Author: dayoff

There is no doubt that HR management is a major function in a company as the employees can drive the business. Besides, the company needs to manage its employees in the best possible ways to maintain the smooth functioning of the company. This is where the leave tracking software comes to play.

However, when the leave management of an organization is poorly maintained, it can turn into a laborious and hectic process. If you fail to track the leaves, approved them properly, or forecast the human resource shortages, then you may end up with a shortage of human resources. So, how to deal with this effectively? The perfect solution is the PTO tracking software.

These advanced leave management tools have changed how companies used to manage the leaves or vacations of the employees. It has facilitated transparent leave management that will develop a good relationship between the employers and employees. Are you looking for the best employee leave tracker app or software programs for your business? Well, we have listed down the top five leave tracking tools that can help you a lot. However, before that, let’s talk about the importance of using a leave management tool.

Why should every organization use time-off or leave management software?

• It can lower the paperwork, and as a result, your employees and HR managers will save time. Applying leave requests writing a letter takes more time.
• Such tools can accurately calculate the employees’ leave balances automatically. There is no need to use formulas or calculators to count the leave balances. It will offer you an auto-generated comprehensive report on that.
• You will be able to keep track of employees’ attendance. Absenteeism can greatly affect those who work. When you track the absence effectively, your employees will become more organized.
• The software program will automate different tasks related to leave management. The calendar will be updated automatically, and the employees can easily check the leave availability. Besides, a leave taken will be deducted automatically, and the employees can see their leave balance. 
• As these are automated software programs, one can’t make any changes to the leave forms without getting approval from the manager.
• Using a leave tracker app, you can enhance the collaboration process as it facilitates an effective communication process between the HR management and employees.

What features should a leave tracking software offer?

While buying one, you need to make sure that the program has all the required features to automate the task and offer you a smoother process. So, some of the major features that you should look for in a time off app are:

• Supports for national holidays based in the locations.
• Personalized leave policies.
• Assign annual absence and leave types.
• Push notifications and reminders.
• Easy synchronization with payroll systems, Outlook calendar, and more.
• Monitoring the leaves.
• Offering leaves analysis reports and more.

Best leave tracking or PTO tracking software that you can use for leave management

1. Day Off

When it comes to using a reliable and well-developed Time off app, one can always trust Day off. This professional leave tracking app is a fully-featured leave management software program that is designed to serve small enterprises and startups. It is designed to offer end-to-end solutions.

When you use this leave tracker, you will enjoy analytics and reporting in one place. It comes with an easy-to-use mobile app for the employees as well as HR managers. As per the information mentioned on the website, more than 80 percent of their customers are now using this to effectively track leave requests.

It is a Free vacation tracker where employees can easily request their vacation and can automatically consider the weekends and public holidays. Besides, they will get notified about the vacation history as well as leave balance. Using this web app and its interactive and easy-to-use dashboard, HR managers can easily configure the data and import all the records.

Some amazing features of Day Off

• One can create the company with a few simple clicks. All you need to enter the email id, password, company’s location, and name, and you are ready to go. Besides, it lets you add your teams, assigning different configurations for each team.
• It will be very easy for the HR Management department to manage multiple leave requests. It shows you a comprehensive calendar view with the employees’ leave requests. Besides, you can also see the details like employees’ data, their leave duration, leave type, and more.
• Want to send an urgent announcement to your employees instantly? When you are using the Day Off app, you don’t need to put the announcements on the notice board. Just type the required message and press the button. All the teams will be notified within a few seconds.
• For the employees, not submitting a vacation request will become a lot easier. When using this app, you can send a leave request within a few seconds. All they need to choose the type of leave, start date, and end date. Once accepted by the HR manager, the app will notify employees.
• What’s more? One can easily check the leave balance and manage them accordingly. It also shows the official holidays of the region.

Day off can be seamlessly integrated with your payroll or other leave management software programs. Together they will create a robust leave time management and work system that will be helpful for the accountants, project managers, team managers, and HR managers.

Speaking about its pricing, you can go for the free version as well as paid version. With this Free time off tracker, you will enjoy limited yet useful features, such as calendar view, management reports, unlimited employees’ registration, reports management, and customize leave types.

Why use Day Off?

• It’s visual

The software offers a clear schedule view where all the absences can be shown. With the filtering option, you can choose the relevant information. View the report with beautiful and colorful charts.

• It’s very simple

Day Off doesn’t require any training for using it. The intuitive interfaces and workflow will help you in creating a robust leave management process.

• The program is highly customizable

You can customize it to adapt to the unique requirements of your company, creating different leave types, configuring the leave balances, rules, and more.

If you go for paid or Pro version, it will cost you USD 1 per user/month. However, apart from the core features, you will enjoy pro and advanced features. So, what are you waiting for? Give the Day Off app a try and enjoy a comfortable way of managing employees’ leaves.

2. ActiPLANS

This PTO tracking software program is designed to offer you a time-saving and transparent leave management process. The program supports different types of custom leave that can be easily configured to affect the sick day or PTO balance. Using this, you can easily get comprehensive reports that can show you the absence history of your team, leave balance changes, upcoming leaves, and more.

No matter what type of business you have, be it a large-scale business or a startup, you will benefit from its useful features. Just configure the tool based on the leave policy of your company, and you can enjoy a comfortable leave management process. Review, request, and approve the leaves with just one click.

It is important for every business to efficiently manage the absences as well as leaves of the workforce. Well, actiPLANS make sure that all the staff plans their leave schedule in such a way that it can benefit the employees as well as the employer. It offers a perfect centralized system to automate different processes. It also has an app that works on both Android and iOS devices. Some useful features are:

• Leave tracking
• Self-service portal
• Approval process control
• Leave policy management
• Calendar management and more.

