Management of leaves is among the most vital HR procedures that require a significant but small amount of time. While this doesn’t need all that much time, approval of leaves is a difficult task that requires balance. On one side, HR has to ensure that the policy on leave is followed and that there are enough resources to sustain the business; on the other hand, it must improve the satisfaction of employees. Many of us have experienced conflict between employees and managers over the leave issue, making managing this system in India a crucial job for an organization.
Strategic Use of Leave
Many companies do not take the leave management system seriously, and research has shown that poor management of leave has had a negative impact on the performance of businesses. Here are some essential business concerns directly connected to leave management.
Meet deadlines for delivery of projects:
Human resources’ availability directly affects project delivery timeframes. When making commitments to delivery dates, managers should be aware of the availability of adequate resources. They must be mindful of the time of peak leaves and set delivery dates in line with them. Additionally, when essential projects are close to deadlines, they should be able to approve leave with prudence.
Legal questions:
Every country has legal regulations for employee leave. For example, the family and medical leave act(FMLA) within the United States – with its expansive description of the medical condition and ample leave provisions – could make employers nervous and significantly smaller businesses that rely on a few essential employees. Failure to adhere to the complex requirements of this law could be a severe risk to both individuals and companies. Similar to that in India, the FACTORIES Act, Chapter VIII: Annual Leave and Wages, sets out clear guidelines for leave. Infractions to these rules increase the likelihood that you will be sued by employees and penalized by government authorities.
Emotional aspects:
Getting leaves on time is significant employee satisfaction. Employees face myriad personal demands that require them to be absent from work. Check out our other post on refusing leave can lead to stress for employees, in which we looked at the case of mismanaged requests for leave.
Financial implications:
Accrued Leaves are the financial burden of companies, particularly the privileged and paid ones that require reimbursement when the employee is terminated or as required by an employee according to the policy for leave. If employees don’t have enough time off, then the company’s financial responsibility increases. HR should be able to inform management of this regularly.
Performance and leave:
Work-life balance has an impact directly on the performance of an employee. Employees who don’t take enough time off (and are stressed) and those who take too much leave (and ignore their job) negatively impact their work performance. Both types of employees must be watched closely and trained on maintaining an efficient life-work balance.
A) Leave trends: Many employees prefer to take leave during a holiday. An HR manager must be aware of instances when many employees request leave. These statistics aid the executives in making decisions, particularly regarding project delivery dates.
(B) Employee availability: This indicates the number of employees available to work during the current quarter or at any time.
C) Employee leave balance: This shows the left-over leaves of different types of employees, both departmental and company-wide. This aids the finance department in estimating the business’s accrued leave liabilities at any given point.
D) Leave rejection: This shows the number of absences ruled out by the manager during the last six months. The increasing number of rejected leaves must be considered since they could affect employees’ morale.
(e) Leave acceptance: This is the number of days of leave approved by management during a specific time.
(f) Employees with “No time off during the last quarter”: This lists employees who haven’t taken any time off during the last quarter. HR Managers need to investigate the possible causes and may even advise employees if they’re placing themselves under stress.
Technology’s role
Ensuring compliance with leave policies or managing information can be challenging to operate manually or using Excel. HR technology can significantly simplify leave management and provide value by streamlining a company’s data on leave.
Complete details:
Provides accurate information regarding leave balances, leave trends, etc., which lets you forecast the available resources at any given time.
Transmitting policy rules:
Uses in-built systems to communicate leave policy rules like the maximum and minimum days allowed, holidays calendar management based on where you are located, etc. Employees may consult the policy on leave before requesting holiday days.
Compliance with the policy on leave:
Often, a lack of knowledge of policies for leave at work, can result in the disregard of the rules governing leave by managers and employees. The Leave Management System India uses internal laws that do not allow managers or employees to evade regulations when applying for or to approve the use of leaves.
Diverse Information:
Instant information about an employee’s leave history allows the HR and manager to examine the history of leave of the person applying. The leave history of the company or department could be obtained instantly.
Saves your time:
Visibility of leave balance online can ease a significant burden on HR, where up to 15 percent of their time is involved in dealing with employee leave credit queries.
Enhances discipline:
Leave coupled with an attendance record can increase efficiency and improve discipline in any business. Some companies, for instance, might have a policy applying a leave-without-pay when employees are absent from work without the manager’s consent.
Multi-location holidays management:
Leave combined with specific holiday calendars for particular locations will help determine the correct number of days employees can take leave.
