Category: Company

  • Remote Employees: Top 5 Best Practices When Hiring Them

    Remote Employees: Top 5 Best Practices When Hiring Them

    Thanks to the rapid technological advances, they have allowed the workers in different fields to carry out their works from different locations, and for that, they only need a working internet connection. Now, there is no need to be bound by those traditional workspaces. On the other hand, the world of work has changed in a drastic way after the COVID-19. As the pandemic has affected the economies and businesses, most of the companies are now changing their hiring strategies to follow the distributed workforce or what to do when your boss makes you work during your unpaid break working culture. 

    However, for that, they will have to follow the right strategies to hire the right candidates for the jobs. Furthermore, from hiring to introducing the candidate to the job, it is crucial for employers to develop a seamless experience. If you are following a digital recruitment process, then video interviewing may replace some factors of in person interviews. It is crucial for HR managers to follow the right approaches when it comes to onboarding remote hires. So, how to make the process smooth and effective? Well, here are some best practices that you can follow while hiring new remote employees.

    Fine tune the Hiring Process

    When you want to hire a remote team, that means you want to hire a particular set of skills required to excel at work. Some of the few important remote working skills are:

      • Self discipline

      • Great level of communication skills

      • Time management skills

      • Collaboration skills and more.

    Unless the applicants have these skills, there is no use in taking them further in the recruitment process. Without these skills, the candidate will be a bad fit. Well, there are different ways to test a candidate for these. For example, you can carry out pre-employment tests. You can use different tools for this that can unlock valuable insights to assist you in shortlisting the candidates.

    Always Commit to Conduct Great Remote Interviews

    Most of the best recruiters are very aggressive about gaining the required knowledge, learning habits, and they always try to master the latest technologies to compete, no matter what is the condition. So, you need to create a great remote interview process. What can you do about that? First of all, the hr assistant should upgrade the technology and should test that in advance.

    Besides, they should organize the interview as well as script out questions. If your interview process consists of multiple people, then plan it carefully. If you are leading the HR management team, they ensure that they have all the tools to simplify the remote interview process. Tedious, awkward, or mediocre interviews will prove that the work culture is not interesting.

    Always Source the Right

    As a lot of candidates are looking for great remote work opportunities, they know the best go-to place to find a remote job. Well, those don’t cover the traditional job searching places. Now, the thins have changed a lot, and different platforms have emerged out to make the job search process more direct and easier for both the companies and candidates.

    If you are still using the traditional job board, then you may miss out on a huge group of talented candidates who are looking for remote jobs. Instead of promoting your jobs on these sites, try the new job boards that are quite popular among remote workers, for example, LinkedIn, AngelList, and more. You should always take advantage of the social media platform. Besides, try out these things to get better exposure as a remote employer or company:

      • Get listed in the remote startup directories.

      • Try to get placed in the lists like startups or companies that hire remotely.”

      • Create a post in different remote working communities, for instance, Facebook groups for remote candidates.

    Offer the Candidates a Realistic Preview of the Job

    Well, HR managers know that remote working is not for all. However, you can help the possible employees self-select out of the recruitment process by creating a way where they can witness a realistic preview of the job. What is the best way? Well, you can let the candidates an insider look into how they would be working remotely once they get selected.

    Remember that the content doesn’t have to tell the logistic of remote working.  You can also add some personal stories that will help in connecting with the right applicant. Besides, you can also integrate a company video into the online job application that can showcase the culture of your company.

    Remember to Develop a Perfect Work Relationship

    Well, transitioning to a remote-working environment can be a very challenging adjustment as there will be no in person factors. However, even though it is challenging, it is important to remember that you will have to build a robust relationship with the new employees. Understanding different ways to align a new candidate’s ambitions with the goals of the company will always lead to a win-win condition for all who are involved.

    Every individual will feel highly motivated in various ways. And this is important to figure this out early on. Besides, you can use the best PTO tracking software to send out different policies, like leave management policies and more, to the new candidates quite easily. Try your best to develop a solid foundation that always begins with clear and efficient communication ways.

    Bonus tips Use a Time Off App to Track the Leaves of Your Remote Employees

    While managing a remote team, it will become very challenging for the HR managers to keep track of the leaves. However, important to follow proper leave management to keep productivity up. This is where the HR management can use a powerful and well-developed employee leave tracker app, such as Day off, to get the task done. This is an easy way to manage multiple leaves, and you can send any important notice to the employees using the app. Besides, the Day off app will show all the important information in one place, making it easier for the companies to make important decisions.

    Follow the above mentioned practices and use a professionally designed leave tracker and you can easily hire and manage remote employees.

  • How to Create Employee Orientation Materials

    How to Create Employee Orientation Materials

    Employee orientation works as the first impression or first sight that the employees have of your company. Most of the time, employee satisfaction and engagement heavily depends on the employee orientation carried off by the business. For instance, a boring and formal orientation will only lead the recruits to believe that working in your company will be dull and monotonous. On the other hand, a fun-filled and communicative orientation session will leave the recruits focused on the upcoming tasks and challenges. As a result, it is quite important to let the employees know few essential subjects via the orientation materials. Not only do the orientation materials help the employees settle down, but it gives them an overall idea of how things work in your business. To know the ideal creation of employee orientation materials, keep reading!

    Welcome your Employees

    First and foremost- Welcome the employees. Their presence is something you should always appreciate, as it increases the level of belongingness they feel regarding the company. The individual is told they are a great asset to the team in a welcoming greeting from the president or director. Coming from the leader themself might be a great deal to most new recruits, which acts as a further step to making them feel important in the workplace. This is a nice spot to lay out the organization’s values and objectives in broad strokes; after the warm welcome breaks the ice, the employees shall be more open to any rules and policies that the company wants to discuss. 

    The Employee Contract

    Next, the contract letter must be enclosed in the bundle of orientation materials. For each employee being recruited, a separate folder should be created with his or her contract letter inside. A document of the signed work contract letter or employment agreements, as well as any related non-disclosure, confidentiality, non-compete, or any other contracts, should be included in the bundle. The bundle and letters must be checked prior to the orientation event, as you don’t want the materials to get mismatched withing employees.

    Company’s Background Information

    Provide background information about your organization to make sure that the new recruit realizes their position in the business, what it represents, and where it’s heading. Your company’s vision and mission statement along with a summary of your growth strategy can all be included in the document. Other background data, such as newsletters, company brochures, or annual reports, is also beneficial.

    Including your company’s information or background will enable the employees to feel a certain involvement in the business. It is quite similar to watching movies, your employees shall live through the company’s history. How is that helpful? Well, it gives your new recruit an idea of the goals and broader vision that the business wishes to achieve; it helps them align their personal goals to that of the organization.