The cost of actiPLANS depends on the number of users and period length. You can also go for its free version that supports only 1 to 3 users. For 1 to 40 users, you may need to pay USD 1.5 per user. If you want to use it for 41 to 200 users, then per user, the cost will be USD 1.2.

3. Kissflow HR cloud

Are you looking for a professional and trusted Employee leave tracker app for your company? Well, you can always trust Kissflow HR cloud. This cloud-based modern leave management app can lower the effort and time companies spend on the employee’s time-off process. It is a perfect online leave management system that will perfectly fit you.

As per the company, it has all the features to centralize the national holiday and leave lists to facilitate easy accessibility. As a result, it can lower the chances of leave abuse. You can increase the company’s productivity and keep the process transparent by using Kissflow HR cloud.  Speaking about the features of this PTO tracker, these are:

• Flexible leave management, covering balance tracking, leave history, and more.
• Auto-updates about the holiday, leave requests, and more.
• It facilitates an effortless API integration, and you can integrate it with GL Accounting, Payroll, and more.
• It offers a self-service portal for the manager, employee, or project manager.
• The best part is that this software is scalable. It will grow based on your company’s growth, teams, etc.

Speaking about the pricing, you will find it very flexible. While you can use its free trial to test the product, if you are satisfied with it, you can go for different plans. For example, USD 16 per user and per month. For the fully loaded features, you can choose the package that costs USD 30 per user. This package is for 50 users.

4. Timesheets.com

This web-based Vacation tracker helps the HR managers to monitor the employees’ attendance as well as status. As a result, they can know who is on the clock, who is working on what tasks, who is coming late, and more. It is designed to offer a maximum level of visibility as well as control while lowering costs.

The time tracking feature is easy to use, and you will find it quite effective for calculating the invoicing billable time and accurate payroll. Timesheets.com can easily handle supervisor approvals, employee requests, accurate calculations.  It also offers you a place to keep all the documents of your employees in one place. Some of the key features of this software are:

• A great time tacking tool
• Real-time reporting
• PTO based on the hours worked
• Easy leave requests
• Advanced security and features, and more.

For standard users, it can cost USD 4.50 per user. For non-profit organizations, per user, it can cost around USD 3.60.

5. ADP

ADP is a cloud-based leave management application that will offer users to enjoy highly customizable leave policies, easy integration with the company’s calendar, holiday groups. It also supports different types of leaves, covering personal, LOP, PTO, vacation, and more. ADP workforce comes with a well-designed native mobile app for both iOS and Android users. Besides, it can be easily integrated into different HR solutions through advanced API integration.

It comes with a customizable homepage that functions as a comprehensive digital noticeboard that every company can utilize to share updates, notices, and policies across the organization. Apart from its customizable homepages, it is also popular for its pricing options and provides users with a free quote.

Final words

Streamlining the management process using a Free vacation tracker, like the Day off app, you can eliminate the manual paperwork, improve the communication, remove the manual process, real-time visibility, and you can maintain perfect legal compliance.

The requirements will vary from one organization to another. So, while choosing leave tracking software, it will be better for you to choose a program that will perfectly cater to your basic requirements. This is where you can choose Day Off, and you can simplify your leave management process. This is a perfect app to monitor the most important resource of any company, i.e., Human Resources. So, get it now and get ready to take your business to a new height of success.

A company can only become successful when it walks along with a large team. In fact, larger the team is, greater becomes the scope of its success. This is the reason that modern-day businesses are so serious when it comes to boosting their workforce. In this context, they set effective HR management trends following the ongoing trends.

Through technological advancements, the HR departments of contemporary companies are clearly evolving. However, the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic has almost forced the HR professionals to quickly respond to their immediate business concerns and deal with the needful transformations in the offices. Through the process, they have evolved the technological scenarios as well.

It is not just about the HR team specifically; rather, the entire business domain in modern times is emphasizing the technological resources for handling, hiring, and operating with the employees. In this context, the use of AI, cloud, etc., has transformed things significantly. It is not just about large MNCs; the small companies are also emphasizing using optimized yet affordable tools. Apparently, the use of Day off apps has grown significantly. All these are meant for executing advanced corporate strategies and making things interactive on all levels. 

Well, there are various trends going on, especially in HR management domain. The following abstracts throw more light into such significant HR management trends that are going to be enthusiastically implemented by companies in 2021.  

1. Handling the globalization and diversity

Needless is to say, how much emphasis a corporate house has to give towards maintaining a proper culture for its employees. It is not only about large corporations; even the smaller companies in this globalized era also involve people from different religions, caste, ages, sex, and traditions. Keeping up with these people and taking the company forward is certainly a challenge. For example, people from different parts of the world have to take leaves on different occasions.

In such scenarios, specifically for smaller companies, it can be tough to handle leaves or set leave policies strategically to ensure the operation does not get disturbed. This can be cited as the foremost reason behind the popularity of leave tracker apps in modern times. Above all, the HR professionals have realized the importance of making the policies all-inclusive and setting an environment where the employees can feel free about expressing their ideas.

Noteworthy here is that according to research, cohesive work tradition excels the performance of employees by 56 percent. Most importantly, it cuts down the threat associated with a turnover by 50 percent. All these aspects certainly help employees in staying motivated towards working hard.  

2. The remote working trend

The scenario of workplaces has tremendously ever since the global coronavirus has surfaced. It has compelled the organizations and their employees to work remotely from their place. This has forced the HR managements to change their strategies regarding leaves and all. With employees managing to cut down their needs of taking leaves in the lockdown scenarios, HR managers have to set explicit strategies regarding leave policies.

