Though a part of the business managers and HR's everyday activity, leave management has never been easy. Being one of the essential functions of any business, leave management involves much more than merely granting leaves or approving employees' leaves.
Every aspect of leave management seems to form a complex web of internal leave policies & rules, workflows, laws, and regulations by state and central authorities. It becomes an although more complicated process when managing employee records, processing employee leave information, ensuring compliance with leave policies, etc. are done manually or using excel sheets.
However, many organizations overlook its importance and fail to recognize how the lack of a good system could leave a scar on the business.
Major Challenges in Leave Management
Although leave management can be defined merely as managing the leaves of employees there is more to it than meets the eye. This HR function has its fair share of challenges and difficulties.
When a 'no' leads to cold war:
It goes unsaid that employee relations in the organization undergo considerable friction when leaves are denied. Poorly managed leave approval and rejection leading to uninformed leaves, improper tracking of LOPs (leaves without pay), etc., are telltale signs that leave management in the organization is in shambles.
The cost factor:
Often, HRs find themselves trapped when the company questions the percentage of payroll employees spent on absence-related benefits. Research says this figure stands at an average of 14.6%, implying a significant financial impact on companies.
A multi-faceted challenge:
Although leave management is only one of the many functions an HR is required to manage, it eats up a considerable amount of his/ her time. Ensuring the availability of resources to ensure business continuity in the absence of an employee while simultaneously devising means and methods to improve employee satisfaction presents a multi-faceted challenge. However, these factors define an organization's sustenance and growth and have to be dealt with skillfully.
Sheer volume:
HR faces many kinds of pressures without a structured leave module at hand. In the absence of one, hundreds of employee queries surrounding leave find their way into the HR's inbox. Employees who are not in the know of the leaves available to them and an HR department continuously bombarded with queries surrounding leave are further signs that action needs to be taken to fix your leave management system and help your HR stay afloat!
Thus, a low leave management module harms employees' performance and the organization. So, how is one to steer the wheel and dodge the routine maze that leaves presents?
Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, leave management system in excel is a too complicated activity with a high impact on day-to-day business operations. A cloud-based leave management software can help you dramatically simplify and streamline the entire process.
Six features you should look for in any leave management system
Leave policies like how you want
No two organizations are the same when it comes to their policies. For that matter, even within the same organization, the leave policies and holiday calendars may differ based on the office's location, the team you are working in, etc.
An excellent online leave management system enables the employer to configure all leave rules, including work-weeks, balance proration, accrual calculation, encashment policies, etc. specific to their organization while complying with all state and central regulations.
Keep a tab on all Unscheduled Absences
Unscheduled absences can have a significant impact on productivity. For whatever reasons, an employee may be off; keeping an account on the unscheduled absence can be extremely challenging and tedious. And the most effective way of managing this is to identify these absences early and nip the bud's problem, thus minimizing its occurrence.
For this reason, having a leave management system that is seamlessly integrated with your attendance management system, be it a biometric device, access card, web-based attendance, or any other, is exceptionally vital. Timely notification to the manager on employee absence can help mitigate the cost by finding another employee to cover up.
Also, attendance data integrated with the organization's leave management system ensures reduced HR manager efforts and compliance with the organization's various leave rules.
Reduce Payroll Errors
How exhausting can it get to manually keep track of all leaves taken by employees and then calculate payouts manually to run Payroll? Now imagine if your HR had access to an auto-populated employee leave calendar that was integrated into your payroll management system – and all calculations happen automatically on the system. Wouldn't that be something constructive?
A cloud-based leave management system will empower you with precisely that. The system can be tightly integrated into your payroll management software, ensuring that all leave data is validated correctly, and the inputs to your Payroll are seamless and accurate. Thus, increasing the efficiency of your HR and reducing errors on the Payroll.
Increase Employee Satisfaction with Mobile Compatibility
Imagine if you could apply, approve, reject, or manage all leave related operations on one screen or your mobile phones. Wouldn't that make your life much simpler?
A must-have in today's scenario to all employees and employers alike is a mobile solution that allows everyone to manage their leave data on the fly. Be it capturing geographical location-based attendance, work hours, reimbursements, and claims or operations like leave application, tracking, approval, or rejection, a mobile-based application will empower you to manage them all on the fly - anytime, anywhere.
Empower Employees with Self-service
Do your employees run from pillar to post, get the hang of their leave balance information, apply leaves, or to know whether leave has been approved or rejected or any such vital information?
You can do away with all this by empowering your employees with a self-service portal. Having a self-service portal means to say that employees don't have to approach their managers or HR regarding any leave related queries and requests. The self-service portal acts as a single point solution to all employee information - making leave management a hassle-free process for both employees and managers.
Improve Decision Making with Intuitive Dashboards & Reports:
Finally, with all the captured data, your leave management system should be able to generate tailored, analytical reports – either in the form of tables or graphs or - eliminating all manual efforts. This is crucial for your HR department, which spends a considerable amount of time creating and analyzing reports.
Without a doubt, an automated leave management system is the best solution to keep the ball rolling without any hitch.
Here's what one can expect from an online leave management system
- Reduce error rate and processing time
- Enjoy transparency
- Access accurate leave statuses
- Access your personal leave history easily
- Track leave trends
- Avail of employee access to leave information
- Achieve effortless adherence to leave policy
- Avail of GPS-enabled attendance tracking
Don't lose any more time. Look ahead, be efficient, and reduce costs with the best leave management software to suit your organization
Wondering which software to choose?
Small and medium businesses in the Middle East can benefit greatly from software that automates HR processes. greytHR not only helps process accurate payroll every month, but also comes with in-built statutory compliance, expense management, leave, and attendance management modules.
The leave management module from greytHR automates and takes online everything leave-related, from leave accounting and grants to period closing activities. Additionally, should you find yourself lacking a leave policy, we have a library of standard guidelines that you could choose from.
Try greytHR with the free 30-day trial!