    Policies and Rules

    Different companies operate in different ways and, naturally, certain policies and rules shall apply. Whether your company is big or small, company policies and procedures must be provided to the employees on their orientation, to ensure that they abide by the procedures. Procedures regarding quality control, security, performance monitoring, emergency procedures, workplace health, leave policy , dress codes, workplace safety, reporting process, confidentiality, complaints, social network usage, employee conduct, absenteeism, energy saving protocols, waste disposal, efficiency protocols, employee assistance programs, workplace harassment or discrimination should be included and discussed in the rulebook elaborately. In addition to these, the rulebook should also cover important subjects like insurance, referral bonuses, or discounts that the employees may gain.

    Organizational Structure

    An organizational hierarchy is vital for your company to function, making it essential for your workforce to be on terms with the hierarchical chart. Providing the organizational directory and chart shall help the employees understand where they fit in the whole system. Aside from the hierarchical chart, a map of the entire facility should also be provided to the employees in case of any emergencies. For instance, you don’t want your employee to get lost within the company and not be able to find their way out.

    Required Documents

    Certain passwords and IDs are required for your recruits to have access to places, which must be included in the orientation materials. This ensures that your employees are aware of the surroundings and have access to business cards and other essential devices. Furthermore, keys and documents relating to the company attire might also be a good addition to the orientation materials, since all the pathways might not have password systems.

    Gifts or Souvenirs

    Providing a gift or a token of appreciation in the orientation materials shows that you value their presence and appreciate their addition to the company. A small souvenir or even tickets to a local attraction for employees to enjoy with their families can be a thoughtful gesture. There’s no one who doesn’t like a gift!

    Keep it Updated!

    As time clock calculator changes, so do the employee expectations. To keep the employee expectations and engagement in check, you need to regularly update this bundle of orientation materials. As per the time, few things might need to be added or eliminated  it’s wise to upgrade your facility along with the world, as your orientation shall work as a first impression on your employees.

    Bottom Line

    An orientation event for employees is a big deal, as recruits tend to be awkward and unaware of most policies and procedures. As a result, including all required information in the orientation material and bundling it up with a few warm messages or an overview of the company can act as an ice breaker. Not only will it make the employees feel like they belong, but it will ensure they know all the essential things that are needed. Share this article with your colleagues at work and start arranging the orientation materials for your new recruits!

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  • 6 Tips for Creating the Best Employee Handbook

    6 Tips for Creating the Best Employee Handbook

    In the regular swirl of developing a perfect business, dealing with multiple customers’ requirements, and working to retain and attract the right talents, the HR assistant may easily forget the real value of creating and maintaining a perfect employee handbook. Every company’s HR management should understand that having a well-developed employee handbook can help them shield the company from possible litigation as well as business conflicts.

    Besides, for the employees, it can serve purposes like setting different expectations to offering the employees all the important information. But for maximum benefits, you need to create the best employee handbook by considering the data from your time off app and other HR software programs.

    What do you mean by an employee handbook?

    An employee handbook can be called by many names, for example, a bar setter, a welcome pack, or a managerial time saver. Sometimes, the employee handbook can be used as legal assistance. In simple words, an employee handbook is a structured collection of different pieces of information that every member should know about a company, starting from the health or safety policies, disciplinary procedures to promotions and leaves. You can easily circulate an employee handbook among the staff using a PTO tracker, for instance, Day off.

    Why should every business maintain a good employee handbook?

    With different types of general information, internal structures, and different types of policies for the employees to keep in mind, having a well-developed employee handbook is important.  Not only will it help in saving time during the process of onboarding, but it will also set the laws for the new employees. For example, by combing it with the company’s Vacation tracker, you can tell them about the leave policy quite easily. On the other hand, this will help you to make sure that every member is treated properly and there is no legal issue.

    But to make it has the desired effect, the employee handbook should be attention-grabbing, and it should be taken seriously by your staff. So, how to create the best employee handbook? Well, here are some tips that you can follow.

    How to create an effective Employees’ Handbook

    Make sure that it can tell a story

    There is no doubt that every company has a story. So, don’t forget to tell your story. Instead of making your new employees go through that 100 pages of legal policy, you can use the first 10 to 15 pages to capture the readers. Try to drive them towards the things related to the company, like the story, the mission, and the vision. When they can feel more connected towards something, they will love to invest their best.

    Don’t forget to leverage the branding

    It is a fact that you have gone through many ups and downs to develop the brand presence in offline and online markets. But why stop there? You can consider your employees’ handbook as an extension of the brand. That means you can add beautiful photos, brand colors, icons, illustrations, and more to make it look stunning. It is the era of technology, and most businesses are now using digital employee handbooks. You can also use it and can even add gifs and important links, integrate it with the PTO tracking software, or add videos. You can enjoy unlimited possibilities.

    Keep your company’s policies a little flexible

    No one will prefer to work in an organization where the policy is very strict. Besides, it will be impossible for a business to maintain a policy considering a single scenario, especially in the tech industry, where the workplace culture may evolve rapidly. So, instead of following a single policy for all types of scenarios, you should have flexibility in changing the policies based on the conditions. It will be good for you to state your policies explicitly in the handbook to make sure that all the members are on the same page. Besides, offer some general guidelines for various situations in the handbook.

    Don’t forget to make the employee handbook accessible

    It is a fact that creating a handbook can consume resources as well as time. But you should not waste your valuable time on something that will be there in a cabinet untouched. Instead of that, you need to makes something that will be easily accessible. Whether you are creating a digital employee handbook or a PDF, make sure that the handbook is easily accessible through a mobile phone, tablet, or computer. Remember that the best handbooks are those that can be easily accessed quite frequently and easily. One of the best solutions for this is integrating your digital employee handbook with the Employee leave tracker app.

    Properly layout the development paths

    If you have ambitious or motivated employees in your company, then from day 1 of their joining, they will find their way up. On the other hand, organizations with properly described development pathways in their employee handbook can be greatly benefited here. What you need to do here is laying out the current promotional paths in your employee handbook. Well, these can be the company’s management routes or team-or skill-specific pathways to the staff promotion.

    Remember that you should back up all the data with required actions as well. The HR Managers should make sure that the right people are made aware of the new tasks, and the team managers inform the teams about what they want to achieve.

    Review and update the handbook regularly

    Consider the employee handbook as a breathing or living document.  You should update it with the changes to the company or when you change the existing roadmap. Besides, when you make the necessary changes, all the employees should be notified. If you fail to update it, employees will not prefer the handbook.

    An employee handbook can help a company in enjoying perfect growth while keeping the employees satisfied. So, follow these useful tips now and create the best employee handbook. However, don’t forget to add it to your existing PTO tracking software so that every people in your company can access it.

