As part of our wider HR ResourceLink re-implementation project, absence management will be rolled out to all colleagues across the College in August. This will provide additional functionality that will give colleagues the ability to request and manage leave and sickness absence through MyView.
Benefits of absence management
- Single point of access – offers an central online system for recording absence
- Visibility – offers a team calendar that provides visibility of both team and individual absences and availability
- Facilitates improved reporting across the College to ensure compliance with our statutory, duty of care and employee wellbeing obligations.
FAQs
Implementation will come into operation from 5 August 2020. From that point forwards MyView must be used for recording sickness absence, paid and unpaid absence. Professional Services and some Academic Schools will also be using MyView to request and record annual leave.
Using one system to manage the absence process creates consistency in the way that all absences are recorded across the College and will help managers and staff to booking leave and see when others are away from the College. In addition the new system will help the College meet its duty of care to its staff.
Yes there are User Guides to help and training sessions are available during August and September 2020. The schedule of sessions can be found here.
If you have any questions relating to the using MyView for absence management contact HRSystems@rhul.ac.uk.
If you have any system questions relating to using MyView for absence management contact HRSystems@rhul.ac.uk. For general queries relating to the absence management policy contact HROperations@rhul.ac.uk
Sickness
You need to contact your line manager. During the conversation you should let them know:
- The nature of your illness
- How long you are likely to be absent from work
- Any work-related matters that may need attention in your absence
- Agree with your manager how contact will be maintained during your absence if you are likely to be off for more than one day. You will be expected to remain in regular contact with your manager.
You should let your line manager know if you plan to visit the doctor and if the condition is a result of an injury or illness sustained at work
The reporting process has not changed for Colleagues and is detailed in the Absence Management Policy and Procedure. Your manager will now record this information in MyView.
No, it is the manager’s role to input sickness details to MyView. You need to contact to contact your line manager as now.
A self-certificate must be provided by the member of staff after 3 working days’ absence. The self-certificate form can be found here. This form should be sent to HR Operations.
If the absence exceeds 7 calendar days, you will need to provide a medical certificate (known as a Fit Note). This should be sent to HR Operations.
If a member of staff returns to work for less than 1 working day before taking further sick leave for a related or similar illness, the period of absence will be considered to be continuous and a further certificate may be required, dependent on the original period of absence. This should be sent to HR Operations.
Yes, in order to allow for accurate recording and management information and to meet duty of care requirements it is important that managers, or their delegate record all sickness absence using MyView. This includes any period of absence irrespective of length.
As a manager you need to add the sickness details to MyView. When a colleague reports an absence from work you should have a conversation to find out:
- The nature of their illness
- How long they are likely to be absent from work?
- Any work-related matters that may need attention in their absence?
- When they will contact you again?
- Do they plan to visit their doctor?
- Is the condition a result of an injury or illness sustained at work?
- If the absence is to exceed 7 calendar days remind them that they will need to provide a medical certificate.
This process is detailed in the Absence Management Policy and Procedure.
Managers must record and monitor all incidents of sickness absence lasting half a day or more. In MyView sickness can be recorded as days (seven hours) and part day (hours).
While every effort should be made to schedule appointments outside of work general or routine medical or dental appointments should be recorded as Paid absence with Medical selected as the reason.
Paid and unpaid absence
Yes, you can request paid absence (e.g. Compassionate Leave, Jury Service, Medical Appointments) Time off in lieu (TOIL) and Unpaid Leave (e.g. Volunteering, Public Duties) via MyView. Approval is required by your manager or their delegate.
