Issue 47 Page 1 | Dec 2016
Annual Leave and HealthRoster
Everything you need to know!
 How it works in HealthRoster
 How to amend annual leave entitlements
 Public Holidays, include or exclude?
 Used too much leave!
Southern Health has a great Annual Leave Calculator available on the staff web site.
http://www.southernhealth.nhs.uk/workday/leave/
We are fast approaching the new leave year and many staff have already booked holidays for
2017 and 2018. However, we notice that there are a lot of missing entitlements and some
unfortunate errors. We are here to help and are experts in calculating and understanding leave
entitlements as are our Human Resources colleagues.
We strongly advise you to take some time to check your teams’ entitlements in HealthRoster
before the new leave year and in doing so you will find that the system works to your benefit.
You will have a clear record of leave taken and remaining and whether there is a need to carry
any over.
e-Rostering User Group – 10th February 2017
13:30 in the Seminar Room, Tom Rudd Unit, Moorgreen Hospital, SO30 3JB.
This is your forum to share your rostering experience, provide us with feedback and learn new tips.
Please let us know if you wish to attend so we have some idea of numbers.
Contact Us
By e-mail [email protected]
By phone 023 8047 5160
Issue 47 Page | 2 | Dec 2016
HealthRoster, EOL and Leave
We encourage staff to use their Employee on Line to request leave. This means they are using EOL
and can check other things as well as leave:
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They are rostered correctly, ie. Days off, hours, weekends, etc.
They agree with their leave entitlement
They can see what’s been requested, approved or declined
They get warnings if they request at short notice or use too much leave.
They can request study days and training
They can confirm and inform you when NHS Service thresholds are reached
They can see the Team Roster – new feature!
Other benefits from staff using EOL are: You are not spending time adding leave for others
 Less mistakes are made
Should I include Public Holiday entitlement?
This question always causes confusion. Not only should managers be aware of whether staff have
PH leave included or not but each employee should be aware of their own leave. We always advise
that PH must be included for all part-time staff and any full-time staff that do not work five days a
week Mon to Fri. Why? Because if a Public Holiday falls on their day off then this is still their day off
and they are free to request the PH at another time.
Any team that provides a 24/7 service will include PH hours for all their staff.
New Staff
If you have an employee joining your team that is new to the Trust then there are a couple of
HealthRoster tasks you need to do.
1) Add their leave entitlement. See how to do this on page 4.
2) Activate their EOL account by adding their e-mail address and sending them a password.
If the new starter is joining you from another Southern Health team then it is very likely that they will
already have a leave entitlement in HealthRoster. However, you must check this especially as they
may have had a change of contract. See how to amend leave entitlements on page 3.
I only work two days a week
There is a common misconception that part-time staff only need to request the actual days they work.
If you are contracted for 15 hours a week, for example, to you this may be two days but to us, Human
Resources, Payroll, HealthRoster and EOL this is 15 hours over seven days. Our rosters start on a
Sunday which is the start of our working week, so if you want a week off this will be seven days no
matter what your weekly hours are.
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Issue 47 Page | 3 | Dec 2016
How to add and change leave entitlements
The best place to do this is via the ‘Personnel’ section > ‘Person Search’. Here you can view your
team all in one place and check everyone’s leave entitlements for this year and next year. You can
see contracted hours, NHS start date (although not always accurate but a good starting point) and all
the leave they have booked and taken.
To change/amend leave entitlements
Find the employee in ‘Person Search’ and click on the ‘entitlement’ tab. The first thing to do is to
make sure that you are seeing all that you need to. The dates ‘from’ and ‘to’ under Entitlements are
for visibility purposes. If you want to check last year or next year you will need to widen that visibility
and click ‘find’.
To change an entitlement
Highlight the year you need to amend and
click ‘Change Entitlement’.
‘Base Hours per Year‘ should reflect the
basic entitlement for that year. Use the
‘Agreed Carry Forward Hours’ to show hours
brought forward from the previous year. (At
this stage we do not recommend that you
use the ‘Continuous Service Hours’ box). The
‘Lieu Hours’ box should be used for any
extraordinary leave, such as purchased leave
Please note: ‘Base Hours Per Year’ will
automatically be carried over to the following
year. If you have adjusted your visibility to
2018 and beyond you will see this.
You can always adjust next years now!
Remember though …………..
9 Public Holidays in 2017/18.
7 Public Holidays in 2018/2019.
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We note that many entitlements have been edited to show ‘days only’. Not sure why you would do this as it is
not helpful to staff. All our Policies and annual leave guides show leave expressed in hours. Please change it
back.
Click on ‘Change Entitlement’
and edit the ‘Entitlement
Units’ to read ‘Hours and
Days’.
Issue 47 Page | 4 | Dec 2016
To Add Leave Entitlements
Find the person and make sure there is no leave in HealthRoster already by adjusting your visibility
as above.
If you are adding leave for new staff you will need to have two lots of entitlement ready before you
start. Use the Annual Leave Calculator to work out how much they are entitled to for the current part
year and for next year, a full year.
Click on ‘Create Person Entitlement’.
Leave the first four boxes as they are,
do not change these.
Add the entitlement for the full year
(next year) in ‘Base Hours Per Year’.
Then in the ‘Initial Balance’ add the
part year hours (this year). You will
note that the ‘Effective From’ date
correctly shows their start date. Do not
change this.
Click OK
Staff with two posts
This is straightforward if the posts are
with the same team. If not then we need
each manager to do their bit.
Firstly, ensure that the leave has not
already been added for the year. Have
the entitlement ready to input and click
‘Create Posting Entitlement’. You will
then have the option to select the post
and add the leave as above.
Issue 47 Page | 5 | Dec 2016
Problem? Incorrect Period
Here’s some examples of missing information or incorrect entitlement periods. The leave is only
showing in hours and not days and the leave year does not run from 1st April to 31st March. To fix
these problems you will need to delete what is there and start again. The only time you will see leave
periods not starting on 1st April will be for new Trust staff but next year will be 1st April.
Problem? Used too much leave?
As the leave year comes to an end many of you are focusing on leave entitlements and making sure
they are right. There have been a few instances where employees have used too much leave.
HealthRoster is a great staff management system and used correctly along with EOL, using too much
leave allowance really should not happen. The system gives out warnings when entitlements are
breached in both HealthRoster and EOL.
In these situations first check their entitlement is correct and that the dates and hours of leave taken
has been recorded correctly. Cancel any untaken leave. Owed time needs to be worked back. If
you need advice with this please contact us or your HR Advisor.
Buying and carrying over
Applications to buy additional leave must be submitted by 1st April. Once sanctioned, don’t forget to
add these hours to employee’s entitlement under ‘Lieu Hours’.
Our Annual Leave Policy states that staff can carry over up to five days annual leave. But this is
subject to the requirements of the service and will be reviewed on a case by case basis. If you are
including carried over hours in next year’s entitlement please record this separately in the ‘Agreed
Carried Forward Hours’ box.