  • Pros and Cons of Using a Leave Tracking Software

    Pros and Cons of Using a Leave Tracking Software

    Managers often struggle to process leave requests accurately and on time while staying compliant with company policies and local labor laws. Each request requires checking history, balances, eligibility, coverage, and sometimes complex rules like carryover caps or prorated accruals. Doing this manually invites delays and errors. Leave tracking software, sometimes called an employee leave management system, replaces spreadsheets and email threads with a consistent, auditable workflow that works for managers and employees alike.

    This expanded guide strengthens each point from your original article, adds practical detail, and includes new sections to help you evaluate, implement, and scale a modern leave program.

    Why Manual Leave Processing Breaks Down

    On paper, leave management looks simple: submit, review, approve. In reality, requests must be evaluated against policy nuances (probation periods, leave types, region-specific holidays), team coverage, and payroll implications. When managers rely on siloed calendars and HR relies on spreadsheets, three things happen: decisions take longer, mistakes multiply, and employees lose trust in the process. Over time, that undermines productivity and morale. A modern system centralizes the rules and context so decisions are fast, fair, and visible.

    What Leave Tracking Software Actually Does

    Think of a leave management system as the operating layer for time off. Employees request PTO, sick leave, parental leave, or other absence types via web or mobile. The system automatically checks eligibility and balances, surfaces any conflicts on team calendars, and routes the request to the correct approver. Once approved, it updates balances, syncs to calendars, and sends the necessary signals to payroll. The result is a consistent, auditable trail with fewer handoffs and far less manual calculation.

    Why It Helps Both Sides

    A solid leave program is good for business and good for people. Managers get predictable coverage and fewer last-minute surprises. HR gains compliance, accuracy, and reporting without constant chasing. Employees can plan time off confidently because the rules are clear and balances are always up to date. In short, productivity and trust rise together.

    Pros of Using Leave Tracking Software

    Ease of Use

    Modern systems are built for everyday use, not just end-of-month admin. Employees can request leave from anywhere; managers can approve from a phone on the move. Self-service reduces tickets to HR, while dashboards give everyone a live view of balances, upcoming absences, and approvals in progress. The best tools quietly handle the complexity in the background so the experience feels simple.

    Policy Clarity Without the Paperwork

    Instead of burying rules in PDFs, policies are encoded in the system: accrual rates by tenure, carryover limits, minimum notice periods, cooldowns after long leaves, and region-specific holidays. The software enforces these rules consistently, which makes decisions more defensible and reduces “exception fatigue” for managers.

    Clear Authorization and Coverage

    Authorizations are about more than yes/no. A good system shows who else is off, key deadlines, and potential coverage gaps before the manager decides. With cloud access, requests don’t stall when leaders travel or work remotely. Calendar integrations ensure approved time off is visible to the team, preventing double-booking and last-minute firefighting.

    Accuracy You Can Audit

    Automated accruals and proration remove the mental math that causes most mistakes. Each change, request, approval, edit, is timestamped and attributed, creating an audit trail useful for compliance inquiries and internal reviews. Accuracy isn’t just about numbers; it’s about transparency when someone asks “why was this rejected?” or “how was this calculated?”

    Organization-Wide Transparency

    Transparency builds trust. Employees can see balances, request status, and policy explanations in one place. Managers and HR can view department-level patterns to plan ahead. When information flows freely, rumors and frustration fade.

    Reliable, Self-Serve Information

    People plan their lives around time off. A shared calendar with holidays, blackouts, and important company events helps employees pick dates that work for everyone. Because balances update automatically after approvals, no one is guessing whether they have days left.

    Integrated Operations

    Leave data doesn’t live in isolation. When connected to payroll, the system ensures paid vs. unpaid days are reflected correctly. With HRIS integrations, employee changes (new hires, transfers, terminations) are synced automatically. Project tools and calendars reflect who’s actually available, making resource planning realistic.

    Strategic Insights

    Beyond day-to-day processing, analytics highlight patterns: teams with chronic understaffing, uneven leave utilization that hints at burnout, or policy rules that unintentionally create bottlenecks. Leaders can adjust staffing, reassign work, or tune policies based on real data.

    Cons to Consider (And How to Mitigate Them)

    Security and Privacy

    Leave systems store sensitive data (health-related notes, identifiers). Poor security puts people and the company at risk. Mitigate this by choosing vendors with encryption at rest and in transit, granular permissions, SSO/MFA, audit logs, data residency options, and clear retention controls. Train administrators on least-privilege access.

    Cost and Ongoing Spend

    Licenses, implementation, and support add up, especially if you’re replacing multiple tools. Control costs by piloting with a subset of teams, selecting modules you’ll actually use, and negotiating usage-based tiers. Free tiers can be a smart start for small teams; just ensure the upgrade path won’t force a disruptive switch later.

    Note: Platforms like Day Off offer a free tier suited to small and midsize teams, with optional upgrades as needs grow. Evaluate any free plan for policy flexibility, user limits, and integrations you’ll need down the line.

    Scalability

    What works for 20 people can buckle at 200 across regions and shifts. Validate scalability early: multi-location holiday calendars, varying accrual rules by country, and performance under higher loads. Ask about data migration tools and sandbox environments for testing changes safely.

    Change Management and Adoption

    The best system fails if people don’t use it. Resistance often shows up as “just Slack me the request.” Prevent backsliding by setting a clear go-live date, shutting off old channels, training managers first, and communicating benefits for employees (faster approvals, clear balances). Leaders must model the behavior.

    Data Migration and Edge Cases

    Historical balances, negative days, special agreements, these edge cases complicate migration. Plan a one-time normalization: define how to convert legacy rules, decide what history to keep, and run parallel testing for a full cycle before cutover.

    Vendor Lock-In

    If your leave system is the only place certain data lives, switching later becomes painful. Prefer tools with export capabilities and open APIs, and keep your HRIS as the system of record where possible.

    New: Key Features to Look For

    • Configurable Policies: PTO, sick, parental, bereavement; accrual by tenure; carryover caps; minimum notice; blackout periods; probation rules.

    • Calendar & Collaboration Integrations: Google/Microsoft calendar sync; Slack/Teams notifications; visible team calendars.

    • Mobile Experience: Full request/approve flows on iOS/Android, not just read-only dashboards.

    • Globalization: Local public holidays, multilingual UI, time-zone awareness, and region-specific compliance notes.

    • Role-Based Access & Delegation: Coverage when approvers are on leave; proxy approvals; granular permissions.

    • Reporting & Alerts: Forecasting for under-staffing, leave liability reports, policy breach alerts.

    • Payroll/HRIS Connectivity: Automatic updates to pay codes; synced employee status changes.

    • Accessibility & Inclusivity: WCAG-aware design; clear policy language; private notes for sensitive requests.

    (Use this as a checklist when comparing vendors.)

