if you have not migrated by 4th August 2023 you will be automatically migrated. There is no opportunity to stay on the old system in the future.

 

When will Deputy "force" everyone to migrate and the current system be phased out? Need to set aside a good few days to do all this prep and currently have other priorities!

It's currently optional to migrate to the new system but if you have not migrated by 4th August 2023 you will be automatically migrated.

 

I keep all leave in a spreadsheet at the moment - not on Deputy, do I need to do step 3 (update leave allowances?)

Yes, you will need to import your current leave balances from your spreadsheet into Deputy so that all your team member's balances are up to date.

If there are a lot of leave balances to import you can use the Importer Wizard to import them from a spreadsheet file.

 

We only started using Deputy in December 2022 so how would this work for us as I currently have all the data on a spreadsheet

This depends on what kind of data you have in the spreadsheet. Assuming its leave balances for each team member. You can create and configure leave policies in Deputy to align with those in your spreadsheet and assign them to the relevant team members and then use the Importer Wizard to import the leave balances from the spreadsheet file.

 Raun discusses this question at 44min 37s in the webinar.


When migrating, can you perform the migration with timesheets in progress?

Yes, that's completely fine. You can start and end shifts during the migration. The reason we say, it's best to ensure timesheets are approved before you begin the migration, is so that all leave balances are up to date before you begin.

Note that for most accounts the migration will only take a few minutes in any case.

 Raun discusses this question at 30min 30s in the webinar.


What happens if you make a mistake when setting up prior to the migration? Can you perform another migration?

No, it's not possible to perform another migration. It's a one-off action that will deprecate the leave accrual extensions. That's why it's important to follow the steps to prepare your account for migration before you begin. 

Note that you can still make changes to leave policies and leave balances after the migration.

Raun discusses this question at 32min 30s in the webinar.

 

Can we amend team members opening balances after the migration?

Yes, you can amend team member's leave balances after the migration as well as before, just not during the migration process.


I tried using the old system several years ago, so now it is a mess. I would like to migrate but clear everything out and start fresh. Our leave year starts fresh from 1st April annually to everyone.

You can set up new leave policies from scratch.

Raun discusses this question at 35min 44s in the webinar.

 

Can leave balances be uploaded after the migration?

Yes you can update leave balances if required after the migration.

 

If we need to have all timesheets approved before the migration, this only happens once a month so it might be tricky to get this done before the end of July

It's just a suggestion that timesheets are approved before the migration so that you know your leave balances are up to date but if you are unable to do this, that's OK, the leave balances will remain the same after the migration.


Who can migrate the system e.g location manager or system admin?

Only users with an access level of System Administrator can perform the migration since only System Administrators can access Business settings in Deputy to initiate the migration.

 

General day to day leave management questions

So staff leave balances will still only be correct on the day that we export timesheets for payroll, 12 single days in a year?

Possibly, this will depend on what accrual method you have used to set your leave policies. 

If you have policies that accrue leave based on hours worked then yes if you mark timesheets as paid only once a month for payroll then the accrued leave will be applied to the team member's balance to update their balance to be correct on this point in the month.

Similarly, if you set up a leave policy to release a fixed amount of leave per month then the leave balances will be correct on these dates.

Raun address this question at 34min 10s in the webinar

 

What do we do with bank workers who do sleep work? Because we have to put the sleep hours through as “working hours” on Deputy. Sleep hours are not classed as working time in the UK, therefore these workers will not accrue leave when they are at work asleep. We have asked for a separate function that allows us to set hours for a sleep-in, which is not calculated with their normal working hours.

Sleep hours can be scheduled in Deputy in a non-worked area that you can set up in any location in your account and by definition would not accrue leave. 

When you schedule team members in a non-worked area set up in your location the following conditions apply:

  • The shift time worked in this area will not be calculated into the total ordinary time of any scheduled period or shown in reports such as Scheduled vs Timesheet vs Sales.
  • Scheduling a shift in this area will not contribute to overtime rates, trigger stress profiles or leave accrual.
  • The default shift cost will be $0 for shifts that occur in a non-worked type area. Therefore, if you need to pay your team members a flat rate for the sleep work shift in the non-worked area, then you would need to amend the rate in the timesheet for that area during the timesheet approval to add the flat rate amount manually.


How does this handle TOIL for salaried staff that exceed their standard hours?

Since each organisation will have its own policies around how paid time off in lieu of time worked is accumulated, the first release of this new leave experience doesn't specifically handle TOIL.

In Deputy Premium, if a manager is aware that a team member has accrued TOIL hours, the manager can update their leave balance to reflect this and then the team member can request paid time off as a TOIL leave request.

For account customisation that allows TOIL accrual to be a more automated process please consider our Enterprise plan.

We are also building an automated TOIL solution in our Deputy Premium product roadmap for the future.

