Application for Windows SharePoint Services Documentation for Microsoft Sales and Partners Employee Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management
1.0 - Description
Business Value The Employee Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management application for Windows SharePoint Services provides a central place for managers and employees to see when team members will be out of office, make vacation requests, and find links to individual job sites so a co-worker can easily cover for someone while they are out. It is intended to track, in one place, all “out of office” requests and instances including sick leave, vacation, personal days, and other types of leave. It could also potentially be expanded to handle travel requests and travel schedules. This application will benefit a company by: Reducing time required to keep track of absences Avoiding loss in productivity due to team absences or not knowing where to find critical job information for employees who are out. Key functionality featured in this application includes The “Submit an Absence Request” InfoPath form o In filling out an absence request form, employees are required to enter why they are requesting to be out of the office and when.
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The supervisor will be alerted when a new request has been entered and will then go into the form to approve or deny the request.
Out of Office Calendar o Once an absence request has been approved, or an absence due to an illness is known, it is recorded in the calendar. o The calendar can be viewed as a list or in calendar view. o Clicking on an event within the calendar brings you directly to that specific request form or team member information.
Contacts and Job Information Links o This Web part and list is important because it includes links to any individual job sites that team members may have set up to house key job-related information such as meetings, contacts, current tasks, and processes for handling their job. Note- these individual job Web sites are not included with this application.
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2.0 – Products Included
The Microsoft Office products included in this application include: Microsoft Word Microsoft InfoPath
3.0 - Sample Scenario for Use
Audience This application is intended to be used by: Human Resources Project Manager (Team Lead) Non-management employees Business Situation When an employee takes time off from work, their absence will impact overall company productivity. In some situations, managers will need to find others to take on the employee’s responsibilities while they are out. Managers need to be able to track absences and when. Scheduling may impact when an employee can be allowed to take time off. Some organizations do not have a structured absence request policy, which can lead to confusion, too many employees being out at one time, and loss in productivity. Sample Scenario Due to the size of her staff, Northwind Traders’ General Manager Claudia Mangel must closely monitor employee vacation requests and sick time. If someone takes time off, Claudia must make sure that another employee or other employees, take on their responsibilities. She must also make sure that employee vacations do not overlap. To address this situation, Claudia utilizes the Employee Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management application for Windows SharePoint Services. This provides her with a central location to view vacation requests and status. Using Microsoft InfoPath forms, Northwind Traders’ employees submit their vacation requests. Claudia can then view the requests and cross-reference them with the absences listed in the calendar. The calendar displays which employees are off and if there are any scheduling conflicts. Based on this information, she can choose to accept or reject the requests. To ensure that all new and existing employees know the company’s vacation and sick leave policies, these documents are posted on the site. Links to any employee personal sites and other informational sites are also accessible here. Alerts are used by the General Manager and staff to let them know when changes have been made to the site, such as new requests, approvals/rejections and updated documents.
4.0 - Customization Opportunities
For Microsoft Systems Integrators and other partners, there are customization opportunities to extend the functionality, integration, and scalability of this application to better meet a specific customer’s needs. These opportunities may include: Addition of employee personal Web sites which could be linked from the Employee Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management site.
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Integration with an existing database which hosts employee information. Integration with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server. Calendar Integration with Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook. InfoPath Form Integration and Custom Event Handling in Form Library. Web Part Development for Custom Reporting.
5.0 - For More Information
For more information, please visit: www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/sharepoint/default.mspx.
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