Technology

Leave management should be as simple as submit, approve and hit the beach

By Rick Bell

Jun. 21, 2020

Submitting a request for time off should be a simple, positive experience.

In most cases an employee seeking leave is looking forward to time away from the workplace. Their request to take time to relax and unwind shouldn’t get bogged down in a bureaucratic morass of an overly complicated process, further slowed by multiple approvals and unnecessary paperwork.

Let employees know their vacation is approved before they even book their travel plans through an intuitive online time management solution. Managers and supervisors also will appreciate the solution’s ease of use and rapid response so they can plan for that employee’s absence weeks or even months in advance.

Clear the confusion

Too often employees don’t know how much time off they have accrued or the amount they have left. Worse, managers are often in the dark about such employee basics as paid time off.

The employee approaches the manager to ask, “How much time off do I have left?” only to discover that the boss has no idea, either.

Frustrated, both begin to search for an answer. Naturally, it is either on a paper form tucked deep inside a hulking gray filing cabinet, or it is squirreled away among a previous manager’s archived spreadsheets, which of course is in a folder on an inaccessible server.

A mobile leave management solution makes such confusion and aggravation a thing of the past. Employers and employees enjoy ease of use and spend their time on tasks much more important than digging through a bank of filing cabinets.

Time off at their fingertips

A fully integrated leave management system literally fits in their pockets. Managers will always know who is available to work any shift with a quick glance at their mobile phone.

Innovative leave management software supports both mobile and desktop applications and implements approved requests directly into an employee shift schedule.

Online leave management benefits

Employers can customize leave management for multiple industries and global locations. Through quick implementation to the cloud, supervisors and employees also have a fair, transparent leave approval solution. Employers also increase their efficiency by shedding burdensome paperwork and save time and money by avoiding costly compliance complications.

Fair, transparent leave approval

Whether your organization uses paid time off or traditional vacation/sick leave, employees submit leave requests using their mobile devices. Managers can then review, approve or modify the requests. With ongoing, updated tracking, employee and supervisor both have access to records, balances and proof of compliance. Tracking time off helps optimize labor management for all employees.

Ease scheduling hassles

Every employee deserves time away from work, whether it is a weeklong vacation or a half-day doctor’s appointment. But when that worker’s time-off request is mismanaged it causes problems for the business, managers and fellow employees.

A simple, user-friendly mobile leave management solution is accurate, immediate and rebuilds the trust between employees and their managers that may have been damaged by a sloppy paper-based system. 

Managers can see pending leave requests and check on employee availability, then make informed decisions on whether to grant or deny the time off.

Remain in compliance

Lax adherence to tracking employee leave and ignoring federal and state Family and Medical Leave Act compliance is the fast track to a lawsuit. A user-friendly, effective leave management system helps clarify FMLA and other regulations with intermittent or continuous employee-leave tracking to avoid litigation and costly fines that typically come with noncompliance.

 Efficient records of absentee, sick leave, annual leave and timekeeping translates into accurate compensation and an engaged workforce secure in the knowledge that their leave requests will not fall through the cracks. A mobile leave management solution benefits the employer as well as the employee.

Rick Bell is Workforce’s editorial director.

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