Today we will look at yet another paper form turned into something magical using both SharePoint and InfoPath again. This time we are looking at one of the most popular forms when it comes to choices made by our clients, the Leave Application form. It's very important for the HR department, in any business, to have a handle on whose taking leave, when their leave starts and ends and how much leave an employee has left. In this case study, I will show you what we had to work with and what we were able to create purely using SharePoint and InfoPath.
Post-SharePoint: Leave Application Form
When approached by one of our clients about streamlining their HR processes, mainly their Leave Application processes, we knew we couldn't turn down the opportunity to assist. After being sent the project scope of what the current process was and what they would like to form to do now, we began creating something that unbeknown to us, would become one of our most popular apps to date. First off, to the left is a screenshot of the form the employees were printing and filling out:
Now once this had been filled out, it would need to be handed to that employee's relevant manager for approval, once done the manager would then need to hand it over to the HR Department for approval. If Approved by the HR Department, they would then either contact the employee via phone or email to let them know of the outcome of their leave application. Now this process worked well when there wasn't an influx of leave applications sent through at the same time. As stated in the previous case study, when it comes to paperwork, there is always the chance that the paper either gets lost or damaged. Our client had decided that they wanted to get this process up and running on their SharePoint, not only because it gave one centralized portal to work from, but because every form created was always stored safely along with version history which is very important when it comes to sticking to ISO standards.
Pro-SharePoint: Leave Application Form
Once we managed to recreate the form inside of SharePoint, the outcome was a lot better than we expected. The below is a screenshot of the form once it had been done inside of SharePoint as seen on the left
Notice we added a feature that only opens when the selected date is less than 30 days from today's date. This is to help implement a policy of applying for leave at least 30 days in advance, which gives the company enough time to plan for someone else to take over that work load while the other person is on leave. Also, we understand that people get sick or have life that they need to attend to now and again, which allows the opportunity to select emergency leave and write a brief description of what it is they need the leave for. Now once all has been filled out, depending on which representative has been selected, it will email that respective person's manager for approval. Once Approved it will then notify HR via email that it requires their final approval. Once HR have approved it will then notify both the manager and the representative that their leave application form has been approved.
But that's not all, we also setup as calendar overlay on the main site calendar, to show who is on leave. As per the screenshot to the left:
This allows everyone to see who is on leave and when from and until, which allows for much easier organizing between employees and staff members when it comes to planning and scheduling workloads etc. Not only did SharePoint and InfoPath managed to lessen the time taken for both application submissions but approvals too, as well as lessening the amount of paper used within the workplace.
