Define Teams

Define teams to optimize guided recommendations for your organization and balance time-off requests with coverage needs, accruals balances, and daily absence quotas.

Guided recommendations present information to employees to help them assess opportunities for time-off requests, and to managers to help them determine whether to approve or refuse requests. Guided recommendations take the form of messages and graphical devices. For example, the system can display a message recommending refusal for a time-off request if the team absence quota has already been met for the desired day. Heatmaps can display color and icons on calendar dates that are nearing the absence quota.

The system considers several factors when making guided recommendations, including:

  • Accruals. Does the employee’s accrual balance permit the requested time off? (See Accruals for more information.)
  • Team absence quota. Are absences permitted on the requested day? Has the team’s absence quota already been met? (See Specify Team Absence Quotas for more information.)

You manage guided recommendations using both the Time-off request subtype and the Team Definitions page. They both play a role in whether and when guided recommendations are displayed, and to whom.

You enable guided recommendations for managers and employees on the Time-off request subtype; there are separate settings for employees and managers that control whether requests of this type will display guided recommendations:

  • Team Absence enables guided recommendations for employees (disabled by default)
  • Guided Recommendations to Manager enables guided recommendations for managers (enabled by default)

In addition, these settings affect the behavior of guided recommendations for time-off requests:

  • The Default Pay Code value of the request subtype is matched against the paycode specified in the team definition to evaluate the request’s impact on team absence quotas.
  • Automatic Approval allows the system to automatically approve the request.
  • Note: If this setting is specified for the request subtype, settings on the Recommendations tab of the Team Definitions page are ignored: the request is approved, regardless of the auto approval setting for the team, and regardless of the request’s impact on the team absence quota.

When and how the system provides guided recommendations — whether the employee receives a message suggesting they choose a different day for the request, or whether the manager receives a message to approve or refuse a request, for example — is determined in part by how your team is configured. Settings you specify:

  • Identify the paycodes of the requests you want the system to count toward the team’s absence quota
  • Specify team absence base quotas and quota overrides
  • Allow automatic approval (if the employee has accrued enough time, and the team absence quota has not been met)
  • Set the threshold value for alerting users to days with high demand for time off
Note: If Guided Recommendations To Manager is not configured for the Time-off request subtype, none of the settings specified on the Team Definitions Recommendations tab, including Auto approval, will have any impact on whether the request is approved. The auto approval setting matters only if the request subtype is subjected to guided recommendations, regardless of whether the associated paycode contributes to reaching the quota.

When configuring time-off requests, it can be useful to distinguish between discretionary and non-discretionary absences for the purposes of guided recommendations. Examples of discretionary absences include paid time off and floating holidays; examples of non-discretionary absences include sick leave and jury duty.

While requests for both types of absences contribute to a team's absence quota, you might decide to make only discretionary absences subject to guided recommendations because employees typically have some flexibility when planning time off. For similar reasons, you might decide to remove non-discretionary absences from guided recommendations because, for example, an employee cannot choose when they need a sick day. Indeed, you might want to go further and configure non-discretionary time-off requests for automatic approval.

An effective way to accomplish these goals is to use Pay Code Data Access Profiles as summarized here:

  1. Create a Pay Code Data Access Profile.
  2. Include in that profile all the pay codes you want to associate with discretionary absences.
  3. Add that profile to the Pay Code Filter Set for the time-off request subtype you are creating for discretionary absences.
  4. Repeat this process for non-discretionary absences.

See for more information.

  1. Click Tap Main Menu . Select Maintenance > Team Definitions.
  2. Click Tap Add a Team . 

    The Add Team Definition panel appears.

  3.  In Team Name, enter a name for the team. 
  4. (Optional) In Description, enter a description of the team (Seasonal staff, for example).
  5. Select a Start Date and End Date.

    Important: For a new team definition, the dates cannot be before today's date. If you are editing a team definition, you can set the dates to be in the past to inactivate that team definition.

    1. Click Tap the calendar .
    2. Select dates.
  6. In Employees in this team, select the tool or method you want to use to build the team list:
    • Hyperfind — Use the Hyperfind query to build the team list.
    • Reports to Manager — Use the employees' manager to build the team list.
    • Schedule Group — Use the schedule group to build the team list.
  7. In Paycode Profile to Count as Absence, select the paycode data access profile you want the system to use when determining which absences to count toward the daily team absence quota. For example you might want to create a paycode data access profile that excludes from team absence quota calculations those paycodes that do not reflect an absence, such as paycodes for volunteer time, overtime, or premium pay. All Paycodes is the default.
  8. In Quota Type, choose whether you want to define the team's absence quota as:
    • A number of employees. For example, 2 would indicate you do not want to allow more than 2 employees to be absent on a given day.
    • A percent of the team. For example, 20 would indicate that you do not want to allow more than 20% of the team to be absent on a given day.

    Note: If you change the quota type for an existing team, the system resets the base quota and any overrides to default values.

  9. Click Tap Apply. 

  10. Show the members:

    1. Select the Team Members tab.
    2. Note: If the list of team members exceeds the number configured for display, the system displays an informational message instructing you to search to display more results.
    3. Click Tap the column header or down arrow to change the sort order.

  11. Set the daily limit of absences.

    See Specify Team Absence Quotas.

  12. Set the recommendation settings.

    See Specify Request Recommendations.