    How to Implement Successfully

    • Define the Policy Before the Tool. Clarify categories, accrual rules, eligibility, and approval SLAs. Write examples for common scenarios so decisions are consistent.

    • Clean Your Data. Reconcile current balances, resolve negatives, and document exceptions. The cleaner the start, the smoother the rollout.

    • Pilot With a Representative Group. Include different departments, managers, and locations. Capture feedback on UX, edge cases, and training gaps.

    • Train Managers First, Then Employees. Managers set the tone. Equip them to answer “why” questions and to model proper use (including their own leave).

    • Go Live With a Clear Cutover. Turn off legacy pathways. Share a short “how to request leave” guide and where to get help.

    • Run Parallel for One Cycle if Needed. For payroll-critical environments, validate calculations by running the old and new processes side by side for a pay period.

    • Review and Iterate. After 30/60/90 days, assess adoption, approval times, and accuracy. Tweak policies or configurations as necessary.

    Special Considerations for Global and Shift-Based Teams

    Global companies juggle public holidays, statutory entitlements, and cultural norms that vary widely. Your system should localize rules while maintaining consistent principles of fairness and clarity. For shift-based operations, align leave approvals with workforce management so coverage meets service levels. Time-zone aware notifications prevent requests from languishing while approvers sleep.

    Measuring Success Beyond “It Works”

    Track a short set of signals that reflect both experience and operations:

    • Employee Experience: Time to approval, clarity of balances, survey comments about fairness.

    • Manager Experience: Fewer scheduling conflicts, fewer manual overrides, reduced time spent on approvals.

    • Compliance & Accuracy: Audit findings, payroll adjustments attributable to leave errors.

    • Business Impact: Under-/over-staffing incidents, overtime due to poor planning, utilization of leave (too low can signal burnout).

    Share results openly; transparency reinforces trust in the system.

    Free vs. Paid: Choosing What Fits Today, and Tomorrow

    Free plans can be perfect for small teams if they cover core needs: policy configuration, balance tracking, approvals, and calendar sync. As you grow, you may need richer features like multi-policy support by region, advanced accrual rules, deep integrations, and analytics. If you start on a free tier (for example, Day Off), confirm the upgrade path is smooth and that historical data and configurations carry forward intact.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What Is Leave Tracking Software?

    Leave tracking software (employee leave management) is a system that centralizes time-off requests, approvals, balances, and policies. Employees submit requests via web or mobile; the system checks eligibility, shows team coverage, routes for approval, updates balances automatically, and syncs with calendars and payroll so everything stays accurate and visible.

    How Is It Different From Our HRIS Or Payroll Tool?

    An HRIS is the system of record for people data, and payroll calculates pay. Leave software focuses on policy enforcement and day-to-day workflows, eligibility rules, accruals, carryover caps, approvals, and calendar visibility. The best setup connects all three, so data flows cleanly without manual double entry.

    Can It Handle Complex Policies And Regional Rules?

    Yes. Modern platforms support multiple leave types (PTO, sick, parental, bereavement, unpaid), tenure-based accruals, probation rules, blackout periods, and country/state holidays. You can localize policies by location while keeping consistent principles of fairness and transparency across the company.

    How Does It Improve Compliance?

    By encoding policies and maintaining an audit trail of every request, approval, and balance change. The system applies rules consistently, captures required documentation, and produces reports for audits. When integrated with payroll, paid vs. unpaid time is reflected correctly, reducing compliance risk.

    What About Security And Privacy?

    Choose vendors with encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access, SSO/MFA, detailed audit logs, and clear data retention controls. Ask about certifications, data residency options, and how sensitive notes (e.g., medical or personal reasons) are protected and permissioned.

    Will It Work For Remote, Global, Or Shift-Based Teams?

    Good tools are time-zone aware, include localized holiday calendars, and support different approval chains by location or department. For shift work, they surface coverage conflicts before approval and integrate with scheduling/Workforce Management so service levels are maintained.

    How Do Approvals And Calendar Visibility Work?

    Managers see real-time team calendars, headcount impacts, and any overlapping absences before deciding. Once approved, events sync to Google/Microsoft calendars and collaboration tools, making coverage planning proactive rather than last-minute.

    How Hard Is Implementation And Change Management?

    Most teams roll out core functionality in weeks. Success hinges on clear policies, clean starting balances, manager-first training, and a firm cutover date away from email/DM requests. Piloting with a representative group helps refine edge cases before company-wide launch.

    Can We Migrate Historical Balances And Special Cases?

    Yes. You can import current balances, prior entitlements, and exceptions, then validate via a short parallel run. Document how you’ll treat negative balances, partial accruals, or one-off agreements so the new system starts from a trusted baseline.

    What Integrations Should We Expect?

    Calendar (Google/Microsoft) for visibility, HRIS for employee records, payroll for accurate pay codes and deductions, and chat tools (Slack/Teams) for notifications. Open APIs matter, they future-proof your stack and prevent vendor lock-in.

    How Do We Measure ROI?

    Track time-to-approval, payroll corrections due to leave errors, scheduling conflicts avoided, overtime linked to poor planning, employee satisfaction with the process, and actual leave utilization (very low usage can signal burnout). Share results and adjust policies or staffing where the data points.

    Is A Free Plan Enough, Or Do We Need Paid Features?

    Free tiers often cover requests, approvals, balances, and basic calendars, great for small teams. As you scale, you’ll likely need advanced accrual rules, multi-region policies, deeper analytics, and tighter integrations. Confirm the upgrade path is smooth and that your data and configurations carry forward.

    Conclusion

    Leave management isn’t just an administrative task, it’s a signal of how much your company respects people’s time and plans work responsibly. Manual processing strains trust and accuracy; a modern employee leave management system makes the process simple, fair, and transparent. Choose a tool that matches your policies and growth plans, implement it with the same rigor you bring to customer-facing systems, and measure outcomes you care about: faster approvals, fewer conflicts, accurate payroll, and a healthier, more predictable operation. When you get leave right, employees plan confidently, managers staff intelligently, and the company runs better, every week of the year.

     

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  • 23 Statistics Every HR Manager Needs to Know

    23 Statistics Every HR Manager Needs to Know

    Great businesses are powered by great people. HR statistics help you see where your people strategy is strong, where it’s at risk, and where to invest next. Rather than listing numbers in isolation, this guide explains what each stat implies, why it matters, and how to turn it into action. We also add new sections, well being, HR tech, and hybrid work, so you can connect the dots across the entire employee lifecycle.

    How to Use This Guide

    Treat each section as a decision aid. Read the stat, then use the “why it matters” and “what to do” notes to shape your quarterly plans, budget proposals, and leadership updates. Remember that results vary by industry and region; use these benchmarks as a starting point and supplement with your own internal data.

