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Navigating and Managing your employees’ leave is a tricky challenge, where even small mistakes may lead to disaster? Don’t worry, here’s a guide to overcoming this challenge

Introduction

HR’s across industries have to be on their toes to effectively navigate and manage employee leave. Many a HR’s have been frustrated by the complexity of this task and this has adversely affected the performance of the company. However, you can overcome every challenge by using the right services. In this article, we shall address the ways by which you can overcome this frustrating problem for the better functioning of the company and its employees.

Before we go into the ways by which you can overcome the problems, let’s take a look at a few challenges in navigating and maintaining your leave management.

Challenge I – Tracking Employee Leave

Keeping track of your employees leave is one of the biggest challenges faced by an employer. In most cases, this is handled by using Spreadsheets or full-fledged Leave management software. Both these methods have their inherent disadvantages. Errors do creep in and this gives out inaccurate results.

When this happens it has a negative impact on the relationship between the employee and employer and this would adversely affect the business in the long run.

Challenge II – Employee Scheduling

HR’s has to have the full picture of employee scheduling to be in a position to allot leave. This may not be possible when using spreadsheets or even custom-built leave management software. This is true, especially in businesses that have a large volume of employees on their payroll. When there is confusion in scheduling it gets reflected in the allotment of leave and this would negatively affect the workplace. Effective leave scheduling will reduce the problem and this can be achieved only when you have an efficient leave management program in place.

Challenge III – Lack of clear Leave Policy

Having a clear leave policy is a must in handling leave more accurately and effectively. The Leave Policy of the company has to be properly framed as per the work culture of the company.

Once you establish a proper leave policy, you will be able to handle the leave of employees in an efficient and non-discriminatory manner. Once this system is in place, all the issues relating to employee leave will get simplified and effort-free.

Challenge IV – Inaccuracies in the Payroll

When you have a payroll system that is prone to errors, this is reflected in the leave records of employees.

When this happens, the HR team and the employees are affected. The HR team is hard-pressed to identify the actual leave status of the employees and the employees are troubled by the inaccurate marking of leave. This leaves them both frustrated and overall it affects the functioning of the company.

These challenges can be overcome by following the tips briefed hereunder.

1.  Formulate a clear Leave Policy

This is one of the first tasks you have to do when you plan your leave management. You have to outline the leave policies for your employees. This will be based on the work culture followed by the company.

The leave policy should have guidelines that clearly set out the entitlement of leave to its employees.

The leave policy should include:

– The list of official holidays

– The types of leave available to the employees

– The leave that can be accrued and carried forward

– The leave that lapses at the end of the year

– The leave that is paid time off or not

– All other leave benefits.

2.  Be aware of the laws about leave

Companies have to be aware of the laws about leave. This may differ from state to state. All the policies that you frame must fully comply with these laws. We live in a country with a diversity of religion, language, caste, community. We should take care to see that our policies are applied consistently without showing any discrimination against any of the employees. The HR team should be fully aware of these policies so that they can handle leave consistently without discrimination.

3.  Communicate these policies to your employees

Formulating a leave policy is the first step but if the employees are not aware of it, it becomes meaningless. You have to communicate these policies to all the employees within the company. This will give the employees a clear picture of their leave entitlement and their rights. To achieve this, the HR team should be fully aware of these policies and be in a position to communicate them to all the employees

4.  Get a fully automated Leave Management System

A fully automated Leave management System is one of the solutions to overcome all these challenges. Your choice of a system that can handle the inherent complexities of leave management should be perfect as otherwise, you will land yourself in more trouble.

Select a system that can fully update leave entitlement and balances on a real-time basis. This system should have the following features.

– Fully automated system

– User friendly

– Provide relevant employee-related reports and analysis

– Track the entire performance of each employee

– Be capable of handling employees across multiple locations

– Track leave and accrual details of each employee

– Address all compliance issues.

– Take care of data security and integrity

Conclusion

A Leave Management System that can handle the requirement of the company is not the only choice available. Companies can look forward to outsourcing the entire Payroll Process to an external agency. This by far is the most ideal choice as you have to look to only one agency to get all your processing done under the expert guidance of a single source. This would in effect enable the handling of Payroll Processing, Attendance and Leave Management, Statutory Compliance issues, and Recruitment. These systems are fully integrated and automated so that every entry gets reflected in all the relevant modules. In this way, you can avoid multiple entries.

GetifyHR, one of the leading outsources of Payroll Processing provides a cloud-based system that makes use of the most advanced technology. Their system is fully automated and integrated and offers a seamless operation that can handle Payroll Processing, Attendance and Leave management, Statutory Compliance issues, and Recruitment. They specialize in meeting the most stringent requirements in Payroll Processing and offer their clients high-end services at all times.