Employee Self Service (ESS)

User Guide

Contents

Employee Registration. 3

Login. 3

Leave Requests Section. 5

Creating a Leave Request 5

Viewing Leave Requests. 6

Deleting Leave Requests. 7

Personal Information Section. 9

Career and Job Section. 10

Company. 12

Help. 13

Logout 13

Employee Registration

To register for Employee Self Service, please follow the instructions below:

1. Click the ‘Register’ button on the Employee Login Page to display the Registration Details Screen

2. If Active Directory is being used for user names and passwords, a Windows Account Verification Screen will appear; enter your Windows Account details and click ‘Verify’ to continue

3. Fill in the fields:

• User Name (must be unique)
• Password (case sensitive)
• Confirm Password (case sensitive)
• Work Email Address
• Confirm Work Email Address
• Answer the five Security Questions
• *N.I. Number OR Employee Number and Date of birth

*This will be used to verify your details against the HR employee database

4. Click ‘Register’ button

5. If a prompt appears indicating that your details will be sent to HR for verification, click Ok. You will receive an email with your details informing you that approval is needed from HR before your account is activated

6. Once HR approves your registration details, you will receive another email confirming your registration; proceed to Login

Please keep your account information in a safe place.

NOTE: An HR Administrator can also invite you to register. If they do, you will receive an email (including user name and password) informing you to complete your registration by clicking the Please follow this link to Complete Registration link then follow Steps 3-6 above (filling in empty fields).

Login

Logging In

Once you have registered for Employee Self Service (ESS), you can proceed to the Login Screen.

1. Click the ESS Login Page link in your registration approval email

2. Enter your User Name

3. Enter your password (case sensitive)

4. Answer the security question (a random question will be chosen each time you login) (case sensitive)

5. Click the ‘Login’ button (On successful login, you will be taken to the Employee Self Service Home Page.)

Forgotten Password?

NOTE: If Active Directory is being used for user names and passwords, you cannot reset your password through ESS, please contact your IT Department.

To reset your password, please do the following:

1. On the Login Page of Employee Self Service under Forgotten Password?, enter your User Name

2. Click ‘Reset Password’ button

3. Fill in the fields:
• Date of Birth
• Enter your answers to the five Security Questions (created during registration)
• New Password (case sensitive)
• Confirm Password (case sensitive)

4. Click ‘Reset Password’ button (or click ‘Back To Login’ button to cancel)

5. Prompts ‘Your password has been reset’, click Ok to return to your Login Page

6. Now proceed to Logging In with your new password, you will receive an email with your new details

Please keep your account information in a safe place.

My Profile

This Screen provides your login information which you can edit and save.

To edit, do the following:

1. From the toolbar click ‘My Profile’

2. Amend fields accordingly

3. If necessary, enter a new password and confirm password; you must click ‘Change Password’ button before clicking the ‘Save’ button

4. Click Save

IMPORTANT: Leave password boxes blank to leave the current password unchanged.

Leave Requests Section

Creating a Leave Request

From the your Home Page, click on Create New Leave Request link, the Leave Request Wizard appears; go through the Wizard carefully:

Step 1 – Details

You can request leave for the current leave year or the next leave year.

1. Type in the Start Date (or click on the ‘Calendar’ button and select the date)

2. The End Date populates the same date as the Start Date, amend if necessary

3. Select either Full day, First or Second half of the Day for the End Date

4. Select an Absence Reason e.g. Annual Leave

NOTE: The Annual Leave reason is the only entry that deducts the days/hours from the Employee’s Annual Leave Balance.

5. Summary Details of your Contract will be displayed (If you have more than one job, select the relevant Contract from the drop-down list for this Leave Request.)

6. In the Notes box, type in any information that you would like your Line Manager to be aware of

7. Click ‘Next’ button

8. A prompt may appear stating you do not have a Shift Pattern assigned to you, click OK

Throughout the Wizard, the ‘Cancel’ button returns you to the Employee’s Home Page.

