To help with your Rota planning, you can easily set up a system that allows employees to request not to be rostered on specific days. You are basically asking staff to share their unavailability before building your Rotas. This is achieved by creating an Unavailable Absence Reason for employees to use to make such requests. 

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This guide will look at:

• Creating an Unavailability Absence Type
• Creating an Unavailable Absence Reason
• Giving employees access to the Unavailable Absence Reason
• How employees make Unavailable requests
• Managing Unavailable requests

Creating an Unavailability Absence Type

Although this step is not essential, it’s good practice to create an Absence Type to solely handle Unavailability. This will keep things separate from other Absences.

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1. Select ‘System’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select ‘Absence Types’ from the System Tree.
3. Select ‘Create New’.

4. Name the Absence Type ‘Unavailability’.
5. Set ‘Days’ to ‘0’.
6. Save.

Creating an Unavailable Absence Reason

1. Select ‘Rules’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select ‘Absence Reasons’ from the Rules Tree.
3. Select ‘Create New’.

4. Name the Absence Reason ‘Unavailable’.
5. Set the Type as ‘Unavailability’.
6. Set the Calculation Type as ‘Add To’.
7. Tick ‘Allow on Hours’, ‘Allow Requests’ and ‘Excluded Day for Working Time Directive’.
8. Leave all other settings as they are.
9. Save.

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Giving employees access to the Unavailable Absence Reason

This step will allow employees to choose the Unavailable Absence Reason when logged in to Self Service.

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1. Select ‘System’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select ‘Self Service Profiles’ from the System Tree.
3. Select the required Self Service Profile.

4. Select the ‘Absences’ tab.
5. In the ‘Request’ section, tick ‘Unavailable’. ‘Unavailable’ in the ‘View’ section will auto-select.
6. Save.

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How employees make Unavailable requests

This is done in the same way an employee would request holiday via Self Service.

The Unavailable request will not affect the employee’s holiday balances, as the Absence Type is set to ‘0’ days.

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Managing Unavailable requests

Once the employees have made their Unavailable requests, you need to utilise both the Availability Screen and the Rota in order to plan your staff scheduling.

Availability Screen

Unavailable requests sit in the Availability Screen. ‘Grant’ the requests in the usual way.

Rota

Move to the Rota and select ‘Show Absences’ in ‘Options, Filters & Preferences’. The granted Unavailable absences now show in the Rota, making it easier to allocate shifts around them.

You may still need to refer back to the Availability Screen to assist with your staffing levels.

This example image shows the Rota before and after shifts have been allocated.

Additional information

Unavailable absences that have been granted will show on an employee’s Timesheet. However, as no time is associated with the absence, their hours will not be affected in any way.

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