The role of PTO tracker applications has turned out to be highly significant in such scenarios. With the help of these tools, employers have to set new strategies for boosting productivity. All that the companies need to ensure is to keep the employees engaged with the company and maintain the enthusiasm well while not working in a team environment.

3. Evolving needs of skills

In terms of skills, it has become essential for the selected candidates to possess relevant skills like data analytics. Most importantly, checking out the digital literacy of the candidate has become crucial. Apart from these, the HR professionals are prioritizing about critical thinking ability of the candidates. Larger companies are equally serious about skills like conflict management as well.

Scenarios for selection criteria regarding soft skills have changed immensely as well. In this context, emphasis is being given to the emotional intelligence of the candidate. The terms like emotional intelligence were quite unknown even a few years past. Similarly, creativity was not a stringent criterion of selection in modern times. Selection of candidates based on their ability to learn and their aptitude is being emphasized a lot.

Specifically, this aspect is being given importance for the companies which function in an environment where a proper combination of maintaining technical and non-technical aspects is given importance. Apart from these, the recruiters are assessing the family responsibilities of the concerned candidates as well to get clarity about the chances of him or her taking leaves. This is the reason that a lot of emphasis is being given to the use of PTO tracking software. 

4. Strategic ways for handling work balance of employees

Employee wellness is a term that is being emphasized a lot among modern-day employers quite a lot. The reason is that the employers have realized well about the importance of maintaining the psychological wellness of the employees, rather than loading them with works.

In this context, the HR professionals are considering various parameters to assess the stress level of these candidates. In fact, they are analyzing things from their side as well to know whether the employee is taking required amount of leave or offs from work. This has grown the demand for Employee time off tracker applications significantly.

It is not just about simply calculating the number of leaves; rather, importance is being given to check at the intervals of taking leaves as well. There are top-ranked companies those are emphasizing a lot about maintaining both work and family life. In general, the HR professionals take the data of the Employee leave tracker app into account.

5. Emphasizing on mental aspects

A whole range of efforts taken on these aspects creates a great impression in the mind of the employee towards the organization as well. It keeps them thoroughly motivated to put in greater efforts. Most importantly, the employees feel engaged with the company on all levels. HR managers can certainly expect more loyalty from the employees through such efforts.

Health is another aspect that contemporary employers are emphasizing a lot. In this context, they are launching various health campaigns and fitness classes. Explicit counseling sessions are organized in regular intervals to keep the candidates stay motivated.

6. Emphasis towards celebration and interactions

Festive celebration is another aspect that is being emphasized a lot among HR professionals in modern times. There are numerous advantages that HR professionals see with such activities. Interestingly, in these pandemic scenarios as well the companies are organizing various online events or over social media platforms to celebrate the festivities. Interaction through video calls during the weekends is also a part of it.

Advantage of the activities of such is that the employers and HR professionals can expect cutting down the requirements of leaves significantly. Interestingly, they are obtaining factual proof on this aspect using time off app. A minimum number of leaves is obvious to grow productivity of the company. At the same time, it takes care of the mental health aspects thoroughly as well. However, organizing explicit events for mental health awareness programs has become a part of such campaigns as well.            

7. Artificial Intelligence playing an all-inclusive role

Use of applicant tracking tools has grown immensely among HR managers in modern times. These AI-based tools, in combination with cloud computing tools, can be highly useful for HR professionals on many levels. It can especially streamline the process of recruitments and keep the overall workflow under control. Best part about the tools based on AI is that these do encourage the selections based on merits, thus removing a whole range of biases.

AI helps the HR professionals in integrating, providing training, managing payrolls, as well as conducting thorough data administrations. Best part is that these technologies enable conducting things in a thoroughly intuitive fashion. In fact, the recruitment process can be streamlined thoroughly as well. However, small companies may take the help of day off app as well.  

8. High-end technology being used in recruitment process

It is been a constant challenge among HR professionals to find competitive and talented candidates. Professionals are emphasizing more on adapting with the creative strategies of sorting the selection procedure and finding the best candidate. Though the tools based on high-end technicalities, like AI, have made things quite simpler, HR professionals have to rely upon specialist agencies on most occasions.

However, it has become even more important to have clarity regarding the policies for ensuring greater transparency. In this context, foremost emphasis is being given towards having clarity regarding the leave policies. HR professionals in modern times are emphasizing on usage of free vacation tracker apps. Most employers are prioritizing on use of learning management tools in this regard for facilitating the training processes in a better fashion.     

Scenarios have changed significantly in modern times as far as recruitment policies are concerned. Those days were now history when only the education or academic record along with specific job-related training was the criteria for selection. A modern-day HR professional in 2021 has to look for a variety of other aspects to ensure that the person selected can fit well with the company. In this context, even the locality of the candidate has become a factor considering that someone who is not established at a certain location holds a maximum chance of taking leaves. HR professionals often have to take the help of vacation tracker apps in this regard.

9. Making the team accustomed to VRs, and ARs

Simply hiring is not enough. It is equally important to make the workforce thoroughly trained to expect a greater level of productivity. However, good news for HR professionals is that digital technologies have made things look incredibly simpler in this regard. Specifically, higher emphasis is being given towards the use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in modern times. Practical training sessions in modern times are being emphasized to be conducted remotely and virtually for meeting well with the contemporary scenarios.

10. Emphasis on Gig Economy

There is no doubt among the modern-day HR professionals that the contemporary youth wants a perfect balance between their professional and personal life. It has thus become extremely important to set flexible schedules. Emphasis is being given towards telecommuting more than others.

