The Equus Mobile Workforce Platform supports management of Remote Work populations and via a self-service request form. The request form can be utilized to allow users to submit International & Domestic Remote Work Requests for themselves and can be accessed by Internal, External Client, External Payroll, and Employee users. Configuration setup is located at the company level.
The requests will display the request details by destination, dates, submission dates and approval status. Users can monitor the approval status of their international remote work request. When a request is submitted, a Mobility Case is created with International Remote work as the mobility type.
If there are no existing requests, the form will be redirected to the welcome step.
The form consists of 5 steps which capture Destination location, Time Spent in Destination, Right to Work Documentation, and the Manager's e-mail:
Welcome Step
This step displays the welcome message configured in the Remote Work Request Form Configuration Screen together with a welcome greeting for the user, email address, and company logo.
The logo will appear on the left. This will reference the primary logo field from the theme builder. If there is no active company theme, the primary logo from the active system theme builder will be used. If there is no system theme, we will default to the primary logo on the system default logo.
Where step
The purpose of this step is to capture where the user is coming from and where they are going. This will only allow the country combination configured in the Remote Work Request Form. In addition, this step will capture the right to work acknowledgement and documentation.
The step consists of:
Destination Location pickers: One for where the requestor is coming from and one for where they are going to.
Right to Work: Visible only if configured as required on the Destination Country
Right to Work Documentation: Visible only if configured as required in the Destination Country. These documents will be uploaded into Approval Documents (even if an approval ruleset is not configured) and will be included in approval workflow communications
The 'from' and 'to' destination can not be set the same for the international remote work requests. The form will validate the rules configured for each destination country as configured in the Remote Work Request Form Configuration Screen
If the 'Allow Domestic Requests' is enabled in the Remote Work Request Form Configuration Screen, the form can be used for domestic remote work requests, allowing users to submit requests for locations within the same country, in addition to international requests.
When Step
The step captures the time you spent in the destination, working days in the destination and the time previously spent in the destination country.
The step consists of:
Date Pickers: One for when the requestor wishes to leave and for when they are going to return
Number of Working days: This will only appear if the Only Count Working days are configured
Number of Days spent in the destination country in the last 12 months: Include the number of days previously spent. A value will appear to state the prior days spent in the destination field if there is a mobility case related to the employee within 1 year of the start date. If the assignment, mobility case, or destination has a canceled status, it will not be included.
Note, that this field only applies to international remote work requests and will be hidden for domestic requests.
Reason Field: Determines the reason for the remote work request. This field is required by default. Values are fixed. No new values can be added or renamed. However, values can be deactivated if the reason does not suit business requirements.
The How Many Days Allowed rule is enforced in this section. This will compare the calendar dates and the time previously spent in the destination country to the value set for the destination country in the form configuration. If the value is more than the rule, the form will not proceed.
If the Only Count Working Days are configured for the destination country in the form configuration, the how many days rule will use the Working days and the time previously spent in the destination country. The time spent in the destination country is required and included in the time spent in the destination country validation. If the value is more than the value specified, the form will not proceed.
The How Many Days Allowed and Only Count Working Days rules can be bypassed if the "Allow Location/Day Exception tick box is checked for a location in the Remote Work Request Form configuration screen.
Note, that the 'How Many Days Allowed' rules are only applied for international remote work requests and will be hidden for domestic requests.
If the tick box is checked, users can continue to submit a remote work request that exceeds the allowed number of days in the destination country. A warning prompt will notify the employee that their planned dates for the Remote Work request will exceed the allowed number of days in the destination country.
To learn more about bypassing location and date rules, click here.
Review Step
The step captures the information to the approvers and acknowledges their company’s remote work request policies. In this step, users will be required to provide their manager’s e-mail address if no line manager email details are captured in their account. The form also supports the Text, Date, and Number Custom Fields for both System and Company levels. These custom fields will be displayed in the Review Step under the 'Further Information' section.
The step consists of:
Manager's Email Address: This field is required.
This field has the following validation:
The Line Manager’s e-mail cannot be the same as the user’s e-mail
The email must include an @
For clients with strict security requirements, there is a system preference that requires all approver email addresses to be authenticated users. Check with your Equus Representatives
Additional Information to Share: Optional field. Can be used to include a reason or message to be passed to the approver. This message will not be present in the mobility case records
Remote Work Policy acknowledgment field: This will only display if a URL is added to the Remote Work Policy URL field. A hyperlink in the text of this field will open the configured URL in a separate tab.
Further Information Section: This section will only appear if a Custom Field/s is configured and enabled.
This section will only display Assignment Destination Text, Date, and Numeric field types. Money and Long Text field types are not supported.
Note, that not all custom field configurations such as Section Name, Default Value, and Span Row, can be applied in this form. Check this article for more information on Creating or exposing a new custom field
Done Step:
This step displays the closing message configured. The intent of the step is to inform users of what the next steps in the process are.
The closing message can be configured in the Remote Work Request Form Configuration Screen.
Things to Note
The remote work request form will not enforce company rights. If a request is submitted for a company the user does not have access to, access to that company will not be granted to that user since there are also no page rights to access this form.
Users can upload as many documents as they like, but it cannot exceed the file size limitation
If there is an issue with the Right to Work Documentation (i.e. file is too big, file extension not supported, failed virus scan, etc.), the error message will not appear until the request is submitted but the mobility case will still be created.
The 'Remote Work' term used in this form can be changed in the 'Remote Work Label Override' field within the Remote Work Request Configuration settings.