In UKG Pro Workforce Management™, a quota is the limit on the team absences that you want to allow for a given day of the week. The quota type you specify when creating the team indicates whether you want to define quotas as a number of employees on the team or a percent of employees on the team. Quotas are specified for individual days of the week and holidays. They carry over from week to week but you can override them if the need arises.

When specifying a quota, you can choose these values:

  • No Quota (the default) — there are no limits on team absences
  • 1-n — the number, or percent, of the team you allow to be absent
  • 0 — no team absences are allowed

The base quota is the default team absence quota for allowed absences for individual days of the week and holidays. You can use an override to change the base quota for a specific date or dates (contiguous or individual). For example, if you typically allow three employees to be absent on Mondays, but next Monday you are holding a special store-wide event that requires all employees to work, you would override the base quota for that Monday with a value of 0, to indicate that no absences are allowed on that day.

Note: The base quotas you specify remain in effect unless they are overridden. Overrides take effect only on the dates you specify. After that, the quota reverts to the value specified in the base quota.

The system uses the quotas and overrides you specify for a team to make recommendations to employees on that team when they submit a time-off request. Managers can also use this information when reviewing a request for approval. See Specify Request Recommendations for more information.

To create a base quota:

  1. Click Tap Main Menu . Select Maintenance > Team Definitions.
  2. Select the team for which you want to establish a base quota.
  3. Click Tap the Team Absence Quotas tab.
  4. For the day of the week for which you wish to establish a base quota for team absences:
    1. Select the cell for the desired day.
    2. Type or use the spin control to specify the number/percent of employees you want to allow to be absent on that day.
    3. Do the same if you wish to establish a base quota for a holiday.
  5. For a holiday, click tap (), and choose the holiday for which you wish to specify a base quota. (The list of holidays is based on the holiday profile associated with the team members.)
  6. Click the button.

    7. The base quotas are now in effect for the days you specified. The system uses quota values and settings on the Recommendations tab to determine whether to approve or refuse time-off requests for employees on the team.

To override a base quota:

  1. Click Tap Main Menu . Select Maintenance > Team Definitions.
  2. Select the team whose base quota you want to override.
  3. Click Tap the Team Absence Quota tab.
  4. In the calendar, click tap the day or days for which you wish to override the base quota.
    • To clear a day you select by mistake, click tap it again.
    • To change the calendar's focus, you can:

       Previous — Show the previous month.

       This Month — Show the month that includes today.

       Next — Show the next month.

      You can also skip directly to a holiday by selecting a holiday from the drop-down list.

  5. In the field, enter the reason for, or a description of, the override. If you selected a holiday in the previous step, the system uses the holiday name in the field, but you can change it if you wish.
  6. Specify the override value:
    1. In the field, enter the number that you want to use instead of the current base quota.
    2. Use the No Quota (Unlimited Absences) choice to remove the quota.
    3. Use the Reset to Base Quota choice if you change your mind about specifying an override.
  7. Values that you specify here override the days currently selected in the calendar and are in effect only on those days.
  8. Click Tap the Change Quota button.

    9. The overrides you specified are in effect for the dates on which you defined them.

Guided recommendations are enabled on the Time-off Request subtype (see for more information), but you configure them on the Team Definitions page Recommendations tab, as described here.

Note that the system always recommends refusing a request if any of the following is true:

  • Accruals are already exceeded
  • The number of days above the daily team absence quota exceeds the value specified by the approval threshold
  • The request period includes a day for which no team absences are allowed

Of these, only the last criterion is configurable. Any of these conditions will trigger a warning message to the employee, alerting them of potential issues with their request and inviting them to change their dates. Note that the employee is not prevented from submitting the request, even if there is the possibility that it will be refused.

To set parameters for guided recommendations:

  1. Click Tap Main Menu . Select Maintenance > Team Definitions.
  2. Select the team for which you want to establish guided recommendation parameters.
  3. Click Tap the Recommendations tab and specify the following:
    1. Recommendation Settings 
      1. Approval threshold: The threshold at or under which request approval will be recommended. The threshold is based on the percent of days in a request that contains at least one day whose team absence quota is already met.

        For example, imagine this value is set at 20% and the employee submits a time-off request for five days. One of the days in the request (that is, 20% of the request) is already above the daily quota. Based on this set of circumstances, the system would recommend approving the request. However, if two of the requested days (that is, 40% of the request) were already above quota, the system would not recommend approving the request.

      2. Use the check box if you want the system to recommend refusal if the time-off request includes a day for which no team absences are allowed (that is, a day that has a quota of 0).
    2. Automatic Processing
      • Auto approval: Whether or not time-off requests should be automatically approved if the system recommends approval. Requests for which refusal is recommended because of quota or accrual issues are not automatically approved even if this setting is enabled.

        • Note: The system disregards this setting if the Time-off request subtype was configured for automatic approval.

    3. Team Absence Heatmap
      • High Demand warning threshold: The team daily absence quota threshold you want the system to use before displaying a warning for a request. Dates for which the number of approved and in progress absences is approaching the daily absence quota are displayed in yellow in the employee's My Calendar heatmap (if configured), in the ESS Team Calendar heatmap, and in a banner displayed at the top of the employee's Events and Requests detail tabs.
  4. Click the Save button.

    5. The settings for guided recommendations are now in effect. The system will use these and other team settings (quotas and paycodes, for example) and the configuration of the Time-off request subtype to provide both employees and their manager with the information they need to submit and evaluate time-off requests.