6 reasons to implement a leave management system

Navigating the minefield of leave management without a leave management system is a difficult challenge. If you're only using traditional tools like paper forms, emails and Excel spreadsheets, your chances of survival are pretty slim. Even small missteps can lead to disasters like resource shortages, payroll errors and legal complications.

Despite the big impact on productivity and employee engagement, SMBs aren't ready to overhaul their cumbersome manual processing of leave requests. In some SMBs, employees still chase their managers with leave forms to get a signature. Managers, on the other hand, are scurrying around with Excel spreadsheets to figure out vacation balances.

Even the widely used Google forms are not efficient enough to solve some important leave management problems. All of these ineffectual tools are eating away at your employees' productivity and efficiency.

What good is your leave management software if they require too much manual intervention to work properly? The skewed data obtained from these archaic tools are useless.

Without manual sorting, you can't gain insights or identify problems from this confusing mess. And even then, accuracy is questionable. To avoid the administrative arsenal, legal stumbling blocks, and payroll pitfalls, you need a robust leave management system. Before you start looking around the software market for the ideal leave management software, you need to understand the ins and outs of the leave management process.

Why is leave management important?
Even though some employers want to keep their employees at work all the time, they still need a fair amount of time off to rest and relax. An overworked employee is an unproductive employee. Leave management is about managing employee leave requests fairly, accurately, and efficiently.

The responsibility for processing employee leave requests rests with supervisors, human resources staff, and workforce management personnel.

Features of a leave management system

A leave management system (LMS) automates the leave request process and makes it effortless for both management and employees. Your solution of choice should be robust enough to seamlessly handle all phases of a leave management process: Requesting, approving/rejecting, filing leave, managing leave balances, and analyzing.

A good leave management system has the following functionalities:

all-in-one dashboard.
Employees can view their leave balance and check their colleagues' days off while requesting leave. Supervisors and HR staff must have access to employee leave balances, leave lists, department schedules, and workforce coverage to better evaluate leave requests.

configurable fields (leave type, policy, leave the list).
Policies and procedures vary from one organization to another. A strict, one-size-fits-all leave management system may not be appropriate for your needs. Look for a product that allows your staff to customize fields to fit your organization's policies.

cloud-based
A cloud-based online leave management system not only provides access through multiple channels and on the go but also eliminates the need for cumbersome software installations and updates. Your employees can submit, approve or deny leave requests from anywhere, anytime.

Automatically update leave balances.
Purchasing leave management software is useless if your HR department has to manually calculate and update your employees' leave balances. Your attendance management system needs to track the leave history of all employees and display it to both employees and their supervisors.

customizable approval workflow
You need to be able to create customizable workflows and set up a departmental hierarchy to ensure a streamlined process. Once an employee selects their department, the predefined workflow must be automatically populated.

seamless integration
Outdated software is archaic, obsolete, and creates data silos. A product that provides seamless integration with your other HR management software for payroll, time tracking, etc. saves time, eliminates silos, and enables cross-functional reporting.

reports at a glance                                                                                                         Your product should include an integrated reporting module that creates interactive reports based on the data collected. With employee-specific and company-wide reports, organizations can easily analyze patterns and gain actionable insights.

A leave management system is an all-in-one platform that handles all employee leave requests while ensuring a smooth workflow. Below, you'll learn what robust leave management software can do for you:

-Eliminates paperwork
-Eliminates manual intervention
-Improves communication
-Provides real-time visibility of data
-Ensures regulatory compliance
-Reflects your organization's values

The solution to your leave management problems: Icehrm.com
It's time to find a leave management system that lets you float over the minefield instead of stumbling through it. Take charge of your leave management process and automate it, save management time, reduce payroll errors, eliminate manual dependencies, eliminate paperwork, and take a straightforward approach to process leave requests. A cloud-based SaaS platform can solve all the problems associated with leave administration and make it effortless.

Several organizations across the globe are using icehrm.com to streamline their leave administration process. Our easily customizable leave management system reduces the amount of time and effort your HR staff spends on paperwork, centralizes leave and holiday information for easy access, reduces the risk of leave misuse, and increases productivity across the organization.

Reduce the overall effort and time spent on leave management with icehrm.com. Sign up for a risk-free demo and try it for yourself!