Day Off

Category: Company

  • How to make your employees feel valued and engaged

    How to make your employees feel valued and engaged

    An average person is estimated to work about one third of their life span as listed in conducted research, so he/she must be provided a comfortable environment amid others in which they provide the best work results without any complications due to their ease of working together. The most common things that make employees feel valued are always addressing growth, helping them in the start of their jobs, challenging them in healthy ways to break their limits, always encouraging them to do their best and telling them that they are doing a great job.

    Getting to know the Working Team

    Organized corporations try their best to let each employee be known to the others by making an announcement for the new employee on his/her first day, help him fit easily by introducing him/her to the rest of the employees. Bullying is common for newcomers to face so it is the duty of their bosses to watch over them and never tolerate it.

    Another way of engaging employees with each other and their bosses is by often making a get together for the company outside of work boundary in order to create a friendly relationship between the employees, by doing this a tension free environment is provided and the employees know each other better making them work together smoothly. By doing this better work results are provided.

    Payrolls and Benefits

    The main forms of feeling valued by an employee are the payroll and the benefits received from the company. The payrolls must be equivalent to the amount of work given by the employee and equal to his degree as well.  In this modern-day world payrolls and benefits are monitored by    employee self-service software in which the employee can also monitor his/her schedule and change his/her benefits information.

    Sick Leaves and Absences

    It is expected at any moment that an employee gets sick and doesn’t attend his/her job for a day or more depending on his/her condition so an employee day off tracker must be present to keep track of the absent employees in order to have a good thought on the working power to maintain productivity.

    Different companies have different absence policies so employee absence management must be present to inform the employee on how and when to inform his/her boss of his/her absence, also informs the employee of the pay arrangements in the case of an absence, and how to continue his/her work after the absence. All this is made to maintain the productivity of the company as possible and to limit the damages to the employee as well. Sick leave is a form of partial absence that result in a decrease in the working power as well, so an employee leave management application is needed to count for the gap of employees to try and maintain the productivity as possible.

    Valuing Hard Work

    In some cases, an employee is stressed or burnt out so he/she becomes in need of some time off the job and in order to make the request as organized as possible an employee time off manager must be provided to make the operation as smooth as possible both for the employee and the bosses. The request of some time off the job most of the time is approved when viewing the hard work of the employee, and as a form of valuing the employee and encouraging him/her to keep up the good work while being comfortable mentally. On the other hand, for keeping track of the employees an employee time off tracker must be present to keep track of the present employees.

    Holidays and Vacations

    Each company when hiring sets a specific number of paid time off days so that if the number of days increase than the number agreed on the employee faces disciplinary measures. It is not common sense that the whole working team takes their paid time off at the same time and this is when an employee PTO tracker and employee PTO management systems do the work of tracking the present and absent employees and managing the number of present working power.

    Holidays and vacations are important in making the employee recharge his mental state in order to give the best results in a job. for tracking the holidays and their time in the year an employee holiday tracker application must be present for everyone to have information on the holidays such as when are the holidays and how long are they. Most of the time employees stacks their paid time off to go on long vacations. Long vacations mean fewer working staff for a long period of time so to make it organized as much as possible an employee vacation tracker and employee vacation manager must be present in order to make those vacations as organized as possible in order to maintain the productivity. All this makes the process of holidays and vacations as smooth as possible

    Work and Reward System

    When the employees reach the target given to them and surpass it by a noticeable amount, as a form of appreciation and valuing their work the company gives them a reward. These rewards are materialized in many forms one of them is the pay raise. Another form of reward is a percentage paid vacation or a full paid vacation for the employees and their families and travel at the expenses of the company. These vacations are in a place chosen by the company, or they let the employees choose from a variety of places chosen by the company as well which are tracked by the company by an employee vacation tracker. This is an image of the work and reward system

    The Employee’s Mentality

    After all the employee is most important gear in the success of a company. The employee must have a stable mentality to provide best results, because at the end of the day he is a human being who wants to be recognized and valued for his work. When the employee is given some special treatment, it makes him feel valued and an important person in the job, so the employee becomes loving of his/her job and gives it his/her all, because he/she spends a big portion of the day at the job. In a way the employee after all this becomes so loving of the job that he cares for the company as if it was his own home.

  • The Ultimate Guide to Employee Performance Reviews

    The Ultimate Guide to Employee Performance Reviews

    In this modern corporate era, employee performance reviews have become an important part of every business. As per the experts, it does not help in eliminating the efficiency or productivity issues but also helps the organizations in motivating their employees. Such valuations always provide HR managers with accurate and useful assessments of employee’s abilities, skills, job performance, knowledge, and more. Before carrying out the evaluation, you need to obtain all the relevant data, and for data related to employees’ attendance, you can use a good PTO tracking software program, for example, Day off. Now, let’s discuss this in detail.

    What do you mean by a performance review?

    A performance review which is also known as an employee evaluation, performance appraisal, or performance evaluation, is a process of documenting and evaluating the performance and the behavior of the employees in a particular period. The review is carried out in general for 6 or 12 months.

    As per the experts, discussing the performance in comprehensive review is a crucial factor for many companies’ employees’ feedbacks as well as the development process. On the other hand, keeping a proper record of performance review, considering the data from an employee leave tracker app, can also be a compliance requirement. It is the responsibility of the HR management to create and share constructive feedback.

    What is the major purpose of performance reviews?

    In most organizations, the line managers carry out a performance review as they know all the things about the employees. However, in some cases, HR managers can also do that. But why is it so important for every business? Well, keep reading to know more.

    As per the experts, a perfectly conducted performance review can offer an instant and the most required lift to the businesses as well as the employees. This will prove the weaknesses and strengths. Some other benefits are:

    A clear understanding of the current job roles

    Performance management will empower the person to think seriously about the job role within the organization. When both the supervisors and employees understand their specific job duties, then they can eliminate the possible ambiguities in the company.

    Aligning personal roles to the organizational goals

    A good quality performance review will give a chance to ensure everyone can understand the company’s vision, as well as goals and they, can come up with different strategies to fit their work in the bigger picture.

    Career development

    A performance review can create the opportunity to plan and set new objectives that can help in the further development of the employees’ careers. With better performance management, they can explore additional training.

    Getting regular feedback on the performance

    It has been proved that regular feedback can greatly contributes to perfect all-around communication in the organization. With this, the HR Management can detect the strength and weaknesses of the employees, and the employees will be able to understand what the company is expecting from them.

    How to prepare to create a good performance review?

    If you’re an HR manager and you have been tasked with carrying out appraisals for real, you need to create a solid performance review process that can guide your approach. So, prepare yourself for the performance review by following the tips.

    Clear the calendar

    If you are planning to meet the members of your team one on one, then you need to make sure that other important tasks during the meeting will not distract you. So, before starting the review process, try to lower your commitments in the day to lower the risk of missing out on the appointments or having to change the date for the review.

    Get accurate data about employees leaves

    An employee’s performance can be ascertained by analyzing the leave patterns of that particular employee. But how to do that? Well, this is where you can use an Employee time off tracker. Such software programs are designed and developed in such a way that they can create a comprehensive report about the employees’ leave management.

