There will be changes to how staff report their absences and how sickness will be recorded via MyHR in the future.

Absence reporting:

The process for reporting absences will be changing from immediate effect as follows:

• Employees and/or managers do not need to inform Library HR on the first day of absence.
• Employees no longer need to notify Library HR when ill during the day and as a result leaving part way through the day to go home.

New process to take effect immediately:

• Employees should contact their manager regarding their absence from work, if their line manager is not at work then the next senior manager should be contacted.
• Employees should remain in contact with their line manager during the course of their absence or the next senior manager if their manager is absent.

Returning to work after sickness:

• Employees should inform their line manager when they are deemed fit to return to work
• It is good practice for managers to have return to work meetings with employees as stipulated in previous guidance and UCL’s Sickness Absence Policy.

New process for Sickness Recording

With effect from 1^st February 2022 Library HR will cease recording sickness absences on MyHR. Line managers will assume the task of being responsible for the inputting of sickness. Whilst employees have the functionality to update their own sickness records we recommend that the manager does so however, via mutual agreement the employee may record their own absence which the line manager would then be required to approve via the system.

The UCL Knowledge Centre has a 10 minute training session for managers entitled ‘manage employee sickness absence’ which can be found under the ‘My Team’s Absence and time off’ section. It is recommended that managers complete this training prior to the 1^st February 2022.

Sickness certification

As a temporary measure the government has specified that for any period of sickness absence which commences on or between 10^th December 2021 and 26^th January 2022 a doctor fit notes will only be issued after 28 days of absence this is to enable GP’s to have more capacity to focus upon supporting the coronavirus vaccine booster programme.

As an interim measure employee’s should self-certify up to 28 days instead of 7 for the duration of this temporary measure.

Full details of Sickness reporting and Sickness Recording changes coming into effect both now and in February are available on Libnet under the Leave and Absence and MyHR – Information for Library Staff pages.

*Sickness Recording and handling of paperwork will be retained by the Library HR Team until 31^st January 2022.

As of October 1st, the MyFlexi system has now been retired. Colleagues will be unable to access the system, with the exception of the Library HR team, and the LibNet pages on leave and absence have been updated with links to MyHR. Clocking in and out on-site was already suspended but has now been formally ended.

MyHR and Local TOIL Arrangements

Colleagues should now book annual leave via MyHR. A quick guide to applying for annual leave on MyHR is available on LibNet as is a new document explaining how to cancel leave requests. More detailed guides on navigating MyHR are available on the UCL Knowledge Centre (please note you will need to be on the UCL network or VPN in order to access these).

TOIL should now be managed locally within teams. Colleagues should consider the flexitime guidelines and FAQs available on LibNet when discussing TOIL arrangements.

Included in the LibNet guidance are Word and Excel templates you may wish to use to log TOIL – please note that these documents are not prescriptive, and you may wish to adapt them, or use your own local documents, for your team’s needs.

In addition, managers should by now have received a list of any outstanding MyFlexi positive balances accrued within their teams before the MyFlexi system was retired.

Annual Leave Carry Over

Any colleagues who did not submit their carry-over requests by 15th September should await confirmation from Library HR before updating their carry-over on MyHR. The system is currently being updated by HR Systems. Instructions on how to add carry-over will be circulated once colleagues can begin the process.

Please note that any colleagues who did submit carry over requests to Library HR by the 15th September will not need to manually add their carry over. It may be the case that your carry over is not currently displaying on MyHR as of the 1st October, but it should be added shortly as the system updates.

Manager Briefings

We are continuing to host informal briefing sessions for line managers to answer questions about local implementation of policy. Please contact Bethan Smith to book a place on one of these slots.

The remaining dates and times of the sessions are as follows:

Thursday 14th October, 14:00 -15:00, led by Martin Moyle and June Hedges

Friday 22nd October, 11:00 -12:00, led by Martin Moyle and June Hedges

Questions on using MyHR to submit and manage leave requests that are not covered by the UCL Knowledge Centre or LibNet can be addressed to the Library HR Team. Any other questions about the above can be sent to Bethan Smith.