Time-off

Learn how to get started with Actioner's time-off solution.

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Install time-off from app directory and start using it by connecting your Slack.

Features

Visit this link to learn about leave management use cases.

• ⏳ Request time-off in Slack: Effortlessly submit your leave requests directly within Slack and automatically send reminders to your manager until they respond.
• 📅 Plan your leaves in advance: Review your upcoming leave schedule, your leave history, and the remaining leave days at your disposal. Additionally, access your teammates' forthcoming time off to assist you in better planning your own.
• 🚫 Cancel your upcoming leave with ease: Cancel your scheduled time off without any hassle. When you cancel a leave request, the days you initially requested will be restored to your leave balance as if the request was never made.
• 📜 Apply multiple and diverse leave policies: Create your policy document and assign them to the related employees. You have the flexibility to define a wide range of leave types, each with its own unique limits and rules.

How to get started

Step 1. Install time-off

Visit time-off in app directory and click Install button at top right corner.

Step 2. Connect to Slack

After installing the app, you'll be prompted to connect your Slack workspace.

Complete Slack connection

1. Click Connect near Slack connection.
2. Continue with selecting your Slack workspace.

Slack connection

You can also add your Slack workspace by navigating to Workspace settings page from left menu and then switching to Slack workspace tab.

If you do not see Workspace settings page, contact with your workspace admin.

Step 3. Complete setup

Run Get started workflow. This workflow

• Creates a team in your Actioner workspace.
• Creates you as an employee and adds you to the default leave policy.
• Creates #time-off-ai-agent channel as the AI Agent channel.
• Sends you a welcome message and prompts you to complete your profile details like hiring date.
• After you complete your details, you can start using the app to the fullest.

Step 4. Invite your team

By default Everyone in your Actioner workspace is added to your app as Runner.

To grant app admin permission to a user, go to the Permissions tab of your app and add users or groups via + Add permission button. If you can't find the users you want to add, ensure they have been invited to your Actioner workspace.

Step 5. Complete your profile

After completing setup, you'll get a direct message from Actioner. You can use Complete your profile button to enter your hire date and proceed to adding your employees. However, we recommend preparing your leave policy config first.

How to request leave

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To request leave, run Request leave workflow and provide the following:

• Leave type: Select the type of your leave.
• Description: Enter the description or reason for your leave. This field is mandatory for some leave types.
• Start date: Start date of your leave.
• End date: End date of your leave.
• Change the single-day leave to half-day leave: Enable this option to only request half-day off for a single day.

After filling out fields and submitting your request, Actioner automatically checks the details of your request according to your leave policy. If you are entitled to request leave according to your policy, Actioner automatically calculates how many days it will be decreasing from your balance once your request is approved.

Once you submit your request, you will be provided with a summary of your absence request. If all is on track, you can go ahead and click Confirm the leave request button to send your request to your approver. If not, you can click Back to request leave button and re-run Request leave workflow.

How to respond to a leave request

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When you get a DM from Actioner, you can proceed with Approve, Decline or Check profile options.

• Approve: Use this button to approve the request. Once approved, the requester gets a DM from Actioner.

• Decline: Use this button to decline the request. Once declined, the requester gets a DM from Actioner.

• Check profile: Use this button to view the profile of the requester. You can check the leave history, upcoming leave and balance of the employee.

Configurations for app admins

How to apply your leave policy

Time off app uses configs to determine the rules that will be applied to your employees when they request leave. These configs include applicable leave types, leave limits, accrual decisions, and other rules in the leave policy.

You can create multiple configs for different groups and assign them to your team through running Assign policy to employees workflow.

To create a leave policy config;

1. Go to Documentation tab of your app and add your policy document. Although, there is no strict format for your leave policy document, we recommend following a similar format of Default policy document.
2. Navigate to Configs tab (located under Settings in the left menu of your app) and create a new config.
3. Expand the Schema section on the right panel and click Add schema.
4. Proceed with Select schema option and select leave_policy_schema option.
5. Expand the Document section on the right panel and click Generate config with AI button.
6. On the opening screen, select the policy document you recently created. With using the power of AI, Actioner will generate your config automatically using the provided JSON schema.
7. You can see the status of your config through the bubble at bottom right corner. Once your config is generated, you can access and review it via Proview config button.
8. Review your policy and once all is set, click Apply to save changes.

About removing "Default policy document" and "Default_leave_policy"

Be cautious about deleting the documentation named Default policy document and config named Default_leave_policy. By default, Default_leave_policy is applied to the new users that are added to your app.

