The "Hourly Leave Feature" in Keka introduces a dynamic approach to managing employee leaves on an hourly basis. This feature is particularly beneficial in regions where payroll and leave policies often operate on an hourly model. It offers various accrual frequencies such as monthly, quarterly, bi-weekly, and yearly, along with customizable accrual hours per year. Designed to simplify leave management, this feature provides a streamlined setup, flexible leave types, and a user-friendly application process. It's an adaptable tool for organizations to effectively align their leave policies with specific requirements, enhancing the overall leave management experience.

Before we get started, if you want to learn more about leave types and setting up a leave plan, click here.

To learn about configuring tracking of leave in days, click here.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Configuring Regular Hourly Leave
  • Configuring Accrual & Accumulation Settings
  • Setting Rules for Requesting Hourly Leave
  • Setting Rules for Year End Processing of Hourly Leave
• Configuring Hourly Comp offs
• Configuring Hourly Unpaid Leave

While Configuring any leave type for a leave plan you can simply select if you want to track a leave's balance in days or hours. 

Configuring Regular Hourly Leave

Let's start with the configurations of a Regular Hourly Leave type. In this window, you'll see three sections: 'Accrual & Accumulation,' 'Apply Leave and Approvals,' and 'Year End Rules.'

Configuring Accrual & Accumulation Settings

In the Accrual & Accumulation section, you have to decide the number of hours of leave an employee will get in a year and where they will all be credited at the start of the year or accrued periodically, in which case you can configure the frequency of crediting leaves. 

This feature supports various accrual frequencies:

Weekly Accrual Frequency:

In this setting, accruals happen once a week on a specified day, such as every Monday. This frequency is useful for organizations that prefer distributing leave entitlements on a weekly basis.

Example: If 54 hours of leave are allocated per year, an employee would accrue one hour of leave every Monday.

Bi-Weekly Accrual Frequency:

Accruals in this category occur every two weeks. It's crucial to specify the day of the week for accruals, such as Monday. The system will then schedule accruals every 14 days from the selected start day. The accrual will always happen on the specified day (e.g., every Monday), and the system will display the upcoming two cycles for clarity.

Twice a Month Accrual Frequency:

This frequency allows accruals to occur twice a month on predetermined dates, such as the 1st and 15th of each month. It is a fixed-date approach, where accruals happen irrespective of the day of the week.

The system can be configured to accrue leave on any two specific dates of a month, like the 1st and the last day of the month.

Monthly Accrual Frequency:

This is a standard setting where accruals happen once every month. The system allows the selection of specific dates for monthly accruals

This frequency is typical in many organizations, where employees accrue a certain number of leave hours each month.

Quarterly Accrual Frequency:

In this setting, leave accruals happen once every three months. This frequency suits organizations that prefer to allocate leave entitlements on a quarterly basis.

Semi-Annual Accrual Frequency:

Accruals under this frequency happen once every six months. It's suitable for organizations that prefer bi-annual distribution of leave entitlements.

Annual Accrual Frequency:

This is the most straightforward frequency, where accruals happen once a year. It's ideal for organizations that allocate the entire year's leave entitlement in one go.

Additionally, you can set restrictions for new joiners and those in probation periods. You can decide if there's a 'Waiting period' before the accrual starts. Else you can just restrict the accrual of leaves until the probation ends.

Then you can decide if the number of leaves allocated changes after the employee has completed a certain number of years in the organisation. (This only comes into effect if the employee has completed their probation period)

Now, scroll down and open Additional Settings to find more advanced settings.

Firstly, for employees leaving the organization, you can set up Prorated Leave entitlement based on their exit date, or you can choose not credit any leaves during the notice period.

The next option gives organizations the freedom to choose whether their employees can take more leave than they have accrued. You can decide whether any additional leave taken by an employee should be deducted from their annual leave entitlement, or if there should be a limit on how much extra leave they can take. It is important to note that this could result in a negative leave balance, but you have the option to either cancel any negative balance at the end of the year or carry it forward to the next year and adjust it against the employee's leave balance.

For granting managers the authority to award Sick Leave credits above the accrued balance, the 'Manager-awarded Sick Leave Credit' option is available, with permissions set according to the managerial hierarchy. 

The last option manages leave expiration by specifying a certain number of hours after which leaves won't accumulate indefinitely. 

Setting Rules for Requesting Hourly Leave

Let's move on to the Applying Leave and Accrual section. Here, you can establish a prior notice period for leaves beyond a certain amount. You can also set up an approval chain for better management. 

Now, let's explore Additional Settings where you have the flexibility to customize various rules to apply leaves according to your organization's policies. 

However, the general setting will already be enabled here.

Additionally, you can set specific rules, such as after how many days of joining or probation end, an employee can avail sick leave. setting a limit on leave during an employee's probation period, and deciding how far in advance or after the date an employee can apply for leave. You can also configure options like requirements for attachments for longer leaves. Moreover, there are options to mandate comments for absence reasons and allow manager overrides. These settings help refine your company's leave policies, promoting clarity and fairness.

Setting Rules for Year End Processing of Hourly Leave

Under ‘Year End Rules,’ you'll find settings for carryforwards during year-end processing. Currently, there is no encashing of the hourly leaves. So you can decide whether you want to carry forward the leave hours or not. 

If you choose ‘Carry forward up to a Limit’, you can choose if only a fixed number of hours, or a fixed percentage of the remaining balance will be carried forward. The exact number of days/percentage will have to be specified below the option.

In case you choose the percentage option, you can also, restrict the number of days to be carried forward.

Then you can decide if carried forward leave expires after a certain time. 

Configuring Hourly Comp offs

So now let's see the setup for Comp-offs. First, you have the rules for the employee to request comp off.

To ensure a fair balance between work performed and granted time-off, you can set a limit on the number of comp-off instances employees can request within a specified period. 

Reporting managers can also award comp-off credits to recognize exceptional efforts or additional work hours put in by their team members.

Then, you can set rules to configure rules for an employee to use a comp-off credit. You can set a prior notice period for leaves beyond a certain amount and set up an approval chain for better management. You can also choose to make a comment or a note mandatory while applying. 

Now, if you scroll down, you can decide what should happen with the unused comp-off hours at the end of the leave calendar year just like we saw above. 

Then, under Advance options, you can set rules for Allowing employees to apply for leave for past dates, which provides flexibility but requires reasonable limitations to avoid misuse.  Setting an expiration period for leave credits encourages timely utilization, promoting employees' well-being. 

Configuring Hourly Unpaid Leave

Setting up unpaid hourly leaves is a simple process. First, determine the maximum number of unpaid hours that an employee can request in a year, which usually has no limit. You can also establish a prior notice period for leaves that exceed a certain number of hours and set up an approval chain for better management. 

And with that, we have covered the configuration for all leave types. Now you are fully equipped to set up leave plans for your org precisely.