    Be ready to give as well as take feedback

    While conducting performance reviews, make sure that you are allowing enough time for the employees to comfortably share their feedback with the HR management. Use a notebook or a laptop to record it. As a result, it will be easier for you to follow up on the data later.

    Always stay prepared for the curveballs

    Well, as a general rule, the management should not tell the staff anything that they don’t know about the performance. However, sometimes, you may face conditions where they may come up with some matters that will be new to you. As they are like a private exchange, sometimes reviews can be seen as a perfect opportunity to share news or raise any new issues. So, you should keep this thing in your mind and always prefer to schedule it for a later meeting if required.

    A different way to collect feedback

    360 feedback

    In this, employees can receive feedback or suggestions not just only from managers but also from peers as well as junior members. Besides, they can also check their data, covering the leaves and more, through a Vacation tracker and review themselves. As a result, they can understand their opportunities and strength.

    Continual feedback

    Some organizations don’t like to go for a formal structure of a performance review. Instead of that, they share feedback with the employees on a continual ad hoc basis. For startups and small businesses, this can be a suitable option. But there can be a few risks of it. As there may not be any formal checkpoint, employees may lack clarity on how they should progress and what they need to do.

    Employee pulse reviews

    This can be considered as a happy medium for carrying out a performance review. This is a smaller-scale review that is conducted on a more frequent schedule. It is generally associated with the engagement surveys of the employees.

    If you want to make sure that your organization is all set to grow properly in the coming days, then don’t forget to carry out an employee’s performance review. And use advanced tools, like a Leave tracker and more to collect important data accurately.

  • 2022 Public Holidays in UK

    2022 Public Holidays in UK

    One of the favorite things for many of us is planning a vacation. Nothing is better than a well-planned calendar with flight info and dinner reservations. But first you need to know when exactly to do it. These holidays not only mark moments of historical importance but also provide an opportunity for communities across the UK to come together, celebrate, and cherish the nation’s heritage.
    Here is a list of the 2022 public holidays in the UK, where most of government offices, businesses, shops and banks will be closed:

     

    Holiday Date
    New Year’s Day Mon, Jan 3, 2022
    Good Friday Fri, Apr 15, 2022
    Easter Monday Mon, Apr 18, 2022
    Early May Bank Holiday Mon, May 2, 2022
    Spring Bank Holiday Thu, Jun 2, 2022
    Platinum Jubilee bank holiday Fri, Jun 3, 2022
    Summer Bank Holiday Mon, Aug 29, 2022
    Boxing Day Mon, Dec 26, 2022
    Christmas Day Tue, Dec 27, 2022

    As the UK welcomes 2022, these public holidays or day off not only offer a break from the routine but also serve as a reminder of the country’s rich cultural tapestry and the spirit of unity that binds its diverse communities. Each holiday brings its unique traditions, making the UK’s public holiday calendar a colorful mosaic of celebrations, reflecting the nation’s identity and heritage.

  • 2022 Public Holidays in USA

    2022 Public Holidays in USA

    One of the favorite things for many of us is planning a vacation. Nothing is better than a well-planned calendar with flight info and dinner reservations. But first you need to know when exactly to do it. These holidays reflect the spirit of unity and pride shared by Americans across the nation. Let’s explore the USA’s public holiday calendar for the year.
    Here is a list of the 2022 public holidays in USA, where most of government offices, businesses, shops and banks will be closed on:

     

    Public Holiday Date
    Martin Luther King Jr. Day Mon, Jan 17, 2022
    Memorial Day Mon, May 30, 2022
    Independence Day Mon, Jul 4, 2022
    Labor Day Mon, Sep 5, 2022
    Veterans Day Fri, Nov 11, 2022
    Thanksgiving Thu, Nov 24, 2022
    Christmas Day Mon, Dec 26, 2022

    These public holidays in USA are more than just day off; they represent the nation’s history, diversity, and shared values. Each holiday fosters a sense of community, reminding Americans of the strength found in unity and the rich tapestry of their collective heritage. As 2022 unfolds, these celebrations will continue to bind communities together, embodying the spirit of the land of the free and the home of the brave.

  • The best way to utilize your company leave management

    The best way to utilize your company leave management

    There is no doubt that employees or staff leave management may look like evil to the overworked or stressed HR managers. However, a combination of a professional leave tracker and proper leave management policy will make sure that the company is running smoothly while offering the employees many opportunities to recover from stress, recharge the energy level and attend to their families. But maintaining a perfect balance between a happy team and business can be a little tricky. So, is there any option for this? Well, keep reading to know the answer and explore some best ways to use the leave management of your company.

    What do you mean by leave management?

    When it comes to an understanding of less productivity in your employees, the reason for this can be more. For example, it can be related to personal life or some official issues. As an employer or manager, you need to develop a positive environment for the employees to work together. As a result, they can complete the projects effectively and efficiently, and you will enjoy better as well as consistent results.

    Speaking about employee leave management, it consists of the process as well as policies of managing time-off requests of your employees, for example, parental leave, sick leave, holiday, and vacation. By using a perfect leave management system and Vacation tracker, you can easily develop a safe as well as a healthy workplace environment. In simple words, the primary objective of leave management is to deal with leave requests accurately and fairly so your business can run smoothly without affecting the employees.

    The scheduling system lets the employers effectively distribute the employee’s workload who is taking leave to keep the process easier and less messy for the team. Different tools like Day Off and more help avoid possible accident leave requests, and you can have better control.

    Leave management is a major component or responsibility of the company’s HR management. As this is an important thing, there should be a clear leave management process in a company.

    Understanding the importance of leave management

    Perfect leave management can create a better employer experience. How? Well, the employers or HR managers can ask or encourage the staff to use the paid leaves properly. Besides, they can make sure that their employees are not feeling overwhelmed with the workload when they are planning for a leave. Here are some major benefits of leave management that can result in a better experience.

    Employee satisfaction and better management of employees

    Good leave management will make sure that your employees or staff are 100 percent satisfied with the workplace. Besides, it will ensure a stress-free as well as a comfortable environment in the office. What’s more? As per the experts, proper leave management will bring a maximum level of transparency between the employees and management. As a result, there will be fewer unexplained or unscheduled leaves.

    Lowers the expenses

    The absence and leave of the employees can contribute to around 40 percent of a company’s payroll. With the help of a leave management system, the organization can easily implement the paid leaves based on the policies. This will greatly lower the accidental allotment of paid leaves. As a result, you can witness a great impact on the organization’s finances.

    Better employee wellbeing and confidence

    If the employees know that they are enjoying a proper and fair leave policy, they will become more confident. Besides, they will always trust your company’s HR management. Good leave management always shows that the company is properly organized.

    As a result, this will trigger the trust factors, and that will result in more engaged and happier employees who will always stay productive as well motivated to help your business succeed. On the other hand, if you have poor leave management, it can easily create resentments in the employees who have to deal with the workload as some employees are absent. So, come up with better leave management to deal with such issues.

    Proper planning for leaves

    Most of the modern leave management systems let the employees see the remaining leaves in real-time. It creates a great level of transparency. In the end, it triggers the sense of proper holiday or leaves planning among the employees. The employees can now plan their leave in advance, and the managers will have all the data to plan for the leave accordingly to ensure the company has a sufficient workforce to handle the project.

