It is vital to ensure that your employees well are managed. It is crucial to ensure that you comply with all labor laws in your area and that your employees are paid accurately. Additionally, it can make a huge difference in employee satisfaction, and morale. This is something that the modern workforce expects to see. It is possible to undermine the trust that your employees have in you organization by not tracking their time off properly or not approving time off. You can increase the productivity of your workforce and reduce stress.

These are the four ways you can track time off for employees, whether you’re new to HR or have a small business looking to streamline your time management.

1. Tracking software can be paused for a time

Many organizations either use a standalone time-off tracking software or the time-off module that is part of their HR software. This software can be used to manage your workforce’s time. In just a few simple steps, employees can request leave. Once approved by their reporting managers and HR teams, they will be sent their request for approval. Employees don’t have to contact their HR department every time they want to check their leave balances or plan for holidays. These systems can be set up in accordance with your labor laws and organizational policies. Many systems provide a range of reports to give insight into the employee’s leave status, payroll processing information, employee leave encashment and other details.

Zoho People is our software for human resource management. It includes a time off tracker that allows organizations manage their time in a way that is compatible with their labor laws and organizational practices. See what the Zoho People time off tracker has to offer.

1. HR spreadsheets

Many organizations use HR spreadsheets for managing their employees’ time off. The spreadsheets used for tracking employee time off usually follow a particular template. This template includes the names of all employees, leave types, holidays, weekends, and any other pertinent fields. Every employee is given a single spreadsheet that contains all the information so they can mark off their time in the document. This manual method of managing time can be tedious. There is more room for error when data is entered manually. Data can be altered, deleted or misplaced if it is shared with others.

1. Emails

Emails have been used to manage employee time off for many years. Employees will need to send an email explaining the reason they are taking time off to their HR or reporting manager. The reporting manager then sends an email to approve or deny the time off. Although this method of managing employee time off seems simpler for some, it can prove to be very inefficient for many reasons. The manual data tracking makes it difficult for both the employees and the HR department. These time off requests can become buried when there is a lot of email traffic. HR managers and team members may not be able to reply, which could lead to employees being kept in the dark. It can be difficult to track leave data for payroll processing. HR teams must go through each email individually and collect the data manually.

1. Paper-based processes

Some companies still use paper-based methods to track time off. Employees may have to submit leave applications in person for approval by the HR team and their managers. This method of tracking time off can end up doing more harm than good. Your HR team as well as your employees may be burdened by paper-based processes. It is possible that you may not have access to the time off information required for reporting purposes. This can lead to a loss of visibility into your workforce’s absence patterns. Also, paper-based documents can be lost or altered more easily than digital processes.

Wrapping up

Your organization will be more compliant if you have a well-designed process for tracking time off. This will also help to keep your employees happy, productive, and engaged. We hope you found this blog helpful in understanding the various ways that employees can track time off.