Properties in leave policy config

Below you can see the list of properties in the config named Default_leave_policy. These properties are also used in the configs generated with AI that use the schema named leave_policy_schema.

• leave_type_configs: Lists the leave types an employee can request. These types can be "Paid vacation", "Work from home", "Sick leave", etc. Each type consists of below options:

  • auto_approve_on_no_response: Determines whether a request will be automatically approved or declined if the approver does not respond within the specified deadline. Set this property to true to automatically approve or decline requests on the specified deadline.
  • last_leave_respond_day_before_start: Shows the last allowed response date for a leave request. If this value is 2, approver of the request can respond until 2 days before the start date of the leave. If the approver does not respond within the specified deadline, the request is automatically approved or declined based on the value of auto_approve_on_no_response property.
  • min_days_toRequest: The minimum number of days an employee can request from the selected leave type at a time. For example, it is not possible to request day leave when this property is set as 2.
  • max_days_toRequest: The maximum number of days an employee can request from the selected leave type at a time. For example, it is not possible to request 3 days leave when this property is set as 2.
  • name: The name of the leave type.
  • limit: Specifies the maximum allowable duration for using this type of leave.
  • request_notice_before_start: Shows the minimum days the request should be submitted before. For example, an employee can't request a leave for the next day when this property is set as 2.
  • auto_approve: Determines whether a request will be automatically approved or not. Set this property to true to automatically approve requests when submitted.
  • reason_mandotory: Specifies whether the employee is required to specify a reason when submitting her request. Set this property to true to make the reason mandatory.

• holidays: Lists the holidays. Can store multiple holidays.

  • name: The name of the holiday.
  • start_date: The start date of the holiday.
  • end_date: The end date of the holidays.
  • start_date_half: Shows whether the start date of the holiday is half day or not. If the starting day is a half day, set this property to true.

• working_days_full: Lists the full-time working days. For e.g. ["1", "2", "3", "4","5"] means that your full-time working days are weekdays.

• working_days_half: Lists the half-time working days. For e.g. ["6"] means that Saturday is a half-time working day.

• roll_over_to_next_year: Specifies whether the unused days will be carried over. Set this property to true to enable carryover unused days to the next accrual period.

• annual_leave_distributon_on_standard_date: Shows when accrual is applied. Set this property to false to apply accrual on hiring dates. Set it to false to apply accrual on the date specified on annual_leave_distributon_standard_date property.

• annual_leave_distributon_standard_date: Shows the accrual date.

• employees_starts_with_leave_on_year_0: Shows whether the employees start with their leaves right after they are started to work or they earned it after completed a year, depending on the annual_leave_distributon_on_standard_date property.

• policy_generated_from: Name of the document the policy is generated from.

An example leave policy looks like below:

{
  "leave_type_configs": [
    {
      "auto_approve_on_no_response": true,
      "min_days_toRequest": 0,
      "last_leave_respond_day_before_start": 0,
      "name": "Paid Vacation",
      "limit": 15,
      "request_notice_before_start": 0,
      "auto_approve": false,
      "max_days_toRequest": 10,
      "reason_mandatory": false,
      "can_drop_to_negative": true
    }
  ],
  "holidays": [
    {
      "end_date": "01/01/2023",
      "name": "New Year's Day",
      "start_date_half": false,
      "start_date": "01/01/2023"
    }
  ],
  "working_days_full": [ "1", "2", "3", "4", "5" ],
  "working_days_half": [ "6" ],
  "roll_over_to_next_year": true,
  "annual_leave_distributon_on_standard_date": false,
  "annual_leave_distributon_standard_date": "01/01",
  "employees_starts_with_leave_on_year_0": true,
  "policy_generated_from": "Default policy document"
}

How to add your co-workers

You can add your co-workers via the direct message Actioner sends you.

Right after setup, you'll get a DM message from Actioner that contains Complete your profile button. After running this workflow, this DM is automatically updated as to contain Add co-workers from workspace button. You can click this button to add your co-workers.

1. Go to the Actioner app in your Slack and switch to Messages tab.
2. Find the message from time-off app and click Add co-workers from workspace button to run the workflow named Add all users in the Actioner workspace to the app as employees. This workflow adds all the users in your Actioner workspace to your app as employees.
3. You will be provided with two options.
   • Complete employees' missing information yourself: When selected, your users are automatically added as an employee and Actioner sends you a DM for every employee added to your app. By screening through the thread, you can configure the details of each employee. You can update their used leave days and select which policy will be applied.
   • Send message employees to provide missing information: When you opt for this, your employees are added to your app and Actioner sends a message to each of them, instructing them to fill in their own details. If you proceed with this option, you can run Assing policy to employees workflow to select the policy for each employee.

