Introduction
Schedule Callouts are used to track instances where an employee needs to miss an assigned Shift on short notice, typically due to illness, personal reasons, or other unforeseen circumstances.
When a Callout is applied to a Shift, a Callout Reason must be provided for the absence, along with a determination on whether Paid Time-Off (PTO) should be applied, provided that the employee has Accrual Banks available.
There are two ways Schedule Callouts can be recorded:
- Manual Entry - This involves manually applying a "Call Out" to an assigned Shift within either the Employee View or Daily View of the schedule.
- Callout Request - This is a request that can be set up within Empeon's Request & Approvals feature, allowing employees to request a "Call Out" with a specified Callout Reason. Once this is submitted, it initiates an approval process where a designated assignee will review and approve the request, with the option to apply PTO or not.
Once entered, Schedule Callouts automatically remove the employee from the Shift's budget, if applicable. They are also tracked per employee on a year-to-date basis to provide visibility into patterns of frequent absences.
Manual Entry
Each Shift displayed in either Employee View or Daily View includes a three-dot menu with various options to adjust the Shift. Among the list of options within this menu are selections for Call Out (unpaid) and Call Out with PTO.
Both options will first require a Callout Reason to be assigned.
However, if Call Out with PTO is selected, an additional step is required to set up how PTO will be applied. This involves assigning the appropriate Bank Code and verifying that the employee has sufficient available balance. This step is how the PTO will be applied to the employee's time card.
Call Out Requests
If the Call Out request is made available to employees, they will have the option to request a "Call Out" using their ESS Hub. Within the Schedule section of the ESS Hub, each Shift that has been assigned will have a three-dot menu where the option to request a "Call Out" can be initiated.
This will prompt the employee to select a Callout Reason. The available options the employee has to choose from will be based on the list of Callout Reason codes that have been set up on the company level.
The employee will then click the blue button labeled "Call out" to submit their request. Once a "Call Out" request has been submitted, an email will be sent to the Assignee(s) updating them that a Call Out has been request and requires their attention. The email will provide a direct link to review the request within Empeon Workforce.
Call Outs can be manually accessed within the Shift Request Approvals section of the Scheduler. This section contains two main tabs: Open Shifts, where requested shifts can be reviewed and approved after being posted, and Call Outs, where "Call Out" requests can be reviewed and approved.
Within Shift Request Approvals, select the Call Outs tab to view the "Call Out" requests that have been assigned to you as well as to others.
This screen will default to all Call Outs that have been assign to you, however there is the option to see Call Outs that have been assigned to "Others" as well. When reviewing a Call Out request, the Assignee can approve the Call Out request with Paid Time Off (PTO) or approve it as Unpaid. There is also a column for Year-To-Date (YTD) Call Outs showing how many times the employee has called out over the course of the year, helping the Assignee to make an informed decision when reviewing the request.
Once the Assignee approves the request, the changes will be reflected with the schedule and the employee's time card appropriately. Any budgets being enforced within the Shift will be updated accordingly.
Please note that Schedule Callouts should be used for short-notice absences. For any planned absences or adjustments to the employee's job responsibilities reflected within their assigned Shift, Work Categories should be used instead to track those situations. Please refer to Empeon's article Work Categories to learn more about how these are set up and applied.