Coming to the gig economy, those domains where employees would prefer to work in an independent way is growing with popularity. In fact, people are emphasizing a lot towards working on their own terms. In this context, HR managers are focusing on setting norms that can be useful for maintaining the productivity level, as well as in handling the work balance well.       

11. Data literacy and other skills for HR professionals

When it comes to HR trends, providing needful training to HR professionals has become as vital as other aspects. The foremost emphasis being given is regarding the data literacy of the HR professionals. It has become crucial to ensure that the HR professionals have the ability of taking right decisions based on data.

Rising above the regular hiring aspects, it has become important for HR professionals to remain updated with the use of high-end technologies as well. They are expected to be having expertise in digital integrations. Not just for any specific professionals, rather, these upskilling aspects have become important for the entire HR department. Experience is certainly emphasized a lot when it comes to HR professionals.

Specifically, those candidates carrying experience in using the tools relevant for HR department are being emphasized. To be specific, HR professionals are expected to be well versed with popular tools like Daily Off app. The free time off tracker tools or simply the tools like Daily Off apps can significantly boost confidence of the HR professionals to work at higher levels.

Conclusion

All said and done; these are the most buzzed trends that the HR management trends should definitely remain aware of in 2021. Evidently, technology is playing the most vital role in all these trends. However, HR professionals must look for creative ways of using these tools for greater results.

Every business organization, regardless of its size, needs to have its own leave management system. This system is a process in which every employee of the business organization can apply for leaves, and the managers can approve them as well as track their leave balance record. Every company goes with the manual process to track an employee’s absence and leave records at the initial stage.

But the manual process could involve a lot of paperwork, which can be burdensome for the HR department. Thus, using a leave tracker software tool can make the HR teams timeless consuming. These software programs are designed to optimize the HR teams’ employee management tasks to concentrate on other tasks to meet the company’s needs.

Reasons to take leave management software into account

To avoid harming the organization’s productivity

It’s not wise to underestimate the impact of employee absenteeism on the business operators since the absence of employees would directly impact the company’s productivity. Employees are the ultimate success factor of a company. So if the HR manager fails to record the absenteeism, the company would suffer a reduction in productive times that can severely impact the company’s overall efficiency. In order to avoid ineffective leave management, companies should use leave management software.

To avoid negatively affecting the company’s profit

Every business organization makes a policy for their leave management since paid time off can significantly impact the organizations’ profit. If the employee-manager faces ineffective leave management, the company would seriously lose its profits as they fail to notice if an employee is not adhering to the company’s leave policy. Thus business operators look for effective, paperless solutions to eliminate errors in calculating leave payments. So they look for an effective PTO tracker to automate their leave management system.

To avoid conflicts related to leave balance

Absenteeism not just affects the company’s profit but also those employees who attend the workshop. A leave tracker software application such as Day Off could track every employee’s absences and regulate their leave balance. With its implementation, the management team would face less conflict regarding their leave balance, get their employees more organized at work, and make the team more disciplined.

Signs for you to use an online leave management system

When the HR manager is too busy to manage leave requests

Investing in leave management software is not something difficult to afford. But some organizations might be too comfortable with their manual system to not notice that it’s not about affordability but managing their workload. The first sign of needing a PTO tracking software when managing employee leave requests becomes more burdensome for the HR manager.

The manager can’t just approve a leave request directly; they have to ensure the request is complying with the company’s policy and then balance the schedules to ensure adequate coverage is available before approving it. All these assessments can take a while that is not always convenient. If your HR manager is struggling to find time for concentrating on other business operations, it’s time for shifting to leave management software.

When employees miss their  shifts

There might be many mistakes and miscommunications with manual leave management that can lead to employees missing their shifts. The employees who have to cover for other employees when the company is understaffed can feel stressed as it would stretch their work shifts.

Every business depends on having repeat customers. But if your establishment is understaffed, it means your customers would most likely have a bad experience leading to a loss of profits. Not just to minimize human error but to keep your customers satisfied, you should consider using the employee leave tracker app.

If you are using spreadsheets to track employee hours

Most small and medium businesses use excel sheets to track their employees’ working hours, PTO accrual, and absences. This might be a free service for you, but you would put your business up for legal liabilities. Not just your customers but also your employees are essential for you to run your business smoothly. Thus, you should provide both of them with professionalism. Instead of spreadsheets, using leave management software would be more transparent and store real-time data for everyone to access.

Benefits of using leave management software

Reduced paperwork

In this digitalized world, businesses are now depending on digital systems to eliminate paperwork. This way, you would not have to deal with unnecessary clutter of paperwork and improve your company’s carbon footprint. Also, you would promote a green work environment on your business premises.

Plus, if you incorporate an online leave management system with your specialized software instead of a manual way, you would not suffer any loss or mislaid leave request forms. Your employers can directly apply for leave in the vacation tracker, and you can accept or reject them without causing any miscommunications.

Automotive leave balance calculation

Automation is the most prominent advantageous factor of using leave management software. This automotive system can make your working process a lot smoother. Your HR management would no longer have to operate computer systems to track and update your employees’ leave balance manually.

Your attendance management software would automatically track your employees’ leave histories, which can be accessible to both employees and the HR manager. The software always auto-updates each of your employees’ holiday calendars, and you can check their availability easily. If you approve any of their leave requests, the software would automatically deduct their leave balance and show you the result whenever you want.

Time-efficient

Manually updating the employee attendance can be very time-consuming, not to mention complicated. Human errors can occur easily with the conventional method, and it can be detrimental for the said employee who requests for Day off. This can be a tedious task for the human resources teams who spend most of their working hour just updating the absence and leave management system.

