How Leave Management System helps you succeed: 10 Benefits

Vacation management isn't a big problem... no HR manager has ever said that. The only exception to this "rule" is when there are only a few people on board. For everyone else, recording the number of vacation days, vacation requests, excess vacation days, payroll and available human resources in an Excel spreadsheet is a mystery, a nightmare! However, this does not apply to companies that choose to use leave management systems instead of completing all of the above tasks using traditional tools like Google Forms.

Today we want to look at the benefits that such a system can offer all HR managers, employees and supervisors. But first, let’s take a look at what an employee vacation management system actually stands for.

What exactly is an employee leave management system?

Well, the concept is pretty much self-explanatory. Employee leave management systems are either a single tool or a set of tools and processes that make requesting, approving (yes, even last minute) or rejecting leave a breeze.

For leisure managers, this means they no longer have to manually deal with vacation balances, applications and other pending approvals, vacation statements and year-end reports. Using digital leave management forms or customizable databases can increase efficiency, prevent confusion and leave conflicts, and free up more time and space for more important tasks.

Without a system in place, you can easily misplace papers, forget vacation requests, and get into trouble for improper vacation management. If you've ever had to deal with overlapping or conflicting vacation requests and ended up in descaling as a result, you know what we're talking about here.

Sometimes managers tend to ignore vacation requests when their team is short-staffed or in the middle of a big campaign. In other cases, some employees may take more vacation days than others simply because they can and no one tracks their vacation balance. This can leave the rest of your employees feeling discouraged and frustrated and affect productivity in your company.

So, you get the idea...using an employee leave management system brings numerous benefits to both HR and employees, simplifying the process of requesting and approving vacation days, maternity/paternity leave, etc.

What are the benefits of leave management systems for employees?

Paperwork is eliminated

The paper-based vacation management system is a source of frustration for both managers and employees. Printing and filling out forms for leave requests, written leave approvals or rejections is annoying, and everyone hates boring and repetitive tasks.

Manually managing requests and vacation balances can be overwhelming and tax the mental bandwidth of HR managers, especially when working in growing companies where the number of employees is increasing at the same time.

With a vacation management system, however, it is child's play to submit, approve or reject requests for time off. With a system like this, it only takes a few clicks to fill out, send, sign and obtain approvals. Yes, you can print out vacation requests, but you really don't have to. The system collects all data so you can finally say goodbye to paperwork and manual processes!

Almost everything is automated

Manual data entry leaves a lot of room for errors and overlaps. Aside from filling out and submitting the leave form and getting it approved (or rejected), using an absence management system requires very little to no manual work since a large portion of things are put on autopilot

Vacation balance, vacation history, notifications, and everything in between is or can be updated automatically, making systems like this very convenient. If you (and other decision makers in the company) e.g. For example, if you want to be notified when requests are approved, when employees are close to their time limit, or when the requested time has passed, an automated leave tracking system will let you know all of this immediately.

Everything is updated in real time

Both employees and managers need the latest information when requesting or approving leave. An employee leave management system prevents conflicts and potential rejections of requests for which there is absolutely no reason. On the other hand, managers can receive real-time information about how many (and whether too many) vacations have been approved, which can lead to a lack of resources.

It saves time

By eliminating all the tedious tasks associated with vacation, management teams can work more efficiently, ultimately saving time. The high level of automation and ease of use of vacation management systems make it easier to focus on organizing other areas of work, such as: E.g. hiring or onboarding new employees, managing employee lifecycle, etc.

A big advantage of a vacation management system is that your employees don't have to wait forever for a response, especially if you need to act quickly and approve their absence as quickly as possible, while managers don't have to spend hours checking data and vacation balances every week .

It improves communication within your organization

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

Think of a vacation management system as a database that provides information about upcoming vacations and the availability of other team members just a click away!

Knowing who will be away and when makes it much easier to organize current workloads and let everyone know what needs to be done by when. In this way, bottlenecks can be avoided and communication with team members can be improved. Employees can also access the dashboard to see when other colleagues will be absent and plan their own absences accordingly, while ensuring others do not have to work overtime to make up for staffing shortages.

Increased transparency

The decline in productivity is often related to AWOL (absence without vacation). When you use a vacation management system, everything is clearly displayed and planned on one dashboard, so you can easily identify lost productivity and determine whether some team members are over- or under-utilizing their days off.

By using automated absence management systems, it is also possible to analyze data and create insightful reports almost effortlessly! This allows you to calculate the average cost of vacation taken and see which employees frequently take unplanned vacation days and how this affects overall productivity.

No data is lost

If you record your employees' absences in an Excel spreadsheet or other offline digital data set, there is a 100% chance of data loss at some point. Accessing these offline recordings from a single device can cause major problems if the device is broken, lost or stolen.

With a vacation management system, your data is stored in a structured and secure manner in the cloud, avoiding potential issues such as hardware failure or loss of physical records. Plus, you can access it from virtually any device as long as you remember your login details.

Legal compliance

Absence management has a lot to do with various guidelines, principles and rules. If your team is spread across the globe, you will want to ensure you are compliant with multiple jurisdictions and various local, state and federal laws.

Non-multinational companies usually have no problems with this, but should still set vacation criteria and restrictions and communicate these to employees to avoid loopholes. Leave management systems can help comply with the law and ensure all important procedures are followed.

Diverse customization options

There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to vacation management. Some companies have stricter and more flexible policies and procedures. With a leave management system, you can categorize the types of leave (sick leave, maternity/paternity leave, FMLA, etc.), filter out employees who have or have not taken vacation days or holidays, and approve or deny their further requests based on this information.

Some of the best vacation management systems allow integration with business tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, so you can really take the hassle out of vacation planning and attendance tracking.

Building a strong and positive corporate culture

The last but not least important advantage of employee leave management systems is that using such a system says a lot about your company's culture and promotes core values such as trust and transparency.

Working in such an atmosphere gives employees a sense of greater purpose and allows them to collaborate on important initiatives with greater enthusiasm (especially when they return to work after a short vacation that gives them the energy that you need to achieve the set goals).

Summary

The ability to keep track of both planned and unplanned absences and have a clear idea of how many resources are available at any given time is actually crucial to the proper functioning of your organization.

However, using a leave management system is not just about creating organizational discipline, but also about employee performance and morale! It's certain that vacation management systems offer a variety of benefits, but one thing is certain - these systems are tools that can also help you manage risks, reduce costs, and streamline many processes in your organization.

And if you think this type of system is exactly what you need, then check out IceHrm’s employee leave management system, a PTO software that finally allows your team to manage themselves and get a company-wide overview, which you need to make optimal use of your resources, even if some of your employees take vacation. So, come join with IceHrm right now!