Leave management systems can sometimes be an afterthought in many organisations. Some use a paper-based system, others just mark the day in their calendar, if at all. This practice brings to mind a lot of questions, especially when it is asked from the employee’s point of view.
Applying for leave can sometimes be a stressful ordeal for employees because they are not sure whether leave will be granted, whether they have applied on time or even if they will receive an answer on time to make their plans. Often chasing superiors for a reply on leave is also uncomfortable and does not help with the working atmosphere.
When evaluating leave systems available on the market, one would not only look at the management features but also take into consideration the ease of use for the employees. Here are the top eight features to look out for that could make this administrative process easier:
■ Ease of access: if the system is available online through any web browser, employees can easily apply for leave and check their balances without wasting time at work.
■ Ease of use: the user should be able to see their balances, look at the leave calendar and apply for leave in a few clicks. The system should be simple to use as well as intuitive.
■ Visibility of information: knowing how many days of leave an employee is entitled to and how many days are remaining means that one can plan their leave easily without chasing the HR department for information.
How well does the system integrate into your payroll?
■ Who’s away: this is possibly the most important piece of information that both management and employees need to have at hand before apply for or approving leave. It makes sense for an employee to know who is already on leave from their department before applying – and the same is true for the approver.
■ Company rules: a good leave management system will be able to cater for stop-leave, shutdown and minimum working personnel in specific teams. This automates a large part of the approval process because non-confirming requests are stopped at the application stage, making things clearer for the employee and more straightforward for management.
■ Data integrity: especially when dealing with larger organisations, it is important that the leave management system has a comprehensive audit log that covers all the actions on the system made by all the users. If there is any doubt about a transaction or a sequence of events, you want to know who did what and when, with minimal effort.
■ Flexibility: the system’s features will determine the granularity of control you have on the process and how closely it will mirror your organisation’s operations. Having a supplier that is able and willing to produce custom modules to fit your exact needs is also a benefit.
■ Integration: how well does the system integrate into your payroll, time and attendance or HR module? Give this one some serious thought.
In the last months DataByte have launched their leave management system as part of Workforce, the cloud solution for HR management. The design for this software has been done only after a serious analysis of market requirements for small, medium and larger organisations. The DataByte leave management system is a cloud solution and thus offered as a software as a service platform. There are no software installations and no need for servers, backups and any dedicated infrastructure. Just have internet and you’re in business from anywhere in the world.
DataByte will solve your leave management problems as it has already done for many organisations while offering also a promise to a seamless integration to many other HR modules that DataByte offers. For more information call on 23456 300 or e-mail sales@databyte.com.mt