Absence Components

Implementing the absence management policy of your enterprise involves answering these absence issues.

• What types of absences do you support?

• Do you want to use patterns to help you define your absence types?

• Do you want to organize your absence types into categories?

• What are the allowable reasons for taking an absence?

• Do you want to establish certification requirements for absence approval?

Absence Types

Use the Absence Types task to create absence types. Absence types can include rules to determine when users record or manage an absence of that type.

There are several fields you set when you create your absence types.

Field name	What it does
Absence Pattern	An absence pattern contains a predefined set of rules you use as a starting point when you create an absence type. For further info, see Absence Patterns below.
Unit of Measure	Choose whether this absence type is in measurements of Days or Hours.
Absence Rules	When you create an absence type, such as sick leave, you include rules to determine when the employee records or manages an absence of that type. For example, you can create a rule where workers can record absences only of a particular duration. An alert appears if they set a duration that exceeds the maximum.
Select Maintenance options	You can choose to enable an absence type for time card entry. For further info, see Enable Absences for Time Card Entries in the Help Center. Select who can update an employee's absence info.
Absence Plans	Associate your previously defined absence plans to your absence types.
Absence Reason	If you have defined absence reasons, you can select which reasons are valid for any particular absence type. For further info, see Absence Reasons below.
Display Features	Decide which fields or sections you want to show or hide for specific user roles when they record or approve a specific absence type.

Absence Patterns

An absence pattern contains a predefined set of rules that you use as a starting point when you create an absence type. You can select one of the following predefined patterns.

• Illness or injury

• Childbirth or placement

• Generic absence

For example, use the Generic Absence pattern to create an absence type for scheduling vacation based on the time accrued according to an accrual plan.

The pattern you select determines:

1. What special fields appear on the absence type pages

2. The options available to display and process various aspects of absence recording

For example, the Childbirth or Placement pattern includes a field for selecting whether the absence type applies for childbirth or adoption placement.

Absence Categories

You can choose to create absence categories to group absence types for reporting and analysis. For example, you can create an absence category called "Family Leave" and associate with it related absence types, such as maternity, paternity, and child care.

Use the Absence Categories task to create Absence Categories.

Absence Reasons

When a worker schedules an absence, you can require that they provide a reason, such as out sick, doctor's appointment, and so on. Absence reasons are independent of absence types, so you can allow a reason to be valid for multiple absence types. When you create an absence type, you select the reasons appropriate to it.

Use the Absence Reasons task to create absence reasons. Use the Absence Types task to associate them with an absence type.

Absence Certifications

You can choose to create certification requirements for absences. These absences would require documentation for authorization before approval. For example, in case of an absence due to illness, you could set up a requirement that workers must submit a doctor's certificate within a stipulated period of time. This ensures they receive full payment for the absence duration.

Use the Absence Certifications task to create absence certifications.