In Talenox, we allow for up to four levels of approvers to be assigned to a leave approval structure at any one time - the number of levels are adjustable in the leave approval structure settings.
Once an application is submitted by a user, an email notification is sent to the approver with an overview of the details. Approvers can login to approve or reject the application which in turn notifies the applicant.
Setting up Leave Approval Structures
Leave approval structures are the employee groups which leave approvers will be assigned to for approving/rejecting leave applications made by these employees only.
You can set up different approval structures by following the steps here:
1) At Leave > Settings > Leave Approval Structure, you can edit the default group created, and add more groups by clicking on New Approval Structure:
2) Within the approval structure, you should choose the employees to assign to this approval structure. Do remember to give the approval structure a name as well for better clarity.
3) Assign the number of levels of approvers to this approval structure by 'adding' or 'removing' levels - up to 4 levels can be added.
You can choose the following to increase/decrease the number of approval levels assigned to an approval structure:
"Add Level" - increase the number of levels of approvers you want to set for this structure.
"Remove Level" - decrease the number of levels of approvers you want to set for this structure.
NOTE: You can add a maximum of 4 levels & a minimum of 0 levels to each approval structure. With 0 levels of approval, this means that the employees leave will automatically be approved in the system without going through any approval process.
4) Select the approvers to assign to each approver level
At each level, you can click on the "Choose Approver" option to select the approver(s) required:
You will have the option to choose only one or multiple approvers when setting up your approver(s) at each level:
Single Approver - assign a specific user to be the sole leave approver for this level.
Multiple Approvers (more than one) - select multiple approvers that applicants can choose from when submitting a Leave application for this level.
The same approver can be assigned to multiple leave approval structures but each employee can only be assigned to one structure.
NOTE: Assigned approvers are required to have an active Employee Profile to be able to receive email notifications regarding leave applications.
5) If you have set up multiple levels of approval, you can also select the approver order settings.
6) Lastly, select the Flexible Structure Settings option that you'd like to have for this approval structure.
This setting is used to determine if approval structure is rigid in leave approver assignment or if some levels of approval can be bypassed during leave application.
Not Flexible (default) - All levels will have to be assigned an approver during leave application.
Flexible - Employees can opt to select the "Not Assigned" option for further flexibility during leave application.
The flexible option is to cater to employees in situations where one or more approvers are unavailable for one reason or another; so that leave can still be approved by the remaining leave approvers in their leave approval structures.
'Flexible' option where "Not Assigned" has been selected during leave application:
Fellow approvers can also easily spot when an employee has applied a leave with certain levels set to 'Not Assigned'.
NOTE: A minimum of one approver has to be assigned by the employee unless the corresponding leave approval structure has 0 approval levels.
7) Do remember to click on "Save" once you have keyed in your settings for each individual leave approval structure.
How To Set Up An Employee's Leave Applications for Auto-Approval in Talenox?
We now allow for Admins to be able to set up auto-approved structures for employees where they can apply for leave without going through any approval process (no need for approvers to be set up for them in the system).
[IMPORTANT] To do this, an Admin will have to assign an employee to an approval structure with 0 levels of approval.
In Step 3 of the approval structure process above, when assigning the number of levels of approvers to this approval structure by 'adding' or 'removing' levels, Admins need not "Add Level" of approver to the structure:
This way, employee's who have been assigned to this approval structure will now have their leave applications automatically approved in Talenox. 😃
Leave module access as an approver versus employees within the same approval structure
Approvers:
Access to individual leave entitlements and balances of each employee in their approval structure
Access to individual leave activities of each employee in their approval structure.
Employees in the same leave approval structure:
Able to view leave calendars of one another under the same approval structure (under Leave > Manage my leave policies > Leave calendar).
Upon request, we can enable everybody in the company to view one another's leave activities regardless of approval structure. (do contact support@talenox.com for help to enable this)
Please note the following crucial steps regarding leave application approvals:
Once a leave application receives approval from the designated approver, only this individual has the authority to reject it afterward. This task cannot be delegated to Admins or Super Admins.
Should the designated approver depart from the company, or if their role is assumed by a new approver due to organizational changes, the new approver will not possess the ability to reject a leave application previously approved by their predecessor. In such scenarios, it falls upon Super Admins or Admins to intervene by either deleting or canceling the leave application entirely.