    As per different studies, proper planning of leaves can help an organization in lowering the disruption at work, and you will not see any downtrends in productivity. As a manager, you can easily plan ahead. Furthermore, proper leave or holiday planning can enhance the employees’ morale. No employees will prefer to work for more hours just because there are some unplanned leaves.

    You are obeying the law

    As per the rules in the UK, a full-time employee can get 28 days’ holiday. Well, this may change based on the country and federal laws. The yearly leave entitlement for the part-time or remote workers can be proportionate to the time they work.

    For example, if he/she works for three days a week, he/she can take 16 day’s leave per year. By ensuring that the employees are getting proper leaves based on the law will develop the trust factor, and they will respect their workplace. By using a Vacation tracker, you can easily manage the leaves of different teams. 

    Different ways to use the leave management

    Identify with the required law

    Within any business, employee leave management holds a significant place. Why? Well, the growth of the business will depend on this. So, one of the best ways to use leave management is to get familiar with the state or local labor and federal laws. The administration, as well as the policies of the enterprise, should conform to the law of the country.

    It has been seen that some companies face various legal challenges quite frequently following poor leave management systems. Such conditions generally take place when an employer tries to consider the personal as well as private circumstances of the employee. This may sound good, but this can create a feeling of partiality in some employees, and others may not receive the same benefits.

    However, you can avoid such circumstances. First of all, you will have to create clear policies. On the other hand, the HR managers should go through the training so that they can deal with the employee leave requests consistently and appropriately. Besides, they can use an advanced Employee time off tracker to track the leaves.

    Using a leave management software or tool

    It is a fact that the process of leave management can take a lot of effort, time and it is also very complex. Furthermore, there will always be the scope for errors as you will be managing all the things manually. So, what is the best solution for effective leave management? The most effective solution is to invest in a well-developed PTO tracker. By using such a leave management system, you can effectively automate the process, eliminates possible errors, and boost the employee’s efficiency.

    What’s more? This will make sure that there are no issues in the company’s payroll as you can integrate the attendance management in the existing payroll system. So, use leave management in this way, and you can create a better work environment.

    Dealing with the extended leaves

    In many cases, national or state laws and the policies of your company could make extended leaves compulsory. So, training all your line or HR managers in how to deal with such requests and demonstrate compassion becomes very important. Remember that approving a leave in case of an emergency is a decision that the manager will have to take.

    On the other hand, the negative response can dissatisfy the employees, and such dissatisfaction can create a disconnection between the management and employee. So, make sure that your leave management has the required rules to deal with such leaves.

    Create a clear and easy-to-understand leave policy

    For effective leave management, you need to outline the company leave policies for the employees. Every employee may want to get guidance on different types of leaves and circumstances. While developing the policy guidelines, it is important to clear the following things:

    • How to ensure the time?
    • Which holidays are there in the policy, and how many holidays will you offer?
    • Whether can one use the unused leaves or time?
    • How to apply for a time-off request?
    • What types of leaves does the company offer? And more

    All these things should be clearly mentioned in the policy.  Irrespective of what the company offer, an unrestricted leave policy, and benefits package will be beneficial. This will motivate all the employees to participate in the leave management system. To circulate the rules or policies among the employees, you can use the PTO tracking software programs, such as Day Off.

    Corresponding the time-off policies clearly

    No matter whether it is a big or small business, they should jot down the important policies in the employee manual. However, as a manager, if you are unfamiliar with the meaning of the policies or where to discover them, then it will not bring benefits to the business as well as employees. You will have to come up with a way to communicate the policies effectively.

    It is crucial for every business to make sure that all the employees understand the rights as well as benefits. And this can be easily done using a proper leave management system. On the other hand, to manage and ensure all these things, using the best Employee leave tracker app within a company is a must.

    The tools or software programs come equipped with employee self-service features that one can use to apply for a leave. On the other hand, using the manager portals, the HR manager can grant or reject the leave. The time tracking and attendance management features of the program are also quite beneficial. Investing your money in a next-generation Time off app can help you automate the process.

    To keep an eye on the unscheduled absences

    Remember that unscheduled absences can negatively affect productivity. No matter what is the reasons, managing the unscheduled absence during the pick time can be very tedious and challenging. Well, the most effective way to manage this is by identifying such absences earlier and understand the real issue. This way, you can lower the occurrence of unplanned leaves.

    For that, having a perfect leave management system integrated with the company’s attendance management system, such as web-based attendance, access card, or a biometric device, is very important. Notifying the company’s HR management about the absence can help you in mitigating the cost by assigning another employee to the task.

    To lower the errors related to the payroll

    Just imagine tracking all the leaves of the employees and then calculating the payouts manually. This will be very exhausting. Now just imagine if you have access to a leave management system that has been integrated into the payroll management system, and the payroll calculation happens automatically. Sounds great, isn’t it?

    A cloud-based Free vacation tracker can empower you with such facilities. Such a system can be easily integrated into the existing software, and you can make sure that all the data is validated without any error. On the other hand, it will ensure that the inputs are accurate and seamless.

    Some companies may think that setting a good policy and using a Day off app is the best thing. Well, the fact is it is not the end of the line. After setting the policies, you need to measure the effectiveness of the policy by setting KPIs, goals, ensuring maximum compliance, and measuring the employees’ ROW- Return to Work rate. So, carefully monitor the effectiveness, use the best leave app and update the requirements accordingly to have better leave management in your company.

  • Top 5 Leave Tracking Software Tools

    Top 5 Leave Tracking Software Tools

    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.

  • 2021 HR Management Trends

    2021 HR Management Trends

    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.

  • Where leave management is headed in the next five years?

    Where leave management is headed in the next five years?


    Leave management, as the name suggests, is about handling the various aspects of leave systems of a company. In general, companies look for experts with the ability to strategize, manage, do analysis, and finally make decisions regarding the leave policies of the employees. With the advent of high-end technicalities, the scenario of leave management systems has indeed transformed significantly.

    One of the noteworthy changes that are expected to be witnessed regarding leave management is the role of the HR specialists. When it comes to setting leave policies, it used to be responsibility of the HR professionals earlier. However, the scenario is going to witness massive change.

    Days are gone for HR professionals to manually take note of the day off. In five years’ time from now, manual leave management is going to be a rare scenario. Moreover, the companies may massively adopt digital leave management systems. Even the mid-level companies are expected to come enriched with digital solutions in this regard.           

    Lowering the load of manual work by Using Leave Management Software.

    Handling the huge amounts of paperwork was indeed a major challenge. But, the scenario is going to drastically change in forthcoming years. Through the advent of Employee time off tracker and similar tools, HR professionals no more have to rely upon the same stereotypic ways. In fact, small and medium enterprises, including large companies, can expect significant reductions in spreadsheets. This is going to make employee documentation handling a lot simpler.

    The advent of technological tools is going to enhance the overall analytical quality for the concerned organization. Undoubtedly, going through each and every document and analyze things is a tough task. In comparison, the use of high-end tools can be much more helpful.

    In upcoming five years, it is very much expected for the companies to feel the need to use such tools in large quantities. Here the size of companies is hardly going to matter. An employee leave tracker app is very much expected to be installed in the systems or smartphones of the concerned HR professional.

