Employee Suspensions on ZenHR
The Employee Suspensions feature on ZenHR gives you the ability to temporarily suspend employees while maintaining full control over their actions and access during the suspension period. With this feature, you can easily manage employee status, restrict system access, and ensure compliance with internal policies, all while keeping a clear record of the suspension details.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Employee Suspensions on ZenHR
- How to Suspend an Employee
- Suspended Employees
- Add a Resumption for a Suspended Employee
- Terminate a Suspended Employee
- Adjusting a Suspension Or Resumption Record
- Withdrawing/Cancelling Suspension or Resumption Record
How to Suspend an Employee
First Step: Add Suspension Reasons
To suspend an employee, go to User Menu → System preferences → Administrative Setup → Employee Suspension Reasons
The Suspended Employees column displays the number of suspended employees for each reason. Clicking the number opens a pop-up showing all approved suspensions for that reason.
To suspend an employee, follow these steps:
Click on “Add Suspension Reason”.
In the Suspension reason field, provide a brief description of the suspension reason.
Activate the suspension reason to use it for new employee suspensions; if deactivated, you cannot use it for new suspensions, but previous suspensions will still be maintained.
In the Mandatory Fields section, choose whether you want suspension/resumption notes or attachments to be mandatory.
In the Notification Setup section, you can choose to activate notifications and reminders. Please note that any information entered in the suspension reason setup serves as a template for that suspension reason when selected for an employee. This information can be modified on a case-by-case basis for each employee, and you can also add or remove users as needed when suspending each employee for this reason.
Enable the toggle for 'Notify recipients of suspension and resumption.' Then, select the default ZenHR users in the 'Users to notify' section, along with any 'External recipients' (if necessary), who will receive notifications and emails whenever a suspension or resumption is approved, adjusted, or canceled.
To send recurring reminders for reviewing suspension records, activate the “Remind users to review employee suspension” toggle. Select users from the Users to remind drop-down menu and choose the notification period in days in the 'Remind users to review suspension every' field. Reminders will be sent whenever an employee is suspended for this reason, according to the defined recurrence period, provided the suspension is approved but no approved resumption date or termination date has been defined.
Click on “Add”.
Second Step: Add Approval Template
Each employee suspension and resumption record undergoes an approval process. By default, ZenHR assigns the direct manager as the approver to prevent accidental suspensions.
To customize this process, go to System Preferences → Administrative Setup → Approvals.
Find the Employee Suspensions & Resumptions approval template and select “Edit” in the actions column. You can adjust the approval cycle to suit your needs or assign different approval cycles for specific suspension reasons using the Transaction Sub-type drop-down menu. Then click on Update Approval Template.
Third Step: Request to Suspend the Employee
Through the left-side menu, go to Employees → Employee Affairs → Employee Suspensions
Click on the “Suspend Employee” button.
On the new page, fill in the Employee name of the employee to be suspended.
Add the Suspension date.
Select the Suspension reason from the drop-down.
Add any Suspension notes or attachments if needed.
Then click on “Next”.
Activate the Stop salary checkbox to exclude the employee from payroll starting from the suspension month.
Activate the Stop provisions checkbox to exclude the employee from provisions calculations starting from the suspension month.
To prevent an employee from logging into their ZenHR account, click "Prevent employee access to their ZenHR account" If access is not restricted, the employee can still log in but won't be able to make new requests until their resumption date. When access is restricted, they will no longer receive emails or notifications from ZenHR, except for suspension and resumption updates.
The Users to notify and remind fields are automatically filled based on the setup defined for the selected suspension reason, but they can be customized for this specific employee.
Once completed, click the “Submit” button.
To confirm your request on the pop-up that appears, click “Request Suspension”.
The request will then be forwarded to the approver in the approval cycle for review.
Fourth Step: Approve Suspension Request
Once a suspension request is submitted, the first approver and the people to notify specified in the approval cycle will receive a notification and an email regarding the request. They can access the request by clicking on the notification for the suspension request or by navigating to the My Approvals page through the user menu in the upper right corner.
From there, approvers can go to the "Employee Suspensions & Resumptions" tab to take action.
Click on the Approve Suspension button to approve the suspension request.
