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Personio does not update Google Calendar for a particular absence type (though it does for other types)

  • 17 February 2023
  • 7 replies
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J
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  • jmd Busy Bee
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Hi all,

I was hoping you could help me. I have an absence type that is not appearing in staff member’s Google Calendar. I believe the Personio <> Google Calendar integration is sound because Personio puts other absence types in employees Google Calendars just not this absence type. Here are the settings for absence type FLEXI.

Under Absence for FLEXI:

  • General Settings
    • Category: Other paid leave
    • Unit of time: Hours
    • Certificate required? No
    • Allow employees substituting for someone to request this absence? Yes
  • Validity Settings

    • Valid on: Work Schedule, excl. Public Holidays

    • Consider time tracked during absences of this type as overtime? No

  • Accrual Policy

    • None

Under Employee Roles

  • Under Access Rights, All employees have View, Propose and Edit rights on FLEXI
  • Under Calendar, All employees have Global access to the FLEXI calendar

The only differences of note between FLEXI and Paid Vacation are the latter has an accrual policy and the latter must be approved by line management. There are other differences but they seem less important. Any ideas? Thank you kindly in advance.

JMD

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Best answer by jmd 20 February 2023, 09:37

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JHBEM
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The only part we currently use the Google Calendar integration for is the Interview scheduling…

But you saying that, with exception to the above, it’s useful?

I assumed it would just take over everyone’s calendars and also mean people go into Personio less (when we want them to use it more...).. do you know your active weekly/monthly engagement/utilisation of Personio? I don’t know if this metric currently exists in reporting… 

#SEE (Support, Enable, Empower) Everyone! Find me at: linkedin.com/in/jameshems
J
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We’re a small company using Google Workspace including the Calendar. While we want staff using Personio, having two calendars to look at is a real pain ergo the need for the integration with the Google Calendar. It works for Paid Vacation but for some reason, it’s not working for FLEXI.

If you’re staff are scheduling meetings with each other and third parties and you do not integrate with Google Calendar or whatever your equivalent is past interview scheduling, how does that work? How can staff know who is in the office and who is not in the office when scheduling meetings?

J
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For anybody reading this, I believe I’ve found the answer. Personio does not synch hourly absences with a calendar. https://support.personio.de/hc/en-us/articles/360001877238-Calendar-Integration-for-Absences

It is currently not possible to transfer hourly absences through the calendar integration.

This is disappointing and quite frustrating. FLEXI is measured in hours not days or half days. What’s the point of doing a partial calendar integration and omitting something as basic as hourly absences? To me, the Calendar integration feels unfinished. Another example is that you cannot synch with a shared company absence calendar in Google.

Because of Personio’s calendar integration shortcomings, I now need to ask staff to look in two places - Google Calendar and Personio Calendar. That’s not good given Personio was supposed to streamline such aspects of HR, not complicate them.

Andrea
Userlevel 6
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Dear @jmd,

First, I wanted to give you a warm welcome to the Personio Community 🎉. Thank you very much for adding the answer to your question in your post.

I wanted to tell you about the development of our absence types and why it is that hourly absence types are not yet transferred to company calendars. In Personio, daily absences were the first feature to be available to manage absences. Hourly absences were released last year and functionalities from it are still being developed, which is why some functionalities available for daily absences are not yet available for hourly absences. 

I would appreciate if you could post your need for this particular functionality in our ideation area. This way, other users can vote for your idea and it will be shared with our product team. If you need some inspiration, we have published a guide on how to best share your ideas here:

→ How to: Submit an idea or suggest a new feature

In case haven’t done so yet: it would be lovely if you could take two minutes to say Hi and introduce yourself here: it’s a great way to get started in the Community & meet other HR Professionals!

Thank you very much in advance for your answer 🤗

I wish you an amazing day 🌸.

Best,

Andrea

Please beware that moderators may modify the title of your posts to make them easier to find for other users
J
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Dear @jmd,

First, I wanted to give you a warm welcome to the Personio Community 🎉. Thank you very much for adding the answer to your question in your post.

I wanted to tell you about the development of our absence types and why it is that hourly absence types are not yet transferred to company calendars. In Personio, daily absences were the first feature to be available to manage absences. Hourly absences were released last year and functionalities from it are still being developed, which is why some functionalities available for daily absences are not yet available for hourly absences. 

I would appreciate if you could post your need for this particular functionality in our ideation area. This way, other users can vote for your idea and it will be shared with our product team. If you need some inspiration, we have published a guide on how to best share your ideas here:

→ How to: Submit an idea or suggest a new feature

In case haven’t done so yet: it would be lovely if you could take two minutes to say Hi and introduce yourself here: it’s a great way to get started in the Community & meet other HR Professionals!

Thank you very much in advance for your answer 🤗

I wish you an amazing day 🌸.

Best,

Andrea

 

Hi Andrea,

Thank you kindly for your welcome and engaging with me. I still stand by my claim that Personio’s Google Calendar integration is only partial as it is reasonable for an end user to expect their calendar to be updated for all hours, not just days. It invalidates the principle of “least surprise”. For example, who expects their Google Calendar to be updated for days but not hours? Everybody I’ve spoken to at work was surprised by this. I do think that adding a feature to Personio without updating the calendar integration still constitutes a partial feature as these two items must work in harmony. All that said, thank you for explaining the history of how the integration came to be out of step with the feature - most SaaS companies would not even bother having done that so I do very much appreciate it! 

I’ve made my introduction as you’ve requested at the lounge.

If it actually does help, I’m good with submitting a new feature or at least upvoting a feature and don’t mind putting in the time to do so providing it is taken reasonably seriously. While I’m not asking for a commitment from Personio I don’t want to waste my time with something that’s all but guaranteed to go nowhere. In light of this, is it still worth me submitting a feature request? Thanks for your time and help.

Andrea
Userlevel 6
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Hi @jmd,

Always happy to engage with you and explain anything that will help you understand our processes, in the name of transparency, which is one of our core values 😊.

Your feedback and suggestion for improvements are crucial for us to be able to improve our product and to deliver the needs of our users. This is why it is always important to share any idea with us in the ideation area of the Community. 

That being said, it is essential to set the right expectations. It is not possible to implement every suggestion of improvement from customers, and it is possible that your idea is not developed. Its creation depends on several factors, such as how many customers would be affected positively by it or the complexity level of the feature’s development. 

I hope this information gives you further visibility about our feedback management.

Thank you for sharing all the details with me and for introducing yourself in the Community. I will be delighted to see you around here!

Have a lovely day and let me know if I can clarify anything else.

Best,

Andrea

Please beware that moderators may modify the title of your posts to make them easier to find for other users
J
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Just to follow up here. I have created an ideation here: 

 

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