Absence

Absences are scheduled for the agents when they cannot work. They are use both for planned absences, like vacation, and for unplanned absences, like sick leave. It is important to add the absences to the schedule as soon as they are known. If approved vacations are entered before the period is scheduled, this is taken into consideration when scheduling the other agents. If many agents are ill this affects the staffing levels and you might need to take action, for example optimize the activities of the agents who are working or ask agents to request overtime.

Create the absence types to use in Options. The configuration of each absence type controls how it can be used. See Create absence types for more information.

Absences can be added manually to the schedule by team leaders or resource planners using the Schedules tool or the Schedules module in the WFM client.

Agents can request time off using absence requests. The absence requests can be manually approved, or automatically approved according to rules that are set up. When the request is approved, the absence is automatically added to the schedule.

See Create rules to handle absence requests for more information on how to set up the rules.
See How absence request validation works for more information on the validation of absence requests.
See Manage personal accounts for absences for more information on how to set up accounts to track absences. With personal accounts, you can define how many days or hours agents have of a specific absence type and keep track of how many they have used and how many they have left.
See Request time off for more information on how an agent can request time off.

The agents can also report that they are ill for today or tomorrow using absence reporting. With absence reporting, the absences are added directly. See Report that you are ill for more information.

Calculation of contract time for an absence

The rules for calculation of contract time for the absences applies to reports and standard payroll data files. They also affect whether time is deducted from the agents' personal accounts and from the budget allowance.

Full-day absences

If a full-day absence is added to an agent's schedule, the contract time for the absence differs depending on the situation.

If the agent has a previously scheduled shift on that day, the absence contract time is always the same as that of the scheduled shift.
If the agent has a previously scheduled day off on that day, the day is not reported as an absence but as a normal day off.
If the day is not yet scheduled and it is a work day according to the contract schedule, the absence contract time equals the average work time per day or the set hours per day for the schedule period, depending on the agent's contract settings for full-day absence. See Create WFM agent contracts for more
If the day is not yet scheduled, and it is a day off according to the contract schedule, the day is not reported as an absence. No contract time hours are counted, just as if it would have been a day off.

Part-day absences

If an absence which doesn't cover the full shift is added, it is calculated as a part-day absence.

EXAMPLE Two hours of absence is added to a day with a shift. In the reports for this day this is shown as 2 hours of absence, and as 1 part-day absence.

An added part-day absence does not count as a part-time absence if it is added on a day which is not yet scheduled and that is a work day according to the contract schedule. If a shift is added later and this shift overlaps with the previously added part-day absence, the absence is considered as a part-day absence. The contract time for the absence is then the same number of contract time hours as the part of the shift which is covered by the absence.