Workday Time and Absence Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions Regarding the Change
Workday Time and Absence will replace MyTime/MyTime Lite (Kronos), the system currently used to track time worked, manage time off, and provide time off balances. Our current timeclocks will be replaced with new timeclocks.
Workday Time and Absence is part of the Workday system that manages a variety of employee information. Workday will provide a familiar experience, streamlining the time tracking process, reducing errors, and delivering new reports that will help manage staff time and attendance.
This transition will impact all staff, including temporary and casual workers and faculty who manage staff.
Awareness and training sessions will be offered for all impacted community members in advance of the change.
In addition, two options for just-in-time learning will be available on the Workday@Yale Time and Absence Training site. Virtual training sessions will be recorded for individuals who are not able to join a session, and interactive guides will allow you to try out key processes.
There will be no change to the way that you accrue time off, your scheduled hours or the way that you are paid. How leaves of absence are requested will not change.
While some of the language that we use will remain the same, some Workday terminology is different. For example, in Workday, “absences” include “time off” (such as vacation, sick, and PTO) and leaves of absence. Training and reference materials will be provided to support the change in terminology.
MyTime/MyTime Lite (Kronos) Transition Questions
No. All time and absence information for staff will be fully managed in Workday. Kronos will no longer be available.
All time off balances will transfer to Workday on the day of the transition.
Time off requests that have been approved in Kronos will transfer to Workday. Time off requests that have not been approved in Kronos will not transfer.
M&P employees must submit time off requests and May timecard approval by Thursday, May 20 at 5:00 pm. Supervisors (or their delegates) of M&Ps must approve time off requests and May timecards by Friday, May 21 at 3:00 pm. These employee records in MyTime/MyTime Lite (Kronos) will be locked at that time.
C&T, Security and temporary employees must submit time off requests and the May 23-May 29 timecard by Friday, May 28 at 12:00 noon. Supervisors (or their delegates) of C&Ts, Security and temporary employees must approve time off requests and the May 23-May 29 timecard by Friday, May 28 at 3:00 pm. These employee records in MyTime/MyTime Lite (Kronos) will be locked at that time.
Supervisors (or their delegates) of Service & Maintenance employees must approve the May 23-May 29 timecard by Sunday, May 30 at 10:00am. These employee records in MyTime/MyTime Lite (Kronos) will be locked at that time.
All accrual balances and time worked prior to May 30, 2021 must be manually updated in Workday. Send an email with the adjustment and appropriate approvals to employee.services@yale.edu to complete the adjustment in Workday. Adjustments to service and maintenance staff time and time off will be maintained by the Local 35 Business Office.
General Workday Time and Absence Questions
Employees will receive the following email alerts:
- Friday: Reminder to weekly paid employees that have time in “Not Submitted” status for the current week
- Monday: Reminder to weekly paid employees that have time in “Not Submitted” status for the prior week
- Daily: Notification to employees who had a time off request approved/denied that day
If you work a common schedule (e.g., M-F 8:30-5), nothing will be displayed in Schedule History. Schedule history shows for those that have a unique pattern. Use "My Schedule" to view your schedule.
Yes. Edits can be made approximately 90 days after the date for both time worked and time off entries made on or after 5/29/2021. The employee can make the retroactive edit using the regular Enter My Time or Request Absence process; the change must be approved by the supervisor or delegate. The supervisor, delegate or business office can also make changes using the regular Enter Time or Enter Absence processes.
Our current time off codes will be consolidated to simplify and reduce errors but will essentially resemble the current codes.
Time off types displayed are based on the specific employee's eligibility.
- M&Ps are eligible for Sick, PTO, PTO Max Extension, and Flex
- C&Ts are eligible for Sick, Vacation, Compensatory Time and – depending upon hire date – Personal, Bonus Vacation, and Floating Holiday
- Staff members will also see, and be able to request, Jury Duty and Bereavement
- Temporary employees are eligible for Connecticut Sick
Navigate to your Absence Calendar (search for and select Request Absence or Correct My Absence). Click on the request. Requests in submitted status must be deleted and resubmitted. If the time off request has been approved, you can correct and resubmit it for approval. For details, see the Request, Correct, and Delete Time Off interactive guide.
Not at this time – this is an enhancement that will be considered in the future.
Leaves of absence can continue to be requested in the same manner or can be requested through the new Absence Calendar in Workday. See the Leaves of Absence site for details.
