What are Employee Attendance Requests?
The Employee Attendance Requests found within Request & Approvals include two distinct request types: time card fixes for missing punches or overrides to existing punches, and the ability to request call outs for scheduled shifts, such as when an employee is sick. These requests are exclusive to Empeon's Time and Attendance and Scheduling modules, enabling employees to manage their attendance-related information within the ESS Hub. Both request types within this category provide employees with greater autonomy in maintaining their attendance and scheduling records.
Missed Punch
The Missed Punch request type enhances the ability for employees to view and maintain their timecards. Granting access for this request will allow for employees to review their Timecards in ESS and request a fix for missed or inaccurate punch records. If this request is set to "No access", employees will still be able to view their timecard and clock in and out (if their Web Clock feature is enabled); however, the "Fix" option will not be available to them. With this request type, an approval process is mandatory, as there is no option for "Auto-Approve".
Call Out
The Call Out request type allows employees to submit a Call Out request through their ESS Hub if they need to miss their scheduled Shift. When this request is turned on, employees can click the three-dot menu next to their scheduled Shift within their ESS Hub and select "Call out" to initiate their request. From there, they will be prompted with a dropdown to select the reason for needing to call out. The options available within this dropdown require Callout Reason Codes to be set up on the company-level. Call Out requests also require an approval process and cannot be "Auto-Approved".
Granting Access to Employee Attendance Requests
To grant access to either Employee Attendance Request, click the "pencil" icon located along the row of the respective request type.
The first step will be to change the permission from it's default setting of "No access" to "Allow request".
Upon changing the permissions to "Allow request", the system will then require the designation of an "Assignee". For both request types, there is no option for "Auto-Approve" requiring the set up of one or more Assignees to be established for these requests.
Assignees can be designated as a specific User Role, the employee's Manager, or an individual User to review and approve the changes. Multi-step approvals can be set up to involve multiple reviewers in a defined sequence. Once the initial Assignee approves the request, it seamlessly progresses to the next assignee for further review, and so forth.
The final setting to consider when configuring an Employee Attendance request type is whether to establish "Only assignees can approve" the request. This optional setting enforces that only the designated Assignee(s) have the authority to approve the request. Please note that this restriction applies only to the custom Users and Roles assigned for approval and does not affect system-level Administrators, such as Company or Organizational Admins, who retain approval capabilities.
For Missed Punches in particular, there is an additional setting for "Notify Assignees Via Email", which helps Assignee(s) stay on top of Missed Punch requests. Since Missed Punch requests are often time-sensitive, a notification via email helps to ensure that requests are addressed within a timely manner.
