The Top 10 Benefits of Employee Leave Management Systems

Leave management is no big deal... no HR manager ever said that. The only exception to this "rule" is if you only have a few people on board. For everyone else, it is a nightmare to keep track of the number of leave days, leave requests, excess leave, salaries and available staff resources in an Excel sheet. However, this does not apply to companies that choose to use leave management systems rather than handling all the above tasks using conventional tools such as Google Forms.

Today we will go into more detail about all the benefits such a system can provide to all HR employees, employees and managers out there. But first, we will take a closer look at what a leave management system actually stands for.

What exactly is a leave management system?

The concept is really quite self-explanatory. A leave management system is either a single tool or a suite of tools and procedures that make it easy to request and approve leave (even at the last minute), or to deny it.

For leave managers, this means that they do not have to sort leave balances, applications and other pending approvals, leave accounts and annual reports manually. By using digital leave forms or customizable databases, you can increase efficiency, avoid confusion and leave conflicts, and free up time and space for more important tasks.

Without a system, it's easy to misplace forms, forget leave requests and get into trouble due to incorrect leave administration. If you've ever had to deal with overlapping or conflicting leave requests and ended up Al-Deskoing because of it, you already know what we're talking about here.

Sometimes managers tend to ignore leave requests when the team is understaffed or in the middle of a big campaign. At other times, some of the employees will be able to take more days off than others, simply because they have the opportunity to do so, and because no one keeps track of their holiday balance. This can make the rest of the employees discouraged and frustrated and affect the productivity of the organisation.

You get the point... A leave management system provides many benefits for both the HR department and the employees, making it easier to request and approve days off, maternity leave, etc.

What are the benefits of absence management systems?

Paperwork is eliminated

Paper-based leave systems are a source of irritation for managers and employees alike. Printing and filling out leave applications, written leave approvals and refusals is tiring, and everyone hates boring and repetitive tasks.

Managing leave applications and leave balances manually can become overwhelming and consume the mental bandwidth of HR staff, especially in growing companies with an increasing number of employees.

Leave management systems, on the other hand, make it easy to send, approve or reject requests for time off. With such a system, it only takes a few clicks to fill out, send out, sign and obtain approvals. Yes, you can print leave requests, but it is not necessary. The system collects all data so you can finally say goodbye to paperwork and manual processes!

Pretty much everything is automated

Manual data entry leaves a lot of room for error and overlap. Apart from filling out the leave form and getting it submitted and approved (or rejected), an absence management system requires very little or no manual work, as a large part of the work is put on autopilot.

Leave balance, leave history, alerts and everything in between are updated or can be updated automatically, making such systems very practical. For example, if you (and other decision makers in your company) want to be notified when objections are approved, when employees have almost reached their leave limits or when they have requested time off, an automatic leave tracking system will alert you to all of this immediately.

Everything is updated in real time

Both employees and managers need the latest information when applying for or approving leave. A leave management system prevents conflicts and potential rejection of applications when there is no reason for it. On the other hand, managers can get real-time information about how many (and possibly too many) leaves of absence have been approved, which can lead to resource shortages.

Saves time

By eliminating all the tedious tasks associated with leave, management teams can work more efficiently, which ultimately means they save hours of time. The high degree of automation and ease of use in systems for leave management makes it easy to shift focus to other tasks, such as recruiting or onboarding new employees, managing the employee life cycle, etc.

A big advantage of using a leave management system is that employees don't have to wait ages for a response, especially if they need quick approval of their leave, while managers don't have to spend hours checking past data and leave balances every week.

It improves communication in the organization

Communication is one of the most important aspects of leave management.

Imagine a leave management system as a database that makes information about upcoming leaves and other team members' availability just a click away!

When you know when and who will be away, it becomes much easier to organize the workload and let everyone know what needs to be done and when, which eliminates bottlenecks and improves communication within the team. Employees can also access the dashboard, see when other employees are absent and plan their own vacation accordingly, while ensuring that others do not have to work extra to compensate for the absence.

Increased transparency

The drop in productivity is often linked to absence without leave (AWOL). When you use an absence management system, everything becomes clear and planned on a dashboard, so you can easily spot productivity leaks and see if any of your team members are over- or under-utilizing their days off.

With the help of automated absence management systems, analyzing data and generating insightful reports is almost effortless! This can help you calculate the average cost of leaves, see which employees often take unplanned leaves and how this affects overall productivity.

No data is lost

If you keep track of your employees' time off in an Excel sheet or other digital offline record, almost 100% of the data will be lost at some point. Accessing this offline view from a single device can lead to bigger problems if the device breaks, is lost, or is stolen.

A leave management system keeps your data structured and securely stored in the cloud, eliminating any potential issues like hardware failure or loss of physical records. In addition, you can access the system from almost any device, as long as you remember your login information.

Compliance with laws and regulations

Absence management has a lot to do with various guidelines, policies and rules. If your team is spread across the globe, you need to ensure that you comply with multiple legal systems and various local, state and federal laws.

Non-multinational companies usually do not have problems with this, but should still set criteria and limitations for leave and communicate these to employees to avoid loopholes. Leave management systems can help employees comply with the law and ensure that all important procedures are followed.

Many possibilities for customization

There is no universal solution when it comes to leave management. Some organizations have more rigid and others more flexible policies and procedures. With a leave management system, you can categorize leaves (sick leave, maternity leave, FMLA, etc.), filter out employees who have or haven't taken vacation or holidays, and approve or deny additional requests based on this information.

Some of the best leave management systems can be integrated with business tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, so you can make planning leave and attendance tracking a breeze.

Builds a strong and positive corporate culture

The last but not least important advantage of a personnel administration system is that it says a lot about the company culture and promotes core values such as trust and transparency.

Working in such an atmosphere gives employees a sense of greater purpose and makes them more enthusiastic about working together on larger initiatives (especially when they return to work after a short vacation that energizes them to reach the goals you have set for them).

Summary

Having an overview of both planned and unplanned leave and having a clear idea of how many resources are available at any given time is actually crucial for the organization to function as it should.

However, using a leave management system is not only about creating organizational discipline, but also about staff performance and morale! It is safe to say that systems for leave management provide a number of benefits in addition to these 10, but one thing is certain - these systems are tools that can also help you manage risk, reduce costs and streamline many processes in the organization.

In conclusion, implementing a comprehensive employee leave management system, such as IceHrm, goes beyond merely streamlining processes. It fosters a culture of transparency, enhances communication, and ensures compliance, ultimately contributing to a more efficient and positive work environment.