    Streamlining official procedures

    These applications and technological means involve obvious advantages. First of all, it is going to streamline the official procedures of leave-taking significantly. Most importantly, it is going to be helpful for the concerned company to centralize the whole set of employee detail.

    As the access to the web is expected to be significantly high, more and more companies are going to go the cloud way. Specifically, the processes involving applications or approvals are going to be handled entirely over the web in forthcoming five years, irrespective of the company size. Through the process, it is going to cut down the reliance upon the paperwork massively.

    Bringing clarity with an understanding of Leave Management Software

    A tedious task for the employees has always been about analyzing the leave patterns of the employees. Obviously, the professionals in HR management departments often have to go through an extensive set of data in this regard. Traditionally, HR professionals do this work manually, which indeed consumes a lot of time. However, in the upcoming five years, things are going to be much easier for them through the growing use of automated tools.

    Most of the HR departments have already started planning about employing such leave management systems in coming future. The obvious advantage that they see through such implementation is the accuracy in the process of data collection. Naturally, the ease provided in terms of data collection can ease things down regarding analysis as well. Ultimately, the process of decision-making can be much more effective.

    Above all, the HR professionals are going to obtain greater clarity regarding the leave patterns of the employees and addressing various problems associated with the same. For example, the HR professionals can get utmost clarity regarding the analysis of prime reasons behind the absenteeism of the employees. It can give them a clear perception regarding the mindset of the employees about their current position.     

    Advanced features to expect in Leave Management systems

    Leave management system is certainly going to look much simpler in upcoming five years powered by automation. Looking at the current efficacy of the leave management systems, one can very much expect the following set of features in the leave management systems.

    1. Ability to instantly update the leaves over the dashboard of the system
    2. Smart handling of the leave policies through a centralized system
    3. Lowered level of paper usage regarding leave requests, as well as approvals
    4. Feature to maintain holiday calendars aiming at numerous centers over the globe
    5. Prepare a thorough report regarding the leave pattern of the employees and their approach
    6. Ability to strategize the resources instantly upon knowing the person to have applied on certain days.
    7. Boosting the efficacy and productivity level of the teams upon cutting down the time expended in delivering leave applications through the mail, as well as approvals.

    It is true that absence management and leave management are integral to the work profile of any HR professional. With automated tools, the perception regarding the leaves is going to change altogether. Rather than a mere day off, leaves are going to be considered as the incentives meant for the employees in order to fill in the absence for attaining the professional life balance.

    Smarter tools like time off app are going to be much more used. In fact, there are many companies that have completely stopped the manual ways of keeping the leave records. Even the percentages of punch-in machines or spreadsheets are going to get significantly low in forthcoming years.

    Automation to bring accuracy

    Moving ahead of the traditional systems, the automated leave management systems are going to be much more used. These tools are expected to automate the entire process of making leave applications, processing the approval process, and also the process of granting within the organization.

    At the same time delivering greater accuracy, this is expected to save much valuable time for the employees. The automation tools of such are very much expected to lower the frauds or malpractices through the course of processing or filling the leave records or documents in. 

    Automation is going to be an obvious thing in the forthcoming years in leave management system arena. Apparently, the companies are witnessing a significant boost in productivity through the adoption of automated systems. Specifically, this is expected to address various regular challenges in following ways.

    Changing the perception of leaves

    It’s true that there remain specific leave policies for governing the leave management systems. Moreover, these systems are a pack of rules, methods, and norms set by the concerned company taking the local and federal regulations into account. The procedures of reporting, all aspects regarding timeframes, and other aspects regarding the day off as part of the yearly leave are handled through the same rules. In other words, the same rules govern the PTOs.

    It’s not rare for conflicts to arise through the course of setting the policies and keeping track of the PTOs and day off. However, things are going to transform a lot through the advent of professional PTO tracker tools. In upcoming five years, the system is expected to be much more synchronized in nature. Through the process, it is expected to boost the productivity level of the employees as well. Naturally, any employer or company owner would be more interested in employing the same.

    There are enough reports to suggest that flawed leave policies are among the top reasons behind the affected productivity of the employees as they get disheartened, lose their enthusiasm towards the company. However, high-end PTO tracking software is expected to change the scenario tremendously in forthcoming years. Enabling the HR professionals in obtaining accurate details, these tools are expected to help them in taking better decisions, and thus keeping the enthusiasms level of the employees intact.  

    Making things more flexible

    A significant drop in functional features is expected at the core level with the help of tracking software.  With the help of synchronized tools, the HR professionals are going to manage everything from any place, at any time, irrespective of device type, upon having data in real-time.

    Leave management systems are going to be enriched with end-level automation, thus enabling HR professionals to deliver customized reports anytime. They are going to be able to provide real-time details of the leave application and status of the employee from any point. Naturally, things are going to be much simpler at managerial level. The companies won’t have to keep things upgraded in regular intervals. 

    Artificial Intelligence to bring the major transformation

    Tools enriched with AI come with the ability to integrate with the biometric tools and thus keep records of the attendance. No more special unit is going to be required for addressing customer queries. The chatbots enriched with AI are expected to handle these things better.

    AI-based tools can do manual works like generating payment slips, accessing applications of the attendees, and calculating leave balances much easier. This is certainly going to make the process of granting leaves or allocating way lot simpler. With the advent of analytical tools, greater clarity regarding the patterns of leaves, availability percentage, and scheduling can be simplified.

    Enriching the system with advanced cross-platform functionality

    Centralized database systems are going to be very common among organizations, irrespective of the size, in forthcoming years. In other words, the systems are expected to be more cloud compliant in nature. Moreover, the systems are expected to be enriched with cross-platform functionality and advanced UI to retrieve data that can be accessed through any commonly used device, be it about laptops, smartphones, slates, etc.

    This approach indeed is going to meet well with the contemporary demand for remote working modules. Every HR professional is expected to have a day off app installed in his system. Through the advent of such tools, the managers can respond to each and every query of the employees instantly.  

    Bringing HR and Accounting department in concurrence

    Yes, assigning leaves is one of the major parts of leave management. But, it is certainly not all about leave management. In upcoming years, the HR and Accounting departments are expected to function much more in concurrence towards achieving the overall goal of the organization.

    In short, unique centralized systems that can be accessed by both the HR and accounting departments are very much expected to surface in forthcoming years. These tools are going to help managers in obtaining superior level clarity regarding the performance of the employee and their productivity level. 

    Meeting explicit criteria during the unprecedented occasions

    In modern times, the level of certainty on any aspect is quite less. It used to be difficult to set policies regarding employee offs during the unprecedented occasions of leaves. Specifically, the policies regarding work from home, emergencies, half and full days, etc., used to get tough. However, through the advent of automated tools, AI, and centralized systems, HR professionals won’t have to be in a lot of confusion.

    Rather, it is expected to enable the companies to offer infinite paid leaves for the employees. In addition, they can set further amendments as per the situation demands. Moreover, both the professionals and the employees can expect greater flexibility through these systems. Starting from those making policies to the followers of the same, it is going to be helpful for all.

