How To Apply For Leave

The policies for leave can be read at Chapter 9, Section 3 of the Strictly Savvy Policies Manual here.

Section 3.1 - Annual Leave (A/L)

Section 3.2 - Sick Leave (S/L)

Section 3.7 - Leave Without Pay (LWP)

Section 3.8 - Bereavement Leave (B/L)

Section 3.9 - Jury Service Leave

Section 3.10 - Parental Leave (P/L)

Applying for Annual or Sick Leave

There are 4 things you need to do when taking leave:

1. Request leave via the Smartly App

2. Add a leave timer in Harvest

3. Add it to the Leave & Absence calendar

4. Delegate tasks/clients to other VAs

Smartly

When you would like to request leave, you will need to submit a leave request through the Smartly app on your phone. If you don't have the app please see the Office Administrator. 

Complete the steps below to apply for the leave through the app. Your Team Leader or Manager will receive the request and consider. Once they have approved or declined, you will receive a notification.

Applying for leave:

1. Log into the Smartly app on your phone

2. Click on the Leave icon at the bottom

3. Click on the green + Apply for leave button

4. Fill in the request details, selecting which sort of leave it is and the dates

5. Select an Approver (this will be your either the General Manager or your Team Leader)

6. Once you have finished click Save. Your approver will now be notified and will either Approve or Decline your leave. You will get an email letting you know if it has been approved or not

Note: If you are applying for 1.36 hours of leave and you usually work 8 hours on that day then you calculate 1.36 divided by 8 = 0.17. You would therefore put 0.17 in the day field.

If you don't have any leave left OR you have not yet qualified for sick leave (you must have worked for the company for a minimum of 6 months before you can get sick leave), you can use your annual leave instead if approved by your Team Leader or the General Manager, or LWP - leave without pay.

Harvest

Annual leave - before you go on leave you need to enter an internal timer/s into your timesheet in Harvest with the note "Annual leave" (pic below)

Sick leave - when you return to work you will need to enter an internal timer/s into your timesheet in Harvest with the note "Sick leave" (pic below)

Leave Without Pay - if you do not have any annual or sick leave available, and you need to take unpaid leave, you will need to enter an internal timer/s into your timesheet in Harvest with the note "LWP" (pic below)

Calendar Entry for Annual Leave and Appointments

When you are going on Annual Leave, or leaving the office for an appointment, add it to the Leave & Absence calendar so the rest of the team can see that you will be away.

1. In Outlook go to your calendar, and find the day/s of when your leave takes place. At the top of that day click into the space below the date, and above the time

2. At the top, select the Leave & Absence calendar

3. Enter the details of your leave in the following format: (Name) - (type of leave) from (date to date) eg Rochelle - Annual Leave 24 Dec to 4 Jan, or if it is only for one day then it would be Rochelle - Annual Leave (ref below - pic 1)

4. OR If it is for an appointment then it would be: (Name) - Appointment eg Rochelle - Appointment and you would put it in the appropriate timeframe in the calendar (ref below - pic 2)

5. Under People you can add yourself so it goes to your calendar as well, but otherwise the whole team has access to the Leave & Absence calendar, so you do not need to invite anyone else to it

6.  If your leave is for more than one day, then adjust the Start and End dates accordingly. Do not change the time, but leave All day as ticked

Delegate tasks/clients to other VAs

Follow the steps on the What To Do Before Taking Leave and What To Do When You Return From Leave pages.