With vacation season upon us, please make sure you are reporting your vacation time accurately and timely. Here are some details that you may find helpful as an employee or leave approver.
Vacation is earned each pay period according to eligible employees’ years of service and job appointment (e.g., classified or unclassified). Eligible employees are expected to use vacation time for rest, relaxation and other personal reasons during the year in which it is earned. A detailed explanation of vacation accrual rates, eligibility and usage is in administrative policy 6-11.7. You also can view the accrual schedule online. According to the policy, both supervisors and employees eligible to earn vacation have certain responsibilities.
Supervisor’s Responsibilities
Supervisors are responsible for making sure that employees submit all vacation time that is taken. Supervisors do not have the authority to “give someone the day off” without reporting it as leave.
Supervisors who allow employees to take leave without reporting it may be subject to disciplinary measures. Situations where the employee does not report to work and there is no leave request to document the absence can create legal implications for the university.
Eligible Employee’s Responsibilities
Eligible employees are responsible for scheduling vacation and alternate leave time off in advance with their supervisor, so that the workflow in the department is not interrupted. Employees are encouraged to use their vacation time, and supervisors are expected to approve reasonable requests that are made in advance.
Eligible employees are responsible for accurately reporting the number of leave hours taken and submitting the time for approval. If an employee has taken previous leave time and not reported it, time should be submitted for approval immediately. Kent State University employees should report leave through the proper timekeeping systems. The leave should be submitted at the end of the pay period in which the leave was taken.
Those employees whose salaries were subject to a reduction have been granted additional alternate leave days that may be used in lieu of, or in addition to vacation days to be taken during Fiscal Year 2021 (from July 2020 through June 2021).
If you use FlashLine to record and submit leave, pay periods are available for one month following the beginning of the pay period to record vacation, sick, personal or alternate leave time. Supervisors have one month following the close of the pay period to approve leave time. The Banner Leave Reporting and Approval training guide can be found on the Information Technology Human Resource Reference page.
Empower supervisor & employee manuals can be found on the Payroll Timekeeping web page.
If you have additional questions, please contact Human Resources Records at 330-672-8316 or hr-records@kent.edu.