Raun addresses this question at 39min 36s in the webinar

 

If I have a night staff member who is entitled to 22 nights annual leave per year. I would like to set the leave policy to days. If someone authorises a night shift as leave 21.15-07.45 but then working the following night will the system recognise this as one day's leave. Also when authorising leave what happens if the shift time is incorrect, will it still take one day leave? 

So when someone authorises a leave request for a night shift from let's say 2115 to 745 Deputy will recognise that as one day of leave. If they have 22 days or 22 nights of annual leave then one day will be deducted from their balance.

Raun addresses this question at 41min 47s in the webinar

 

What if you wanted to authorise a night shift 21.15-07.45 on a Monday but they are also working the Tuesday night but they only want the Monday as Annual leave. We would want to do annual leave in days, not hrs.

Annual leave can be set in either hours or days, and 1 day of leave can also be paid in no. of hours when you are approving the leave request.


Will Team members be able to book more holiday than what is accrued to date?

Is leave approval throttled by employee's Time Accrued? Or could a manager approve a request for more days than have currently been accrued (ie borrowing a day or two against future accrued days)?

Yes, they will be able to. Right now there's no limit or constraint on what employees can ask to book for as long as the manager is approving it for the given time. The final decision on approving it lies with the manager.

If the leave tracking unit is set to "Day", can a pro-rated leave request be made eg 0.5 days requested?

Yes, you can. This will depend on the number of hours that is set for the team member as a standard day. So if an employee has a standard day of 8 hours and requests half a day then 4 hours will deduct from their balance. 

Raun addresses this question at 46min 44s in the webinar.

 

Will new employees automatically go onto the new leave system?

Yes, once the new leave system is in place in Deputy, all new employees you add to Deputy will automatically use the new leave policies. Remember you need to assign leave policies to your new team members when you set up their employee profile.


Can you use the fixed accrual 28 days per year for full time, plus add a % accrual for overtime?

This cannot be achieved using the leave policy builder at the moment, but the ability to mix-and-match accrual types is on the product roadmap. 

 

Will the leave balance reduce when we delete a timesheet?

Yes, but you must mark the timesheet as unpaid first before you discard it so that the leave balance is reduced.

Raun addresses this question at 51min 20s in the webinar


Is there a report available of leave balance due and value? weekly/monthly historical/actual/future?

The new leave experience offers a more in-depth "View Details" tab in each employee's Profile where you can see the upcoming leave, available balance, as well as a leave audit history which can help you reconcile your employee's balances. 


Has the leave report schedule view changed?

No changes have been made to the leave report schedule view as a part of this new experience. 


We pay time and a quarter for staff who work the bank holiday, but if a leave request is on the bank holiday this is paid at the normal hourly rate. Does this system recognise that difference?

If you mark a bank holiday (Public holiday) in the schedule, Deputy will pay the people working that day their public holiday rate if set in their employee profile. 

For team members not working that day and getting paid their normal pay rate, you can create an area "Bank holiday not worked" and schedule everyone that is not working to that area. In public holiday configuration (/exec/administration/public_holiday), you can exclude this area from getting public holiday pay treatment. Read more at Manage Public Holidays.


Can we limit the amount of future leave that can be requested? For example no more than one week in the future

This cannot be achieved in this new experience but settings caps on the amount of leave that can be requested is on the product roadmap and will be available soon.

 

Is there a way to change settings so that users on employee access can view booked holidays of their colleagues?

This currently cannot be achieved as a part of the new experience. 

 

If you are borrowing against future accrual, does the accrued time appear as a negative value?

Available balance is always calculated as any upcoming balance (from future-dated or upcoming leave requests) subtracted from the current balance. If a team member has leave requests which are greater than their current leave balance, then the available balance will be displayed as a negative value. 

 

Future development plans

We would like to use leave accrual for our permanent staff in hospitality but we need them to take more holiday at the beginning of the year when it is quiet. Our holiday year starts in January though. And our quiet period is Jan to March - can you suggest how we can do this? Could we front load the first quarter holiday and then accrue the remainder after March for example?

Can I assume that your future development will include the ability to apply an accrual rule to fixed hours e.g. 20hrs per week, plus another rule for any hours worked above these 20hrs per week based on their average working hours?

Currently, you can not set up a leave policy that mixes different leave accrual types in the one policy.

We have received feedback as something businesses would like so it on our product roadmap.

Raun addresses this question at the 26 min timestamp and again at 48min 27s in the webinar video above.

 

Is there a way we can download leave taken by all staff in a specific period after migration, as this is impossible to do now?

This is not possible as an automated report at the moment but something we can consider for future updates. In the meantime, you could export all the timesheets for the specific period into a spreadsheet and then manipulate the data in the spreadsheet to display only leave timesheets that you are interested in reviewing. 


Is it possible to set leave rules to limit the number of requests on the same day from the same department?

This is also not possible at the moment but has been suggested by our customers so is something that is on the product roadmap.

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