    Hiring & Recruitment Statistics

    A strong hiring strategy finds qualified candidates faster and improves fit.

    This isn’t just about speed; it’s about signal to noise. A defined process, intake, scorecards, structured interviews, and a tight feedback loop, reduces bias and produces better, more predictable hires.
    What to do: Map a simple funnel with conversion targets per stage. Introduce structured interviews with shared rubrics and short, same day feedback notes. Track time to fill and quality of hire (first year performance or retention).

    51% of candidates prefer online job boards.

    Digital channels remain a primary discovery path, even when referrals are strong. The implication is your job ad quality and distribution materially affect your pipeline.
    What to do: Standardize job descriptions, lead with impact and outcomes, and syndicate to the boards your target talent actually uses. Measure which channels produce not just applicants but qualified applicants.

    53% research company reviews before applying.

    Your employer brand shows up long before the screening call. Reviews signal culture, management quality, and growth prospects.
    What to do: Keep profiles current on the major platforms, respond professionally to feedback, and showcase day in the life stories on your careers site. Use candidate NPS post-process to improve.

    Compensation (67%) and benefits (63%) are top decision factors.

    Fair, transparent pay and tangible benefits are table stakes. Candidates calibrate offers against market data.
    What to do: Publish ranges when possible, explain total rewards (salary, bonus, equity, benefits), and eliminate “mystery math” from offers. A short, visual one-pager helps candidates compare apples to apples.

    55% of applicants aged 35-44 have applied via mobile.

    Mobile application isn’t just for Gen Z. Clunky flows shed qualified talent.
    What to do: Test your apply flow on a phone. Aim for 5–10 minutes start to finish, support resume upload from cloud drives, and minimize mandatory fields until later stages.

    Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Statistics

    The global workforce remains majority male, and women are underrepresented in leadership.

    Representation gaps persist, especially at manager and executive levels. Diverse teams correlate with better decision making and financial performance.
    What to do: Set representation goals per level, not just in aggregate. Audit promotion and pay decisions for equity. Build diverse slates and insist on structured evaluation criteria to reduce bias.

    Men hold roughly 58–60% of leadership roles; Latino and Black workers are underrepresented in leadership.

    Leadership homogeneity narrows perspective and opportunity.
    What to do: Launch sponsorship (not just mentorship) programs, create transparent criteria for advancement, and track internal mobility by demographic. Review your job requirement lists, remove non essential “nice to haves” that screen out capable talent.

    Gender diversity is tied to stronger performance; ethnic diversity even more so.

    Multiple studies link higher diversity to outperformance. Causation is complex, but the pattern is consistent: varied experiences produce better strategies.
    What to do: Treat EDI as a business capability. Budget for inclusive recruiting, interviewer training, and bias aware processes. Report progress in the same forum as other business KPIs.

    Onboarding Statistics

    About 25% of programs lack formal training.

    Throw them in the deep end onboarding slows ramp and increases frustration.
    What to do: Build a 30/60/90 plan that pairs role training with culture, tools, and relationships. Give every new hire an internal “guide” for their first month. Ship small early wins so confidence builds quickly.

    20% of turnover happens within the first 45 days.

    Early exits are costly and avoidable. They usually signal mismatched expectations or poor support.
    What to do: Run a week two and week six check-in focused on clarity (“What’s confusing?”), enablement (“What’s missing?”), and connection (“Who do you still need to meet?”). Fix friction fast.

    72% say 1:1 time with the manager is essential.

    The manager relationship is the strongest predictor of early success.
    What to do: Schedule recurring 1:1s before the start date. Use a consistent agenda: goals, help needed, context on what “great” looks like, and how success will be measured.

    70% believe having a friend at work keeps the environment positive.

    Relationships fuel engagement and resilience.
    What to do: Facilitate introductions, buddy programs, and small group coffees. Rotate new hires through key cross-functional partners in their first month.

    Employee Engagement Statistics

    Managers influence engagement more than any other factor, yet many are not engaged themselves.

    Disengaged managers propagate ambiguity and slow feedback, which drags on team performance.
    What to do: Invest in manager capability: coaching skills, expectation setting, and feedback. Inspect engagement by team and treat it as an operating metric, not a once-a-year score.

    Only ~30% of workers report being actively engaged.

    That leaves enormous room to improve productivity and retention.
    What to do: Make engagement tangible: tie daily work to a clear mission, remove friction (tools, approvals), and create visible growth paths. Recognize specific behaviors, not just outcomes.

    Companies with higher engagement see ~21% more profits.

    Engagement reduces waste, less rework, fewer handoffs, faster decisions, and that shows up in the P&L.
    What to do: Build a simple engagement operating rhythm: monthly pulse, quarterly action plans per team, and public “we heard/we did” updates.

    About a third of employees job hunt out of boredom or policy friction (e.g., rigid time off rules).

    People leave when their work feels stagnant or inflexible.
    What to do: Refresh roles with projects that stretch skills. Modernize employee leave management so time off is easy to request, fairly approved, and planned for, burnout drops when recovery is respected.

    Nearly 9 in 10 employees cite networking as a foundation for future opportunities.

    Internal networks drive learning and mobility.
    What to do: Encourage cross-team projects, showcases, and internal talent marketplaces so opportunity isn’t limited to who you already know.

    Employee Loyalty & Retention Statistics

    Roughly half of HR teams rank retention as their top challenge, and about a third of workers will leave annually in some sectors.

    Attrition is expensive, lost expertise, hiring costs, and ramp time.
    What to do: Segment retention risk by role, manager, and tenure. Conduct stay interviews (“What keeps you here? What might cause you to leave?”) and act on the patterns you hear.

    ~27% leave voluntarily each year; voluntary turnover costs keep rising.

    Even small improvements in regretted attrition yield outsized savings.
    What to do: Flag regretted exits and analyze leading indicators: stalled pay vs. market, lack of growth, manager changes, or workload spikes. Intervene earlier with development moves or role redesigns.

    Most exit surveys use weak methods.

    If your questions are generic or not anonymous enough, you learn little.
    What to do: Use consistent, behavior based exit questions and invite open text. Pair with post exit interviews a few weeks later, when feedback is often clearer.

    Work environment and job design heavily influence turnover.

    People don’t leave jobs so much as they leave the conditions around those jobs.
    What to do: Improve team norms (focus time, meeting hygiene), clarify decision rights, and staff realistically. Make it normal to adjust scope when priorities change.

    New: Well Being & Time Off Utilization

    Unused PTO is a risk signal.

    Low usage often indicates workload pressure or approval friction.
    What to do: Publish PTO balance reminders, encourage planning at the team level, and ensure approvals are timely. With integrated employee leave management, sync time off to calendars so coverage is planned, not improvised.

    Burnout shows up before it’s spoken.