    Conclusion

    All said and done; the leave management systems are going to witness immense transformation in coming five years. Both in terms of technologies and functionalities, the system is expected to witness major changes. However, good news is that the transformation is going to occur for the betterment of the system, rather than making things more complicated.

    Best part, it is going to be helpful for people to all levels of the sales funnels. The tools are moreover going to help the employees in measuring the leave patterns of the employees better, which means the employers are going to know their employees better. On a concluding note, leave management system is going to be streamlined from all perspectives.      

  • Legal requirements for PTO and Leave in UK

    Legal requirements for PTO and Leave in UK

    The employment landscape is constantly changing with new needs, expectations, trends and regulations marking their arrival. More than ever, HR managers are concerned about the essential benefits which employees require from an organization. As a matter of fact, innovative and lucrative employee benefits could help an enterprise mark its presence in high-demand marketplaces. At the same time, employee benefits are also helpful for drawing in talented human resources to the organization this article will give you a brief about PTO in UK.

    One of the most significant employees benefits obviously points out towards leave. Leave has its own share of importance in helping an organization maintain a work-life balance for employees. On the other hand, it is important to note how legal precedents are transforming the design of leave policies across various organizations. The following discussion helps you dive into the details of legal implications relates to PTO and leave in the UK.

    Why are Leaves Important?

    According to a study conducted by the job website, Glassdoor, 7% of workers do not get their complete minimum paid leave entitlement. In addition, an average employee in the UK takes only 62% of their total holiday allowance. This is one of prominent reasons for which 79% of British workers have to experience work-related stress. Furthermore, almost 76% of employees experience burnout due to various factors such as personal circumstances, workloads or the work environment.

    Without the lack of motivation and freedom to take a day off, employees could lose the zeal to work, thereby affecting productivity. So, letting employees cool off the steam by offering them paid and unpaid leaves might be a promising initiative. On the other hand, it is important to understand the important precedents you must follow in offering leave to your employees.

    Understanding PTO

    PTO is basically the acronym for Paid Time Off, which is also referred to as the annual leave or statutory leave. PTO indicates the number of days, weeks or months an employee could take time off from work while receiving compensation from their company. The PTO of an employee starts to grow when they begin working with a company having a clearly defined PTO policy. Generally, the employer has the final discretion on when employees could take their paid leaves. Subsequently, the employee receives their standard wage according to the company’s PTO policy.

    Entitlements in PTO for Employees in the UK

    If you are planning on developing a leave tracker for your organization, you need to understand the PTO entitlements in UK. You should know the number of days that workers could take a leave. Majority of workers involved with five-day workweek routines could legally receive an entitlement to 28 days of paid holiday annually.

    Part-time workers, as well as employees working irregular hours like term-time workers or shift workers, are also legally eligible for PTO according to the hours they put in work. In order to calculate the time off allotted to a part-time worker, you could just multiply the number of days they work in a week by 5.6. For instance, if a part-time employee works three days a week, they can legally take 16.6 days of PTO.

    Types of PTO Permitted in the UK

    The PTO tracker solution for an organization should also include the different types of PTO in the UK in its scope. The PTO policy of an organization in the UK should include various types of paid leave along with relevant guidelines. A detailed understanding of different types of PTO allowed in the UK could help in defining the specifications of a prolific vacation tracker solution. Here are some of the notable cases in which you are entitled to PTO or paid leaves.

    Paid Sick Leave

    Employees are humans and are bound to fall prey to sickness at some or other point in time. Paid sick leave or statutory sick pay provides coverage for employees who fall ill for a minimum of four consecutive days, along with non-working days. Employers could start paying the statutory sick pay from the fourth day till the employee’s return to work. According to UK regulations, employees put on paid sick leave are entitled to pay £94.25 for the period of 28 weeks. Employees receive statutory sick pay on regular payday along with deduction of National Insurance and Taxes.

    Paid Annual Leave

    The most basic type of PTO which you must have in PTO tracking software is the paid annual leave. It is the most basic leave entitlement for a worker, and employees in the UK get paid annual leave of 28 days. Apart from the 5.6 weeks worth of paid vacation, bank holidays could also be a part of statutory leave according to the employer’s discretion.

    Maternity Leave

    Another prominent entry that you can find in different types of PTO in the UK is maternity leave. It basically includes the time that a parent takes off from work before and after giving birth. The laws in UK dictate that maternity leave could be allowed for a maximum of 52 weeks. On the other hand, if the employer has defined any specific considerations in their leave policy, the maternity leave could extend further.

    The first 26 weeks come under the scope of ‘Ordinary Maternity Leave’. The next 26 weeks would be classified under the ‘Additional Maternity Leave’ category. Maternity leave applicants could take the leave 11 weeks before the due date at the earliest. After birth, employees must take a leave of two weeks and four weeks in the case of factory workers.

    When you are designing an employee leave tracker app, you must also know about the payment for maternity leave. In the first six weeks of maternity leave, employees are generally eligible for receiving 90% of their average weekly income. In the case of remaining 33 weeks of maternity leave, employees are entitled to either 90% of their average weekly income or £151.20, with the lower one getting first preference.

    It is also important to note that maternity leave benefits are different according to the type of employment. Employers should note that all employees are not eligible for statutory maternity leave pay.

    Paternity Leave

    As an employer, you would also have to deal with the aspect of paternity leave while designing an employee time off tracker. Paternity leave is generally applicable for employees given that their partner has given birth or they have adopted a child. According to UK laws, partners who are eligible for paternity leave can receive two weeks of statutory paternity leave pay.

    Eligible employees can prefer to take the two weeks holiday at a time or differently. However, employees could not start their paternity leave before the date of the child’s birth. Most important of all, employees should finish their paternity leave within 56 days of the date of their child’s birth. Employees eligible for paternity leave are entitled to statutory paternity leave pay. The statutory paternity leave pay can be £148.68 for every week or 90% of their average weekly income, with first preference for the lower amount.

    Compassionate Leave

    Employers are also entitled to the privilege of allotting compassionate leave to employees. However, employers do not have any legal obligations for offering paid or unpaid compassionate leave. You can include compassionate leave or bereavement leave in a day off app for supporting employees in dire circumstances. Employees are eligible for compassionate leave when their relative or dependent fall ill or face an accident or in the case of death of a loved one.

    Employees in the UK could receive a certain period of compassionate leave due to certain reasons. For example, compassionate leave is applicable if employees face illness, assault or injury or their child is involved in an accident at school. Compassionate leave is also applicable for employees in the UK who face discrepancies in care arrangements.

    Unpaid Leave

    Once employers have dealt with the problem of defining PTO in their leave policy, they have to deal with unpaid leaves. The design of an effective time off app for an organization should also include necessary elements for including unpaid leaves. Unpaid leaves are an effective method for employers to offer leaves to dedicated and reliable staff members beyond the paid leave limit. Unpaid leaves give the opportunity for employees to take leaves in the case of unprecedented situations. At the same time, employers could also use them as instruments for showing their goodwill for employees in critical scenarios.

    Types of Unpaid Leave

    Just like the different types of paid leave, it is also important to note the types of unpaid leave. According to UK law, there are two specific exceptions in the case of unpaid leave. Other than the three exceptions, there is no specific obligation for employers regarding the number of days they can allow as unpaid leave for employees. So, it is important to specify the rules and specifications regarding unpaid leave in employee handbooks or contracts.