Incorporating technology in your management system could enable your workforce to save a significant amount of time with optimized resources. Thus, by using an employee time off tracker software, your HR team would be able to save up to 40% of the working hours that they spend conducting purely administrative tasks.

Easily accessible for the manager to manage the team

The leave management software tools mostly feature storing their data in the cloud, which makes the system more accessible. With all the data in the cloud, not just the employees but the human resources team and even the employer itself can easily access the system via an internet network.

The team can share the data and also update it in real-time. But if you do it on a spreadsheet, although one member of the team can update it, not every member in their system. Then you would have to share your file with them via email. If you want one-way management, you should utilize PTO tracking software so you would not have to share the same files with the others every time.

Another advantage of using such software is to access the free vacation tracker from any device and anytime. This way, the HR manager would not have to be present in the office to access the system. The manager can easily manage their team from anywhere without any complications.

Seamless Integration

The time off app software is not only for managing employees’ attendance; they also perform other HR management tasks such as payroll, timesheet management, etc.  Due to such seamless integration with other software, these applications are able to save time, reduce human errors, and enable cross-functional reporting.

With such seamless integration, you can improve your company’s communication level as well as ensure compliance with legislation. The software can provide a  comprehensive dashboard, configurable fields such as leave types, policy, and leave request lists. This way, both employee and employer could assess the important details without having to type out a leave application and read through it, respectively.

Better security

The Day off app would not only eliminate manual intervention since all the data of the system are stored in the cloud but they are also protected by specific encryption. Such software can make periodic or scheduled backups to ensure that all data stay safe and download them whenever required without ever losing them, unless you intentionally delete original, copied, and backed-up files.

On the contrary, they can get deleted or get lost with Excel files if you don’t have a copy of the files saved somewhere already.  Since cloud software mostly updates its security policy with data protection laws such as GDPR, you would not have to implement any other security system with your software.

Similarly, if any changes in the legislation occur, the leave tracker software tool would automatically update to make sure your data are legally protected. You would not have to invest any time and any money to comply with your legislation regulations, which can be a great advantage.

Encourages discipline

The PTO tracker software is a transparent and customizable system that complies with the local employee management laws and with your business policies. Moreover, these systems can readily understand and recognize both the employees and company executives at the same time.

Due to such characteristics, the PTO tracking software provides increased accuracy and encourages your company’s disciplines. By the implementation of such software, the employer can expect and achieve better attendance rates from their employees, as whoever is accessing the system would be aware of who’s failing to follow the company’s policies.   

Things to consider while choosing leave management software

Whether to choose a desktop or cloud-based program

Software programs can be cloud-based, or you can download them to your computer. If you choose cloud-based free time off tracker software, you can have many benefits, such as accessibility of the software from any device; with an internet connection, you can consult all of your company data, share them on the web among your entire team, and even update them in the real-time.

But with the desktop software program, you have to install them that can take up your computer space, and your HR manager would have to rely on the devices where the employee leave tracker app is installed.

Support team to change the system

For any business, transforming from one system to an advanced system can be complicated. The system operator has to do data migration, set up the application on all of their teams’ computers, and staff training. But if you have a support team, it would help you set up the program seamlessly while running all the processes smoothly.

Thus, while you are deciding on which employee time off tracker software you want to incorporate, make sure the provider would help you with its implementation. Without an initial training process, any new system implementation can end in failure. Thus, ensure providers should also take care of your staff training, so they could familiarize themselves with the tools to use them adequately.

Error-free multi-user access

Make sure the system you choose must offer features like error-free multi-user access and employee self-service. The employee time off tracker software tools should function faster while requesting leave and approving them and should be user-friendly.

The software should avail multi-device access, specifically smartphone access, so employees and managers would be able to get notifications for any event anytime and anywhere. It’s especially beneficial for businesses, which have employees working remotely.

Multilingual software

Whether you are a local business or an online business, there is no saying when your business might hire multilingual staff. Not all of them leave software programs are multilingual. Language plays a critical role in having a proper communication flow. If you want to offer your employees a custom-tailored solution, they must be able to access the application software in their preferred language to avoid any miscommunication. So ensure your Day off app is a multilingual software.

Price of the management software

The price of the software is another vital factor that you should consider before purchasing the PTO tracking software. While the desktop software has a fixed price, the cloud-based software depends on what number of employees access it. Since the platform would manage it, you must adjust the cost to only serve your needs. The final price of the PTO tracker software can be affected by the number of employees, administration users, other technological integrations, etc.  

Features of the leave management software play a crucial role in transforming your employee attendance system. Thus, you should carefully consider the features of the application that would enable you to automate your tasks and develop a smoother work process.

Managing employee leaves or time off is a crucial activity for the HR management of every company. No matter whether it is a small company or an established one, this is something that needs to be handled very carefully. Nowadays, you can easily do this by using an Employee’s leave tracking app, like Day off. But before investing in such apps or tools, it will be better for you to understand leave-tracking or management and why it is important for a business. Let’s discuss this in detail.

What do you mean by leave?

To earn a salary, an employee doesn’t need to work all day.  In simple words, leaves are like off work days, apart from the holidays that employees deserve, as per a leave policy. If you look back around hundred years ago, employees were not given the privilege to take a paid leave. But now, almost all the countries ask the HR managers or management to provide their employees with paid leave as well as paid holidays. In fact, in the United States of America, more than 95 percent of companies offer paid leaves to their employees.