Tip

You can run Add all users in the Actioner workspace to the app as employees workflow at anytime to add your new Slack users. Note that if you run Add a user from Actioner workspace to the app as employee instead, you can add your employees one by one and set their policy while adding them.

Caution

Time-off app maps the Actioner user with Slack users through matching emails.

How to update your app's settings

You can change your app's settings on Configs tab of your app. You can

• Update the AI agent channel.
• Enable leave notifications.
• Update the channel for leave notifications.

To update your app's settings

1. Go to Configs tab of your app and navigate to Settings.
2. Update values in this JSON. An example looks like below:

{
  "channel_for_aiAgent" : "time-off-ai-agent",
  "channel_for_leaveNotification" : "ansence",
  "send_notification_toLeaveChannel" : false
}

Updating AI agent channel

AI agent channel is a dedicated channel that uses AI-powered workflows for your team's leave requests.

You or your team can send a message for their question or absence requests. Actioner's AI-powered workflow will then generate an answer using the data in your tables and policies applied to your employees.

When you typed your question, AI agents answer your question based on your policy, If you want AI agent to also call a workflow, add workflow/ keyword to your message.

By default AI agent channel is set as your #time-off-ai-agent channel that app created durring the setup

Invite Actioner

Do not forget to invite Actioner to the selected AI agent channel!

Enabling leave notifications

Actioner sends a notification to a dedicated channel one day before the time-off begins. Note that this feature is disabled by default. When you enable this feature, do not forget type a channel name in channel_for_leaveNotification field.

Updating the channel for leave notifications

To set a channel for leave notifications or update it, enable Leave notifications option and then type a channel name in channel_for_leaveNotification field.

How to manage your employees

To edit your employee's details, run Check employees workflow and click on Update profile button.

Rights to manage employees

• App admins can view and update the profile of everybody added to the time-off app.
• Managers can view the profile of employees that she is approver of their leave requests.
• Managers at higher hierarchical levels are granted the ability to access the profiles of employees managed by the managers reporting to them.
• An employee can only view her profile.

An app admin can update below details of an employee:

• Hiring date: Hiring date of the employee. Note that this value is required for the calculation of accrual.
• Approver: The user who will be approving the leave requests of the selected employee.
• Policy: The policy that will be applied to the selected employee.

How to add used leave day(s) to an employee

To add used days to an employee, run Add used leave day(s) to employee workflow. In the workflow, you need to provide the following:

• Employee: Employee that the used leave day(s) will be added.
• Leave type: Type of the used leave day(s).
• Day amount: Number of day(s).
• Start - End dates: Start and end dates of the period that leave day(s) spend through. If you leave this fields empty, used day(s) will be record as they used in current date. This will have no effect while employee requesting a leave but it can effect the historical data that will be seen on the the employee's profile.

FAQs

Can I implement different leave policies for different offices or teams?

Absolutely. You have the flexibility to apply multiple leave policies. Once you've set up these policies, you can then use the Assign policy to employees workflow to allocate a specific policy to individual employees based on their location, seniority, or department.

Can I define unique leave types with distinct rules?

Yes, you can customize leave types and their rules to suit your organization's needs. Simply create a copy of your leave policy in Documents tab, or modify the properties for existing ones. After making your adjustments, be sure to apply your changes.

Can I enable or disable leave notifications?

Yes, you can easily enable or disable leave notifications from the Settings config. This functionality also provides you with the flexibility to choose on which channels you receive notifications related to leave requests.

Can I modify the channels for leave notifications?

Certainly. You can update the channel that you'll receive leave notifications from the Settings config.

What is the AI agent, and how does it assist in leave management?

AI agent acts as a virtual assistant for your leave management tasks. When you send a message to the AI agent channel, the AI Agent springs into your policy to assist you. You can also ask agent to suggest you a workflow that suits to your message. For instance, if you ask 'Check Amy's profile /workflow', AI agent replies to your message including a button that guides you to the workflow matching your query. Moreover, if you include parameter details in your message, such as 'Request PTO for 2 days workflow/', the AI Agent will automatically fill in parameters for your requests and streamline the process of managing leave requests and inquiries.

Can I update the AI agent channel?

Yes. By default, #time-off-ai-agent channel is set as your AI agent channel. You can change it from the Settings config. After this, do not forget to invite Actioner to your channel.