How to Mastering Sick Time and Vacation Tracking

All companies offer holiday benefits to their employees. Sometimes, however, they struggle to keep track of holiday and sick leave.

As soon as you offer your employees vacation and sick leave, you should develop written guidelines to ensure that the allotted time is used appropriately. As a rule, the company's guidelines contain a description of how holiday and sick leave is earned and redeemed. The official guidelines should also state accrual rates and the requirements that apply to certain types of leave. You can consult with lawyers and HR experts to make sure that you draw up correct guidelines for holiday processing.

Step one, however, is to ensure that all policies are in place and well understood by all employees. Step two is to ensure that the HR department has a system that makes it possible to follow up these benefits in the right way.

The standard for time off can vary from region to region, from country to country and even from province to province. If you want to know more about this, check out our post on different PTO policies around the world. Nevertheless, it is important to get the right tool. Many companies use the same solutions time and time again to keep track of the holiday and sickness absence of their teams.

Get the right tool to track vacation and sick time

However, nothing is more important than tracking your vacation the right way. You also need a tracking system that enables you or your managers to plan the employees' time off. It relieves the HR department of a large part of the work. It saves time and creates transparency. In addition, it has some more intangible benefits. It makes the employees more relaxed and generally increases morale.

In the next few paragraphs, we'll take a look at some affordable options that can help you track the absence of your team. Perhaps you already use some of these options. Some are more beneficial than others. Perhaps you realize it's time to help your HR team and upgrade to a more automated vacation tracking and leave management system.

The "classic" method: The spreadsheet

It is cheap to use a spreadsheet to record holiday and sick leave. It's also simple. It's something everyone knows. We have even encouraged it in the past. For those teams that absolutely want to keep costs to a minimum, this solution can work. We've even tried it ourselves. But as soon as our team got a little bigger, it quickly became unmanageable.

One problem with a spreadsheet is that it can be time-consuming because it requires manual input.

You can download our simple template and read our article on how to get the most out of it.

Or you can make your own. To create a template, create lines for the pay period's start and end dates at the top of the page. Next, write column headings for "Starting balance", "Used" and "Ending balance". Below this you create a column heading for "Employee's name". In the same row, under "Starting balance", "Used" and "Ending balance", write separate subheadings for "Holiday" and "Sick leave". Enter each employee's starting balance in the respective columns. For each pay period, enter the time off in the "Used" column. Enter the relevant formulas so that the spreadsheet can follow the changes in the balance.

Track time and save headaches

Incorrect time recording can result in employees receiving negative balances. In some cases, employees may end up being paid for time off that they do not have. Or they may want to take time off, only to find they've already used up all the time. It can also lead to managers planning time off in the wrong way, which can disrupt the flow in the department. Depending on your company's policies, you may have to pay out unused vacation when an employee leaves. To ensure correct payment, you need a reliable tracking system.

Get a comprehensive payroll and HR system

You can also monitor holiday and sick time via a payroll and personnel system. This method is effective if you handle payroll and HR administration in-house rather than outsourcing these tasks. If so, you need a software that makes it possible to manage time and attendance, payroll and personnel management. After you have processed and closed the payroll for each pay period, the system updates the employees' holiday and sick notices. You can also generate and print custom reports.

Other options for holiday and sickness absence registration

If you don't need to purchase payroll or HR management software, consider purchasing an absenteeism tracking program. Like Icehrm, these are stand-alone systems that make it possible to monitor vacation and sick leave. Most of them also allow you to generate and print custom reports. Some time off systems have a dashboard or bot that employees can use to submit vacation and sick leave requests. These requests are sent to the managers for approval.

In conclusion, mastering sick time and vacation tracking is vital for efficient workforce management. While traditional methods like spreadsheets have their merits, adopting advanced tools such as IceHrm can revolutionize the process. IceHrm offers a comprehensive solution to streamline tracking, enhance accuracy, and boost overall productivity, ensuring a seamless management experience.