This year’s Annual Leave Certification process will run from Aug. 1 – 31.

Paid leave is an important feature of CU’s employee benefits. To ensure that vacation and sick leave balances are accurate, the University of Colorado asks employees to verify the accuracy of their sick and vacation leave after the close of the fiscal year, as outlined in Board of Regents Policy 11-E.

A change in who must certify

Employees who only earn state sick leave (primarily part-time and student employees) will not need to certify. The university has discontinued the requirement for employees to certify state sick leave, which is provided as part of the state’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA). As such, you should only remind benefits-eligible employees to certify their regular vacation and sick leave balances.

Employees who hold multiple positions, where one provides regular leave and the other only offers state sick leave should only certify their regular vacation and sick leave balances.

Review these important tips to complete this year’s Annual Leave Certification successfully.

Tip #1 – Visit the Leave Certification webpage and download the step-by-step guide.

Visit the Leave Certification webpage for full instructions and a shareable step-by-step guide, provides information for supervisors to approve an employee’s leave certification.

Tip #2 – Share the webpage and guide with supervisors

Be sure to share the Leave Certification webpage and guide will all supervisors, especially those who may be completing this step for the first time.

Supervisors, in turn, should share this guide with employees to help them walk through their role in the leave certification process.

Tip #3 – Ensure employees understand their responsibility to certify their leave

Leave certification can be completed through the Annual Leave Certification tile in the employee portal. This tile will be available throughout the duration of this year’s process, Aug. 1 – 31.

Employees can follow these instructions to certify. The most accurate location for current leave balances is in the Leave Balances tile in the employee portal. 

Note: The method an employee uses to certify their leave depends on whether they track their time through My Leave or a different system. Instructions are available on the Employee Services’ website for each time tracking circumstance.

Eligible employees will receive emails notifying them of the leave certification process and deadlines, and they will stop receiving emails reminders once they certify.

Tip #4 – Remind supervisors to approve their employees’ leave

Once an employee has certified their leave balances are correct, their direct supervisor must complete the process by approving the employee’s certification. Supervisors are required to approve leave for their direct reports, including faculty members who supervise student employees. For this reason, the system does not allow proxies to approve on behalf of the supervisor.

If you have questions, please reach out to your department’s supervisors about this requirement.

Tip #5 – Take action on leave errors

Employees should notify their supervisor if their leave balances do not match.

Supervisors, in turn, should reach out to the HCM Service Center at hcm_community@cu.edu or 303-860-4200, option 2, if they cannot readily identify the cause of the discrepancy with their payroll liaison. An HCM Professional will then work with the employee or payroll liaison to reconcile these differences.

Tip #6 – Reach out if you have questions

The HCM Service Center can answer any questions you may have at hcm_community@cu.edu or 303-860-4200, option 2.