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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-12-12
Example Steps: Configure Parental Leave as Time Off

Example Steps: Configure Parental Leave as Time Off

You can configure parental leave in Workday as time off instead of leave of absence when you have specific functional requirements and desired tracking outcomes such as:
  • Worker status display. When a worker is on time off, their status in Workday remains unchanged. In contrast, a leave of absence explicitly changes the worker's status to
    On Leave
    . For parental leave, if your company prefers the worker's status to appear as active for short, intermittent parental leave periods, or to avoid certain system implications of an
    On Leave
     status, time off might be your preferred configuration.
  • Tracking multiple leave requests. When a worker who's currently
    Active
     requests a leave of absence, and a manager or administrator approves that request, their status changes to
    On Leave
    . This change in status triggers a staffing event on a leave of absence event, which can impact payroll, benefits, and other downstream processes. If a worker is already on a leave of absence and they move to another leave type, this results in a data change event, not a new staffing event. If your company requires each instance of parental leave (especially when taken intermittently or in conjunction with other leaves) to be tracked as a distinct event, or to trigger specific staffing-related processes, using time off enables you to achieve this.
  • Duration and return to work. Companies typically use time off for absences with a short duration and a known return-to-work date, where you don't explicitly require manager approval for return. While parental leave can be long, some company policies or country regulations might involve shorter, fixed-duration parental leave periods that align more closely with time off characteristics. For longer, more open-ended leaves with estimated end dates and requiring manager approval for return, leave of absence is generally more suitable.
  • Balance tracking and accrual. Time off plans often involve workers accruing balances over time. Leave of absence types, however, typically don't involve accrual but rather grant an entitlement based on eligibility. If a parental leave policy involves an accrual model, or a fixed entitlement that you want to manage similarly to other time off accruals, configuring it as time off might be more straightforward.
  • Flexible payroll configuration. Configuring leave types as time off can offer more flexibility in managing different pay rates for various leave periods. Example: Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) or parental leave where varying pay rates might apply across different segments of the leave, making time off a practical choice for payroll processing.
This example illustrates how to set up a time off plan for parental leave that workers are eligible for each period if they have at least 1 dependent under the age of 4 in that period. Workers receive 5 days in the period in which 1 of their dependents has a birthday, starting with the child's date of birth, and repeating on their first, second, and third birthdays. Example: Adam has a child born in April 2019. Each April, he receives 5 days up until April 2023 when he loses eligibility as his child is 4 years old.
Ideally, you would configure a leave type for this use case, which enables you to use calculations that isolate individual dependents. With leave of absence, you can require eligible employees to specify exactly which dependent they're taking each leave request event for, and then drive both the leave balance calendar start and end date, and the entitlement, based on the age of that dependent. If you set up the leave type to use entitlement per event, you can then also draw down from the same balance for each request related to the same dependent.
Within time off and Workday's calculations for Payroll and Absence, you can't use calculated fields in this manner, and can't require additional fields such as dependents in the same way as leave of absence. However, the advantage of using time off for this use case is that you can support:
  • Partial day requests.
  • Accruing entitlements in a more user-friendly way, without the need to return workers from leave.
The time off plan is available for eligible workers to:
  • Accrue 5 days for each child born or under 4 years of age within a specific period.
  • Request absence for parental leave.
You can access the
Time Off Results by Period
 report on the Worker
Time and Absence
 profile to view accruals for the time off plan for eligible workers.