PTO- Paid time off or leave is a preferred benefit after the healthcare coverage. There are different types of leaves an employee can enjoy. It is the state government’s law that forms different leaves and how many leaves a company can grant per year. While there are earned leaves, in some cases, employees can carry forward the leave balance to the next year.

However, when it comes to managing and tacking the leaves, most companies are now facing a lot of issues. After all, tracking the leaves of hundreds of employees is very challenging. So, how to do that? This is where the leave management process comes to play.

What do you mean by leave tacking or management?

Speaking about leave tracking or management, it is the process of managing employees’ leave based on the current leave policy of the company. This is very important for a business not just for statutory compliance but also for enhanced employees’ productivity and engagement. This process includes different important factors, such as:

• Routine leaves or vacation administration work
• Designing effective leave policies considering the nature of employment
• Implementing the leave policies

Understanding the cost of poor leave management and tracking

Even though tracking employees’ leave as well as attendance is one of the major elements of the payroll process, yet most organizations are not taking this seriously.  The process in itself is not time-consuming or challenging, provided the best Leave tracker is deployed to make the process fast and error-free.

However, when carried out in the wrong way, the effects will be very severe. It can have a direct impact on the continuity of the business. On the other hand, it can have a negative influence on the staff. Leave tracking gone wrong can lead to low employee morale and lack of productivity. And you never want to face such issues. Let’s have a closer look at the issues that can arise due to inappropriate or poor leave tracking.

• Unavailability of staff

Resource allocation and planning is an important factors in the process of developing a sustainable business. And leave tracking is a crucial input in this. The HR managers, as well as employers, should have better visibility about the leave eligibility of the employees. Besides, they should know about the outstanding leaves, the status of leaves taken, and employees’ alignment with the company’s leave policy. After analyzing all these things, the projects and roles can be properly staffed. In a company, when employees take too many unplanned leaves or more than the allocated limit, it can lead to a staff shortage issue. Besides, it will be an obstacle to the business community. In this era, where customers need a faster result, the unavailability of required manpower can be a lethal jab to the business. As a result, it will lower the credibility level.

• Various legal challenges

The labor laws of different countries have underlined different leave rules for the employees and employers. Well, the rule can vary based on the employment types. No matter what, all employers need to comply with these laws. Nowadays, you can see different types of work arrangements, such as remote workers, part-time employees, full-time employees, contract workers, and more. This has raised the complexity level of leave compliance, and modern-day employers are now facing the risk of non-compliance. The reputation-hit and cost-hit of non-compliance can be very damaging to a business. With a proper leave tracking system, companies can keep them protected from multiple legal challenges.

• You can’t forget the financial risk.

A company’s leave policy and labor laws talk about the leaves that can be encashed and how many leaves an employee can carry forward. Well, in some cases, leave encashment can be a financial liability for an organization. Paying the person at a particular time for the leave encashment can directly affect the company’s current year’s profit and loss statement. So, it is important for the HR managers while doing leave management to understand the financial outstanding related to the leave encashment. As a result, this will not affect the cash flow.

• Employees morale

Mismanagement of vacations or days off can greatly affect the morale and well-being of the employees. How? Well, the employees who have not taken leaves may deal with the burnt workload as well as stress. The employees who have taken more leaves may showcase a poor employees engagement level. Besides, it suggests that those particular employees have a lower commitment towards their work. This can be a reason for employees’ exit. Besides, taking more than the assigned leaves can develop inter-team conflicts and issues. So, employees and HR managers should understand the purpose of leave utilization in real-time.

What’s more? As per the experts, they should always discuss leave-related issues without any hesitation. It is a fact that the employees feel happy when they get a leave or time off at the time of need. When they don’t get enough leave, it can lead to demoralization and demotivation. Tracking the utilization, planning leaves or time off in advance, and establishing a good leave policy can help you manage the leaves in a better way. In order to make it a little easier for you, you can use a professional PTO tracker, for example, Day Off.

How to carry out effective leave tracking and management? Well, don’t worry at all as here are some experts’ tips that you can follow.

Tips on employees’ leave tracking

The process of leave tracking can be more complex than you assume. The reason behind this is that the HR managers in the companies are assigned a lot of responsibilities to make sure there is a perfect balance between consistent availability of manpower and employee engagement. But here are some tips that you can follow to make the process easier for you. Have a look.

1. Use professional leave tracking software and automate the process.

The process of tracking leaves is very complex and can take a lot of time as well as effort. Besides, if you do it manually, you may encounter some errors. So, what is the best solution for this? It’s time to invest in a good Vacation tracker, like Day Off. Such tools are designed to automate the process. As a result, it will eliminate the possible errors and boost efficiency. On the other hand, a good employee time off tracker can make sure that there are no errors or variations in the payroll. With a few clicks, you can get all the details about the employee’s leave and patterns.

When you deploy such software, employees will get access to a self-service portal where they can easily request vacation and enjoy the leave benefits. On the other hand, employers can view as well as approve the leave request in real-time. What’s more? The tool can automatically evaluate the leave requests and monitor the request against the remaining leave balance of the employees. The Free time off tracker can also effectively track the approved, unapproved and outstanding leave applications.

Time off app greatly helps in evaluating the impact of leave and planning the necessary resources for the scheduled projects. As a result, managers or administrators can make effective decisions regarding employees’ leave. Furthermore, the automated leave manager tools allow the HR management to enforce the company’s new leave policy accurately and fairly. Leave application approval and routing process can also be adjusted based on the company’s requirements. The most important thing to consider here is, that managers can now access information in real-time for reporting, analysis, and making financial estimates.

• Allow the employees to apply for the leaves in advance.