IMPORTANT: If you receive a prompt indicating that you must give a minimum number of days notice, contact your Line Manager to confirm before proceeding to Step 2 – Days/Hours.

Step 2 – Days/Hours

A summary of the Leave Request will be displayed

1. A prompt may appear stating that the Employee does not have a Shift Pattern assigned to them, click OK

then enter the days manually (the hours will be calculated automatically when you enter the days)

2. You can click ‘Previous’ button and change the details

3. Click ‘Next’ button to continue to next step

Step 3 – Annual Leave Balance

A breakdown of the Employee’s Annual Leave balance will be displayed

The Days/Hours will only be deducted from your annual leave allocation if you selected Annual Leave as your Leave Reason.

	Days	Hours
Brought Forward	4.00	23.00	Leave carried forward from the previous year (see Contract)
Leave Allocation	25.00	200.00	Annual Leave allocated (see Contract)
Statutory Lieu	2.0	16.00	Statutory Leave allocated if applicable (see Contract)
Leave Taken	13.00	114.80	Leave taken during the year (see Absence Records)
Future Leave Requested
Current Leave Year	4.00	32.00	Unconfirmed Leave Requests (notes below)
Next Leave Year	1.00	8.00	Leave Requests for future leave year (notes below)
Balance Before	14.00	101.20	Balance to the above
Current Leave Request	1.00	8.00	The current Leave Request you are entering in
Balance After	13.00	93.20	The employee’s remaining leave

NOTE:

Current Leave Year: Your request will only appear under Current Leave Year if your leave falls IN THE CURRENT LEAVE YEAR. You can view the Current Leave Year dates when creating a NEW Leave Request.

Next Leave Year: This figure is not deducted from Annual Leave balance until the leave year changes.

1. If you want to change your Leave Request, click ‘Previous’ button (e.g. a negative balance)

2. Click ‘Next’ button to continue to next step

Step 4 – Confirmation

A summary of the Leave Request will be displayed

1. If you want to change the Leave Request, click ‘Previous’ button

2. Click ‘Save’ button

Step 5 – Complete

1. A message states that your Leave Request has been accepted and your Line Manager will be notified

2. Click Return, returns you to your Home Page

3. You will receive an email detailing your request, as well as your Line Manager

This Leave Request can be viewed under status Pending, see Viewing Leave Requests

Viewing Leave Requests

You can view your Leave Requests either from your Home Page or from the Absence Calendar.

From your Home Page

1. On your Home Page within the Leave Requests Section, you can view your Requests by selecting the Request Status Filter (see Leave Requests statuses below)

2. Click View link beside the relevant record for more details

Leave Requests statuses are: see below

View All -	Defaults to view all leave requests in reverse chronological order
Pending -	Awaiting Line Manager to approve/decline
Elevated -	Line Manager’s approval outstanding – HR Administrator informed
Authorised -	Line Manager has approved your request
Confirmed -	System/Manager confirms that the Employee has taken the leave
Declined -	Line Manager has not approved your request
Deleted -	Employee has deleted the Leave Request
Deletion Requested -	Line Manager has Authorised, Employee requests deletion, Line Manager to approve deletion

From the Absence Calendar

1. Select a contract, if applicable

2. Select a month and/or year period

3. Note: You can view up to two years back and 2 years forward from the current year.

4. Click to select a View Format (displays monthly or yearly)

5. Click the ‘GO’ button

6. A list of you and your colleagues (from your department/area) with the relevant absences for the selected criteria will be displayed (depending on your access rights)

A Key shows what each colour block relates to.

7. On the Absence Calendar, you can hover on a Key colour to display a summary of the absence episode

Also see Career and Job Section, Absence Calendar

Deleting Leave Requests

You can only delete a Leave Request with a Pending and/or Elevated status.

