Work, work-life balance, leaves, leaves management, payroll are some of the frequently heard terms in the corporate world. Unlike other terminologies which may include deadlines, leaves and leave management are soothing pillars of employee satisfaction.
Leaves and payroll are the paramount part of an organization, which have a substantial stake in employee satisfaction. Yet to enhance this experience further it is important that one keeps the track of it for effective payroll management. Thus, potent leave management is the timely need for streamlined and stress-free functions. But how can be achieve a leave management system that is precise, especially when the company is expanding on the global front? The answer is, by rectifying and addressing the loopholes in the global payroll or payroll and leave management system as they are co-dependent.
In this blog we will be understanding the leave management system, its significance, general loopholes and how can we overcome them. So, glance through!
What is a Leave Management System?
A Leave Management system is an organizational practice that deals with the leave requests, approval, tracking and inputs. Having one in place is of paramount importance for the organization to improve retention rate eventually improving employees' trust and satisfaction.
There are ample conventional options available which were initially impacting the system to the core, thus leading to dissatisfaction. Since payroll processing needs to accurate and timely, there must be a key initiative step like technological hint involved that can improve the total experience.
Since, conventional tools like paper forms, emails, excel sheets have mostly become redundant. Ineffective tools decrease productivity and employee efficiency so it’s sensible to structure leave management processes for best practice. Even a minor error can lead to workforce dissatisfaction, payroll processing errors or legal complications.
Benefits of a Good Leave Management System
The aim of adopting a leave management system is not just to mitigate errors but to facilitate growth. The benefits of it are multi-faceted. Here’s what an ideal leave management software does for you:
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Bye Bye Paperwork
Traditional leave record-keeping is full of inefficiencies. The painstaking amount of paperwork can come to an end with leave management systems. Spreadsheets can get manually deleted, edited, or modified by human error plus they can be messy when they are used to handle huge amounts of data. In 2020, nearly 0.86% of hard drives used globally had failed. Hence, storing employee leave data in a leave management system is the best way to mitigate human error and minimize the chances of data being lost.
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Easy Accessibility
Data needs to be maintained in such a way that it is impossible to change it without authorization, and it should be easily accessible to employees. Striking this balance is often challenging. Many times, along with the manager, additional approvers such as HR manager, project manager, supervisor, etc. need to approve leave.
All of these professionals need to have access to leave schedules, histories, the balance of all the employees working under them. The all-in-one dashboard in a leave management system solves all of these problems. The cloud-based system offered by TopSource Worldwide makes employee leave data accessible to all the required parties.
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Time-Saving
Salary.com, states that the average Human Resource Manager in the United States earns $105,88 annually. Assuming that the manager spends 7 hours per month tracking leave and updating the balance for 50 employees, it will take up 84 working hours annually. This will cost the company a large amount of money and lead to loss of productivity.
As the company grows, more time will be consumed to collate leave requests. A leave and attendance management system is much cheaper and more effective than this. This example makes it clear that there is a significant ROI in automating leave and attendance management systems.
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Better Communication
With a centralized system and database containing all of the information about planned annual leave, you can check the availability of team members in the desired timeframe. There are fewer chances of confusion with better communication systems in place. The leave and attendance management system enables you to manage the leave of members who deliver their skills across the organization.
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Real-time Visibility of data
To make an informed decision, you need to have relevant information at hand. Recording and maintaining data in a spreadsheet can waste time and this could delay the decision-making process. Plus, the data could be outdated, which could lead to errors in making decisions.
A sophisticated leave and attendance management system will enable you to maintain and access data instantly. Real-time visibility of data helps you to make quick and informed decisions with the latest data made available by your software.
Challenges in a Traditional Leave Management System
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Challenge 1: No Proper Information About Leaves
A traditional leave management system can lead to ample hurdles in terms of tracking, which can feed a lot of HR manager’s time. Additionally, employees had to proactively track their leave balance and applied status. This system can be much more difficult to difficult to access in terms of leaves & attendance details. Such drawn out processes can even make employees unaware of their annual leave balance or even leave policy.
When updates in leave policies are not always communicated well, and delays can increase frustration amongst employees.
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Challenge 2: Inaccuracy in Payroll Processing
Leave without pay (LWP) and paid leave must be properly calculated to reduce payroll processing errors. Miscalculations or inaccuracies can cause excessive financial costs in leave, attendance, and expense-related transactions.