When the employees don’t plan their leaves in advance, this can create challenges for the employers in managing the resources for the ongoing projects. An Employee leave tracker app can make it a lot easier for the employees to plan in advance and get approvals beforehand. As a result, there will be no nightmare of the unavailability of resources. Even if the employees are taking leave, this will not affect productivity.

•  Create awareness about the leave policy

It is quite important for the employees to know about the current leave policy of the company so that they can comply with the policy. Well, it is the responsibility of HR to make sure that the leave policy is readily available to the employees. So that they can go through it before applying for a leave. A PTO tracking software lets you upload and send the leave policy on the platform; Besides, all the information will be saved in the cloud storage, and employees can access it whenever they want.

• Better integration with the payroll module

What makes the attendance and leave of the employees a major responsibility of HR is the fact that the payroll of the staff will be greatly affected by the leave tracking data. As every organization wants to make sure that there is no inconsistency in the payroll, the best way is to integrate the Day off app into the payroll system. As a result, there will be a proper data integration between them, and you don’t have to evaluate anything manually.

• Being empathetic towards your staff

It is important for employers to understand that sometimes an employee may ask for additional leaves due to any genuine circumstance. Rejecting the leave requests in such a situation can negatively affect the morale of the employees. So, what is the trick? Well, you need to develop the right balance between the interests of the organization as well as the employees. 

• HR managers should set a realistic return.

As per the experts, HR managers should always focus on having a realistic return to job expectations. What does that mean? If an employee is taking a week off from his work due to any complicated medical condition, setting up a comfortable or welcoming return environment to work can motivate them, and this will boost their morale.

• Provide the employees holiday pay when you need them to work

During the holiday season, the companies deal with two major things, i.e., work becomes very hectic, and it decreases in terms of volume. Well, if your sales are growing during the holidays, then you should offer holiday pay to attract more employees to work during that time. In fact, such incentives will be good for the employees who are looking for different ways to make extra money. Besides, this will motivate the employees not to take more leaves.

Use the best Employee time off tracker and manage the employees’ leave tracking to keep your business running smoothly. A Free vacation tracker can come with advanced reporting functions. You can use those reports to make an informed business decision. For example, it can assist you in addressing absenteeism issues. Besides, you can study leave-related trends. So, use the best tools, such as Day Off, and enjoy the easiest way of leave management.

When the temperature rises, the vacation conflicts, or vacation loads heat up at the workplace. For HR management, the summer season can be the annual bickering period over prime holiday time slots. This is because too many employees opt for leave at the same time, which generally creates havoc and employees vacation tracking problems.

Multiple time-off requests and scheduling the leaves can be a massive headache for all HR managers. Even though it may not be a challenging part of the job as you can manage these using PTO tracking software, but this is certainly close to the top of the list. Employees have the right to take leave as they need a break. And for a business, it is important to keep everyone happy without affecting the business task. Well, this can be a herculean task.

Here one important question arises, that is, how to manage multiple vacation requests fairly when all the employees want their annual leave? What if you want them not to take their vacation during Christmas? And what is the best way to keep a good track of the vacation requests?

Suppose you want to have a good grip on managing employees’ vacations; you probably must be thinking over multiple questions in your mind. Well, there is nothing to worry about as now you can take the help of advanced technologies to manage such things. For example, a well-designed Time off app. But don’t consider this as the only solution. There are some other factors that you need to keep in mind.

Keep reading, and you will find different solutions to manage the employee’s vacation and avoid possible conflicts.

Do employers have to offer paid time off?

Well, there are no such federal laws that can say employers have to provide paid time off to the employees. But that doesn’t mean that the HR managers should take advantage of it. Remember that each state has its own PTO or employee’s vacation requirements that will determine whether the employers are bound to have a paid-off time or vacation policy or not. So, to prevent any issues in the future, it is important for the HR management of a company to understand the guidelines.

Even though it is not legally necessary, having a paid leave or vacation policy in place can be a good idea. Offering your staff, the flexibility to take off from work can greatly improve the overall workforce. For instance, offering vacation pay can help you attract as well as retain the best talents. Besides, by offering sick leave, you can keep your workplace healthy.

But it has been seen that sometimes employees take advantage of it and remain away from work for multiple days. Such things can affect the business’s overall performance. So, the employers should properly track the vacation requests using an Employee time off tracker and take the necessary steps.

Challenges in vacation or leave management

Employee engagement, as well as satisfaction, will play a crucial role in ascertaining the success of a company. Out of multiple factors that enhance employee engagement, the comfortable process of applying for leave and getting approval can bring significant results.

Without proper leave management, a company can be exposed to multiple adverse effects, for example, wrong time calculation, employee mismanagement, and more. But why do such issues arise in this process? Well, here are some reasons to consider.

1. Knowingly not tracking the leaves or vacations

It has been seen that many HR managers knowingly decline to track some leave categories. This generally happens from a desire to be accommodating or benevolent. Sometimes, they find themselves in a difficult situation. After all, no one wants to lose the best employees. For instance, they don’t track:

• Adoption related leaves
• Pregnancy-related vacations
• Intermittent leaves
• Pre-surgery appointments

As per the experts, by not tracking such leaves, the employees could get marked for an attendance issue. But actually, it is the fault of the employer. So, it is advisable to use a professional leave tracker, such as Day off, and track every type of leave that your employees take.

Employees were not informed about the leave balance and leave policy.

It is a fact that the HR management of a company can receive hundreds of queries every week about the leave balance. However, this can consume a lot of time, and HR may not be able to focus on the core tasks.

