How to improve holiday management: 9 essential absence management features your HR system must have

How to improve holiday management: 9 essential absence management features your HR system must have in summary:

• Implementing automated calculations for holiday entitlements based on working hours, local holidays, and company rules ensures fair and efficient management.
• Secure self-service and multi-approver workflows in modern HR systems enable employees to check entitlements, book time off easily, and ensure proper approval processes.
• Features like team diaries, overlapping absences notifications, and approval delegation help in planning absences effectively to avoid conflicts and maintain business continuity.

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With the summer of 2024 here in the UK turning into a bit of a washout, many people are looking forward to jetting off to sunnier climates for a well-earned break.

But, it’s not just sun, sea and relaxation that people are hastily booking time off for. With the school summer holidays now in full swing, it’s more than likely parents will also be looking to take some time away from work to spend some quality time with their families.

So, the big question here is, are your holiday absence management processes able to cope with the clamour for days away from work during the peak holiday season?

If the summer months in your workplace are often a scramble to secure precious annual leave, now’s the perfect time to check how well your absence management processes are working – and identify what could be improved for everyone.

Effective holiday management: start with your policies

In an ideal world, annual leave requests would be booked and approved months in advance! With a perfect balance between an appropriate level of cover for the business, and everyone able to take their preferred dates. But, as we all know, this is rarely the case…

The reality is that your line managers may not be able to approve every single holiday request at the times their employees want. However, a clear and tailored company absence policy can go some way to avoiding the more obvious problems: such as employees booking non-refundable expensive trips BEFORE their leave request is approved, or scheduling a midweek break that coincides with an essential company meeting.

Of course, annual leave policies can only take you so far. What makes policies really work in practice are HR systems with integrated absence management software that makes it simpler for you – and managers and their employees – to work together to manage time off in the best possible way.

Here are 9 essential features in good absence management software that will support effective holiday management in your organisation.

1. Automatic calculation of holiday entitlements

Ensuring that holiday entitlements are calculated fairly and in real time based on specific working hours, local holidays and company rules (and local legislation) will save you hours of time – and ensure everyone is allocated the right amount of time off.

Good absence management software will do the hard work for you, freeing you from this time-sapping and – let’s face it – tiresome admin. So, no more having to rely on complicated Excel Spreadsheets with troublesome macros or – worse still – using manual calculations… your absence management software will do the hard work for you.

2. Secure self-service

It goes without saying that your HR system needs to have employee self-service – and it needs to be secure! If employees don’t find it easy to check entitlements and book time off, or they worry about the safety of their personal data, they just won’t use the system.

3. Multi-approver workflows

For businesses with straightforward structures, a single-step or self-approval process for leave requests might suffice. But, in more complex organisations where employees hold multiple roles or contribute to various projects, it’s crucial for multiple managers to either approve or be informed of an absence.

Absence management software that includes multi-approver workflows ensure that all aspects of the business are covered, preventing disruptions and maintaining smooth operations. Multiple approvals also help manage overlapping duties and ensure that no critical tasks are left unattended during an employee’s absence.

4. Team diaries

With absence management software that includes real-time team and peer diaries, employees can easily check when their colleagues are off or when company events are happening. This way, they can plan their own holidays without clashing with important dates or leaving projects understaffed.

It’s a great way to keep everything running smoothly, avoid any unnecessary disruptions, and also reduce queries to team managers and hard-working HR teams – so win win!

5. Overlapping absences notifications

Busy managers may miss conflicting absence requests – especially if your holiday request mechanisms are disjointed or paper-based. Luckily, HR software with integrated absence management software should spot them easily.

For example, Cezanne HR’s holiday management request emails clearly show the details of any overlapping absences. The system also triggers email notifications prior to absence events, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise if someone who is booked off misses a team call/meeting on a Monday morning!

6. Approval delegation

Line managers need breaks too! So, your HR system should let them pass on approval duties to their peers or HR when they’re out of the office. This way, everything keeps moving smoothly, even if the usual manager isn’t around to handle time-off requests.

Approval delegation ensures there are no bottlenecks in the holiday approval process and that employees can still get their holiday requests sorted without delay. Plus, it gives managers peace of mind knowing everything is covered while they’re away.

7. Carry over calculations

Reflecting your annual leave carry over rules in your HR system can help avoid problems at the end of the holiday year. This is especially true if you can generate reports showing how much time employees still have to left to book, so you can nudge them to use it up (or risk losing it) in good time.

8. Smart TOIL usage

Since both annual leave and Time off in Lieu (TOIL) usually need to be used by a certain date, it’s crucial that your HR software prompts employees to use the entitlement that expires first.

That way, employees don’t miss out on any time off they’ve earned and don’t feel shortchanged. It helps them make the most of their leave benefits without having to worry about losing any days due to overlapping deadlines.

9. Absence reporting

Lastly, effective holiday management hinges on this principle: if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it! Having fast, easy, and specific reporting in your HR system is essential. This allows you to quickly tally up how many days of holiday entitlement employees have left to book. Additionally, it enables you to more readily analyse absence patterns across employee groups, which helps with planning and resourcing.

With detailed and accessible reports, managing leave becomes much more straightforward and efficient for everyone – especially HR.