Absence
Absence is an Employee Self Service (ESS) term which is used to represent all types of absence such as holiday, sickness, compassionate leave, unpaid leave etc. The ESS Absence tab provides you with the opportunity to make an online request for this.
Online annual leave replaced paper-based leave cards and automatically calculate your holiday entitlement according to your contractual working hours. Annual leave is calculated in days for staff who work the same hours each day across 5 days and in hours for staff to accommodate the various part time working patterns that are currently in place across the University.
Staff may use ESS to:
- view their annual leave balance
- review any annual leave bookings (including the authorisation status)
- submit annual leave requests
- cancel annual leave requests
The home screen allows you to view all holiday that is scheduled to take place. This includes annual leave both 'authorised' and 'not-authorised' where the request has not yet been approved by your Reporting Manager.
The Absence tab has 4 main sections:
Holiday Balances
The Holiday Balances screen provides an overview of your annual leave entitlement for the leave year 1 October - 30 September.
Entitlement: This is your total annual leave allowance in hours or days (dependent upon whether you are full time or part time) including the correct pro rata entitlement of bank holidays and University closure days.
Please note ESS will allow all staff to carry forward the below automatically:
Staff on Grades 6+
A maximum of one working week only can be carried forward into the next leave year.
Staff on Grades 1 to 5
A maximum of one working week only can be carried forward into the next leave year.
But the Conditions of Employment still apply: Where it is not possible (e.g. for operational reasons) for employees to take all their leave entitlement within the leave year, they may carry forward up to 5 days' leave to the following year, with the permission of their Head of School/Service or other senior manager. Any leave carried forward must be taken by 31 December.
Scheduled: Any leave that is due to take place in the future. This includes any holiday requests still awaiting authorisation and any bank holidays / closure days that have not yet taken place (These are automatically scheduled and deducted from the overall entitlement for each holiday year).
Balance: The total of outstanding personal annual leave still to be taken during the current leave year.
Annual Leave Entitlement = Holiday (Grade related) + Bank Holidays + Closure Days + Carry Over
The amount of bookable holiday available will be displayed at the top of the page (in hours or days). Any holiday already requested by you will be listed.
Please note: If you do not have a Holiday Balances button displayed or any hours available quoted, this means you do not have a holiday scheme set up. Please contact your Reporting Manager or hr@reading.ac.uk
Annual Leave Entitlement = Holiday (Grade related) + Bank Holidays + Closure Days + Carry Over
|
Scheme |
Standard Leave Entitlement |
Long Service entitlement |
Bank Holidays* |
Closure Days |
Total |
Holiday Carry Over |
|
Grade 6 + Professional & Managerial and Academic & Research (A&R) Roles 35 hours per week
|
26 |
n/a |
9 |
6 |
41 days 287 hours |
A maximum of one working week can only be carried forward into the next leave year in exceptional circumstances |
|
Grades 1-5(FT) Academic & Administrative Staff (AAS) AND Ancillary & Operational Support (AOS) roles 36 hours per week |
21 |
5th Anniversary 4 extra days given |
9 |
6 |
36 days 259.2 hours (Long Service: 40 days or 281 hours) |
A maximum of one working week can only be carried forward into the next leave year in exceptional circumstances |
* Bank Holiday total can change mid year
My Calendar
My calendar gives you a visual overview of any selected month. This includes working patterns, annual leave, bank holidays, closure days, maternity/paternity leave, adoption leave and sickness absence. Staff with line management responsibilities can also view their 'reportees' absence data. Filters can be applied to select the type of leave that you wish to view.
Search
The search tool enables you to select your absence data for a specific period, filtered by start date, end date, holiday type and authorisations status.
Add Holiday
Guidance on 'requesting annual leave' and 'amending/deleting annual leave' can be found in the following Quick Reference Guides:
Please note that amending and deleting requests can only be made for dates in the future (e.g. A request made for 15th October '18 would not be able to be amended on 16th October '18 onwards as it occurs in the past)
Annual leave authorisation process
When an annual leave request is submitted, the system automatically sends out an email notification to the member of staff and their reporting manager. If the member of staff uses ESS to amend or delete the request, the system will send out new notification emails.
When a Reporting Manager receives an annual leave notification via email, they use the area of ESS to action. Once the annual leave request has been authorised or not-authorised, the member of staff will be sent a confirmation email by the system.
Annual leave calculators
The online annual leave calculators for 2022/2023 are available below.
Please do not use the below spreadsheets if you are changing hours part way through a leave year. If you have a query regarding your new entitlement, please can contact your HR Co-ordinator in the first instance .
Staff using Firefox may find it easier to use Internet Explorer to access the calculation spreadsheets.
Grades 1 to 5 only:
If you are working 5 days per week and the same hours each day please use the below calculation sheet to work out the number of days you are entitled to
Grades 1 to 5 days scheme working full time or 5 days per week same hours each day
However if you work compressed hours, 5 days per week but different hours over these days or less than 4 days per week you holiday will be worked out in hours, please use the below calculation sheet to work out the number of hours you are entitled to
Grades 1 to 5 hours scheme working up to 5 days per week or different hours on different days
Grades 6 and above only:
If you are working 5 days per week and the same hours each day please use the below calculation sheet to work out the number of days you are entitled to
Grade 6 and above days scheme working full time or 5 days per week same hours each day
However if you work compressed hours, 5 days per week but different hours over these days or less than 4 days per week you holiday will be worked out in hours, please use the below calculation sheet to work out the number of hours you are entitled to
Grades 6 and above hours scheme working up to 5 days per week or different hours on different days