Absence types are used to determine how an absence record interacts with system calculations such as Bradford Factor and holiday entitlement, and how absences are displayed within individual and group absence calendars.
Absence types are selected when:
Employee requests an absence through self-service.
Managers record an absence against an employee.
HR administrators record absences against an employee.
It is important to complete a review of all the absence types and absence reasons needed to record absence and produce meaningful reporting in your organisation.
The user will only be prompted to record an absence reason for sickness absences. It is therefore important to ensure there are sufficient absence types to allow for a granular level of reporting relative to your organisation.
Standard absence types
There are 25 standard absence types that come pre-configured with the SelectHR system.
Additional Adoption Leave
Additional Maternity Leave
Additional Paternity Leave
Annual Leave
Bereavement Leave
Company Shutdown
Compassionate
Conference
Flexi Leave
Holiday
Jury
Ordinary Adoption Leave
Ordinary Maternity Leave
Ordinary Paternity Leave
Parental Leave
Permitted
Shared Parental Leave
Sickness
Special/Election
Study Leave
Summer Hours
Time off in lieu
Training
Unauthorised
Unpaid
Add new absence types
Guidance is available on how to add a new absence type.
Absence reasons
An absence reason can be allocated to any sickness absence record to further categorise the reason for the sickness.
For example, an employee may be off with a sickness absence, but you could assign an absence reason of Cold/Flu, Headache, Sickness, etc.
Absence reasons are most useful when running reports on absence data, as they allow for a more granular breakdown of what kind of sickness employees are being impacted by.
Add new absence reasons
Guidance is available on how to add a new absence reason.
Absence type groups
Absence type groups are used to determine how SelectHR should apply that absence to calculation values in the system. There are several options available.
Absence type group | Entitlement affected |
Flexi | Absences with this absence type group will be deducted from the employee's flexi balance. |
Holiday | Absences with this absence type group will be deducted from the employee's holiday entitlement. |
Parental | Absences with this absence type group will be counted towards the employee's parental leave calculations. This is usually only assigned to system-configured absence types. |
TOIL | Absences with this absence type group will be deducted from the employee's TOIL balance. |
Sickness | Absences with this absence type group will impact Bradford Factor calculations, and will be submitted to SelectPay (if you have an integrated solution). Absences with this absence type group will be included in batch jobs and calculations relative to sickness data (for example, the self-certification batch job). |
Other | Absences with this absence type group are not included in any calculations. This is recommended for recording absences which do not impact any of the above. |
Limitations
Limitation | Explanation |
Absence reason drop down is limited a maximum display of 52 reasons | When entering a sickness absence against an employee's record, if the drop-down list against the field reason does not return all the options in the system it is because the the list can only return 52 options. Start typing the word for the option to display. |
Absences in the sickness absence type group cannot be split into paid and unpaid | It is not possible to specify if a sickness record is paid or unpaid. Any absence type assigned to the sickness absence type group will be submitted to SelectPay (if applicable). |
Absences not in the sickness absence type group cannot be open ended | Only absence types that fall under the absence type group Sickness can be recorded as open-ended absences. |