The Workday mobile app will allow employees to access certain Time and Absence functions.
You will request time off, which will be submitted to your supervisor or business office for approval. You will have access to a monthly calendar view of all your requested and approved time off including your time off balances. Managerial and Professional staff will no longer need to enter a monthly timesheet. Only overtime-eligible Managerial and Professional employees will need to enter time (overtime only).
All C&T and M&P staff can see their projected carryover balances and forfeiture (if any) in Workday by running the Time Off Balance report as of July 1 of the following fiscal year. See the Check Time Off Balances guide for more information.
Unpaid Absence is entered on the Absence Calendar. It must be entered by the manager, the manager's delegate, or someone with a business office role that provides access to edit another employee's Absence Calendar. Employees cannot request their own Unpaid Absence.
- Your own time off requests that are not yet approved display in gray. Your own approved time off displays in green. The time off type is shown for your own absences only.
- Approved time off for your peers (hourly and salaried) and the manager within your reporting organization displays in gray. You will not see the time off type for your peers or manager.
- Supervisors will see the time off type for their direct reports.
- All absences are displayed, including time off and leaves of absence (note that the time off types display as indicated above.)
- Yale holidays display in gray.
- To view the scheduled time off (such as for half days) click on the absence.
- Days off for individuals with flex schedules will not display.
This is not current Workday functionality but may be included in a future release.
Employees with the Absence worklet can navigate to View – My Absence to see this information. Supervisors can use the Time and Absence worklet to navigate to the My Time Off Requests – Yale report.
Most internet browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari can be used with Workday.
Time off balances are updated as soon as the request is submitted.
Time off can be requested and scheduled up to two years in advance.
Every staff member should have a regular work schedule even if it is rotating to different schedules each week. For regular employees that are benefit eligible, paid time off depends on a schedule to drive accurate hours deducted from your absence balance. It is necessary to change your Work Schedule Calendar to reflect summer hours so that time off and other time calculations work correctly.
Note: If you/your employee works an overnight shift (e.g., 10:30pm to 6:30am or 4pm to 12:30am), manager should perform a Change Location business process transaction to provide Work Shift of 8 hours, 10 hours or 12 hours) and Time Off will default hours appropriately. For those working an overnight shift, the Work Shift amount will drive the default hours on absence request and may need to be adjusted to match actual hours used.
Questions for hourly staff (C&Ts and Security)
You will enter your weekly time worked; timesheets will be auto-filled based on your schedule to minimize data entry. You will submit your timesheet each week. It will then be automatically routed to your supervisor or business office for approval.
You will request time off through the Absence Calendar, which will automatically be routed to your supervisor or business office for approval. The Absence Calendar is a monthly calendar view of your requested and approved time off, your time off balances, and approved time off for your colleagues.
You will enter, review and submit your weekly time worked. You will request time off for approval by your supervisor or business office. You will have access to a monthly calendar view of all your requested and approved time off including your time off balances.
Yes, the schedule will remain the same. Weekly paid staff should submit timesheets by the end of the day Friday unless you work on Saturday. If you work on Saturday, submit by the end of the day on Saturday.
The Review button is the first of two steps; clicking it takes you to the screen where you can attest to the accuracy of the timesheet by clicking the Submit button. The Review button will not appear if there are any errors in the information submitted on that timesheet. You can review any error, and the guidance message it contains on how to fix the error, by click on the red “Error” rectangle that appears on the screen. Once all errors are resolved, the Review button will reappear.
Yes, the Submit button in Workday is the equivalent of the Approval button in Kronos.
Our current time entry codes will be consolidated to simplify and reduce errors. You will only see time entry codes for which you are eligible.
Delete the time block on the timesheet, then submit a time off request using Request Absence. From the Enter Time screen, you can access the Request Absence shortcut in the Actions button drop-down menu.
This is done in Workday the same way it's currently done in MyTime (Kronos.) On your timesheet, click on the day in question to open up a time block, choose "Compensatory Time Earned" as the Time Type, then enter the number of Hours you are choosing to bank as Compensatory Time instead of being paid for it.
Either your manager can enter your time, or you can enter it on Monday the following week.
There is no change to the way overtime is calculated. When entering time, any time entered above the default hours (based on your full-time equivalent, which may be 37.5 or 40 hours) is calculated as overtime.
There is no is change to the way compensatory time is earned in Workday.
You can request time off in advance of accruing the time.