    Rising absenteeism, after hours activity, and error rates precede disengagement.
    What to do: Watch the signals and rebalance work early. Train managers to spot and address burnout with realistic plans and recovery time.

    New: HR Tech & Automation

    Digitizing core HR reduces errors and speeds decisions.

    Manual tracking of leave, performance cycles, and headcount planning introduces delays and mistakes.
    What to do: Connect your HRIS, payroll, performance, engagement, and leave systems so data flows automatically. Fewer, better integrated tools beat a patchwork of spreadsheets.

    New: Hybrid & Remote Work

    Clarity and documentation matter more when people are distributed.

    Lack of shared context erodes velocity and trust.
    What to do: Write down how your team makes decisions, hands off work, and resolves conflicts. Use shared docs and async updates, and reserve meetings for decisions and connection.

    Turning Stats into Strategy

    Numbers don’t move on their own, habits and systems do. For each section above, pick one improvement, assign an owner, define how you’ll measure success, and review progress monthly. Share what you learned and what you changed. Over time, your stats will reflect a healthier, higher performing organization.

    FAQs

    Where Do Reliable HR Stats Come From And How Do I Vet Them?

    Use multi source triangulation: vendor reports, government labor bureaus, academic studies, and internal system data (HRIS, ATS, payroll). Check methodology (sample size, dates, geography, definitions) and prefer longitudinal studies over one off snapshots before using a number in plans.

    How Often Should I Refresh Benchmarks?

    Quarterly for fast moving metrics (hiring funnel, time to fill, offer acceptance), twice a year for engagement and turnover, and annually for compensation and benefits benchmarks. Always reset baselines after major org changes like reorgs or M&A.

    How Do I Compare Metrics Across Industries Or Regions?

    Normalize by role family and level (e.g., SDR vs. Senior Engineer), and adjust for local labor conditions and regulatory context. Build a simple “peer basket” (3–5 comparable companies or markets) rather than relying on a generic global average.

    What’s A Sensible Sample Size For Engagement Or Pulse Surveys?

    Aim for 60–70% response rate overall and at least 8–10 responses per slice you plan to analyze (team, location, manager) to protect anonymity and reduce noise. If a slice is too small, roll it up to the next level.

    How Do I Keep Surveys Anonymous Yet Actionable?

    Collect only the slices you’ll genuinely act on, set minimum reporting thresholds, and communicate exactly who can access verbatim comments. Share “we heard / we’re doing” follow ups so employees see the loop close without exposing individuals.

    How Do I Tell Correlation From Causation In Leave Tracker Dashboard?

    Look for temporal order (did the change precede the outcome?), use control groups where possible, and replicate results. When you can’t run experiments, triangulate with qualitative inputs (interviews, listening sessions) to strengthen your inference.

    When Should I Run Experiments In People Programs?

    Use A/B tests for policy rollouts (e.g., interview scorecards, onboarding changes, recognition cadences) where outcomes are measurable and risk is low. Define success upfront, time box the test, and publish results, even if they’re null.

    How Do I Build An Executive Ready HR Dashboard?

    Limit to 8–10 metrics tied to business outcomes (hiring speed/quality, productivity proxies, regretted attrition, internal mobility, engagement, and time off utilization). Show trendlines, targets, and a brief “so what/now what” narrative on each review.

    How Do I Handle Messy Or Missing HR Data?

    Start with a data dictionary (fields, owners, refresh cadence), reconcile sources (HRIS as system of record), and log known gaps. Use consistent rules for imputing or excluding data, and flag caveats directly on charts so decisions aren’t made on shaky ground.

    What Legal And Privacy Issues Should I Watch?

    Treat HR data as sensitive: enforce least privilege access, SSO/MFA, audit logs, and regional compliance (e.g., GDPR/CCPA, local labor laws). For sensitive categories (health, demographics), collect only what you need, with clear consent and retention limits.

    How Do I Use AI In Hiring Without Adding Bias?

    Keep humans in the loop, audit models for disparate impact by demographic slices, and use structured, job related criteria. Document data sources and decisions, and offer candidates a clear explanation pathway if automated screening is involved.

    How Can Small Businesses Apply HR Analytics Without Big Budgets?

    Start with the basics you already collect (time to fill, acceptance rate, first-year retention, PTO Balance , eNPS). Use lightweight tools (spreadsheets + forms) and a quarterly review rhythm; sophistication can grow as your data maturity increases.

    How Do I Communicate Sensitive Findings Without Eroding Trust?

    Lead with context and accountability, not blame. Share the headline, the drivers you believe matter, the actions you’re taking, and the date you’ll report back. Keep individual teams’ feedback with their leaders to preserve psychological safety.

    How Do I Blend Quantitative Metrics With Qualitative Insight?

    Pair every key metric with 2–3 representative quotes or themes from interviews/listening sessions. Numbers show scale; stories reveal the mechanism together they make a compelling, actionable case.

    How Do Big Changes (Reorgs, Layoffs, M&A) Affect Trendlines?

    Expect discontinuities. Mark the event on charts, pause year over year comparisons for affected groups, and use new baselines. Focus on leading indicators (manager span, workload, engagement pulse) for the first two quarters post change.

    How Do I Account For Seasonality?

    Many metrics swing by quarter (campus hiring, retail staffing, holiday PTO). Compare period over-period (Q1 vs. last Q1) and use rolling averages to smooth noise before declaring a trend.

    What Are Early Warning Signals Of Turnover Risk?

    Watch for sustained dips in engagement, stalled internal mobility, rising after hours work, unused PTO, and manager changes. Use “stay interviews” to validate signals and act before a resignation letter arrives.

    How Should We Govern Access To HR Data?

    Create a simple data governance charter: who owns which datasets, who can see what, how long you retain records, and how requests are approved. Review access quarterly and remove stale permissions to reduce risk.

    How Do We Connect Leave Data To Productivity And Well Being?

    Track time off utilization alongside overtime, error rates, and engagement. Healthy employee leave management shows balanced usage and predictable coverage; low usage or approval delays often precede burnout and attrition, fix the process before it shows up in exits.

    Smarter time off tracking starts here.

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  • How to Hire the Best HR Manager for Your Company

    How to Hire the Best HR Manager for Your Company

    Hiring the right people at a company is the main reason behind any business’s success. HR Time Management and management is a crucial department in all companies, especially those of a large business. They carry out many essential duties such as recruiting or training, performance management, and employee leave management.

    Hiring a professional HR manager will increase the effectiveness of your HR department and also greatly contribute to the overall success of your business therefore, you have to pay attention when recruiting your HR manager to ensure that you have employed the right person who’ll meet your company’s needs and goals.

    Here, we are going to give you some tips that will help you with the process of choosing the best and most suitable HR manager for your company.

