There are plenty of software options available that streamline business operations, ensuring they’re functioning at a peak level of efficiency and productivity. One such software platform is an attendance management system. A lot of businesses still manage attendance and time off the old-fashioned way, and not only is it not productive. It can also lead to a lot of issues, confusion, and frustration.

What Is Attendance Management?

First, attendance management is a general term that is also sometimes referred to as leave management.

This doesn’t have to just refer to software. It can be any way that a business is tracking employee hours, and the time they’re taking off. Some businesses may do attendance management using paper, spreadsheets or time cards. Of course, the more modern option is a software attendance management system.

An attendance management system automates how tracking is done. However, just because a business has an attendance management system, it doesn’t even necessarily mean it’s the best option. A good attendance management system is one that is going to take the complexity out of how time off is managed. It needs to be simple but yet have sophisticated capabilities. Some features to look for in an attendance management system include:

• Look for automatic leave calculations and other tools that will save time and money for everyone in an organization
• A leave management system needs to be comprehensive and include options for adding employees and creating groups
• The best modern attendance management systems are secure and cloud-based, so businesses don’t have to worry about the time it takes to get it up and running or investing in new hardware
• An excellent feature in a leave management system is the ability for employees to access it from their mobile device, so they can manage their requests from anywhere
• Flexibility is extremely important when choosing a leave tracking system, as is scalability. You want to select a platform that will adhere to the needs of your organization not only now, but as it grows over time.

For businesses that still aren’t convinced, the following are some of the top benefits for any organization considering a leave management system.

Benefits of an Attendance Management System

The following are some of the primary benefits of a leave management system or a leave tracker, for businesses considering making the investment:

• An outdated leave management process is clunky and difficult to manage. The administrative or HR department has to go through the steps of approving or rejecting requests, and they have to keep paper files of everyone’s schedule and when they’re on leave. The result can be errors that lead to not having enough employees working at any given time. It’s difficult for employees as well because they have to submit requests to HR and then wait to see if their request is approved or denied. It’s all just very time-consuming.
• When businesses have a hundred employees or more, it’s even more complicated to deal with leave tracking. When leave tracking is done manually, it can cost a lot in human error, and it can cause frustration for employees, leading to problems with retention.
• There aren’t just problems related to employees taking too much time off or not getting the time off they request. The other problem can stem from regulatory issues. If you aren’t compliant with how many hours your employees are working, it can mean legal problems arise as a result. When a business relies on automated leave tracking, supervisors are able to reliably and accurately see the hours employees are working in a centralized dashboard. If there is a small problem, it can be addressed before it becomes much bigger.
• Payroll is often one of the biggest expenses most employers have, and if they don’t have data, they can’t see where expenses could be reduced. With leave tracking systems, there’s an easy and automated way to see if costs could be cut in certain places and businesses can easily see the true cost of labor. As well as seeing the cost of labor, this data can be used in other strategic ways to drive decision-making. For example, you can compare the cost of labor as opposed to employee performance, and how well project objectives are met to see overall ROI.
• When employees have a high level of control over how their time is tracked and their schedule is managed, they’re going to feel empowered. Empowered employees are more likely to be happy, productive and innovative. You want employees to feel like they’re in control of things like time-tracking and then they’re more likely to take the initiative in other areas.
• A good leave management system is going to improve overall workflow management processes. Data is visible, it makes payroll easier, and it also helps with things like performance reviews. When notifications are automated, it can ensure that everything moves along smoothly without major disruptions. A leave tracker can also help with planning and forecasting when it comes to workloads, budgets, and resources
• A lot of businesses now have employees who work all over the place. They may be traveling employees, or they may work remotely or from home. An employee leave management system also streamlines how this is managed. It’s much easier to track employee time no matter where they are.

Finally, when a company sets employee attendance and vacation policies, they don’t do so for fun. They do so because they’re meant to be followed.

Having a system in place that makes it easier to track everything related to employee attendance and make sure policies and compliance guidelines are being followed. If employees aren’t following the policy, it’s going to be easier to see that and make disciplinary actions when required.

Also, when you do ultimately have to fire an employee because of attendance issues, you’ll have the documentation you need. This is important to not only justify the firing but also to protect the organization against claims of unfair or unlawful termination.

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• Time-off Round-up – Its time for some time off