You can submit your timesheet in advance of taking time off. Note that Workday will autofill from schedule for the next week only.
If necessary, the supervisor or delegate can enter and approve time without any action by the hourly staff member.
Time off for the current pay week will be auto-approved on a weekly basis.
Your Workday timesheet will automatically populate with regular hours based on your existing schedule in Workday. Autofill for the week will occur on the previous Monday at 7:00 a.m. (e.g., the June 13-19 timesheet will populate on June 7.) Existing time off and holidays will be respected and skipped over. Any time off requested after the autofill occurs will require modification to the timesheet to remove the regular hours for those days. Staff on leaves of absence will not have their timesheets auto-filled. Use “Autofill from Schedule” or “Autofill from Prior Week” from the “Actions” button on the timesheet to populate your timesheet, if needed.
For clerical and technical staff who work in another job either in the same department or a different department, the time entry procedure is essentially the same. The “Second Job” time entry code can be entered by the staff member in Workday.
For hourly employees that work on non-scheduled days including weekends, or work a different shift than their regular schedule, enter a new time block and select Regular Hours on each day worked.
Questions for Temporary Employees and Active Retirees and their supervisors
The employee may have a primary temporary job and additional temporary job in Workday and will enter time worked for each job. Each job will reference additional details including costing information (using the Assign Costing Allocation business process.) For details, review the Time Entry for Temporary Employees and Active Retirees Employee and Manager Guide.
The employee’s normal costing must be overridden with the grant information for the time worked. The department can choose to allow the employee to enter the costing information when entering time, or have the supervisor or delegate enter this information at the time of approval. If the employee’s normal costing contains the grant, there is no need to override this during time entry. For details, review the Time Entry for Temporary Employees and Active Retirees Employee and Manager Guide.
- Through the period ending 6/19/2021: Temporary staff working on grants will continue to use paper timesheets to capture effort certification. Your time must also be entered and approved in Workday.
- For time worked on or after 6/20/2021: The paper process for effort certification will be retired. Both time entry/approval and the effort certification process will be managed in Workday.
- Additional information about the effort certification process will be forthcoming from the Effort Certification Team.
Questions for salaried staff (M&Ps)
M&Ps projected to have a PTO Max Extension balance can make a request prior to July 1 for use after July 1. M&Ps will no longer have to wait until July 1 to see and request use of that time.
Yes. M&P Compensatory time will no longer be used to track equivalent time off for hours worked on a holiday or recess day. M&Ps who work on a holiday or recess day should work with their supervisor to arrange equivalent time off prior to the end of the fiscal year. This equivalent time cannot be banked in Workday as M&Ps will not have timesheets.
For M&Ps who don’t work Monday to Friday every week, M&P Compensatory time will no longer be granted for holidays or recess days that fall on an employee’s non-scheduled day. Instead, those M&Ps will be granted an additional Flex day for use prior to the end of the fiscal year.
Run the Time Off Balance report in Workday as of July 1, 2021. Look for the PTO Max Extension 2021 Payout balance. See the Check Time Off Balances guide for more information.
M&P time off must be entered in full day or half day increments. It is entered in hours.
M&Ps can make an absence request at any time.
You cannot enter PTO Max extension in the future. To use PTO Max extension, you must wait until after July 1.
Time off will be auto-approved at the close of every month.
Managerial and professional employees who are working in a second job will no longer have access to timesheet entry. Their departments will instead use the “Request One Time Payment” business process in Workday.
You will work with your manager to track this time worked offline. As M&Ps don’t have timesheets, this is not tracked within Workday.
Average Workday Calculation
Every Managerial and Professional employee has a numerical calculation of their average workday based on their schedule in Workday. The average workday is used to calculate paid time off accruals and support accurate time off usage by the employee.
The calculation:
Number of hours scheduled for the workweek/5
The average workday calculation is always based on a 5-day workweek. For example, an employee who works a 37.5-hour week has an average workday of 7.5 hours (37.5/5). An employee with a 20-hour workweek has an average workday of 4 hours (20/5). The average workday calculation applies to all M&Ps, including those who are not scheduled to work the same number of hours each day and those who work fewer than 5 days a week.
Accrual Calculation
The days that you accrue will be based on your average workday calculation as shown above and the Paid Time Off (PTO) and Flex Days accrual policy.
