Staff Leave Planner – A Power Tool that Marries Value and Convenience

People are passionate about their vacations.

Any messing up with the same invites employee wrath and dejection.

A testimony to this fact is what I experienced while working as a Learning and Development professional.

A training invite mail was met with lot of question marks and surprise smileys from an employee who expressed his ignorance about the whole matter.

His boss had nominated him for a training that coincided with his pre-planned holidays.

Apparently, the boss forgot/ignored to check the leave planner records and assumed the employee to be available.

After some hustle bustle and back and forth of mails, the employee bailed out and a replacement was nominated.

This case in point goes on to show how company investments can prove to be futile if employee time-offs and leave are not managed the way they should be.

Not only does it tarnish the image of boss/company in the mind of employee but also compromises on the productivity/output due to poor planning.

Why do I need Staff Leave Planner when I have Excel?

A lot of employee scheduling hiccups crop up thanks to organizations’ love for holiday spreadsheets.

This adds a generous dose of hassles as:

• Spreadsheets cant be shared real time across the organization retaining the latest version

• They increase the scope for trivial errors due to wrong inputs and edits

• The data can’t be centralized and consolidated as different people deal with different versions

• They can be subject to fraudulent or ill intended manipulations

• They are unfit for rapidly growing and agile business set ups especially SMEs where every penny counts and quick decision making is highly essential

• Spreadsheets fair poorly on business scalability and continuity with constant threat of data recovery issues

These are some of the “high-alert” scenarios that have made companies to migrate from excel based year planners to more professional and practical HR tech software.

How Can My Business Benefit from Staff Leave Planner?

Among various employee benefits, leave benefits have garnered lot of attention owing to its impact on attracting and retaining top talent.

As per SHRM Employee Benefits Report, 2016 for US – 97% of the organizations provided some form of paid vacation leave, with 51% of these offering it by the way of paid time offs.

Increased focus on leave benefits has paved way for having a solid HR system that keeps the data in top form and lets business owners concentrate on other critical aspects rather than worrying about employee time offs.

However, the show-runners should carefully consider the deliverables they expect out of software before they commit any monetary investments.

Certain considerations before zeroing down on the final choice of software include:

• It should be obviously cost-efficient in correlation to the scale of your business and employee strength

• It should hold data integrity as paramount with effective measures for data confidentiality and recovery

• It should be easy to use with intuitive UI and involve least effort/time to set-up

• It should have advanced features for useful reporting and flexible time-off types to suit organization needs

An efficient Staff Leave Planner will help businesses to enjoy:

Real-time Integration

Software that are equipped to sync time-off data with other calendar applications like Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook or Apple iCal allow for quick viewing and action on chosen platform.

Additionally, the productivity is pushed a notch higher with these planners integrating seamlessly with other team/communication apps that the organization might be using.

Jet speed request and approval of leaves

A hi-tech application allows employees to book their leaves online and on the go from multiple devices including desktop, tablet and mobile devices. The same is true for managers who can approve time-offs without any delays courtesy instant notifications including emails.

Meaningful data at the tip of your fingers

Progressive staff leave planners allow for nippy overview of all your company’s leave with customizable filters and authorizations. Employees can relish the self-service experience by keeping a tab of their leaves through balance summary and manage time-offs accordingly. The biggest advantage to companies is the amazing array of reports that can be generated using such software.

Doubt-free leave policy

There is ingrained transparency in the composition of a leave planner where employees and the managers can view historical data and current balances of various leave categories. Also, since any changes in the leave policy become available simultaneously to all employees, it avoids any cultural discrepancies. Plus, the HR and supervisors can get a break from pestering transactional queries.

Storage and Security of Documents

A competent planner would accommodate uploads of important and relevant employee documents that can be retrieved at any point of time. Plus, the security features enable hierarchy based access controls and regular backups to prevent data loss.

Second to none Customer Support

Most of the leave management service providers boast of unmatched customer support over chat, mail or phone to iron out troubles that may arise at various stages of software installation, usage and maintenance.

Also, most of them come with a free trial period that lets you experience the full deal before you decide a company-wide roll out.

Paperless Administration

Adopting HR software to manage leaves and time-offs can be a significant step in the direction of making your organization paperless and environment friendly. This also translates into streamlined processes irrespective of the business nature and magnitude.

Staff Leave Planner can automate your most worrisome area to boost your employee productivity in the most unconventional way.

No more paper work or manual files! Just good old peace of mind!

Mitalee.

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Mitalee Chhatre, a true professional with over 5 years of corporate experience in Human Resources and Health Sector. Contributor on CakeHR where tracks the newest trends and practices of the work-life world.

There is a subtle difference between a good and a great staff leave planner. Know how we deliver nothing but “Great” by starting your 30-day free trial at CakeHR!