Prior to setting up time off accruals, establishing policies, creating calendars, etc., there are a few settings to check and adjust in the Enterprise Model, application settings, and agent profile settings.

We recommend completing the advanced vacation discovery questionnaire to help guide which features you plan to use.

PTO Accrual calendar start

Enter the PTO accrual calendar start date in the Enterprise Model Basic Settings (Settings > Enterprise Model > Enterprise properties) and verify the settings at the site/activity level (Use the default from the parent activity or select new date). This date will be used to determine when time off accruals begin and when they are applied. The date will appear in the Working accrual calendar properties, where you will be able to edit the year, but not the day/month, which are set in the Enterprise Model settings.

 

Enterprise Model settings

Site/activity level

If different sites within your organization have different accrual start dates, you can change the start date for each site in the enterprise model settings.

or the Working accrual calendar properties

Restricted Action Plan Codes

If you want to prevent agents who are under disciplinary action or requiring additional training from requesting time off, you may apply restricted action plans (RAPs) to individual agents. This does not include new hires who are on probation (this is covered within a policy). To create new reason codes: Settings > Application settings > People settings > Agent RAP reason codes. Apply the codes in an agent’s profile: Settings > People & agent templates > People > Personal profile > Restricted action plans for [agent name].

Application Services

PTO Calendar Partition Monitor Service

If you plan to automatically open bid partitions, you must designate an impersonated user in the application services: Settings > Application settings > Administrative settings > Services > PTO Calendar Partition Monitor Service > Impersonated user id.

Also, Service enabled? must be set to Yes.

Published PTO Accrual Calendar Monitor Service

If you plan to use the system’s accrual engine, designate the Service Account as the impersonated user in the application services: Settings > Application settings > Administrative settings > Services > PTO Accrual Calendar Monitor Service > Impersonated user id. Also, Service enabled? must be set to Yes.

 

Auto-Approve Service

Basic options

If the system will approve time off requests based on your rules, configure the service parameters for Auto-Approve Service. Settings > Application settings > Administrative settings > Services >Auto-Approve Service. With this setting, approvals and denials will come from “the system” instead of a person.

The Process delay should be set for 10 minutes.

Number of days in advance

If you have a calendar for next year, for example, and want the auto-approve service to run to approve or deny requests using the brownout rules, set the Number of days in advance to consider event requests to cover the timeframe of the calendar.

Advanced options

Multi-day event requests

CommunityWFM can be set to have the auto-approve service approve multi-day requests only if all days are valid. When selected, if one day fails, the entire request fails. When the service evaluates a multi-day event with the setting “Yes, all the dates in the range must be approved together,” the request is seen as a block / one request in reports and in the auto-approve service. If “No, some of the dates can be approved and some denied,” the days are seen in reports and in the auto-approve service as individual days.

Time zone localization

Do you want to localize the request times? and What time zone option should Auto-Approve use? are hardcoded to use the requesting person’s time zone. This provides the most accurate results for the auto-approve service.

Agent Settings

Hire date ranking

If an agent’s hire date/years of service will determine accrual of time off hours and/or seniority-based ranking for time off bids, there must be a hire date in the agent’s profile.

To enter a hire date: Settings > People & agent templates > People > Personal profile > Basic properties for [name] > Hire date.

Ranking Profiles

To set up ranking profiles: Settings > Application settings > People settings > Ranking profiles.

If ranking is based on a department hire date that is different from the company hire date, you can add a custom property to use for seniority-based ranking.

1. Go to Settings > Application settings > People settings > Custom properties for people.
2. Create a new custom property for department hire date. Because this is a text field, enter the hire date as YYYYMMDD to ensure accuracy.
3. After setting up the custom property, apply it to the agents in their personal profile: Settings > People & agent templates > People > Personal profile > Custom properties.

Employee classification

If you have different accrual rules for part-time and full-time employees, ensure that you have created employee classifications and that each employee has a designated employee classification: Settings > People & agent templates > People > Personal profile > Basic properties for [agent name]. These classifications are typically created during your initial CommunityWFM training sessions.

Employee ID

If you plan to import time off accruals from an external source such as an Excel spreadsheet, there must be non-duplicated content in the Employee ID field i.e., an identifier unique to each agent. This field must match exactly the data in the external source, including leading zeros. Settings > People & agent templates > People > Personal profile > Basic properties for [agent name].

