Understanding Leave Management - Employee Absences

What is leave management? Leave management is one of the simplest but most important HR activities that often takes up a significant portion of the HR team's time. The HR staff must ensure that the leave guidelines are complied with, ensure that there are enough staff available at all times and ensure that the employees are satisfied.

To be successful as an organization, it is important to have a reliable system for leave management. Research has shown that poor leave management can have a negative impact on employees' performance. It can also affect employee morale and thus project deliveries. According to a survey carried out by the Singapore-based recruitment company Robert Half, most employees want more days off. The survey, which was carried out among 500 employees in Singapore, shows that 36 per cent of respondents put more holiday at the top of their wish list, followed by more flexible working hours (32 per cent) and opportunities for professional development (20 per cent).

Employee absenteeism and workforce productivity

Business leaders often underestimate the impact absenteeism can have on workforce productivity. Although they are aware of the absenteeism problem, they do not understand how serious the situation is. According to a Mercer survey of 455 employers:

• The average cost of employee absence corresponds to 36% of the employee's salary.
• Absenteeism leads to a 19% net productivity loss per day.
• Indirect costs resulting from absenteeism include: business interruption, overtime, substitutes, customer dissatisfaction and turnover.

What is leave management and how can it be automated?

Complex and manually administered leave arrangements can be costly and do not necessarily guarantee a flawless process. Automating leave management is therefore a turnkey solution. The employees get access to self-service portals where they can request leave and get access to leave benefits. Managers can view and approve leave requests in real time. The system automatically monitors the employees' leave requests and assesses each individual request against the employees' leave balances. The system also keeps track of all outstanding, approved and unapproved leave applications and keeps an overview as needed.

This makes it easier to plan resources and assess the impact of leave on already planned tasks. Administrators/managers can therefore make better decisions regarding employee leave. An automated leave management system also enables employers to fairly and accurately enforce leave policies. Routines for leave applications and approval flows can also be configured according to the organization's business requirements. And most importantly: Managers can easily access aggregate information about time off for analysis, reporting and financial estimates.

Types of paid leave for employees

Organizations offer different types of leave, with paid leave being the most common type. A survey of 807 organizations shows what types of paid leave are offered to employees.

The benefits of leave management software

Here are some of the key leave management issues that can be effectively addressed by automating the leave management processes:

• Too much paperwork - It is quite common for both small and medium-sized businesses and large organizations to manage their employees' leave in a series of spreadsheets or even use partially paper-based systems. It is therefore difficult to track and register the absence of employees in an accurate manner. This is where automation comes in handy by streamlining leave processes. Information about the employees' absence is handled in a central archive. Since all applications and approvals are handled online, the need for paperwork can also be reduced.
• Compliance with laws and regulations - Organizations always try to stay on the right side of the law. However, there may be cases where something can go wrong. In cases such as persistent short-term absence, long-term illness, retirement, health and safety incidents, etc., it is important that the regulations for staff benefits are complied with. By automating the entire absence management process, you can systematically record and store information to support discussions (or in the · worst case, a legal situation) and stay up to date on important activities via alerts and reminders.
• Tracking of leave patterns - It is very important to track the employees' leave patterns in order to keep track of the number of paid leaves, sick notices and holiday patterns in the organization. The automation of leave management eliminates the risk of manual errors and makes it possible to analyze the business processes accurately. The analyzes can also be used to map the employees' performance and diligence.

Automating leave management can help create a problem free and more positive relationship between employee and employer, while also ensuring that productivity in the business is not impaired. An effective leave management automation system enables employees and employers to connect with each other in a way that is more productive and engaging for all parties. Good routines for personnel management, implemented with HR management software, can help the organization grow faster.

With a cloud-based leave management system, your team can easily manage paid leave, sick leave, sick leave and time off. Go through the guidelines for leave, leaves of absence and annual leave to make the company a more attractive place to work. What is leave management? It can be a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining talent.

In summary, IceHrm emphasizes the critical role of leave management in optimizing employee performance, highlighting the impact of absenteeism on productivity and the benefits of automating leave processes. A well-managed leave system contributes to employee satisfaction, compliance, and overall organizational growth.