    HR management should also find out the ways for deducting unpaid leave from the salary of employees. Employees are safe from unauthorized deductions in their wages and pay by employers. However, employers can specify the details of conditions in which unpaid leave is applicable for employees. At the same time, the employment contract should also include details of deduction such as time and amount for unpaid leave.

    Another important aspect specified in UK law for unpaid leave refers to the two exceptions. The first exception is applicable in situations where employees have to serve on magistrate or jury duty. The second exception is evident in situations where employees have to look after their children.

    Unpaid Leaves and Jury Service

    Jury service is also another important aspect that you have to take into account while designing a free vacation tracker. Employees are not mandatorily obliged to take leave for jury service. As a matter of fact, employers have the obligation for allowing employees to work in the role of a voluntary magistrate or attend jury service.

    Alarmingly, employers who deny this right to employees can face contempt-of-court charges. Worse of all, the penalty in such cases could include two years in jail or a hefty fine. While employees could not miss jury services, employers do not have any obligation for paying staff during the concerned period.

    Law for Unpaid Leaves for Parents

    UK laws for leave are quite lenient and rewarding for parents. Parents could become eligible for unpaid parental leave in different cases. Parents could claim unpaid leave almost 18 weeks before their child, or adopted child reaches the age of 18. The limit for unpaid parental leaves in a free time off tracker must be 4 weeks for every child annually. Employees could take unpaid parental leaves in the multiple of one or two weeks rather than on individual days. It is also important to note that unpaid parental leave is applicable in the case of every offspring rather than for an individual’s job.

    Most important of all, it is difficult to delay unpaid parental leave due to various reasons. For example, the absence of a staff member would affect the business negatively. Another possible reason to avoid any delays in unpaid parental leave is if the father or partner of the employee has taken it immediately after the birth or adoption. Unpaid parental leave cannot be extended in cases where the staff member does not qualify for leave, as the extension will go beyond the 18th birthday of the child.

    The government specifies that employees must provide their explanation in writing when deferring unpaid parental leave. Employees must submit the explanation within seven days of submitting the original request. In addition, employees should also provide a new start date. The new start date should be within six months duration of the requested start date. It is impossible to change the duration of unpaid parental leave requested by the employee.

    The Comprehensive Solution

    HR managers have to navigate all these complexities in the legal aspects pertaining to PTO and leave in the UK. However, new and innovative tech solutions such as leave tracking apps could help in effective leave management. The development of such tools is a new chapter in streamlining human resources management. Find out more about compliance with legal implications pertaining to leave and PTO in your HR policy.

  • How has Human Resources Management evolved?

    How has Human Resources Management evolved?

    HRM Human Resources Management is a major department in every organization that is dedicated to maintaining discipline. However, it has come a long way. As per the experts, HRM is a new term for dealing with employees in the organization. Well, HRM is evolving and will keep evolving with time.

    Speaking about the evolution of HRM, the term is of recent origin.  As per the record, it started revolving around the 1980s. Earlier, goods were only manufactured by skilled artisans and craftsmen. In fact, they were responsible for dealing with all the production processes, producing and selling the products.

    It is crucial to understand the evolution of Human Resources management to know about the philosophy, practices, and functions of Human Resources Management that are being widely used in various circumstances. So, let’s talk about evolution in detail.

    Understanding the historical perspective of HRM

    During the ancient period, skilled craftsmen and artisans used to deal with all the things. That means there was no use of master-servant, employer, and employee. The entire process and tasks related to services and goods were managed by the artists, and for that, they used to take their family members’ help. On the other hand, a certain category of staff and apprentices were used by the effluent craftsmen. That developed a close relationship between the craftsmen and apprentices.

    With time, a sense of human approach was gradually evolved in the relationship. After years of training, some people, or you can say apprentices opened their own business. On the other hand, some other apprentices started working with their masters to enjoy some benefits. As per the historical data, guilds are developed by the skilled artisans to protect the trade. After that, they brought slaves, serfs, and laborers to have a better understanding of HRM. This is quite important to understand the management of laborers, serfs, and slaves.

    Managing the salves

    In ancient civilization, one of the crucial sources of human resources was the phenomenon of slaves. They can be purchased and sold like commodities. The wealthy chiefs, landlords, and rulers brought commodities from the slaves and managed the slaves. Besides, they also used them to carry out tough works, for example, transporting loads, construction works, rowing boats or ships, and more. In return, their masters gave them food and shelter. However, now there are no such things, and it is quite easy to manage the workers using a vacation tracker.

    Handling the serfs

    In feudal societies, and during the pre as well as the early medieval period, the term of serfdom was very prevalent. They used to do their landlords’ agricultural activities and other associated activities. Every landlord gave a piece of land to the serfs so that they can earn some money for living.  The landlords used to handle their serfs following the principle of authoritarianism, and there was a relationship between serfs and feudal lords.

    Managing the indentured labor

    When the advancement in the industrial sector and mercantilism emerged with time, the term indentured labor system came into the limelight.  Due to a massive rise in the demand for different commodities and goods, the demand for skilled labor also increased. That increasing demand was fulfilled by the people who migrated to industrial towns from the remote areas.

    It may be noted that the process of management of labor is quite different from the management of slaves and serfs. The laborers were abounded by the company’s terms, and conditions and the Human Resources managers had the right to manage them on behalf of the company.

    Different eras in the human resources management evolution

    Well, there are different stages in the process of Human Resources Management evolution. Those stages describe about the evolution from the industrial era to the present scenario. Let’s talk about that in detail.

    The Industrial Revolution

    As per the report, managing people or employees at work started during the eighteenth century due to the advancement in the USA and Western Europe’s industrial sector. In fact, the industries witnessed a systematic growth of HR management.

    The industrial revolution greatly influenced different elements, for example,

    usage of manpower, mechanical energy, development of new types of machinery, and more. On the other hand, the new factory system replaced the old cottage system.

    During the 19th century, some companies, such as Jacob from Ireland and the United Kingdom’s Cadbury, appointed multiple welfare officers to enhance the working condition. Besides, they also set up sick pay schemes as well as housing facilities at a subsidized rate. As there was no Employee time off tracker, they used to record the employees’ attendance manually.

    Besides, during that time,

    three important systems of HR management were introduced, i.e., hiring employees, offering them training, and managing them effectively. With time, the early twentieth century witnessed a new term called scientific management. It was greatly influenced by FW Taylor. After analyzing the job environment, he broke it down into different components, called job specialization. He believed that employees or workers could be trained to work better at one certain component of the work,

    but he ignored the fact that employees are humans, not machines. So, they get bored performing the same tasks every day.  As per some reports, FW Taylor’s management theory was adopted by Ford and some food companies. Besides,

    it also benefited the HR management with different tools, for example, methods of training, recruitment or selection, and job analysis.

    First World War

    During the First World War, companies used to recruit women in a huge number to fill the gaps in the workplace left by men workers. Different agreements were created to accept changing of the managing levels and hiring unskilled women for craftsmen’s jobs. Gradually, the scope changed to manage recruitment, bonus, dismissal, and absence.