The following paid absence reasons should be recorded in MyView:
Paid absence reasons
|
|
Antenatal
|
Self-isolation
|
Compassionate Leave
|
Special leave
|
Conference
|
Training
|
Jury Service
|
Volunteering
|
Medical
|
Work at other institution
|
Public Duties
|
Work from home
|
Reservist
|
|
The following unpaid absence reasons should be recorded in MyView:
Unpaid absences reasons
|
|
Absent without leave
|
Public Duties
|
Antenatal
|
Reservist
|
Compassionate Leave
|
Special leave
|
Conference
|
Training
|
Jury Service
|
Volunteering
|
Medical
|
|
Yes, TOIL that you have worked and accumulated and TOIL that you would like to book off can be recorded in MyView. Managers are required to approve all TOIL requests. Check with your manager what local TOIL arrangements are in place for your grade and department.
No, sabbatical leave cannot be requested via MyView. However, if a member of your staff is on Sabbatical Leave this will show on the Team Calendar in MyView for future years.
Booking annual leave
Colleagues
The annual leave year, for both the accrual and taking of leave, is 1 August to 31 July.
For part-time staff working fewer days or hours, leave entitlement is calculated on a pro rata basis.
The annual leave entitlement for Academic Staff, Grades 2-5 and Grades 6-10 staff is as detailed in the table below:
|
Annual Leave
|
Public Holidays
|
College Closure Days
|
Total
|
|
Days
|
Hours
|
Days
|
Hours
|
Days
|
Hours
|
Days
|
Hours
|
Grade 2-5
|
20
|
140
|
8
|
56
|
6
|
42
|
34
|
238
|
Grade 2-5 with 5 years' service
|
23
|
161
|
8
|
56
|
6
|
42
|
27
|
259
|
Grade 6-10
|
27
|
189
|
8
|
56
|
6
|
42
|
41
|
287
|
Academic staff
|
27
|
189
|
8
|
56
|
6
|
42
|
41
|
287
|
- Staff in Grades 2-5: 20 days plus 8 Bank Holidays and 6 Closure Days designated by the College
- Staff in Grades 2-5 with 5 years’ service: Upon completion of five years continuous service you will be awarded three additional days long service leave (pro-rata’d for part time staff) at the start of the fifth year of service. You are also entitled to 8 statutory public holidays and, at the College’s discretion, an additional 6 days holiday, shared between Easter and Christmas, when the College is closed. The allowance to these days is pro-rata’d based on the fraction of time worked for part time staff.
- Staff in Grades 6-10: 27 days plus 8 Bank Holidays and 6 Closure Days designated by the College.
- Academic Staff: 27 days plus 8 Bank Holidays and 6 Closure Days designated by the College.
In 2020, two additional College Closure Days have been awarded. The annual leave entitlement for full-time Academic Staff, Grades 2-5 and Grades 6-10 staff remains the same. The entitlement for part-time staff is a pro-rata entitlement based on the details shown in the table below:
|
Annual Leave
|
Public Holidays
|
College Closure Days
|
Total
|
|
Days
|
Hours
|
Days
|
Hours
|
Days
|
Hours
|
Days
|
Hours
|
Grade 2-5
|
20
|
140
|
8
|
56
|
8
|
56
|
36
|
252
|
Grade 2-5 with 5 years' service
|
23
|
161
|
8
|
56
|
8
|
56
|
29
|
273
|
Grade 6-10
|
27
|
189
|
8
|
56
|
8
|
56
|
43
|
301
|
Academic staff
|
27
|
189
|
8
|
56
|
8
|
56
|
43
|
301
|
All dates for Bank Holidays and Closure Days are listed on the Annual Leave area of the Staff Intranet.
Yes, the 2 additional College Closure days on 1September and 4 January 2021 are included in your annual leave entitlement for 2020. These days are shown in grey on the calendar. Part-time colleague entitlement includes these additional days and they must book these additional days-off.
Full-time employees do not need to book off public holidays and College Closure days. For full-time employees public holidays and College Closure days are automatically accounted for and greyed out on the MyView calendar. If a holiday booking includes a public holiday then 7 hours will not be deducted from your holiday entitlement.
Part-time employees do need to book-off Bank holidays and College Closure days in MyView. This is because a pro-rata allowance is included in your overall annual leave entitlement and you must book holiday if you would normally have worked on one of those days.
