Annual leave and sickness

If you need to approve holiday and record employee absence, and do not currently have access, please complete the request available from the right hand menu (under 'Manager Self-Service requests').

You are able to approve annual leave and record absence for the teams (work groups) listed in the 'My Team' tab of your Manager Self-Service dashboard. For assistance, follow the Manager Self-Service How-To Guide (available from the right hand menu).

As an approver, you can submit an annual leave request on behalf of an employee in exceptional cases where they are unable to do so themselves. In order to do this, the employee must be part of your team (work group). See FAQ: Which staff can I approve annual leave for?

You can choose to share your 'approver' responsibilities with a colleague (eg another manager or HR administrator). This can be set up using one of the options below. 

1. Assign an additional Self-Service Manager to your team

Self-Service Managers can view information about their direct reports in Manager Self-Service such as:

• Basic personal details (eg name, title and emergency phone numbers);
• Employee Personnel Number;
• Contractual details (eg job title, FTE, length of service, salary and allowances);
• Team structure (eg who reports to whom).

Where it is appropriate for a colleague to have access to the information listed above, they can be designated as an additional Self-Service Manager for your team. In doing so, this individual would also be able to approve annual leave requests and record sickness absence where needed.

To add an additional Self-Service Manager to your team, please complete the request listed under the right hand menu (Manager Self-Service requests).

2. Assign 'Shared Responsibility' to a colleague
This option is not available to NDM staff.

Shared Responsibility is where time approval permissions are shared permanently with another colleague. This can be assigned for specific teams (work groups) as appropriate.

The colleague who has been assigned Shared Responsibility will be able to perform the same time approver tasks as the Self-Service Manager. However, they will not have access to the additional information available to the Self-Service Manager (listed above). 

To set up Shared Responsibility, please complete the form listed under the right hand menu (Manager Self-Service requests).

If a member of your team (work group) also manages a team, you’ll be able to view details about their team members in your Manager Self-Service dashboard. However, you will not be able to view or approve requests for these individuals unless the approver role has been assigned/delegated to you. See FAQ: Can a colleague approve annual leave requests and record absences on my behalf?

It can take up to 15 minutes for a submitted request to appear in your screen. If the request doesn't appear after 15 minutes, please check that:

1. The employee has 'submitted' the request (rather than saved) 
2. The employee is allocated to your work group (team) in Manager Self-Service. See FAQ: Which staff can I approve annual leave for?
3. The request hasn't already been approved. When a request is submitted, all approvers with permissions for your team (work group) will receive an email notification. If the request is not displayed in your Manager Self-Service dashboard, it may already have been approved. You can check this by viewing the 'Approved' requests. For guidance, please follow the steps outlined in the 'Approve annual leave' How-To Guide, available from the right hand menu.

Have you added a reason in the Comments box? This field is mandatory and must be completed in order for the rejection to be processed. For further guidance, please refer to the 'Approve annual leave' How-To Guide, available from the right hand menu.

Yes, the employee will receive a notification in HR Self-Service, and an email.

If you are also designated as a Staff Request approver, pending Staff Requests will also appear in the Approval tab. These will be counted in the total number displayed. 

Team members cannot currently see each other's annual leave bookings. The team calendar is visible only to the approver. We are planning some improvements to the system which may make this possible in the future.

The manager is responsible for recording the following leave types in HR Self-Service for their team:

• Compassionate Leave 
• Dependants Leave 
• Jury Service 
• Study Leave 
• TOIL (time off in lieu) 
• Other Leave 
• Annual Leave (only when recorded retrospectively, or in exceptional circumstances) 

Guidance for managers on the different types of leave is available from the HR Support website.

Please note that NDM sickness records continue to be managed by the HR team.

Fit notes are not currently recorded in HR Self-Service. Please continue to follow your current department process for recording fit notes.

Please note that NDM sickness records continue to be managed by the HR team.