    Different studies conducted by the experts, like Elton Mayo, said that the performance of the workers could be greatly affected by job satisfaction, motivation, leadership styles, group dynamics, and more. Such behavioral science started to influence the employee’s management. After World War and when the economic condition across the world started going up, many companies gave importance to employee benefits.

    Second World War Era

    During the 1960s, following the development of poor industrial relations, unions, personal managers, and employers were highly criticized for lacking the required negotiation skills and failing to create employee development and industrial relations strategies.

    In between the 1960s to 80s, employment began to grow at a higher rate. On the other hand, different personal methods were developed utilizing theories related to organizational behavior, motivation, and more. With time, specialism began to develop, along with resourcing and reward.

    HR management in the 1960s to 1980s

    Many business leaders understood that the employees were the major factor for a company’s success. They believed that people were a great resource to be managed as effectively and efficiently as other resources,

    and that brought changes in the management style.

    During that time, the US legislature started passing different employment practices, for example, Civil Rights Act 1964 and the Equal Pay Act 1963,

    compelling the HR managers to focus on compliance issues.  Besides, Deci and Rayan’s Self-Determination Theory and Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory started to transform the industry. Industrial psychology and organizational management contributed to HR paying a great focus on the employees’ requirements for recognition, achievement, and advancement.

    Every worker wants a particular right to be considered for a role. At the same time,

    they also look out for different psychological motivators, covering mastery, autonomy, and purpose to do their best in their works.

    The 1990s to 2020s, HR management

    Well, the role of the HR managers is now quite complex than ever. Latest and emerging technologies are now shifting focus from personnel management as well as administrative tasks. Today’s HR specialist are spending their energies and time in strengthening the culture and managing the employees. Besides,

    they will also have to work with the employees to develop the work environment and make employees happy, which in turn will work for the company and its foreseeable future. On the other hand, with the advancement of technologies, employers are now using advanced software to deal with different tasks and to effectively manage the team. For example, to manage the leaves or vacations, they are now using professional PTO tracking software programs, such as the Day Off app.

    New technologies that are used in modern HR management

    Speaking about some of the latest and advanced technology used in today’s HR management includes AR, VR, ML, and more. Most of the successful companies are harnessing these modern technologies and different types of digital tools,

    such asthe day off app within a professional HR management system.  The HRM solutions evolve with time along with the HR management. It has made it possible to use modern technological innovation to manage and enhance the people and HR experiences as well as processes.  Some of the newest technologies in the HR management are:

    VR- Virtual Reality

    Virtual Reality has become very common in talent management and training. Employees and candidates can learn things effectively and practice skills using such technologies. Besides, they can show with whom they would work in a virtual environment.

    Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

    Today’s HR managers are widely using machine learning and artificial intelligence in different processes, for example, in recruitment, acquisition, evaluating candidate’s experience, matching candidate’s profile for the role, application screening, and more. Such powerful technologies can help employers in avoiding unwanted bias in interviewing or selection. Machines learning can detect the characteristics of successful candidates and try to detect the same abilities and qualities in future applicants. On the other hand, these technologies can be found in a PTO tracker used by many companies to automate leave management.

    Cloud technology

    To keep up with all the latest updates, for better agility and capabilities, most of the modern HR solutions work on cloud technology. Today’s cloud technology is mobile-friendly, secure, and flexible. So, HR managers and employees can use the solutions wherever and whenever they want.  Mobile apps like employee leave tracker app and mobile platforms are crucial technologies, providing the employees as well as the employers with multiple self-service capabilities. So, now they can easily access as well as update the policies with a few simple clicks.

    Automation

    In HR, automation has become an important factor. After the introduction of automation technology, it has greatly reduced the manual processing and errors in a company’s HR administration. On the other hand, it has greatly fastened multiple end-to-end processes, for example, new employees’ recruitment and their onboarding. Besides, big data analysis and digital analytics also play an important role in HR solutions, helping the managers to understand how to effectively motivate and engage the employees. Furthermore, some companies are now focusing on different analytics for better HR management. For example, predictive analytics can help HR in creating better strategies for employees’ recruitment, retention, company policies, facilities, training, benefits, and rewards.

    Final words

    Human Resource Management means offering support to the employees at different stages of the employees’ life cycle, from recruitment, performance management, career planning, coaching & training, and more. The human resources are evolving with time. They need to perform strategically to make an active contribution to a company’s growth. For all these things, today’s HR managers need to follow the latest trends of HR management. Due to the rapid technological development and introduction of new rules, changes happen much faster than before.  It is important for an organization to adapt to the rapidly changing environment in order to survive.  However, a company’s ability to adapt to those changes also depends on the HR manager.

    To avoid the issues that the company has faced in the past, you need to understand the HR strategies you have in the company. Are your staff selected, managed, and trained properly to make sure they can perform at their best? What are the methods you use for employee leave management? Consider all these things, understand the changing environment, and you can effectively manage the human resource, which is an important resource for every company, efficiently. And don’t forget to take help of the technology.

  • How to select the right Leave management software tool?

    How to select the right Leave management software tool?

    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.

  • Legal requirements for PTO and Leave in Europe

    Legal requirements for PTO and Leave in Europe

    Businesses are constantly on edge for finding the best approaches for ensuring better employee engagement. However, it is quite difficult to achieve better employee engagement easily. The rapidly changing business environment and constant modifications in labor laws have different levels of influence on employees. HR managers all over the world are rethinking the traditional perspectives on the way they manage the human capital of an organization. As a result, the emphasis on legal precedents for employment conditions has started to take the front seat among priorities for HR. The following discussion helps you find out the legal requirements for PTO and leave in Europe. Let us see how PTO or paid time off and leave policies in Europe affect employees.

    Why Are the Legal Requirements for Leave Important?

    The first concern while planning a day off tracking solution designs is labor law. Technology lets you avoid the unnecessary complications associated with monitoring the number of leaves your employees take. In addition, you could also get a clear estimate of the balance holidays in the account of each employee effortlessly. However, mobile apps and software solutions for leave tracking must follow the legal implications associated with leave. The EU labor law holds the sole discretion over defining the rights and obligations of workers and employers in the European Union.

    The Legal Authority of EU Labor Law

    EU labor law focuses on two distinct areas, such as working conditions and the role of information and consultation for workers. EU labor law dictates the working conditions such as working hours for fixed-time and part-time workers, also alongside catering to the conditions of posting of workers.

    The EU labor law also takes on the responsibility of providing information and consultation to workers regarding collective redundancies, transfer of companies, and other factors. When you are trying to develop a leave tracker solution for your company in any country in the European Union, you must follow the EU labor law.

    When it comes to the PTO and leave in Europe, EU labor law specifies that individual EU countries have the privilege of offering higher levels of benefits and protection for workers. However, the European Working Time Directive establishes the minimum limit of annual paid leave for workers at 4 weeks. On the other hand, various countries have chosen more generous benefits for workers.

    Types of Leave Permitted in the EU

    With clarification on the legal authority for PTO and leave in Europe, it is reasonable to look for different types of PTO. The European Commission also outlines the specifications for leave in Europe across different categories. A clear understanding of the specifications helps in crafting the basic outline of your PTO tracker solution. Let us take a look at the conditions for various types of leave in Europe.