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Challenge 3: Complications in Handling and Sanctioning the traditional system
Payroll complications are daunting especially when you are dealing on level which skims through across the sphere. Global payroll has to be precise, and well recorded. Traditional system is pretty rigid in terms of identifying the leave patterns and others. The managers could hardly retrieve insights about the availability of employees to make informed decisions before approving leave.
6 Ways to improve a Leave Management System
The leave management system automates annual leave management processes, making it simple and accessible for both employers and employees. The leave management service reduces the complexity of the process and can save time. Listed are 6 ways to create a robust leave management system resulting in streamlined administrative functions with holistic approach:
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Well-Defined Leave Policies
The first step on your way to improving leave management is to create leave policies. This ensures that the employees are aware of their rights while also balancing the interests of the business in mind.
Ideally, the leave management system enables HR to create and manage transparent leave policies. The software offers customization of rules regarding public holidays, half-day calculations, sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, etc. A departmental hierarchy allows HR admin to streamline the approval process.
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All-in-one Dashboard
Employees should be able to check their leave balance and their co-worker’s days off while applying for leave. This requires an all-in-one dashboard that is easily accessible by all employees.
An all-in-one dashboard significantly improves the accessibility and efficiency of a leave management system. Department heads and HR professionals should have access to each employee’s leave history, balance, department schedule, holiday lists, and workforce coverage to evaluate a leave request fairly.
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Leave Management Software
You can purchase software that records leave, holiday requests, time-off, etc. of each and every employee in the organization. Such software is beneficial as it simplifies the leave application approval process and keeps a history of available or unavailable leave.
A cloud-based leave and attendance management system offers multi-channel, on-the-go access, eliminating the need to install and regularly update software. It makes the system mobile/tablet-friendly and accessible at any point in time. Your employees can apply, reject, approve, or cancel leave requests from anywhere at any given time.
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Leave Balances
Manually recording the leave balance of each employee is time-consuming, outdated and may have several loopholes like inaccuracy. Purchasing a leave management system is meaningless if it cannot calculate leave balance. A good leave and attendance management system tracks and records the leave history of employees. All of the previous leave requests can be visible on a single platform. This not only improves transparency but also helps in enhancing employee experience and processing local or global payroll.
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Effective Communication
To create a robust leave and attendance management system, it is essential to communicate effectively with the employees of the organization. Employees should be well informed about what they are supposed to do before, after, and during leave taken by them. This develops a positive work environment and trust in the organization.
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Statutory Compliance
It is the responsibility of every organization to manage leave and attendance in accordance with labor laws and legislation. Leave policies should be in alignment with industry and government standards. It is essential to communicate the rights of employees’ so that they are aware of their privileges.
Automating the leave management system helps employees to build time-off policies that comply with local and federal laws. If annual leave allowances are overbooked, automatic alerts are generated, which makes it impossible to go beyond the set threshold. Non-compliance can ruin the reputation of the company, and additional employees can even sue you for unfair leave practices. Hence, it is essential to stay updated and in alignment with labor laws and legislation.
Conclusion
The leave and attendance management system has made the life of HR managers easier and helped them to increase their productivity. The investment in a system that facilitates leaves management will surely be an advantage and help your company grow. Outdated leave systems have been replaced by cloud-based sophisticated leave and attendance management systems which have reduced the company’s operational charges, enabled legal compliance, and allowed them to reap the benefits of a healthy workforce.
Now, you have a clear roadmap to build and improvise your leave and attendance management system. If you have defined policies, good communication, legal compliance, and the best software, your company will reap the rewards in the long run.
How Can We Help You?
TopSource Worldwide are leading global expansion service providers. We are globally operating payroll support with 900+ clients, 150,000 employee transactions per month, and a workforce of 250+ skilled payroll and IT professionals.
We at TopSource, provides a simple yet effective centralized platform which helps in leave and attendance management proficiently. Various reputed companies rely on our services to manage their tracking offering a fully configurable system. The firm has simplified the workload of HR professionals, which enables them to instead work on their core responsibilities. Ergo, if you are looking for services like this, or other global expansion services like EOR, entity solutions and others. Consider contacting TopSource Worldwide today!