Furthermore, employees have to wait for days to know the leave balance and to get access to their attendance details. Not getting timely updates on the latest vacation policy and other compliance problems can create a sense of dissatisfaction among the employees. So, how to deal with such issues? One of the easiest ways to do that is using a professional Vacation tracker. Such tools can automate everything related to the leave policy. For example, the app can send updates about the leaves to the employees. Besides, they can apply for their vacation and track it.

Line managers are not able to manage the staff leaves.

Some companies have reported that their line managers generally face difficulties in the process of managing their team members’ leaves. They were not able to:

• Make an informed decision on whether to accept or reject the leave requests.
• Get an insight into the team members’ availability in that particular time period.
• Detect the employees’ leave requests pattern to understand whether the employees are taking advantage of the leave policy or not.

Is there any solution for this? How can the line managers make an informed decision? Well, a PTO tracker like Day off can be a helpful tool here. It offers a single platform from where you can get all the data about employees’ leave.

Payroll errors due to multiple undocumented leave transactions

As per the experts, paid time off can greatly affect the bottom line of a company. Some companies deal with inefficiency to manage the employee’s vacation transactions for every department. LWP- Leave Without Pay can lead to errors in the payroll if you are not tracking it properly. During a study, the expert found that some HR managers were unable to manage the transactional vacation load and lower the manual errors in deciding paid leaves and LWP taken by the staff. That led to a heavy financial burden in attendance, expense, and leave-related transactions.

HR managers don’t know the time.

Another situation when the employee vacation tracking can be very problematic is when the HR or employer doesn’t know about the staff’s need for leave until it turns into a huge problem.

For instance, let’s look at a company (hypothetical) that has its employees in different locations. Samson, who is remote working, is repeatedly absent for backpain. Besides, he has surgery in October and another one in December. The manager then comes to HR and complains about the regular absence and suggests the HR to fire Samson. Well, for this, they will have to start the leaver process again. However, this can be a problematic situation on a different level. This is generally a problem for managers and training supervisors.

How to deal with the problems related to employees’ vacation tracking?

1. Keeping track of the employee on leave

Vacations are important for the staff, and sometimes you can’t even refuse the leave request of an employee. Without proper leave management, it can be very difficult for the managers or HR to cope with the leave request. On the other hand, no one can track the leave for days manually. Besides, if the manpower is more, it can create confusion. In such cases, no matter how big the HR team is, the company should invest in a good employee leave tracker app. Such tools are designed to improve accuracy, and you can easily track all your employees’ holidays without any error.

Properly define the rules of the vacation or leave requests.

Clarity and transparency of the leave management process are crucial while dealing with multiple vacation requests. In fact, everyone, starting from management to employees, should understand the rules created to govern the leave requests.

By keeping the leave process clear and ensuring everyone understands it will help you run your business smoothly. Furthermore, by creating rules for leave requests, you show that you respect the employees. In general, the rules for leave requests should cover:

• How do leave requests need to be submitted?
• When can one request a leave?
• When can’t staff request time off?
• How far in advance should a leave request be made?
• Set a deadline for leave requests

It is a fact that every industry has various high-intensity seasons where too much vacations can bring havoc for the business. For example, in a retail business, the requirement for manpower will increase during the winter holidays.

So, for those times, the company sets a deadline when the employees can send the leave requests. Besides, you can also set a particular time frame for the request. This will prevent employees from making leave requests. But what to do when there are a lot of time off requests? First of all, you need to use a Free vacation tracker to know how many requests you have received. After that, you can apply two commonly used methods to manage the request. These are:

Seniority- This can be the perfect method where there are multiple leave requests that, for different reasons, are conflicting as well as valid. It can discourage new staff as they will not get optimal leave requests because they have not been in the company for long enough. So, you should be flexible in this.

First-come-first-serve- Under this method, the employee who submits the request first will be granted the leave. That’s why you inform the staff about the deadline. You need to be a little flexible about this. Or else some employees may not be able to get leave as they failed to send their leave requests on time.

Track the previous leave requests

You should always keep track of the leave requests of your employees. Besides, you should know about when they make the time-off request, the reason, and the actual leave. Well, this may take time; by tracking the requests, you can identify the patterns. Furthermore, you will also have a better reason to reject the request of the employees who are asking for leave too often, showing the same reasons.

Based on how you are tracking the leave requests, you can even see if there are any staff who actually need time off. Perhaps, they really deserve a leave for a genuine reason. This is where you can use a Free time off tracker. The software can store all the employees’ leave requests on one platform and can show you the report whenever you want.

You should pay attention to the employees not taking leaves.

Some employees think that vacation is not a good thing and a good employee doesn’t take time off. Well, in such a situation, the managers should take time to discuss about the importance of leave, even if it is a few days off to relax. For many, time off is one type of loss. But as a leader or employer, you need to be observant of such conditions. If you think some employees are not taking time off, you should discuss about this with them. Tell them about the importance of taking a vacation and also try to know why they are not taking a leave.

Use an automated system for regulatory compliance.

Accurate vacation tracking is also crucial to meet multiple regulatory requirements. This is quite important for the companies that follow the Fair Labor Standards Act. Well, any tracking solution, like the Day off app, can make it easy to comply with the internal policies as well as the government regulations.

Some of the common causes of non-compliance are due to inadequate and inaccurate record keeping.  When you use an automated leave management system to track attendance and time, you can prevent errors. Besides, this will also help you in preventing costly litigation.

Being able to properly check as well as track attendance data in a centralized system offers great value to your company. Employees will be able to review the hours worked and can also check their remaining sick leave. These features will contribute to the staff members who readily adopt the attendance software.

On the other hand, employees will appreciate your efforts in making the leave request process easier for them, and they don’t have to contact HR to know about the leave policy.