To Delete:

1. Under Current Leave Requests, click on the View link beside a Leave Request with a Pending or Elevated status

2. Enter a comment to your Line Manager if you wish

3. Click Delete (or Click Ok returns you to your Home Page)

4. Prompts ‘Are you sure you would like to delete this request?’

5. Click Yes (or click No)

6. Prompts ‘The leave request has been deleted.’, click Ok

7. Your Line Manager will receive an email detailing your deletion

This Deletion record can now be viewed under status Deleted, see Viewing Leave Requests

If a Line Manager has already authorised your request, you will need to Request a Deletion.

To Request Deletion:

1. Under Current Leave Requests, select Request Status Filter to ‘Authorised’

2. Beside the relevant Leave Request, Click on the View link

3. Enter a comment to your Line Manager if you wish

4. Click Request Deletion (or Click Ok returns you to your Home Page)

5. Prompts ‘Are you sure you would like to request deletion of this record?’

6. Click Yes (or click No returns you to Leave Request Details Screen)

7. Prompts ‘Deletion has been requested.’, click Ok

8. Your Line Manager will receive an email detailing your request

9. Once your Line Manager has deleted your Leave Request, you will receive an email detailing your request

This record can now be viewed under status Deletion Requested, see Viewing Leave Requests

For Confirmed Leave Requests Deletion:

You will receive an email notifying you of any confirmed Leave Requests. If you did not take this leave; contact your Line Manager, so that they can amend the Absence Record and Annual Leave Balance accordingly (if applicable).

Personal Information Section

This Section is your personal information that you can update (depending on your access rights).

An alert message may appear if records are currently awaiting update authorisation by HR for any of the below screens.  When the alert appears, the screen will become read only until the records are authorised.

The screens are as follows:

Personal Details	Monitoring Details
Next of Kin Details	Bank Details
Emergency Contacts

Throughout these screens, the ‘Cancel’ button returns you to your Home Page.

Creating/Entering Personal Information Record

1. Click on one of the Personal Information Screens above e.g. Emergency Contacts

2. Fill in the empty fields

3. Click Save (or Click Cancel returns you to your Home Page)

4. A prompt may appear indicating that your details will be sent to HR for verification, click Ok

5. The record is now updated

NOTE: If you receive the prompt at Step 4, you will not see your changes until HR has authorised them. Once HR approves or declines, you will receive an email.

Edit Personal Information Record

1. Click on one of the Personal Information Screens above

2. Amend any of the fields or fill in missing information

3. Click ‘Save’ button returns you to your Home Page

4. A prompt may appear indicating that your details will be sent to HR for verification, click Ok

NOTE: If you receive the prompt at Step 4, you will not see your changes until HR has authorised them. Once HR approves or declines, you will receive an email.

Career and Job Section

Annual Leave Details

From the Employee’s Home Page under Career and Job Section, click Annual Leave Details link to display a breakdown of your annual leave balance. You can click the ‘Back’ button which will return you to your Home Page.

To print the Annual Leave Details, click on the Print this page link.

	Days	Hours
Brought Forward	4.00	23.00	Leave carried forward from the previous year (see Contract)
Leave Allocation	25.00	200.00	Annual Leave allocated (see Contract)
Statutory Lieu	2.0	16.00	Statutory Leave allocated if applicable (see Contract)
Leave Taken	13.00	114.80	Leave taken during the year (see Absence Records)
Future Leave Requested
Current Leave Year	4.00	32.00	Unconfirmed Leave Requests (notes below)
Next Leave Year	1.00	8.00	Leave Requests for future leave year (notes below)
Balance	13.00	93.20	The employee’s remaining leave

NOTE:

Current Leave Year: Your request will only appear under Current Leave Year if your leave falls IN THE CURRENT LEAVE YEAR. You can view the Current Leave Year dates when creating a NEW Leave Request.

Next Leave Year: This figure is not deducted from the Annual Leave balance until the leave year changes.

Contract/Career History

From the Employee’s Home Page under Career and Job Section, click Contract/Career History link which displays the Contract tab. This Contract tab displays your current job details. The Career History tab displays any changes made to your employment contract over the years. These two tabs are read only.