All staff should agree the dates of their leave in advance with their line manager in accordance with local departmental rules and within the terms of the Working Time Directive (or prevailing legislation). Leave will only be approved according to the requirements of the service.
Staff should try and give as much notice as possible, especially when taking large blocks of leave. Annual leave should be recorded on MyView or an annual leave card if your School does not use MyView.
The annual leave policy allows outstanding leave to be carried over from one holiday year to the next in exceptional circumstances and with the permission of the Head of Department / line manager. Leave of up to five days (pro-rata) may be carried over to the next year in exceptional circumstances.
To recognise the impact Covid-19 has had on annual leave plans this will be extended to eight days for this leave year (pro-rata’d where applicable). However, wherever possible you should try to take your annual leave entitlement for 2019/20 before the end of July 2020.
Yes, MyView must be used to book annual leave for professional service colleagues.
The following areas will also be using MyView to book annual leave:
- School of School of Engineering, Physical and Mathematical Sciences
- School of Humanities
- School of Performance and Digital Arts
The College operates a system of calculating annual leave and leave for closure and public holidays bank holiday leave in hours not days to accommodate part time and compressed time for staff.
You will need to confirm your work pattern with your line manager so that they can correct this with hrsystems@rhul.ac.uk.
Your line manager or their delegate will receive an e-mail and they will be asked to go into MyView and action the request. You will receive an e-mail confirming your request has been actioned You can also check on MyView to see the status of a request. (Approved requests shown in orange on the calendar and unapproved requests are show in green).
Managers can nominate someone else to authorise leave in their absence via the Managers delegation option in MyView. If your manager has not set up a delegation request and your request has not been authorised within 10 calendar days, it will escalate to their line manager. If they do not approve/reject within a further 10 calendar days, your request will automatically be rejected, and you will have to re-submit your request.
Yes, select the Open History section next to the leave type and select Change or Delete. This will require authorisation in the same way as the original request.
Your leave entitlement is automatically updated based on the start/end dates of the change.
You should liaise with your manager to ensure that you take all your annual leave prior to payroll cut-off.
Part time colleagues
If you work part time you need to book all the days off that you need, including public holidays and College closure days if you would normally have worked on one of those days. If you work a regular pattern of work compressed hours, then your work pattern held in the system should match the hours that you work. If your work pattern needs updating contact hrsystems@rhul.ac.uk.
Yes, annual leave entitlement will be calculated in both posts. You will need to select the post you want to take leave in. For example, if you have two 0.5 Full-time equivalent roles and would like to book 5 days off, you would need to book the 5 days off for each post. The system will only deduct the hours in you work pattern for each post, it will not take 10 days.
The annual leave entitlement for part time members of staff will be calculated and available for you to see in MyView.
Term time only colleagues will not need to book annual leave using MyView. If you need to take annual leave during term time talk to your manager.
For staff working term-time only, their annual salary includes their pro-rata paid leave entitlement, to be taken on unspecified days during the vacation periods. Leave may not normally be taken during term-time, unless specifically agreed with your line manager.
Manager
If no return to work date is known, ‘Open Ended’ should be selected when recording the absence. This will default the end date to the last day of the calendar month for the purpose of recording and paying sickness absence. When a return date is known, the manager must update the sickness record in MyView and input the correct end date.
Yes, MyView can be used to record a Phased return to work by a manager. Further guidance on how to do this is available in the Entering absences for colleagues user guide.
Sickness is recorded against the salaried (Main) post by the relevant line manager.
Yes, managers or their delegate must review and then approve or reject all annual leave requests. Managers will receive an email notification when there is a request needing your approval.
Yes. A reminder will be sent to the manager after six calendar days.
Delegations are used to give someone else within your team permission to authorise requests or perform tasks on your behalf when you are absent. We recommend setting up a delegation as soon as you have manager access to MyView. See the guidance on Setting up a delegation