This guide is prepared for executives and administrators who want to manage work by obtaining prior approval from administrators by planning and registering work in advance for field work, business trips, and overtime (extended hours, holiday work, etc.).
What is the Overtime Pre-Approval Policy?
The overtime pre-approval system is a system that requires workers who wish to perform overtime to apply for and obtain approval for overtime in advance.
The overtime pre-approval policy is a way to document the agreement between workers and employers. Due to the advantages of having almost no cost or management burden when operating the policy and making it easy to predict overtime hours, many companies have recently been managing overtime through pre-approval procedures.
When operating an overtime pre-approval system, you must sufficiently inform and notify workers that overtime without prior approval is not permitted, and be careful to prevent voluntary overtime by workers. This pre-approval system can be expanded to cover extended hours, night work, holiday work, and field work.
"Then, if prior approval was not obtained, do we not need to pay additional wages even if overtime occurred?"
That is not the case!
While the Ministry of Employment and Labor issued an authoritative interpretation that overtime pay does not need to be paid for overtime without prior approval, there have been court precedents ruling otherwise. The court precedents considered the corporate atmosphere where it was realistically impossible to apply for overtime, and in such cases, ruled that overtime pay must be paid for actual overtime hours even if no overtime application was submitted.
Therefore, to smoothly operate the overtime pre-approval system, the following points must be reviewed and considered:
1) Even without prior approval, if it is reasonably recognized that work performance was necessary, overtime pay must be paid.
2) If there was an implicit instruction from the employer, overtime pay must be paid even without prior approval.
Managing Overtime with Pre-Approval in flex
In flex, members can create approval documents through workflows to write overtime request forms in advance, or register work in advance to trigger pre-approval before the overtime date.
When Using Real-Time Work Tracking
For workplaces that track work in real-time but require prior approval for extended, holiday, and night work, you can operate as follows.
Create an overtime request form that matches your company's operating policies through workflows, as shown in the example image.
The image is an example. When operating an overtime request form, please consult with a labor advisor and create a form that matches your company's internal regulations!
Go to [Settings] → [Work Policy & Approval] → set approval and reason entry as mandatory for [Extended, Holiday, Night Work] at the bottom of the left menu.
When a member ends work through the real-time work tracking feature, the member can leave a mandatory approval request message on PC or mobile app.
Go to [Workflow] → [Company Document Box] on the left, apply form filters and date range filters, and download documents as an Excel file.
In the [Attendance Management] menu on the left, download daily or periodic attendance records to compare members' actual work hours with overtime dates and hours in approval documents.
TIP For overtime management and review, we recommend deciding how to set the management period and downloading the corresponding daily and periodic attendance reports and workflow documents to verify.
Examples:
Compare overtime request forms with member work records on a daily basis
Compare overtime request forms with member work records n times per week
Compare overtime request forms with member work records n times per month
When Not Using Real-Time Work Tracking
For workplaces where work is not tracked in real-time and members register work directly using the work time edit permission, but extended, holiday, and night work require prior approval, you can operate as follows.
Create an overtime request form that matches your company's operating policies through workflows, as shown in the example image.
The image is an example. When operating an overtime request form, please consult with a labor advisor and create a form that matches your company's internal regulations!
Go to [Settings] → [Work Settings] → set approval and reason entry as mandatory for [Extended, Holiday, Night Work] at the bottom of the left menu.
You can also set approval for past work edits so that approval is triggered when members edit past work records.
If the editable period is set to 1 day, approval is triggered when editing work that is [1 calendar day past].
Example) Editing a confirmed work record on April 11, 2024 (same day) → No approval triggered.
Editing the previous day's (April 10) work record on April 11, 2024 → No approval triggered
Editing work record from April 9 (2 days ago, 1 calendar day past) on April 11, 2024 → Approval triggered
In the [Work Policy] category at the bottom, set approval reviewers for the [Work] policy.
If work time edit permission has been granted to members, they can freely edit work. By setting approval reviewers for each work policy, approval is triggered when members register or edit work, preventing abuse.
If you want approval to be triggered when editing same-day and previous-day work records, please set approval on the [Default Work Policy]!
Members can directly enter work from [Work] → [My Work] on PC or mobile app and leave an [Approval Request Message].
Only members with work time edit permission can register work as shown below.
Go to [Workflow] → [Company Document Box] on the left, apply form filters and date range filters, and download documents as an Excel file.
In the [Attendance Management] menu on the left, download daily or periodic attendance records to compare members' actual work hours with overtime dates and hours in approval documents.
TIP For overtime management and review, we recommend deciding how to set the management period and downloading the corresponding daily and periodic attendance reports and workflow documents to verify.
Examples:
Compare overtime request forms with member work records on a daily basis
Compare overtime request forms with member work records n times per week
Compare overtime request forms with member work records n times per month
If I get pre-approval for work through a workflow, does the work get automatically registered?
If I get pre-approval for work through a workflow, does the work get automatically registered?
Even if you submit and get approval for work plans such as field work, business trips, or remote work through a workflow, it does not automatically sync to work records! It is only a pre-approval, and the actual work registration must be done directly by the member or by a member with admin privileges on their behalf.
To actually view it in member work or the home feed calendar, please make sure to register the work!