For example, if your average workday is 4 hours (for a 20-hour work week) and you are entitled to accrue 2 days of PTO per month based on the accrual policy, you will earn 8 PTO hours per month (shown in Workday as 2 days PTO).
Time Off Calculation
M&P employees, as per policy, use time in half or full days. When you request paid time off in Workday, the value of a half or full-day is calculated using the following formula:
Number of hours scheduled for the day / Number of hours in the average workday
The result may be a fraction of a day for M&Ps with flexible or non-standard schedules.
Examples
- An M&P working a flexible schedule 5 days per week, 37.5 hours total:
- Monday – 9 hours
- Tuesday – 6 hours
- Wednesday – 8 hours
- Thursday – 7 hours
- Friday – 7.5 hours
The average workday value is 7.5 hours (37.5/5).
Time off calculations:
- To request Monday off, the time off calculation is 9 hours/7.5 hours = 1.2 days.
- To request Tuesday off, the time off calculation is 6 hours/7.5 hours = 0.8 days.
- The same calculation applies to a request for a half-day off. For example, on Monday, 0.6 days is required for a half-day (4.5/7.5).
- An M&P with a non-standard schedule (fewer than 5 days per week). In this example, the employee works 20 hours per week over 2 days:
- Monday – 10 hours
- Tuesday – 10 hours
The average workday value is 4 hours (20/5).
Time off calculations:
- To request an entire day off, the time off calculation is 10/4 = 2.5 days.
- The same calculation applies to a request for a half-day off. The employee must use 1.25 days (5/4).
- M&Ps on Phased Retirement working 4 days per week:
An M&P with a reduced work schedule due to Phased Retirement will have the value of their average workday based on their FTE %.
An M&P who works 4 days per week but is paid for 37.5 hours (i.e., 100% FTE) will have an average workday of 7.5 hours (37.5/5).
Time off calculations:
- To request an entire day off, the employee must use 1 day (7.5/7.5).
- The same calculation applies to a request for a half-day off. The employee must use 0.5 days (3.75/7.5).
- M&Ps on Phased Retirement working 3 days per week:
An M&P with a reduced work schedule due to Phased Retirement will have the value of their average workday based on their FTE %.
An M&P who works 3 days per week but is paid for 28.13 hours (i.e., 75% FTE) will have an average workday of 5.63 hours (28.125/5).
Schedule for this example:
- Monday - 7.5 hours
- Tuesday - 7.5 hours
- Wednesday - 7.5 hours
Time off calculations:
- To request an entire day off, the time off calculation is 7.5/5.63 = 1.34 days.
- The same calculation applies to a request for a half-day off. The employee must use 0.67 days (3.75/5.63).
Questions for Police Officers
Public Safety administrators will continue to manage your time and schedule within Telestaff. Your shift coordinator will enter your time worked and time off within Workday. Your time off balances will continue to display on your payslip. You will also be able to access your time off balances at any time in Workday.
Questions for Supervisors, Delegates and Business Offices
You will review your employees’ weekly time worked for approval. You will be able to view your employees’ time off and balances on a consolidated team calendar and can approve time off requests on their behalf. A manager Time and Absence dashboard will help you access related tasks and reports.
You will review your employees’ weekly time worked for approval. You will be able to view your employees’ time off and balances on a consolidated team calendar and enter time off on behalf of your staff. A manager Time and Absence dashboard will help you access related tasks and reports.
You will be able to view your employees’ time off and balances on a consolidated team calendar and approve their time off requests or enter time off on their behalf. A manager Time and Absence dashboard will help you help you access related tasks and reports. You will no longer need to approve monthly timesheets for Managerial and Professional staff who are not eligible for overtime; you will approve overtime for eligible staff.
You will review your employees’ weekly time worked for approval. You will be able to view your employees’ time off and balances on a consolidated team calendar and approve their time off requests or enter time off on their behalf. A manager Time and Absence dashboard will help you access related tasks and reports.
Confirm whether your business office has requested a delegation on your behalf. If a delegation has not been pre-set on your behalf, you may set one up – review the Manage Delegations guide for details. Note that the roles of Timekeeper (assignable by your business office), Business Partner and Strategic Business Partner also have access to review/approve time worked.
Supervisors/delegates will receive the following alerts:
- Monday: Reminder to time approvers that have time entry pending with them for approval
- Friday: Reminder to time off approvers that have time off requests pending with them for approval
Supervisors/delegates will receive reminder alerts as detailed in the previous question.