Time off rules source

Each agent will have a time off settings rule indicated in their profile: Settings > People & agent templates > People > Personal Profile > Time off settings for [name] > General time off settings – Configure basic settings > Select the source of time off rules:

• Legacy AutoApprove Rules
• PTO Calendar Partition Rules

The default setting for 5.0 upgrades is Legacy AutoApprove Rules. If you will be executing bids, using the waitlist, or using a calendar partition, the source of time off rules must be PTO Calendar Partition Rules and there must be a ranking profile that may be applied to agents (such as seniority). Agents with Legacy AutoApprove as a rules source will be listed as Ineligible to participate in a calendar partition.

Agent accrued hours rule

If you will be using time off accruals but not calendar partitions and want CommunityWFM to validate accrued time off prior to auto-approving time off requests, be sure to enable the Agent Accrued Hours Rule. Plan > All things time off > Time off settings > Time off rule settings | Legacy AutoApprove Rules.

Other settings

Event types

Create/verify all of the event types you will use in your PTO Classifications such as Paid time off, Sick time, Leave of absence, etc. Event types are typically created during your initial CommunityWFM training sessions. Settings > Application settings > Event type settings > Event types.

Special calendar events

Verify that you have configured any special calendar events (e.g., holidays when the contact center is closed). These events can be applied in the rules of the calendar partitions. You can’t create special events directly in the calendar partition rules, so complete these before setting up the partitions. Plan > Special calendar events.

Rules

Verify or create any brownout, blackout, and minimum request interval rules, which you can import into the calendar partitions. You can also create these rules within a single calendar partition.

 

Advanced vacation discovery questionnaire

Download a PDF form

 

Prior to setting up the time off request features in CommunityWFM, we need to determine how you will use the application. This may include having discussions with supervisors, HR, WFM analysts, and management. Planning now will prevent having to make tedious corrections later.

CommunityWFM provides many options to accommodate a wide range of possibilities. Will CommunityWFM be the source of record for time off accruals? Do agents at different levels accrue planned time off (PTO) hours/days at different rates? Are there different buckets for sick time and vacation time? Do different departments share the same policies, but have different calendars?

CommunityWFM can handle it, with a bit of planning.

We designed this questionnaire as a conversation starter and to help you gather the information required to successfully implement advanced vacation in CommunityWFM 5.x. Your responses enable the Onboarding Specialist to customize the training when you are ready to implement these features.

How will you use the vacation planning features in CommunityWFM?

☐ No tracking of PTO accruals and no auto-approval of time off requests. Manual tracking of accruals outside of CommunityWFM and manual approval of time off requests within CommunityWFM.

This option does not require additional set-up or planning. Agents make time off requests using the Request time off form, rules are configured to ignore accruals, and all requests set to auto-pending to be later approved or denied by a supervisor.

☐ No tracking of PTO accruals but will use system auto-approve rules to approve/deny time off requests.

CommunityWFM will automatically approve or deny requests based on established rules for blackout day, brownout day, and minimum request intervals. Agents make time off requests using the Request time off form, rules are configured to ignore PTO accruals, but rules for blackout days, brownout days, and minimum request interval are in place and run at the time of the agent’s request. Agents can view the rules and see why a request is approved or denied.

☐ Will track PTO accruals in the system; may or may not use auto approve rules to approve/deny time off requests.

Agents can view their PTO accrual balance in the Time off worksheet and CommunityWFM will deduct time when an agent requests time off using designated events. Accruals may be generated by the CommunityWFM accrual engine or uploaded via Excel. For this option, classifications, including event types, must be configured and included in PTO policies. Agents are then assigned to policies.

The following options require that agents time off rules are set to ‘calendar partition.’

☐ Will track use of PTO accruals and create open selection calendars with rules for approving time off requests.

Calendars allow agents to view available time off prior to making a request.
Calendars also allow the option of having a waiting list so if an agent removes a previously requested day off, the next agent on the waiting list will receive an offer to accept that day.

☐ Will track use of PTO accruals and create bidding calendars with rules.

This option requires agent ranking profiles, which are used to determine the order of bidding. You can have rules limiting the minimum and/or maximum duration of requests (e.g., everyone must request at least one week and no more than two weeks during the first round of bidding), along with several other parameters.

Will CommunityWFM track employees’ use of PTO hours?

☐ No

☐ Yes > agents will be able to view their available and scheduled PTO hours in their time off worksheet.

Will CommunityWFM calculate PTO accrual hours?

Are there different categories of PTO (eg, vacation, sick, discretionary days)?

Will “late” events be charged to an agent’s PTO?

How often do employees accrue time off?

Do all employees accrue the same amount of PTO?

Is accrued time off prorated for part-time employees?

Are there other categories of employees that accrue time off?

Do you have a copy of the company accrual schedule?

Is there a maximum accrual of hours?