An automated leave tracker also called an attendance management system or vacation tracker is one of the most important tools every human resource department or small business needs. Leave tracker technology is important for small, medium and large businesses, and the benefits of having an automated attendance management system go well beyond the obvious.

Below are 10 of the biggest benefits of an automated leave tracker, applicable to almost any business.

1. Make Human Resources More Efficient

In a business with a dedicated human resources department, it’s important to ensure efficiency is a key priority. The human resources department should be focused on strategic, business-building activities and decision-making.

Without an automated leave tracker, a human resources department is likely to be operating inefficiently. Much of the time spent working by an HR team without an automated leave tracker is going to be on tasks like managing time off requests and creating calendars.

With an automated leave tracker, employees can log in and submit their requests. They can then be automatically approved or denied based on the rules used to set up the system. Human resources doesn’t have to worry about dealing with employees who didn’t get their time off request or dealing with who submitted a request first, because everything is managed automatically.

2. Accurate Employee Information

For businesses, it’s important to be able to see what’s happening with individual employees, departments, and also overall trends. This information can be used for personnel decisions, and it can be used to make overall business decisions.

Without an automated leave tracker, there’s not one place where all this information can be accessed at one time. With an attendance management system, the information from the specifics to trends is also contained in one centralized place.

Accuracy regarding how much time is being taken by employees can help reduce absenteeism as well. Chronic absenteeism can be extremely detrimental to a business, and it needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Without accurate, in-depth and easily accessible records, it’s almost impossible to address absenteeism proactively.

3. Convenience for Employees

Businesses need and want happy, engaged and productive employees. To achieve those objectives, it’s important that employees have things that make their jobs and their lives more convenient.

An automated vacation tracker system can improve convenience not only for HR and employers but also for employees. They have the opportunity to log-in and submit requests quickly and easily, and also see how much time they’ve taken off, how much time they have left, and whether or not their requests are approved.

It’s a good way to give employees a sense of control over their paid time off, and help them schedule their vacations and other time off accordingly.

4. Project Deadlines and Forecasting

Employers, of course, want their employees to take vacation time. It’s good for productivity and engagement. At the same time, there are always going to be project deadlines that need to be met and work to be done. An automated leave tracker makes it easier for employers to forecast accurately and make sure they’re going to have the personnel they need to meet certain deadlines.

Employers can think about peak leave periods, as well as what the businesses’ needs are at any given time and make sure that leave approvals consider these things.

5. Legal Compliance

Businesses with a certain number of employees have to adhere to certain legal and regulatory guidelines. One of the biggest examples is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This law outlines leave provisions for things like medical conditions and other factors. FMLA can get complicated, and it can be intimidating for employers, but compliance is required.

An automated leave tracker makes it easier to not only ensure a business is not only being compliant but that they have the documentation needed to prove compliance. This can save a lot of money and problems that can stem from non-compliance.

6. Improve Discipline Policies

For an attendance and leave policy to be effectively enforced, there has to be an element of discipline. There have to be things employees know will happen if they’re not following the rules for taking time off. However, disciplining employees can become a bit of a sticky proposition. For example, employees can claim that they’re unfairly targeted or terminated.

With a leave tracker system, there’s the necessary transparency and visibility to know if an employee requires discipline, and it can be shown and proven why the discipline is happening. A leave management system can go a long way in protecting employers against wrongful termination legal action.

7. Reduce Employee Conflicts

There can be a lot of conflict stemming from scheduling issues. If employees are requesting the same week off for vacation as an example, it can create conflict. Employees may have conflicts with one another, as well as with HR or the person responsible for approving or denying time off requests.

When a business has an automated leave tracker, there are fewer opportunities for conflict. The system is automated, and there’s not a lot of room for debate when a request is approved or denied, because it’s based on the policy of the business.

8. Reduce Costs

There are quite a few ways a leave tracker can reduce costs for a business. It can cut down on the costs of manually tracking vacation time, and it can also reduce costs related to absenteeism because the problem can be corrected more quickly.

9. Useful Data

The data collected and easily viewable in a leave tracker can be used to drive so many decisions throughout an organization. It can be helped to make hiring and firing decisions, but it can also be used to develop new benefits policies that will be attractive to talent. A leave tracker can make a business more effective and efficient in their recruiting efforts.

10. Improved Transparency

Finally, transparency is one of the primary goals most businesses are striving for right now. A leave tracker provides a sense of transparency regarding who’s taking time off, and when they’re taking it off. It also provides employees a sense of transparency because they can log in and see things like policy guidelines before they request time off.