Mitigate your staff member’s lost annual leave
The deadline to use-or-lose leave is December 31, 2025.
Supervisors of benefited employees are responsible for ensuring their employees have taken minimum required 40 hours in a year (prorated if less than 1 FTE) and will not have over 240 hours (prorated) in their annual leave balance. The 40 hour requirement does not apply if it is the first calendar year of their employment. As the end of the year approaches, its important to visit with your staff members to verify they are below the maximum carryover limit and have used their minimum required leave for the year.
How to mitigate “lost” time
Review Planned Leave
Visit with your employee at the beginning of the year to identify when they can take their required 40 hours (pro-rated for part-time employees). This will assist your department in scheduling around vacations and ensure the team is prepared for their absence. Additionally, encourage your employee to forecast their end of the year leave balance to identify how many additional hours they may have to use beyond the 40 required. Note: forecasting does not work for hourly employees.
- Have the employee log into PeopleSoft HCM at https://adminsys.ndus.edu/psp/hehp/?cmd=login&languageCd=ENG
- Select Employee Self Service
- Select the Time Tile
- Select Absence Balances
- Select Forecast Balance
- Change the As of Date to 12/31/2025
- In the Absence Name field, use the drop down and select Annual Leave
- Click on the Forecast Balance button – this usually takes a few seconds to compute
- When the balance appears, subtract 240 hours to see the use-or-lose amount. (Prorate for part time)
Submit Leave in HCM
Ensure your employees are submitting their time in HCM, as soon as they have used it. This ensure the forecast calculations are correct, assisting your employee.
Encourage Additional Leave
If your employee is still above the cap, identify days that will work for your department for them to take additional leave. Once you and your employee have identified additional leave hours to be used, subtract these hours from the employee’s annual leave balance to calculate if the employee will be below the use-or-lose cap by the deadline.
Consider Leave Donation
If an employee is unable to use their leave prior to the deadline, employees who have been approved to receive donated leave would greatly appreciate any donations of the use or lose leave. Review the Donated Leave process and scan the U-Letter’s Bulletin Board for recent leave donation solicitation requests for specific employees or donate to the General Leave Donation Pool. Employees are in need throughout the year, and donations are sought year round.
Questions?
If you or a staff member are interested in donating leave or have any questions regarding the use-or-lose process, contact Joanne Barstad, joanne.barstad@UND.edu or 701.777.2156.