Once an action (approval or rejection) has been taken, the individuals listed in the suspension setup will be notified of the employee's suspension via email and notification. External recipients will receive an email. Reminders will be sent according to the selected duration, and the suspension setup will take effect from the suspension’s effective date.
**Note: While a suspension request is pending, users cannot calculate the employee's salary until action is taken to suspend the suspension. If no action has been taken, a reminder will be sent to the approver one day prior to the suspension date.
**Note: If the suspended employee is in an approval cycle, they will be automatically skipped and the request will be forwarded to the next approver once the suspension is approved. If they are the only approver, they will be replaced by their direct manager or supervisor.
Emails after Suspension is Approved
Sample Email to a Suspended Employee (if included in the Suspension Setup):
Sample Email to the Users to Notify included in the Suspension Setup:
Sample Email to External Recipients:
Suspended Employees
Stop Salary:
After the suspension of an employee has been approved and their salary has been stopped, this employee will be excluded from the payroll run starting from the payroll for the month of suspension until an approved resumption date. The manage salaries page will show the currently suspended employee who will be excluded from the current month's payroll at the top of the page.
Clicking “View Employees” will show a pop-up with the employee details:
Note: If an employee's salary has been suspended, you must calculate their provisions using the "Manage Monthly Provisions" page. Similarly, provisions that are typically auto-generated with payroll will need to be sent to financial integrations manually when payroll is stopped, through the "Manage Monthly Provisions" page.
Stop Provisions:
After the suspension of an employee has been approved and their provisions have been stopped, this employee will be excluded from the calculation of provisions starting from the payroll for the month of suspension until an approved resumption date. The Manage Monthly Provisions page will show the currently suspended employee who will be excluded from the calculation of the provisions for the current month at the top of the page.
Upon resumption of the employee, provisions will be automatically calculated and will include the entire suspension duration in the resumption month’s provisions.
Preventing suspended employees’ access to ZenHR:
They will no longer be able to log into their ZenHR account or receive any emails or notifications. If their access is not restricted, they will still be able to log in and receive emails and notifications, but they will not be able to submit new requests.
Add a Resumption for a Suspended Employee:
After an employee's suspension has been approved and no resumption date has been requested, you can add a resumption record for the suspended employee by following these steps:
First Step: Request Resumption
On the Employee Suspensions page, locate the relevant approved suspension record for which you would like to request the employee's resumption.
In the corresponding Actions column, click the action button and then click “Add Resumption” from the dropdown.
In the Add New Resumption slider, fill in the Resumption date and add any Notes and Attachments (If needed).
The Users to notify and remind fields are automatically populated based on the setup defined for the employee’s suspension reason, but they can be customized for this specific employee.
The Salary Suspension section will only appear in the Add New Resumption slider if the employee was suspended and their salary was stopped during the suspension period. When adding a resumption for these employees, you can choose to either keep the salary stopped during the suspension period or not.
If the Keep salary stopped during the suspension toggle is activated, once the resumption is approved, you will need to recalculate any partial months. The employee will only be partially compensated for their working days, while their suspension duration will be deducted from their salary slip as "Suspension Differences."
Sample salary slip with suspension differences:
If Keep salary stopped during the suspension is deactivated, once the resumption is approved, you will need to manually calculate the employee’s salary for the suspension period. The employee will be fully paid for the entire period, and no deductions related to the suspension will be made.
Click on “Add” to submit your request and confirm it by clicking “Request Resumption” on the pop-up that appears.
Second Step: Approve Resumption Request
Once a resumption request is submitted, the first approver and the people specified in the approval cycle will receive a notification and an email regarding the request. They can access the request by clicking on the notification for the resumption request or by navigating to the "My Approvals" page through the user menu in the upper right corner. From there, approvers can go to the "Employee Suspensions & Resumptions" tab to take action.
Click on the “Approve Resumption” button to approve the suspension request.
Multiple Resumption Requests:
In cases where the initial resumption request has been rejected/withdrawn or canceled, users can request a new resumption for the suspended employee by following the same steps. When viewing the resumption details for these records, all previous resumption requests can be viewed by clicking on History.
