New time recording system and new regulations on working hours for employees in technology and administration

Dear colleagues,

back in October, we informed you that Leuphana University of Lüneburg will be introducing a new time recording system on January 1, 2024. The new system will be accompanied by a new service agreement with enhanced regulations on working hours for employees in technology and administration, which the Presidential Board and Staff Council have agreed on and which will also come into force on January 1, 2024. The new service agreement and the new time recording system will enable simpler and clearer processes with regard to the recognition and booking of working hours and vacation time.

We would like to inform all employees in technology and administration in detail about the new regulations and processes below and invite you to get to know the new system at information events on December 14 or December 19 (see below for more information). All supervisors and all academic employees will also receive separate information about the changes that apply to them.

1. NEW TIME RECORDING SYSTEM FROM JANUARY 1, 2024
   The new SAP based time recording system will replace the current Adicom system, which has reached the end of its useful life. From January 1, 2024, all employees who participate in time recording will book their working time exclusively via the new system. Adicom will only be available to employees until December 31, 2023.
    
2. WORKING TIMES WILL ONLY BE RECORDED ONLINE IN FUTURE
   In future, working times will only be recorded online via a web client. You can access the time recording system via a URL that will be sent to you by email before January 1, 2024. To log in, simply use your Leuphana account; you do not need a separate SAP account. The terminals for recording working hours in the buildings can no longer be used from January 1, 2024. In order to record the time you need until you have booted up your computer and started time recording as working time, you will be credited 5 minutes daily for working time bookings on campus.
    
3. INDEPENDENT RECORDING OF WORKING HOURS
   You are responsible for recording the start and end of your working hours both in the office on campus and for mobile work or teleworking, the start and end of daily break times of more than a total of 30 minutes (for working hours of more than six hours) or more than a total of 45 minutes (for working hours of more than nine hours) and the start and end of business trips within Lüneburg in the system. In future, you will also have the option of making corrections or additions to working time on your own responsibility, provided that the end of the relevant working time is less than 72 hours ago. Only full-day absences (with the exception of vacation days) or working time corrections or updates more than 72 hours in the past will still have to be recorded by the HR department in future.
    
4. ACTUAL WORKING DAYS REMAIN UNCHANGED; TARGET WORKING HOURS ARE SPREAD OVER FIVE WORKING DAYS FOR ALL EMPLOYEES
   Regardless of how many days a week you actually work, your regular weekly target working time in the new time recording system will in future be evenly distributed over the days Monday to Friday of a working week for all employees, including part-time employees. You can, of course, continue to determine your actual working days individually in consultation with your line manager. In the new system, your working time account will be debited with one fifth of your average weekly planned working hours for each day from Monday to Friday and, in return, your actual working hours will be deducted on your working days.
    
5. 30 VACATION DAYS FOR ALL EMPLOYEES COVERED BY COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS
   In future, part-time employees will no longer have to tell the HR department how many days a week they work in order to calculate their vacation entitlement. Instead, all Leuphana employees - regardless of whether they work part-time or full-time - will have a regular vacation entitlement of 30 days from 2024. For each day of vacation, your working time account will not be debited with the average daily planned working time. For example, if employees want to take a week's vacation, they will in future take five vacation days for the full week, regardless of which of these days they would actually work. Special leave entitlements and individual cases (e.g. parental leave or long-term illness) will of course continue to be calculated separately.
    
6. INDEPENDENT ENTRY OF VACATION DAYS
   In future, vacation days will also be entered independently in the time recording system by all university employees. The time recording system will then automatically calculate their remaining vacation entitlement. It will no longer be necessary for the HR department to inform and approve the leave; only consultation with and approval by your line manager will be required. Supervisors determine the form in which they wish to carry out this consultation and approval. They can continue to use a leave form, which will be available on the intranet, as a working aid, but are not obliged to do so.
    
7. SICK LEAVE ON ALL DAYS OF THE WEEK
   As your working time account will in future be debited with one fifth of your average weekly planned working time for each weekday, regardless of your actual working days, it is necessary for you to report sick days not only on your actual working days, but on all weekdays on which you are sick.
    
8. TEAM CALENDAR
   The new time recording system will also include a team calendar in which you can view the daily attendances and absences of colleagues in your teams, both in the office and in the home office - similar to what is currently possible in Adicom. You also already have an overview of planned and booked absences of colleagues in your teams.
    
9. CHANGEOVER TO THE NEW SYSTEM ON JANUARY 1, 2024
   In January 2024, the current working time account balances will be transferred from Adicom to the new time recording system. This transfer can only take place after the end of the current year 2023. In addition, the remaining leave entitlements from 2023 for part-time employees will be converted to a leave entitlement of 30 days in 2024. Please be prepared for the fact that your current working time account balance and the remaining leave entitlement from 2023 will not yet be displayed in the new time recording system at the beginning of the new year. We ask for your patience when entering the old data.
    
10. INFORMATION EVENT ON DECEMBER 14 AND 19, 2023
    We would like to invite you to one of two possible information events. You will have the opportunity to get to know the new time recording system and our colleagues from HR and Organizational Development will take the time to answer your questions:
    
    Thursday, December 14, 2023, 11:00-12:00
    Tuesday, December 19, 2023, 12:00-13:00
    
    Please use the following ZOOM dial-in dates to participate in one of the two events (the size of the room is limited to 500 people - please switch to the second date if participation on December 14 is not possible):
    
    Meeting ID: 992 3577 5350
    Identification code: 279683

The HR department is currently very busy preparing for the changeover to the new time recording system. You probably already have one or two questions. We therefore ask for your patience today and look forward to answering your questions at the information events on December 14 and 19. We will also be making a comprehensive handbook available on the intranet in the coming days and setting up daily telephone consultation hours, particularly in the first few days of the new year, to provide you with the best possible support in getting used to the new system. Until then, you will also find detailed information on the new working time regulations in the new service agreement on working hours here. The new regulations on working hours and time recording are characterized by trust. We thank you very much for your willingness to inform yourself accordingly and to integrate the new regulations into your daily work routine as of January 1. We hope that you will find the new regulations much simpler, clearer and easier after a period of familiarization.

With best regards

Christian Brei
Executive Vice President

Stephanie Verbeet
Head of Human Resources and Legal Affairs