How to Choose a Leave Management System for Your HR Team

A majority of organizations offer some sort of leave for employees. A SHRM 2018 job satisfaction survey showed that for full-time employees 95 to 96 percent of employers offer vacation leave, while 77 to 79 percent offer sick leave. Other types of employment leave include FMLA, personal leave, jury duty, and bereavement. Requesting, approving, updating, and rearranging leave requests is time-consuming for all parties involved in an organization. That’s why an effective leave management system is vital to your HR team.

Without a smart leave management system, organizations run the risk of increasing conflicts between managers, HR, and employees in the form of disagreements about leave balances and accruals. They also run the risk of employees taking advantage of a system that’s not well-run or documented. At the same time, the employees could be at risk of negatively impacting their financial well-being by genuinely being mistaken by how much leave they have remaining — a mistake that could require them to take a necessary leave without pay.

Streamlined Leave Management has it's Benefits

The benefits of effective leave management systems are well-documented and include:

• The ability to apply practices fairly across the company, which helps to reduce the possibility of discrimination and EEO claims;
• Allowing teams and managers to plan for upcoming absences on the calendar;
• Reducing paperwork and the back-and-forth inefficiencies of outdated systems;
• Having balances and accruals automatically calculate so the remaining available leave is easily visible and understood;
• Allowing for easy tracking and documentation of absenteeism.

If you have an outdated system or no system at all, then it’s time to put a leave management system at the top of your department’s priority list. Fortunately, there are a lot of systems from which to choose. When selecting the best system for your team and company, consider the system’s features and advantages, including ease of use, price point, and integration capability.

What to Consider When Researching and Selecting a Leave Management System

Ease of On-boarding

It takes time to learn any new system. Choose a leave management system that is intuitive to use, requires very little on-boarding and training, and offers the support and customer service you’ll need with implementation.

Integration Capability

You might decide that your company needs a stand-alone leave management system. However, it’s wise to at least look at systems that have the capability to integrate with your current systems, such as your current time management or payroll system. In many instances, if you use a compatible leave management system that integrates with your current system, it allows you to streamline processes, such as timekeeping and payroll.

Customizability

You want to ensure that whatever system you choose can meet your company’s spending and accrual rules. The system you choose should allow you to meet whatever leave types, rules, and tracking your company utilizes and requires.

Scalability

If you know your company will be growing and increasing the number of employees, then you want to choose a leave management system that is scalable and can grow with you. The last thing you want to do is implement a system that works today but not two years from now because your company size has outgrown it.

User-Friendliness

Select a system that’s easy to use by those who will be entering and approving leave. If mistakes are made when entering leave, it’s helpful to have a system that is easy to make corrections in as well.

Accessibility

It’s helpful if all levels of the organization have access to the system from home, the office, or on a mobile device. If someone is already out on leave, for example, and they need to extend the leave, having access from home or on a mobile device is beneficial. Easy accessibility also allows for last-minute updates and absence requests.

Reporting

Generally, organizations find it useful to run reports on HR-related processes and procedures. Selecting a system that allows for reporting and includes customization can be beneficial.

Pricing

Pricing should be considered when selecting a leave management system for your HR team. The size of your team and the number of employees accessing the system will be a factor in the cost of a system. Research and review your options to determine which one meets your needs at the most reasonable price point.

Choose a Leave Management System that Best Fits Your Needs

Selecting a leave management system for your organization doesn’t need to be difficult. Take into consideration the advantages and features of the systems you’re considering and compare them to your list of needs. From there, select the program that most closely aligns with the capabilities and features you’re looking for and that falls within your budget.

Integrity Data offers a comprehensive leave management system for Microsoft Dynamics® GP Payroll users – it integrates into your system and is highly customizable.

Also, join us for this upcoming webinar on April 30, 2019 - Microsoft Dynamics GP PTO Manager vs Comprehensive Leave Manager: A Webinar Showdown

Contact us today for more information.