    Annual Paid Leave

    According to the specifications by the European Commission, the annual paid-leave entitlement for employees in Europe is four weeks. In addition, the national and public holidays also count for another 14 working days as leaves. It is also important to note that if public holidays or national holidays fall on a Sunday or Saturday or on a weekly rest day allotted to the employee, they should be eligible for another day of leave for the holidays. Your vacation tracker solution should also consider the fact that no additional days could be allowed as holidays for national or public holidays on a Sunday or a Saturday.

    It is also important to reflect on the entitlements for part-time workers when it comes to annual paid leave. All the part-time workers are also eligible for minimum entitlement to all public holidays, birth leave, injury leave, sick leave, bereavement leave, marriage leave, and annual paid holidays. They would get the leave benefits in accordance with the conditions of employment recognized by their employer in employment contracts.

    In addition, part-time workers are also entitled to other leaves established in accordance with the act. Furthermore, part-time workers could also get statutory bonuses alongside other income supplements similar to that of full-time employees on similar duties by taking their conditions of employment into account.

    Maternity Leave

    The design of PTO tracking software should also include the implications for maternity leave. Employees could apply for maternity leave right after the birth of their child or if they adopt a child with their partner. Employees could apply for maternity leave for a continuous duration of 14 weeks. However, as of 2013, the duration allowed for maternity leave has changed to 18 weeks. On the other hand, employees must provide a notification to their employer at least four weeks prior to the beginning of their maternity leave.

    There are different ways in which HR management could allow you to take maternity leave according to law in EU.

    1. Six weeks of maternity leave entitlement is mandatory, and employees must take it immediately following the date of birth of their child.
    2. Four weeks of maternity leave is allowed before the expected due date. Other agreements between employee and the employer could help in negotiating the duration of maternity leave allowed before due date.
    3. Employees can choose to take the remaining maternity leave entitlement, either completely or in parts, either immediately before or immediately after the due date.
    4. If an employee is unable to take their maternity leave before the due date, they will use the remaining leaves entitled to them after the due date.
    5. Over the period of maternity leave, employees are eligible to receive full wages as payable by their employer.

    Parental Leave

    Parental leave is also another important aspect which you should add to an employee leave tracker app. Male and female employees have individual rights for receiving around 4 months of unpaid parental leave. Unpaid parental leave is applicable in scenarios where employees want to take care of children after birth by their partner.

    It is also applicable in cases of fostering, adoption, or obtaining legal custody of a child. Parental leave is a wholesome approach for employees to take care of children. Interestingly, laws in EU allow for such type of leave until the child reaches the age of 8 years.

    If the employee does not take parental leave or have remaining balance of parental leave, they are still entitled to the leave even after changing employment or employer. The design of an employee time off tracker should focus on the fact that employees in private sector could take almost 4 months of unpaid parental leave.

    On the other hand, public servants could take up to almost 1 year of unpaid parental leave for each child. Employers should note that parental leave can be taken with a one-time period of 5 years. Furthermore, both parents could share the parental leave.        

    Sick Leave

    The laws for sick leave in Europe are also important for defining the HR policies of organizations operating there. Sick leave is a mandatory and unavoidable circumstance that must be in any solution for tracking leaves. Employees must provide notifications to employers as quickly as they can when they face any illness. A day off app must feature the ability to verify a doctor’s certificate for the employee’s illness.

    Maltese law implies that employees are eligible to receive wages during illness. In addition, some other relevant collective agreement also determines statutory sick leave pay in Europe. Employees are eligible to receive a given number of days as sick leave entitlement. However, exhausting the sick leave allotted to an employee implies that employers don’t have any obligations for paying wages. On the contrary, employees on extended sick leave might receive sickness benefits offered by the Social Security Department.

    The rules for sick leave in Europe indicate that employees are rightfully entitled to take sick leaves up to four times annually. In addition, the employees have the right to claim the number of hours as sick leave in a calendar year. Employers are required to submit the information to the employees within 5 working days of receiving the request in writing.

    Other Types of Leave

    The design of a time off app can be quite complicated when you have to focus on the other types of leaves. Apart from the common types of leaves, employers are also required to award other leaves to their employees according to EU law. Employers must allow a minimum of 12 hours with pay annually as time off from work. Such type of leave is applicable in the cases of urgent family matters. Most importantly, the total number of hours that employees take for urgent family reasons are accounted for in the annual leave entitlement.

    Employers reserve the right for setting the maximum possible duration employees could take time off from work in different cases. At the same time, employers must ensure that the minimum time allowed in such cases must not be less than one hour for each case. Employers also have the right to demand evidence that could be necessary for verifying and confirming the request of an employee for urgent leave. It is also important to note that part-time employees are eligible for urgent leave entitlement on a pro-rata basis.

    How Do Legal Requirements for PTO and Leave in Europe Help Companies and Employees?

    When companies look up to new tech solutions like leave tracking applications, they have to understand the importance of legal compliance. The new system for managing leaves of employees in an organization should follow all the legal precedents. Well, is there any specific reason to focus on defining a clear-cut legal policy when designing a PTO or leave tracking app? The answer might draw you towards the potential benefits of a free vacation tracker solution. Here are some of the notable benefits of legally sound leave and PTO policies.

    Health Benefits for Employees

    The excessive working hours could result in growth of mortality of employees by 20%. The mental, physical, and emotional stress of work can result in profoundly worse health outcomes alongside affecting wellbeing at work. In the condition that employees receive paid time off or leave, they are likely to invest the time in exploring their creative side. Most important of all, employees can use their day off to rest and recharge for resuming their work completely refreshed.

    Improvements in Performance and Productivity

    Studies have revealed how leaves are responsible for changing the perspective of employees on their job, company, and leadership team. Only one week of vacation annually could have a prolific impact on the productivity and performance of employees. A survey by OC Tanner reveals that around 70% of employees taking one week or more of vacation regularly have better motivation for contributing to the success of the company.     

    Employers Retain Talent

    One of the foremost reasons to try out a free time off tracker solution is the benefit of recognition for employees. PTO serves as a really helpful means for showing recognition for the efforts and dedication of an employee. Therefore, it is important to note how leaves could also lead to long-term benefits in employee retention and engagement.

    More Benefits for Employees

    The development of a proper PTO policy is important for developing new tech solutions for leave tracking. The advantages of a good PTO policy include profound references to the Global Talent Trends Report 2020 by LinkedIn. According to the report, companies with higher benefits and compensations experienced a 56% reduction in attrition rates. On the other hand, flexible work arrangements helped companies in achieving growth in headcount by almost 137%. The facility of a PTO policy comes in both categories of improvement with the assurance of long-term employee benefits.

    Developing the Ideal Solution

    As you can notice clearly, the legal requirements for PTO and leave in Europe are considerably simple. Most important of all, the clear outline of leave duration and the conditions for eligibility make them easier to follow. HR managers could utilize their knowledge of legal precedents for PTO and leave to define credible solutions for leave management.

    The growing prevalence of remote work has slowly reduced the physical interaction between employers and employees. In such cases, a leave management system or app configured according to legal precedents in Europe could help in freeing HR from the burden of managing leaves. Learn more about leave and PTO in Europe right now!