    Determine the Skills That Your Company Needs the Most

    Before hiring someone in any position, you need to know what exactly do you need in the first place. Of course, there are certain characteristics that all companies look for when searching for an HR manager like being a proficient problem solver and having high leadership skills, but each company will face different HR challenges that will require different roles from your HR manager.

    Therefore, understanding the factors that are of most efficiency to your company’s growth processes is the first step for successfully choosing your HR manager. It will help you build a clear idea about what skills you are looking for in an HR manager and so makes the process of choosing the suitable one clearer and more organized.

    Detailed and Specific Job Description

    Your job description should be as clear as possible. Write down all of the responsibilities and duties expected from the HR manager in details. Mention if there is any previous experience needed to apply or if the candidate has to acquire certain skills or certificates. Make sure you also include an overview of your expectations from them and any long-term objectives.

    This will ensure that no one, after employment, will complain when asked to do certain tasks, saying that they haven’t been previously informed about them, since everything was already laid out and agreed upon in the job description.

    You should also mention in your job description the benefits of working for your company. A good salary and friendly working environment are what all people look for, but there are other things that companies can provide to satisfy their employees and helps make your job offer more attractive such as, flexible working hours, social and medical insurance and transportation.

    Providing a detailed job description will make you attract those candidates that have the requirements and skills which you are looking for and so, you will be choosing your HR manager from the best pool of people available instead of going through hundreds of irrelevant job applications.

    Choose Someone That is Familiar with Technology

    Many technological innovations were introduced to the HR industry and lead to great exponential advancements that helped HR manager work much more productively. These technologies include performance management systems and leave manager software.

    Hiring an HR manager with previous experience of working with HR tech is very crucial and will definitely make a difference with your business’s growth.

    These new technologies greatly impacted the workstyle of HR managers and even other employees in the company. Leave tracking apps, such as Day Off, helps the HR managers keep track of the employees’ absence and presence in a much more efficient and easy way. Therefore, hiring an HR manager who has tech proficiency has many benefits like making employee leave management processes more accurate and ensure they run smoothly.

    For example, a leave tracker software will offer many useful features to both the employees and managers. They improve the company’s decision making and greatly reduces the amount of paper work that employees do. They can also prevent pay errors, leaving employees satisfied.

    A good HR manager is one that knows how to efficiently use these great technologies (such as PTO manager software, vacation tracker software and performance management software) and motivates his team to use them as well for a more flexible and simple work environment.

    Pay Attention to Behavioral Traits During Interviews

    Skills can be easily gained by most people with time and experience, but it is very hard to change someone’s behavior and traits. Therefore, when carrying out your interview pay attention to the way they talk and try to get a clear idea about their personalities.

    Be honest with them during your discussion and tell them what you exactly need. Talk with them about your company’s strong points and weak points. See if they have any ideas or new approaches that may help your company.

    Sharing with them these thoughts will show you who is motivated and if they are able to offer creative solutions to your problems. It will also help you know if that person will easily get along with your current teams and if they can fit with them.  

    HR expertise is important, but soft skills can be as important too. Here are some qualities and characteristics that are important to look for in an HR manager:

    • Fast and efficient decision making to be able solve problems fast with minimal losses.
    • Good communication skills to build a strong relationship with his team and other employees.
    • Good technical skills to be able to use apps like Day Off easily and know how to benefit from them.
    • Has the intention to continuously learn new things that will help with your HR management system.
    • Has the ability to multitask and so, leads to higher productivity of the company.

    Conclusion

    Hiring a professional HR manager will always be of great benefit to your company. It helps boosts your business growth and makes employees satisfied. Both expertise and soft skills are essential factors to take into consideration when choosing your manager.

    Things like excellent work experience, ability to handle excessive workload, knowledge about hr assistant and being up to date with technology are all examples of traits you should look for to spot a great HR manager.

  • How to Get the Most Out of Your Remote Team

    How to Get the Most Out of Your Remote Team

     The pandemic has taken a great chunk of our lives both work and personal life related. With all the chaos going on worldwide, working from home might have been the best possible option. But is it? Employees Leave tracker have taken a toll on their mental health and productivity, not to mention their enthusiasm for any task has decreased drastically. While motivating and influencing your team while they work remotely may not be as easy as you wish it to be, there are a few basic methods through which you can get the most out of your remote team.

    Initiate Daily Check ins

    Interacting with your remote team is the way to begin monitoring them. Through frequent video conferences or one to one sessions, you’ll be able to keep tabs on whatever the employees are doing and if they are in the proper setting to work. Even though this may sound like a buzzkill to some, the daily check-ins will ensure that all the employees are fulfilling their due tasks on time and clearing any confusion. Furthermore, these shall encourage the employees to open up to you.

    Communicate with the Team

    On the topic of ‘opening up’, communication is key. In the pandemic work situation, employees already suffer from a lack of communication and interaction. What could be resolved in the workplace easily is taking a lot of time to decipher online, in a remote working scenario. To ensure this factor doesn’t affect the team and its overall performance. As a leader, you must communicate all the responsibilities and duties that they are assigned with. Not only does this enable the remote team to understand all the tasks properly, but it makes them feel important to the company.

    Utilize Technology

    Technology is a great tool once you master the art of it. With applications like Zoom, Google Meet, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and multiple others, it’s relatively easier to deal with remote teams now. Utilizing these applications shall gradually make your remote team accustom to the online working situation and enable them to work more productively. Aside from work related stuff, you can even use these platforms to engage and communicate with the team!

    Formulate Rules of Engagement

    Information sharing might be troublesome for a remote team. For this reason, general rules of engagement should be introduced to the workforce; the rules shall describe when and how the employees can connect to you or the other team members. Remember to approach any difficulties through proper team engagement.

    Handle Expectations

    Company goals and visions have changed due to the pandemic and the employees need to be made aware of that. The way of work that you expected them to do earlier might not align with the current scenario. Hence, regular communication regarding the expectations associated with the remote team will take you forward at a consistent pace.

    Outcomes over Activity!

    Monitoring every activity in a remote environment might not be the best decision, as it takes plenty of time and effort than in a normal scenario. Instead, focusing on the outcome of each task shall be a better choice to manage your remote team. This leaves a majority of the work responsibility to the team, enabling them to work as they please as long as they deliver the desired outcome. Furthermore, this method ensures that your remote team starts feeling important and that they matter to the company.

    Make it Purposeful

    For a remote team, having a consistent and defined purpose will drive the employees into being more productive. The work-from-home situation can make the employees lose their motivation and purpose quite easily, which is why a purpose is required to tie everything together. Ensure that your employees are going forward with a goal set in mind.

    Enable Resources

    Proper resources need to be made available to your remote team. Without a stable internet connection, laptop or PC, audible speakers, etc. a remote team cannot perform or operate to its full productivity. As a leader, it’s your responsibility that your team is fully resourced before getting on with the company’s visions and goals.

