Does Your Enterprise Have an Efficient Paid Time-Off Tracking System?

Think quick: How are your organization’s managers currently tracking paid time off?
If you answered spreadsheets, paper requests, or calendars (or some combination of the three), you are not alone. Many organizations have yet to adopt an efficient paid time-off tracking system, a position that may lead to real concerns.

For example, your managers may want to stay organized, but simply don’t have an effective way of managing employees’ time-off requests, leave balances, and other details. Unfortunately it becomes a struggle that affects accuracy and productivity and can lead to real headaches—for both HR and employees—whenever a team member wants to take a day off.

It’s no wonder that 20% of managers admit to feeling overwhelmed by the high volume of vacation requests, and 96% of professionals report that employees make mistakes when it comes to time tracking. Fortunately, there are options with paid time-off tracking software that can address these challenges for both your managers and HR and payroll professionals.

What to Look for in Paid Time-Off Tracking Software

Let’s look at the key benefits of paid time-off tracking software and how the right solution can make managing employees’ vacation time easier and more effective while facilitating a streamlined, stress-free process.

Manage Requests Seamlessly

Trying to manage time-off requests via email and spreadsheets is like a scavenger hunt—employees never really knowing when or if a request has been approved, and even then, managers seem surprised to hear the employee is taking time off.

Today, HR technology helps centralize employee requests so supervisors can improve the way they manage vacations, sick leave, paid time-off requests, approvals, and employee accruals in one integrated system. Now there’s no need to try to piece together various notes, spreadsheets, or other scavenger hunt “clues” to manage employees’ time and ensure that ample coverage is in place when they’re out.

Trustworthy Accrual Balances

How much is your current time-off tracking approach costing you? (Hint: It may be more than you think.)

Without an employee time-off tracking system, chances are good that HR professionals are spending too much time counting hours, calculating leave balances, and even comparing payroll reports to attempt to clear up the confusion. Despite all of these efforts, manual time-tracking processes cost companies thousands of dollars per year (if not more) in mistaken paid time-off approvals, errors, and lost productivity.

The good news is that HR software provides powerful time-off tracking solutions to overcome all of these challenges. For example, leave balances are automatically updated and employees’ time-off requests and approvals are routed through the paid time-off tracking software itself. All of this helps HR departments save time, and more importantly, reduce costs with more accurate employee accrual balances.

Avoid Calendar Confusion

Managing paid time off is about more than just approving requests and maintaining accurate accruals. Your managers’ most critical gap is understanding how PTO impacts daily, weekly, and monthly schedules to make sure they have adequate coverage and the business never misses a step when employees are out.

With software that syncs with employee calendars and schedules, you can rest assured that managers won’t be surprised by sudden or unexpected absences—or time that they simply forgot about. Time-off tracking solutions also give managers “at-a-glance” visibility into details such as which employees are in, which employees are out, and what they can do to manage downtime more efficiently.

Self-Service Time Tracking for Employees

How often do employees ask their managers and HR associate, “How much vacation time do I have left?”

It can be difficult to answer without an efficient request and approval tracking tool or paid time-off tracking software. There is some good news: many employee time-tracking software systems include self-service applications that give employees self-service access. This way, they can view balances, submit requests, report sick days, and even trade shifts with fellow employees—all from a convenient mobile app. All of this helps put the power in their hands so they can schedule their lives better inside and outside the office.

Accurate Reporting

Your managers want to protect their teams and maximize productivity—that means understanding how the workforce actually works. When do vacation requests typically peak? Which members of your team are at the highest risk of burnout? The best time-tracking software will help you determine critical staffing decisions at a glance with accurate, visual reports.

Customizable Policies

Organizations have their own policies and codes, as well as compliance requirements unique to the industry. It can be difficult to manage the nuances of employee seniority, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and jury duty as it relates to standard vacation and sick-leave requests.
This may be even more important for companies with employees in different countries or unique accrual policies, such as vacation days per child or extra days for tenure. Make sure the time-tracking software you choose can be configured to the unique needs of your business and employees.

Choose a Solution Like HR Cloud

The right system can do more than make time-tracking more efficient. It can foster a happier workforce with the ability to manage their own time off and save money with accurate accrual and less oversight required from busy managers and HR associates. Request a demo of HR Cloud today and let us help guide you to a better employee time-off tracking system.