Emails after Resumption is Approved
Sample Email to the Users to Notify included in the Resumption Setup:
Sample Email to the Suspended Employee (if included in the Resumption Setup):
Sample Email to External Recipients:
Terminate a Suspended Employee:
While terminating a suspended employee with their salary stopped, you can select whether you would like to keep the salary stopped during the suspension or not in the Salary Suspension section.
If the Keep salary stopped during the suspension toggle is activated, once the settlement is calculated, you will need to recalculate any previous unpaid partial months during the suspension period. The employee will only be partially compensated for their working days, while their suspension duration will be deducted from their salary slip as "Suspension Differences."
Sample termination settlement with suspension differences:
If Keep salary stopped during the suspension is deactivated, once the settlement is calculated, you will need to manually calculate the employee’s salary for the suspension period. The employee will be fully paid for the entire period, and no deductions related to the suspension will be made.
Adjusting a Suspension Or Resumption Record:
Step 1: Requesting an Adjustment:
You can edit employees’ suspension or resumption records after their approval, as long as no suspension differences have been deducted from salaries and no provisions have been impacted by the suspension.
To edit a suspension record, follow these steps:
Go to the Employee Suspensions page.
Click on the View button that corresponds to the suspension/resumption record that you would like to edit.
Select View suspension details to edit a suspension record or View resumption details to edit the resumption noting that they need to be approved first before any adjustments can be made.
On the slider that appears, click on the “Edit” button in the Suspension Details or Resumption Details section.
In the first step of the Edit Employee Suspension page, you can make edits to the Suspension date, Suspension notes, and attachments.
Click on “Next”.
In the second step of the Edit Employee Suspensions page, you can edit the suspension setup and add additional users to the notify and remind lists. However, you cannot remove users to notify and to remind those who were already added to the original suspension record; they will continue to receive notifications for this record.
Upon approval of the adjustments, the already added users to notify will only receive new emails and notifications in case the Suspension Date has been changed, while the new users to notify will receive a notification of the suspension.
After you’re done making any necessary edits, click on “Submit” and the Suspension adjustment request will go through the Approval cycle again.
If you’re editing a resumption record, you can edit the resumption date and the salary suspension setup and add additional users to the notify and remind. However, you cannot remove users to notify and to remind those who were already added to the original resumption record; they will continue to receive notifications for this record.
Upon approval of the adjustments, the already added users to notify will only receive new emails and notifications in case the Resumption Date has been changed, while the new users to notify will receive a notification of the suspension.
After you’re done making any necessary edits, click on “Submit” and the Resumption adjustment request will go through the Approval cycle again.
Step 2: Approve the Adjustments
Once an adjustment request is submitted, the first approver and the people specified in the approval cycle will receive a notification and an email regarding the request. They can access the request by clicking on the notification for the adjustment request or by navigating to the "My Approvals" page through the user menu in the upper right corner. From there, approvers can go to the "Employee Suspensions & Resumptions" tab to take action.
Click on view on the pending adjustment request you’d like to take action on.
Only the requested adjustments will appear in the adjustment request with their old value and new requested value. To view the full details of the original request, click on “Click here” and you will be redirected to the original request.
After the adjustments are approved, they will be successfully reflected in the record on the Employee Suspensions page.
Withdrawing/Cancelling Suspension or Resumption Record
Withdrawing a Request:
If you have requested an employee's suspension or resumption, you can withdraw your request as long as no action has been taken by the approvers, without any additional steps required.
Go to the Employee Suspensions page click view on the related pending suspension or resumption record and then click on “Withdraw”.
Requesting to cancel a suspension or resumption:
In the cases where the request for an employee’s suspension or resumption has already passed through the approval cycle, you can request to cancel it by following these steps:
Go to the Employee Suspensions page.
Click on the View button that corresponds to the suspension/resumption record that you would like to edit.
Select View Suspension Details or View Resumption Details.
Click on “Request to Cancel” at the bottom of the slider.
You can also cancel an employee’s suspension by clicking on ( ⋮ ) beside the suspension record you would like to cancel and clicking Request to cancel from the dropdown.
The request for cancellation will go through the approval cycle, and if approved, the suspension or resumption will no longer be in effect. If an employee’s suspension is canceled and they have an approved resumption record, it will also be canceled automatically.