    Omit Obstacles

    Complexities regarding personal and work-life should be considered right now if it wasn’t already. Any difficulty that your employees might be facing should be taken seriously, considering the current pandemic. While everybody is prone to the same danger, not everyone is in the same boat. Keeping that in mind, any obstacles should be eliminated.

    Time to Socially Interact!

    Social interaction among the employees of your remote team should be encouraged. Any gathering via online platforms should be motivated; a games night, movie night, or any games that could be played online should be encouraged. The ray of hope from social interaction not only ignites a livelihood in your remote team but helps them refocus on their work as well.

    Be Flexible

    A pandemic isn’t an easy situation to get over, especially with people falling sick here and there. A flexible practice or day off can be introduced if your remote team is going through a hard time- it shows that you care for your team and their wellbeing.

    An Empathetic Leader

    The abovementioned points all tied up together comes to this it’s time to be an empathetic leader. Empathy and compassion will get your forward at an increasing pace during this hard time. Reaction to sudden problems can be managed by handling the stress and tension through empathy and calmness.

    Mentor, not Manage

    It’s crucial to remember that you cannot manage or discipline the remote team during a pandemic. It’s harsh and insensitive to some extent. Furthermore, the usual managing techniques would not work for everything now. Approaching as a mentor and motivator will help bring out the best from your remote team.

    Conclusion

    Handling a remote team is essential and not conventional at all. For that, it’s wise to be flexible and empathetic while being open to discussions that would not have occurred under normal circumstances. A remote team can take your company to paces, only if you manage to bring the most out of it.

  • 6 Incredibly Useful Software Tools for Small Businesses

    6 Incredibly Useful Software Tools for Small Businesses

    Navigating a small business toward success requires teamwork, a solid sense of direction, tremendous patience, and a handful of software. The right tools can make a big difference to the job. However, choosing the right software is a challenging feat. The secret is recognizing the proper software in combination with other tools to serve your nature of work is important. Check out some useful software tools to help you run your small business.

    Wave: Best Accounting Software

    Kirk Simpson and James Lochrie founded Wave Accounting in 2010 to bring an easy to use, free financial software to the market. In 2021, Wave’s employee base has crossed the 250 mark and they’re working to serve small businesses across the world. It lets companies track expenses and income, scan receipts, send invoices, track sales taxes, and much more  for free!

    Wave builds a network between credit cards and multiple bank accounts and helps set up profiles to keep track of finances. This free software organized payments, invoices, and accounts to make tax calculation easier. Users can make and send professional invoices from the dashboard as well as the mobile app. Wave can set automatic credit card payments and recurring invoices for repeat customers so they can get their invoice and payment details immediately.

    Apart from their free services, Wave also offers premium, paid services, including bank payments, credit card payment, payroll setup for contractors and employers.

    Wix: Best Website Builder

    Frustrated with the high costs of making a website, three entrepreneurs joined forces to create Wix in 2006. Today, the company boasts a user base of 200 million spread across 190 countries. This is our pick because Wix lets users create professional websites without any required coding knowledge at a budget friendly rate.

    On Wix, you will find many professional templates to personalize your website. Pair that with the convenient drag and drop editorial feature and anyone could make a functional website within a few hours. All websites are designed to look attractive on mobile devices and offer interesting effects like video backgrounds, animation, and scrolling.

    As Wix features an advanced e-commerce feature, users can sell online as well. You can set up an online store, figure out conversion rates and revenue, manage inventory and more. Wix is compatible with PayPal, Wix Payments, and Stripe and can integrate with Facebook and Instagram.

    MailChimp: Best Email Marketing Software

    MailChimp was founded in 2001 and since then has been an affordable email marketing service perfect for small businesses. Now a diverse marketing platform, MailChimp offers websites, landing pages, postcards, and many more amazing features. Both free and paid plans will be a great choice for small business, but you can go a long way without paying a dollar – the best part of this service. You can easily start using the free email software.

    On MailChimp, you can get pre made email templates, basic customization, opt-in sign up forms and popups, and audience segmentation. A mobile app is included as well to let you check campaign performance, send emails, and create reports with just a few clicks.

    Using the drag and drop templates, you can create professional emails with little to no design skills on MailChimp. The software keeps track of clicks and open rates while segmenting data to let you know what’s working best for your small business.

    Trello: Best Project Management Software

    In 2011, Fog Creek Software introduced a project management tool prototype designed to provide high level planning solutions. Within just a year, the platform had more than 500,000 users and was named Trello. Trello impresses with its flexible, visual, and free options to manage projects.

    Featuring a Kanban style board for project and task tracking, Trello makes project management extremely easy. The intuitive and simple interface lets users make customer lists and boards with a plethora of inclusions such as images, checklists, links, due dates, regular files, and more.

    Trello can be integrated with Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, as well as many other third party software. Integrate it with mobile apps to streamline workflows and collaboration.

    Even with its free plan, the software has a lot to offer, including unlimited lists, cards, and boards. However, there is a 10MB per file attachment limit to be mindful of. It extends to 250MB with the paid plan.

    Slack: Best Team Communication Software

    With Slack, you can create channels revolving around a particular topic, project, team, or client. The channels can be public for all Slack account holders or it can be private and accessible via invitation only.

    Apart from real-time communication, Slack offers a slew of fantastic features like poll creation, meeting scheduling, file sharing between teams, cloud storage, and connection to third party projects  all through integrations. You get free voice and video calls and also spin off discussion threads in order to keep the larger conversation organized.

    Small businesses that only require a single workspace, a handful of integrations, and one on-one video calls can benefit from a free Slack account. There is a 10,000-message search limitation on free accounts, though.

    Day Off: Absence and Vacation Tracker

    One of the most important tools for a business’ HR department is an employee tracker app. Productivity and efficiency depends largely on the availability of the employees, not to mention their satisfaction with their workplace. With Day Off, you save time and effort with employee absence. You can track individual and team absences from one place and it takes a few seconds to check up on leave applications and accept/deny them.

    The convenient PTO calculator brings everything on one platform for the HRM. Requests are directed to the right person. HR can also define teams while setting available vacation days left for each person. The mobile app makes it easy for both employees and manager.

    Conclusion

    A software doesn’t necessarily have to be “premium” to deliver quality services. Small businesses can cut down on costs by looking into the more budget friendly options.

  • 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 tracking software 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 Leave Tracker Dashboard 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 tracking. 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.

  • 2025 Public Holidays in UK

    2025 Public Holidays in UK

    One of the favorite things for many of us is planning a Public Holiday . 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.

  • 2025 Public Holidays in USA

    2025 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 Labor day 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 leave tracking 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.