Retention of Requests for Time Off

HR Surprise

I'm not sure if this has been addressed previously - but here goes anyway. We have a policy that each employee must complete and submit to their supervisor a Request for Time Off for any time away from work. The supervisor then approves or denies the request and returns the form to the employee. I have requested that a copy of these forms be attached to the time card for verification of time taken. This has met with considerable opposition from some managers. So I relented and said, OK, at least put a copy in your employee file in case there is ever a question on whether time was approved or denied. This again was met with opposition - "managers sign off on time cards - which means they approve the time off also". My concern is if no one receives a copy of the form, there is no way for us (the employer) to prove definitely whether or not it was approved - or how the time off should be designated, i.e. FMLA, Jury Duty, Sick Leave, Vacation, etc. Am I being overly "anal"? What do the rest of you do? Help!!

NaeNae55

Every scheduled work day (ie: excluding weekends and holidays) must have a leave slip attached to the time card. Our slip has 3 copies. One for payroll, one for the supervisor, and one for the employee. The leave slip designates leave for vacation, sick leave, float holiday, funeral, jury, leave without pay, other________________. There is also a space for reason for request, but we do not require it be filled in. Payroll cannot process a time sheet without all attached approved leave slips. This helps keep both the supervisors and employees aware and protected. Employees have proof their leave was approved; employees can't take a day off and then forget to put it on their time card (supervisor has proof); supervisors are forced to follow policy regarding leave (ie: some leave must be preapproved) so that all employees are treated fairly.


Again, details are not required. The leave just needs to be designated as vacation, fmla, etc.

Gillian

Somehow, the stuff has to be tracked or no one will know who took off when and for what purpose. The only tracking that we do in HR is for leaves of absence, mostly family leave. The accrual of hours for vacation and sick leave is part of our HRIS/Payroll system and we deduct based upon the time cards. No extra papers are required.

Pork

HR Surprise, Good morning your concerns are well founded, but maybe mis oriented. With over 25 years in the HR "world of work" with 22 years of leadership and discipline in the military, I too have a tendency to want every one to follow the rules. Early in my HR career my CEO and VP for Administration helped me to understand that I had to be a "compormizer" and less demanding for the rules or I would not find success in the personnel field.

Rule 1: HRs and our people: payroll, benefits, safety, recruiting, placements, personnel policy development, personnel policy enforcement,and there may be more in other companies, are staff; we support what the organization leaders do. We influence actions by knowing the laws and history of our companies action. We command only the actions of our HR employees. We protect the employee and where correct support the employee and policy. (Otherwise, there will be a union put in place by the employees!!!)

Rule 2: Hrs follow and practice the rules to the letter with our people. When it comes to how the department heads and managers execute the policy and procedures you only take ownership of making certain they know what to do in any and all cases for action. Influence, influence, influence with your position of oversight and advice. You advise before there is an issue

My payroll person is never to be seen as the policeman of the time clock, time cards, vacation request forms,and etc: we pay from the records we receive. When there is an area of concern, we counsel with the manager/department head to make sure we are doing what the leaders want. We make sure we get it right, in order, to make sure the concerned manager gets the credit for a "correct pay check, vacation check, FMLA program,etc". When we get it wrong, we have the proof of doing what we were directed to do based on the documentation provided by the manager/department head. It does not take long to make the managers/department head who have "egg on their face" to understand you can help them look "really good" in the eyes of the employee by following the policy and procedures and listening to HR people, or we can make them look "really bad" for following their instructions, or lack of instructions. I hope this helped, don't get to frustrated with the failures of others. Good luck, Pork

HR Surprise

Pork, thank you for your "wiseness". I only wish our managers who make errors or do not follow policy had to TAKE responsibility and answer for the mistakes!

Also, what do you do for backup if you have an audit? I've received other advice that the company backup informaiton could be the critical decision maker in an auditor's final findings.

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Looks like each one of you does things a little different - thank you so much for your responses!

moneyman

Our managers may keep whatever information on timecards and leave requests that they want. Manager files are "confidential files" for only Managers, HR, legal, and Senior Management. However, the HR/payroll files are the official records for the employee. HR will provide the files if necessary for any inquiries. Managers verify scheduling and leave bank totals then send it on to payroll. Payroll verifies leave bank balances and copies the request for the manager and employee and the payroll clerk keeps the original. Payroll matches the requests with the time cards, this provides a double check that time taken is actually accounted for. Many people take time off early in the period and forget to record it.