Submitted requests can only be approved, denied or sent back by the supervisor or delegate. Once a request has been approved, it can be corrected by the supervisor or delegate.
Entering time off for an employee on intermittent leave is virtually identical to the standard process of entering time off for an employee. The only difference is that, prior to clicking Submit, the manager should click in the Reason field in the “Details for: [Time Off]” section of the screen and choose “On Leave.” Service and Maintenance supervisors will need to select the most appropriate choice from the displayed “On Leave” Reasons.
The ability to view subordinate organizations is an enhancement that will be considered in the future.
Review Time cannot be by delegates to approve time. Workday sends inbox items to delegates for approval.
Use the My Team's Schedule report. When running the report, select all of the individuals in your team whose schedules you would like to see.
Yes, the supervisor or delegate can enter a reason code of Unapproved.
The employee will be paid based on the entered time sheet.
No. M&P time off, whether or not on a leave of absence, should only be recorded in half or full days. Any M&P who takes an hour of intermittent leave should work with their manager to make it up on a later date, just as they might do, for example, after leaving early or arriving late on any normal work day.
For clerical and technical staff who work in another job either in the same department or a different department, the time entry procedure is essentially the same. “Second Job” and “Second Job Overtime” time entry codes exist in Workday and can be entered by the staff member. The hourly rate must be entered by the Supervisor for payment to occur. The procedure for Second Job Overtime has not changed - a weighted average rate must be calculated by Human Resources and that straight rate (not the rate*1.5) must be entered on the Second Job Overtime time entry code. Cost allocations for these remain as before in Workday. Managerial and Professional employees who are working in a second job will no longer have access to timesheet entry. Their departments will instead use the “Request One Time Payment” business process in Workday.
Managers and Business Offices will have access to enter timesheets for their employees. To add others to review/approve time worked, you may grant the role of Timekeeper (assignable by your business office) to a specific Supervisor Organization. Review the Manage Roles in Workday guide for more details.
Questions for HR Generalists
HR Generalists will not have access to the manager dashboards unless they are managers.
Supervisors and their delegates will be responsible for ensuring that final timesheets are approved and will receive a reminder as part of a staff member’s termination to obtain final timesheet and time off approvals. The termination will not proceed until those approvals are obtained.
Questions for Service and Maintenance Staff and Supervisors
- The last punch on the Kronos time clocks will be Saturday, May 29 at 8:00 pm.
- The first punch on the new time clocks will be Sunday, May 30 at 12:01 am.
What this means for employees working on May 29-May 30 and their supervisors/delegates:
- If an employee punches in on Saturday, May 29 on the Kronos clock and needs to punch out after 8:00 pm, the supervisor or delegate must enter the punch out manually in Kronos before Sunday, May 30 at 12:00pm.
- If an employee starts work on Saturday, May 29 after 8:00 pm, the supervisor or delegate must enter the punch in and punch out manually in Kronos before Sunday, May 30 at 12:00pm.
- If there are errors in entry, submit a Payroll Earning Adjustment Form to the Employee Service Center.
The supervisor or delegate must enter time on behalf of these workers.
Workday Time and Absence – Confidential Payroll Employees
You will request time off, which will be submitted to your supervisor or business office for approval. You will have access to a monthly calendar view of all your requested and approved time off, including your time off balances.
Time off must be entered in full or half-day increments. Enter “1” for full-day increments and “0.5” for half-day increments.
You can enter your time off for previously taken time off or for future planned time off.
You can enter PTO max day Effective Date only between 7/1 and 9/30 each year. A day off using PTO max within this period can be entered prior to 7/1. The best practice would be not to enter this until close to 7/1, as PTO taken prior to 7/1 will impact PTO max balances).
Time off entries will remain pending until approved by your supervisor or a delegate. This would potentially impact the accuracy of your balances going forward.
If the pending time off entry is in the past and still pending, your current balance will take that absence into account. You can also view your balances as of a specific date, with and without pending days considered.
You will be able to view time off balances, along with a consolidated team calendar. You will also approve their time off entries (or, as a manager, enter time off on their behalf). You will see time off entries awaiting your approval in your “Tasks awaiting action” center on the Workday Homepage or in your Workday Inbox.
Senior leaders can work with their assistants to document their time off. They will then submit your monthly time off entries to your business office to enter and approve.
All other individuals on Confidential Payroll are expected to enter their time off in Workday.