You can click the ‘Back’ button which will return you to your Home Page.

Absence Records

From the Employee’s Home Page under Career and Job Section, click Absence Records link to view all your absences.

To View Absence Records

1. From the your Home Page under Career and Job Section, click on Absence Records link

2. Enter the date range and/or select the Absence Reason (if you leave the Absence Reason blank all reasons will be displayed)

3. Click ‘View Records’ button to display a list of absences reflecting your criteria

NOTE: Absence Records List only shows confirmed Absence Records.

The ‘Back’ button returns you to your Home Page.

To View Employee Absence Report

You can run and print a report based on your Absence Records criteria. In addition, you can export to Microsoft Excel and other formats.

1. From the Absence Records Screen
   
   
2. Select/enter the Absence Dates and select a Reason (if you do not select a reason, the report will display all your Absence Records)
   
   
3. Click the ‘View Report’ button

Report shows: Employee Name, Report From/To Dates, Start/End dates, Days, Hours, Reason, Extra Analysis, Grand Total and the date/time the report was generated.

4. Use the arrows to view the different pages within your report

5. Click the ‘Print’ icon on the toolbar

OR

6. Select e.g. Excel from the drop-down arrow, then click Export link; file download screen appears, click Open to view Excel spreadsheet (or click Save to save on your PC or click Cancel which returns you to your report view)

Click the ‘Change Report Parameters’ button which takes you back to the Absence Records Screen.

The ‘Back’ button returns you to your Home Page.

Absence Calendar

From the Employee’s Home Page under Career and Job Section, click the Absence Calendar link which will display all your Leave Requests, Sickness, Other Absences, Training, Statutory days and Non-working days for a selected time period.

A Key shows what each colour block relates to. Hover on a Key colour to display a summary of the record.

From the Absence Calendar, click the Create New Leave Request link to take you through the wizard, see Creating a Leave Request.

The Calendar can be printed by clicking on the Print icon from the web browser and/or press Print Screen on the keyboard and paste into an email.

Click the ‘Back’ button which will return you to your Home Page.

Access the Absence Calendar anytime by clicking Absence Calendar on the toolbar.

Also see Viewing Leave Requests using the Absence Calendar.

Note: You may be able to see your team colleagues listed in the Calendar. This will depend on the system configuration settings chosen by your HR department.

Training Records

From the Employee’s Home Page under Career and Job Section, click Training Records link which displays all your training records.

Click on View link under Options to display more details relating to the training record.

Company

Employee Directory

From your Home Page under the Company Section, click Employee Directory link. This allows you to search the Employee database for contact details e.g. email addresses and telephone numbers for all employees.

After entering your search criteria, you must click the ‘Search’ button to retrieve a list of Employees matching your criteria.

Note: When there are less than 20 Employees, the numeric page does not display.

You can click the ‘Back’ button which will return you to your Home Page.

Access the Employee Directory anytime by clicking Employee Directory on the toolbar.

Company Documents

From your Home Page under the Company Section, click Company Documents which displays a list of company documents for your reference (depending on your access rights).

To view a Document(s):

Click on the plus sign (+) to expand the list then click on a document

OR

Click on the minus sign (-) to collapse the list

You can click the ‘Back’ button which will return you to your Home Page.

Help

Click ‘Help’ on the toolbar at any time. This will take you to this Employee Self Service User Guide explaining all these features and functionalities of the ESS system.

You can print the Help document by clicking on the Print icon from the web browser.

Logout

Once you are finished using Employee Self Service, please remember to Logout. Click the ‘Logout’ button on the toolbar. This will return you to your Login Page.

Your session in the Employee Self Service System will expire after 30 minutes of inactivity (this also applies to your Login Page if left idled). The System will return an expired message, click the here link which will return you to your Login Page and require you to enter your login details.

Note: System activity means actually clicking on a link or button requesting information from the database or initiating a process (excludes typing in a field).

Should you have any questions, please contact your

Line Manager or your Human Resources Department.