Pork

HR Surprise, You are most welcome. Absolutely, your HR files are the absolute reservoir of correct information for the entire history of the company in all personnel actions. If your files do not contain the absolute facts about actions and happenings, then whoever did not force the collection of the absolute record start to finished has failed the company and the ability to defend company actions. If the facts are not there now, there is no way to make up the story and try to cover the company's BEHIND! HOWEVER, IF BEFORE THE AUDIT, YOU CAN PULL BITS AND PIECES TOGETHER, YOU CAN MAKE A CURRENT MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD TO CLOSE THE GAPS CREATED BY THE VOID AND ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THE CIRCUMSTANCE. When I came to this current position the record keeping was almost non-exsistant! I did the best job I could with what I got. Where I did not have a physical record of termination; I created one and dated it today and filled in from pay records the last day worked. In the reasons for termination I put unknown, etc. In reality, I have been involved with one(1) audit in 25 years. This happened due to a current employee's belief that he should be getting over time as a computer operator in our Information Systems department. He was booked as an exempt employee in payroll and so were about 15 others. They were salaried and were required to work many long hours to get the information systems data input from the retail sales stores and warehouse operations straight daily/weekly/monthly. One person's complaint to the Department of Labor taught me the need to understand the importance of job descriptions and classifications of employees as exempt or non-exempt. The little one sentence complaint cost the company $150,000. We had absolutely no records of the time spent by this person and none of the other 14 employees. the audit took the records of the individual which was his daily desk calendar were he penciled in every hour of every day worked for two years. After auditing and interviewing management and every computer operator, the DOL inserted every named employee onto his action and paid them accordingly. The company was also fined. This led to a better understanding of the law and rules and the need for documentation in HR. No body knew how we got to where we were! The company just did it this way because this is the way it is always done in MIS. It might have been that way back then but now it is different.

Long ways around to say when dealing with employee records and personnel activities it is HR's responsibility to do it right the first time, ever time within your capabilities. In accounting, you can make an "accounting adjustment" to correct an error. In HR the company can get hurt real bad and no way to fix the past; you can only pay for your sins and move forward with the new correct way of doing business. If the SINS happen on your watch you can also be made to pay the price. Again thanks for your question.

Ruskanen

How do your employees know how much time they have available? What happens if an employee requests and takes a paid day off, and they had already used up all their paid time? Do the supervisors verify how much each employee has available before approving time off?

HR Surprise

The employee's vacation and sick accruals are printed on their pay stub. Managers also get a printout from payroll with accruals listed for their staff. When an employee needs time off they complete a Request for Time Off form, submit it to their manager who then approves or denies the time, returns the form to the employee, and HOPEFULLY puts the time on their calendar. Therein lies the problem - if the manager forgets to put it on the calendar there is no record and they do not have a backup to confirm the time. Also, if the employee changes their mind and doesn't take the time off, and the manager doesn't remove their name from the calendar, the manager has docked the time from the time card. This goes on and on..... That is why I am pushing for retention of the original request. I know that in a perfect world, with perfect (or at least near perfect) managers this might not be necessary. But I'm dealing with 6 different sites within a 75 mile radius and it becomes very difficult to track time off approvals.

rbc

We require all time off requests (with or w/out pay) be completed by employee, approved by the supervisor and submitted to HR for payroll processing. All time not recorded on the ee timesheet must be accounted for by a timeoff request. Our policy states that vacation time must be requested in advance, preferably 30 days. Certain types of time off requests such as Leaves of Absence (fmla, medical, personal) must be approved by Human Resources.

Since a time off request is an official timekeeping record in addition to our electronic timesheet records, they are part and parcel of the employee's personnel file.

Each employee reviews their timesheet for accuracy and signs it, the supervisor verifies and signs as well every payperiod! All timekeeping documentation is the domain of HR, not the individual managers. HR is the "official" recordkeeper for ALL employee information. Managers have access to personnel files for their direct reports, so if there is some information they need it is always accessible.

Our timekeeping system allows reports to be run for absences each pay period. I can also run a report from our payroll service system that shows time off.

Although you have multiple sites there is still a need for centralized recordkeeping. Your exposure to loss of confidentiality is tremendous. You may want to get the support of top management to change how recordkeeping is handled. Explain the potential legal liability (including potential costs of fines, lawsuits, etc.) to win support.

Then, develop a training session to present to all managers, with an introduction presented by CEO/CFO/COO type to show their buyin of the change. This will lessen the resistance by managers to the change. Explaining the liabilities should also garner you some support.

Several years ago, I was hired by a company to start up their HR department, and I was in a similar situation with sales offices around the country. Doing a formal presentation with the support of the CFO (my boss), explaining the exposure to company by not changing to a centralized recordkeeping system, and their potential personal liability helped me to gain the cooperation of the managers. I actually went around to each manager and collected all employee information and then sat down one to one to find out what employee information they wanted to see on a regular basis. The off-site offices overnighted all of their records and we discussed over the phone their info requirements. The fact that they would still have access to information via fax,email or overnight delivery also eased the transition.

Hope this is helpful.